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Nadar [Gaspard Félix Tournachon]

Born: Paris, 8 April 1820
Died: Paris, 21 March 1910
Nationality: French

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

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