972972
NADAR
natural light to aesthetic effect in his studio and soon
abandoned electric light for his portraits.
Portrait Photographer
Nadar’s turn to portrait photography appears to be a
natural progression from his work in caricature. Already
focused on capturing the essence of individuals’ physi-
ognomy through drawing and then mass producing the
caricatures through lithography, Nadar possessed the
aesthetic and interpersonal skills to use the medium
of photography to its best advantage. Not only did he
study with a photographer producing the fi nest-quality
prints in Paris in 1854, but he also had a ready-made
clientele, as well as name recognition. His circle of
acquaintances was very broad, and many up-and-com-
ing and established artists, writers, and social activists
had already sat for Nadar. One of two extant albums
that Nadar used for guests to sign when sitting for their
portraits comprises over 400 names (with accompanying
commentaries or samples of drawing, music, or poetry)
of the most famous individuals working in music, art,
poetry, fi ction, politics, and the military in a twenty-year
period between the mid-1850s and the early 1870s.
In 1876 Ernest Lacan—editor-in-chief of France’s
fi rst photography magazine, La Lumière—evaluated
Nadar’s eminence in portrait photography: “His prints,
their formats large for that period, had an entirely new
look about them. Nadar generally worked in broad
sunshine or at least lit his sitter in such a way that one
side of the face was very bright and the other very dark.
The pictures generally resembled what are today called
‘portraits à la Rembrandt.’ They were very artistic and
enjoyed a great success” (quoted in Françoise Heilburn,
“Nadar and the Art of Portrait Photography,” Nadar,
New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995, 36).
Many scholars consider a mere six-year period from
1855 to 1860 to be Nadar’s era of greatness in portrait
photography. In 1860 Nadar undertook the construction
of a new, large photographic studio at 35 boulevard des
Capucines. Completed in 1861, it cost 230,000 francs,
all of which Nadar borrowed. Financial considerations,
therefore, and the popularity and economy of the carte
de visite format forced Nadar to alter his original method
of photographic portraiture. The results included small-
er, less detailed prints as well as the miniaturization of
his existing archive of prints (he re-shot original prints
to create smaller negatives that would accommodate
the carte format).
Typical of a Nadar photographic portrait is the lack
of props or elaborate backgrounds. He also patented a
technique in which the edges of the prints are faded.
All attention centers on the subject, and most prints
comprise only one individual. Nadar’s subjects are never
harshly cast, but they are not idealized either. In general,
he de-emphasizes clothing, requesting that his subjects
choose dark garments for their sitting. Nadar also de-
emphasizes the subject’s hands—frequently eliminating
them from the shot or hiding them inside clothes or the
folds of cloth. There is no one pose that Nadar adopts
for his sitters. Some look left, some right—with eyes
looking forward or with eyes looking down; some sit or
stand and look directly at the camera, although most are
posed standing or sitting at an angle from the camera.
But as one scholar comments: “As Nadar is forced into
rapid, high-volume production in the early 1860s [.. .]
a bland, stereotyped portrait emerges [.. .] which relies
on conventional dress and body language, fl at lighting,
and traditional studio props” (Ulrich Keller, “Sorting
Out Nadar,” Nadar, New York: Metropolitan Museum
of Art, 1995, 86).
Among those photographed by Nadar are: Mikhail
Bakunin, Théodore de Banville, Charles Baudelaire,
Hector Berlioz, Sarah Bernhardt, Jules Champfl eury,
Gustave Courbet, Honoré Daumier, Eugène Delac-
roix, Gustave Doré, Alexandre Dumas (père and fi ls),
Théophile Gautier, Edmond and Jules de Goncourt,
Constantin Guys, Victor Hugo, Edouard Manet, Jules
Michelet, Jean Français Millet, Henri Mürger, Gérard
de Nerval, Jacques Offenbach, Pierre Joseph Proudhon,
Gioacchino Rossini Rossini, George Sand, Giuseppe
Verdi, and Alfred de Vigny.Aerial Photography
In 1858 Nadar took his fi rst aerial photographs from
a balloon tethered near the Arc de Triomphe. He had
actually attempted this endeavor the year before but
was unsuccessful in making photographs, because the
gases used in the balloon chemically interacted with
his negatives. Nadar was a fi rm believer that the path
to human fl ight lay with machines heavier than air, so
he had his own balloon, called le Géant [Giant], built in
1863 in anticipation that the profi ts from its rides would
generate enough income to build a helicopter. Between
1863 and 1867 he made fi ve ascents in le Géant and
remarkably increased his notoriety, but this adventure
ultimately proved to be a fi nancial disaster.Subterranean Photography
In his quest for technological innovation and new pur-
suits, Nadar negotiated the right to photograph under-
ground in Paris—fi rst the catacombs in 1861–62, then
the sewers in 1864–65. Victor Hugo had made the sewers
famous in Les Misérables, and the catacombs fascinated
such compatriots as Gustave Flaubert and the Goncourt
brothers, all of whom toured the burial sites in 1862.
Of course, the idea of going underground after having
soared above ground seems only fi tting. Although less