Nadar [Gaspard Félix Tournachon]

Born: Paris, 8 April 1820

Died: Paris, 21 March 1910

Nationality: French


Works by this Artist

Sarah Bernhardt
Nadar [Gaspard Félix Tournachon], 1859

Background

family of printers

Studies

with photographers Camille d’Arnaud and Auguste Bertsch

Career

1845 – publishes novel, The Dress of Déjanira

1846 – caricaturist for La Silhouette and Le Charivari

1848 – caricaturist for Revue comique

1849 – caricaturist for Journal pour rire

1850s – publishes Panthéon Nadar, lithographs of French celebrities, in Lanterne magique (1854) and Le Figaro (1858)

1853-54 – begins partnership with brother Adrien Tournachon; begins making photographic portraits

1860 – opens studio at 35 boulevard des Capucines; becomes a meeting-place for artists and intellectuals

1865 – stops producing caricatures

1874 –rents studio to the First Impressionist exhibition

1891 – founds journal Paris photographe

1899 – publishes autobiography, When I was a Photographer

Travels

Marseille (1895-1904)

Commissions from

Victoria (Queen of England)

Important Artworks

Catacombs of Paris, c. 1861 (one of the first flash photographs)

Nadar made portraits of:

Himself

Antoine-Louis Barye

Gustave Doré

Jean-François Millet

Auguste Préault

Thédore Rousseau

(all links to J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA)

Web Resources

Metmuseum: Nadar

Gettymuseum: Nadar

Readings

Hambourg, Maria Morris. Nadar. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995

Ockman, Carol, et. al. Sarah Bernhardt: The Art of High Drama. Exhibition catalogue. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005

Rubin, James Henry. Nadar. London and New York: Phaidon, 2001

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