N

971

NADAR (GASPARD-FÉLIX

TOURNACHON) (1820–1910)
French photographer, writer, and caricaturist

To the question—“Who do you think is the world’s
greatest photographer?”—French essayist Roland
Barthes provided a simple, one-word answer: “Nadar.”
And in the history of French photography in the nine-
teenth century, there are few who rival the artistry and
output of this man who lived for eighty years of the
nineteenth century and ten of the twentieth century.
Nadar’s notoriety in photography came after success-
ful careers fi rst in writing and publishing and then in
caricature. Based in Paris, Nadar met and communed
with a large circle of late-Romantic artists and writers,
as well as the radical social thinkers of the time. This
circle considered itself bohemian and in opposition to
anything bourgeois; it was politically and socially liberal
and believed in the importance of art, personal integrity,
and freedom of self-expression.

Photographic Beginnings

In 1854, although working at the time on his lithographic
pantheon of contemporary “poets, novelists, historians,
publicists, and journalists,” Nadar offered to assist his
younger brother Adrien in developing a new career. Na-
dar not only paid for his brother’s lessons with Gustave
le Gray, but he also managed to establish Adrien in his
own portrait studio in Paris. It appears that it was always
Nadar’s intention to join Adrien in taking up photog-
raphy; later that year Nadar commenced photography
lessons with the fi rm of Adolphe Bertsch and Camille
d’Arnoud. By September of 1854, however, Adrien’s
studio was failing to the point that Nadar felt compelled
to step in and take control. Together the brothers made
a small series of portraits, some of which were used
to complete the portraits used in the Panthéon Nadar.

Nadar also arranged for the studio’s work to be exhibited

at the Exposition Universelle of 1855.

By January of 1855 Adrien requested that the brothers

separate, leaving Nadar to set up shop in his own resi-

dence at 113, rue Saint-Lazure. Adrien also adopted the

name “Nadar jeune.” Nadar had created his own name

in 1838—a pen name (with a few variations) by which

he was known his entire professional life. Beginning in

1855 (with appeals ending only in June 1859), a lawsuit

was fi led by Nadar to make Adrien cease and desist his

use of the appellation “Nadar jeune.” During those years

Adrien did have some success as a photographer, while

Nadar also established himself as a portrait photogra-

pher, becoming a member of the Société française de

photographie in 1856 and winning a gold medal at the

Exposition Photographie in Brussels in the same year.

Photographic Technique

In line with what he would have learned from Adolphe-

Auguste Bertsch (who invented a faster and aesthetically

fi ner collodion process for negative plates), Nadar’s fi rst

prints were made from wet-collodion negatives on high-

quality salted paper. By 1855 Nadar produced signed,

mounted, salted paper prints: they measured 11 × 8¼

inches. Although disparaging of Disdéri’s carte de visite

format (Nadar considered it unaesthetic), by 1860 he had

“submitted” to the raging fashion and was producing

both full-size and carte prints (both salted paper and

albumen, although the low-cost, commercially produced

albumen papers would eventually prevail). From his

earliest days as a photographer, it appears that Nadar

manipulated his negatives in the darkroom; by the 1860s

it is clear that he was retouching his negatives, making

the retouching of prints rare. Nadar also experimented

with artifi cial lighting not only for his portraits but also

for his work photographing the Paris catacombs and

sewers. He had always been a master at manipulating