Understanding Nadar
P.J. Worsfold, 11/24/2005
Of his friend Nadar, the French poet and writer Théodore de Banville said, "he did not always think straight; but he thought widely and he thought well [and he] deserves your complete affection." (Gosling 27) For all that has been said about Nadar and for all that Nadar's own work says about him, de Banville's succinct characterization could not be truer. Born Gaspard-Felix Tournachon in Paris 1820, Nadar first gained notoriety in the 1840s as a journalist. By the time of his death in 1910, his work as a writer, critic, caricaturist, aeronaut, and photographer had made him famous throughout France and much of Europe. Although his diverse pursuits suggest a certain discontinuity (12), Nadar's life's work speaks of a man who was passionate, inquisitive, and always optimistic. He was a man known as much for his compassion as for his instinct toward self-promotion. Nadar was a charismatic and fun loving boulevardier and, in the same breath, a staunch republican, who never forgot the left-leaning ideals that his father instilled in him. Amongst his many accomplishments, Nadar is best known for his photography. His portraits not only create a likeness of the subject's physical features, they illustrate the subject's very character. When Nadar photographed the objects that interested him, he not only offered proof of their existence, he communicated the spirit of their creators. More than a successful combination of artistry and technical prowess, Nadar's photographs are the work of a man profoundly aware of the power in an image. Baldwin points out that Nadar was "the most important visual artist of his century to consciously seek to create and consecrate celebrity."(Baldwin 11) He knew what people wanted to see and he knew how to get his subjects, whether living or inanimate, to give it to him. Following a brief summary of his background, subject matter and technique, this essay will discuss three of Nadar's photographs; Portrait of Gioacchino Rossini (1856), The Catacombs (1861), and Aerial View of the Arc de Triomphe (1868). Through analysis of these works, this discussion will explore both the man who Nadar was and the time in which he lived.
In an 1863 article, Nadar wrote that prior to entering the "Botany Bay of photography," he was a "maker of caricatures, an impertinent and untrained sketch artist, a trawler for little newspapers, and a mediocre author of several novels, disdained most of all by [me]." (Baldwin 40) Nadar was fortunate to live in a time and place where progressive ideas in politics, science, and the arts frequently intermingled. However, he was most fortunate to count those responsible for these ideas as friends. Photography was in many ways the ideal medium for an astute self-promoter, who was short on patience (Hambourg 26), but long on charisma and keenly interested in the personalities (Gosling 21) and inventions of his time. Photography gave Nadar the means to immortalize the faces and promote the ideas of his friends (Hambourg 26). Furthermore, through this medium he could celebrate and help validate, what he called, the "pleiad of inventions" produced by "the greatest scientific century"(108) that the world had seen. And of course, Nadar knew that whether his subject was an eminent gentleman of his social strata or the latest flying machine, with every photograph he connected himself to his subject. (26)
In understanding and evaluating Nadar's work, one must be aware of two important facts. First, there are two very distinct stages in Nadar's photographic career and secondly, Gaspard-Felix Tournachon was not the only man to produce work under the name Nadar. In the first stage of his career, 1854 - 1860, Nadar worked primarily from a small garden apartment at 113 rue St. Lazarre in Paris. This period is commonly regarded as the time when he did his best work (De Lorenzo 209). Due to the complexity of photography at the time, Nadar could never have worked alone. However, during these early years, he was actively involved in all levels of his work. (Gosling 22) The beginning of Nadar's second stage, from 1860-1874, is marked by his move to the famed atelier at 35 boulevard des Capucines. During this fourteen-year period, Nadar grew increasingly removed from the studio's day-to-day portraiture. He allowed his assistants to do the bulk of the work while he combined photography with his other interests, such as his scientific pursuits with the likes of Jules Verne. Not surprisingly however, critics note that Nadar's portraits during this period lack the connection with the subject that one observes in his earlier work. (Hambourg 27)
Further complicating matters, both Nadar's brother, Adrien, and his son, Paul, produced photographs under the Nadar name. Extremely protective of the reputation that he had built around the name Nadar, in 1856 Gaspard-Felix Tournachon ended up taking his brother to court where he ultimately won the exclusive right to use the name Nadar. Paul began assisting his father in the later stages of his career, and is often credited with bringing a greater sense of commercialism to the Nadar name. Due in part to such moves, Gaspard-Felix and his son were widely known to have had a volatile relationship. It is sadly ironic that a man with such a wide circle of friends and such 'joie de vivre' had poor relationships with two people so close to him. For the purposes of this discussion however, works said to have been produced by Nadar, are the works of Gaspard-Felix Tournachon.
In early 1854, Nadar received his only documented photographic training from Adolphe-Auguste Bertsch, a man well regarded for both his portraiture and his microscopic photography. (Hambourg 36) Given that Nadar's first professional photographs appeared later that year, he must have been a quick study. To produce his photographs, Nadar used the wet plate technique, which was invented in 1851 by the Englishman F. Scott Archer and later improved upon by Bertsch (36). However, by 1861 Nadar had moved to the dry collodion process, which involved considerably less labour and was better suited to photography outside of the studio. Nadar's prints were large for their time (36). In his early work, he used 18 X 24 cm or 11 X 22 cm plates, with four exposures each. On occasion, he would produce a single exposure on a 21 X 27 cm plate and later in his career he began producing 2 exposures on 18 X 24 cm plates. (Gosling 45)
Lighting played an important role in Nadar's photography, and he experimented with new lighting techniques often. The superb natural lighting in Nadar's portrait work often drew praise, in 1859 the art critic Philippe Burty remarked " the sun is only the practitioner, M. Nadar is the artist who wants to give him some work."(Hambourg 35) However, Nadar also employed an array of screens, veils, and reflectors. In fact later in his career, he won several awards for his technical achievements with artificial light. (Gosling 35)
While there are notable exceptions, two of which shall be discussed later, the majority of Nadar's photographic work was portraiture. One gets a sense of Nadar's passion for visually communicating an individual's personality from his interest in mime (Hambourg 35) and his earlier caricature drawings (Baldwin 40). Nadar's most common subjects were the various eminent people of his time, due to prejudice and societal restrictions, these tended to be white men. Subsequently women, children, the poor and the anonymous are rare in Nadar's work. (Gosling 35)
Little information exists on what sittings with Nadar were like or how they were arranged. (45) However, given his social status and his large circle of friends, one can assume that many portraits were the result of social visits to Nadar's studio. One can be certain however, that Nadar's charm and long standing friendships with many of his subjects would have come in handy when eliciting the right pose from a subject and then getting them to hold it for several minutes to accommodate his camera's very long exposure time.
Nadar's Portrait of Gioacchino Rossini (1856), illustrates many of the characteristics that make Nadar's early work so remarkable. This print of the famed Italian composer, measures 24 x 18 cm and is on salted paper. Rossini lived from 1792 to 1868 and at the time of this portrait, he was in failing both physically and mentally. He had recently moved to Paris, where he had taken up residence in an apartment near the Opéra. Although in a weakened state he was cheerful, wealthy, and celebrated wherever he went. Rossini and his second wife were well known for hosting Saturday evening parties for Europe's social elite. It was probably at one of these occasions that he and Nadar were introduced. (Hambourg 110)
Placed on a simple radial gradient background that moves light to dark from the centre out, Nadar's portrait captures Rossini in a seated position, with his head turned slightly toward the viewer. Rossini wears his trademark wig and a bulky, dark overcoat on top what appears to be a dark suit and white shirt. The subject is visible from the waist up; his left hand is at his side while his right hand is tucked into his jacket.
Nadar's portraits are renowned for mixing powerful eminence with genuine warmth of character and his use of formal elements in this portrait create this effect well. With the dark clothing and with the arms held close, one gets a sense of strength and majesty in the solid shape of Rossini's body. The lighting of the subject's face, which appears to come from his upper left-hand side, illuminates Rossini's face and places it in contrast with his dark body. This works to continually bring the viewer back to the subject's expression. Nadar's use of lighting accentuates Rossini's nose, offering a sense of dignity while simultaneously Rossini's eyes and gentle expression are modeled with light and shadow. With his head slightly turned to meet the camera, Rossini seems approachable, as though he is in conversation with the viewer. (Baldwin 41)
Contrary to popular portrait style of the time, one rarely sees a background setting or the use of character defining props in Nadar's early works. This style, probably a carryover from his caricature drawing days, is often noted as being a key difference between Nadar's work and that involving his more commercially orientated son. (40) In removing setting and a life's accouterments, and by continually bringing the viewer back to the subject's face, Nadar's portrait pushes the viewer to contemplate the subject in isolation. The subject's past, present, personality, and accomplishments become blurred together as an abstraction. Nadar presents his subject as an icon, like "a diamond on velvet". (42) In this portrait, one does not see a man who, years ago, composed beautiful music, and is now in the last years of his life. Rather all at once, one sees accomplishments, a youthful twinkle and contentment in age. The work is warm and yet dignified and is a prime example of Nadar's unique ability to place his subjects in a way that they would like to be seen and in a way that their viewer would like to see them in.
Having grown tired of the routine at his boulevard des Capucines studio, which he came to regard as a prison, (Hambourg 27) Nadar set about looking for a new way to push the photographic medium while continuing to entertain his public. In 1861, following a successful photographic excursion into the Paris' sewers, Nadar set his sights on photographing the Paris catacombs. The catacombs were former underground quarries that, for hygienic reasons and as part of Baron Haussmann's redesign of Paris, became a permanent storage space for the estimated 7 million skeletons that occupied Paris' cemeteries. The Paris catacombs had a certain eerie, yet romantic connotation to the public, a feeling that would rise following Hugo's 1862 publication of Les Miserables. (28) In the catacombs, Nadar spotted the perfect chance to thrill the public and to further explore the use of artificial light in photography.
Nadar, along with his helpers and several hundred meters of electrical cable, made numerous descents into the catacombs during a three-month period in the autumn 1861. (Gosling 32) From these descents, Nadar successfully produced a series of photographs of the Paris catacombs. In this series, there are two categories of work. The first focuses more on the dramatic, depicting piles of bones as they are neatly stacked to rest for all eternity. The other category focuses more on the structural elements of the catacombs by highlighting crosses, steles, and sarcophagi. (Hambourg 291) This project was well received and Nadar displayed the catacomb photographs on several occasions, one of which was at the London International Exhibition of 1862.
While the project was a success, even the dramatic photographs seem somewhat prosaic, as bones are stacked, not for some ghoulish purpose but in order to make way for the growing city above. The intention of these works seems more concerned with deflating the mystery surrounding the catacombs and providing documentation over drama. Nadar himself said, "you need take only a few steps through these subterranean passages to satisfy your curiosity. It's one of those places that everyone wants to see and no one wants to see again." (100)
With its nod to the spiritual, but focus on shape and light, Nadar's 27 X 21 cm albumen silver print, The Catacombs (1861) is an example of the more structurally concerned catacomb photographs. The composition is framed by the concrete entrance to a room, which houses an underground well. Behind this well, placed in the centre of the composition there is another opening leading to black nothingness. One either side of the well, one can make out the densely piled bones that packed the catacombs. Above the well a sign reads "our days flow past, as fleeting as water."(291) Similar signs were scattered throughout the catacombs in an effort to dignify what was essentially a clean-up project. (27) On the floor, one can see the string of wires that powered Nadar's lights.
With its focus on geometric shape and starkly contrasting whites and blacks, this image has a bleak and cold feel. As it moves from the outside in, starting dark to light and back to dark, the composition pulls the viewer in to explore the room. The light source, which comes from the left side of the room, models the rounded base of the well such that it looks like an altar. It is difficult to tell what the two pointed shapes that stretch from the top of the well to either side of the sign are, however, they work to both balance the image and pull the viewer further into the black unknown.
While historically intriguing, what stands out about Nadar's catacombs series is that although dealing with death, the photographs are ultimately and more simply an example of Nadar exploring a new frontier. Although he never commented on them in such a way, these photographs could be interpreted as a commentary on how Haussmann's redesign was removing the sense of history, or the soul from the city of Paris.
Perhaps Nadar's best-known photographs, outside of the studio, are his aerial shots of Paris. Although Nadar rightly believed that one-day heavier than air objects would be the future of manned flight, the air travel mode of the day was the hot air balloon. Nadar owned his own balloon, which he named Le Géant, and he delighted in taking guests on aerial tours of France and its neighbouring countries. For Nadar, the bringing together of aeronautics and photography represented a union of his two passions. On a personal level, the project allowed him to associate with, and learn from, the top aeronautic scientists of the day. On broader level, he was able to promote flight to the public. Nadar and the many artists, writers, and scientists in his circle believed strongly in the liberating power of flight (Gosling 16).
The idea of aerial photography had been suggested before, but it was Nadar's tenacity that made it a reality. In 1858 after four failed attempts, and after having removed his clothes for the sake of weight, (16) Nadar recorded the first successful aerial photographs of Paris. The attention from this project went far beyond, or above, any of his past endeavors. Nadar relished the spotlight and used his position to further his beliefs in both aeronautics and heavier than air flight. More than any of his other works; Nadar's aerial shots demonstrate his tremendous optimism and his belief in technology as a means to better humanity, something that he shared with many of his contemporaries. These photographs are a lasting reminder of Nadar's self-confidence and his success over his naysayers. In his own words, Nadar used these photographs to point out that "most of these operations that we perform today with perfect ease seemed before the first trial quite impossible, a flaunting of common sense." (Hambourg 109)
Nadar's Aerial View of the Arc de Triomphe (1868) was taken nearly ten years after he first took to the air to photograph, however it is the most commonly available of his aerial photographs. Little information exists on this photograph's background, or what became of the earlier aerial photographs. The albumen silver print is 24 x 18 cm and its four exposures depict Paris's Arc de Triomphe and its surroundings from essentially the same angle. The Arc de Triomphe, lying at the centre of the Place de l'Étoile, is located in the upper left side of all four exposures. Immediately noticeable are the long diagonal lines created by the boulevards that radiate from the Arc de Triomphe. The contrasting areas of light and dark created by the various trees and buildings, coupled with the photograph's sharp truncation on all sides gives the viewer a sense of the Paris' urban sprawl. Like The Catacombs, this work is concerned with shape, line, and structure. The viewer's eye is drawn along the boulevard lines until it reaches the work's focal point with the Arc de Triomphe. The eye then follows the circular shape of the area surrounding the Arc de Triomphe, until it moves away to follow another boulevard.
Throughout the 1860s, Paris' infamous city planner, Haussmann had been actively redesigning much of the area captured in Nadar's photograph. As mentioned earlier, no reference could be found of Nadar commenting on Haussmann's redesign. However, given Nadar's bohemian roots and socialist leanings, one might suspect that Nadar was at least concerned, if not upset, with Haussmann's undertakings. As with The Catacombs, Aerial View of the Arc de Triomphe is about structure and division, and although one might never know Nadar's true thoughts on Paris' new look, his photograph and the means by which he took it, speak volumes about the times he lived in.
Considered together, Nadar's Portrait of Gioacchino Rossini, The Catacombs and Aerial View of the Arc de Triomphe demonstrate all that is celebrated about Nadar's work. In these three photographs, one can see the technique, the artistry, the drive, and the understanding that characterized Nadar's work and indeed his life. Nadar's photography immortalized and attached an image to some of the most important artistic, political, and scientific thought of our time. Nadar would be glad to know that the images he created are still relevant today and that we still remember who took them. Théodore de Banville was right, Nadar deserves our complete affection.
Works Cited
Baldwin, George and Judith Keller. Nadar Warhol, Paris New York: photography and fame. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1999.
De Lorenzo, Catherine. "The Composite Enigma of Nadar." History of Photography 27 (2003): 205-221.
Gosling, Nigel. Nadar. London: Secker & Warburg, 1976.
Hambourg, Maria Morris. Nadar. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995.