Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (5 April 1820 – 20 March 1910), known by the pseudonym Nadar, was a French photographer,
caricaturist, journalist, novelist,
balloonist, and proponent of
heavier-than-air flight. In 1858, he became the first person to take
aerial photograph
Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography.
Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing ai ...
s.
Photographic portraits by Nadar are held by many of the great national collections of photographs. His son, Paul Nadar (1856–1939), continued the studio after his death.
Life
Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (also known as Nadar) was born in early April 1820 in Paris,
though some sources state he was born in
Lyon. His father,
Victor Tournachon
Victor Tournachon-Molin (13 October 1771 – 8 August 1837) was a French printer and bookseller. He was the father of the photographer Nadar. He was also the first French printer to publish the translation of Giacomo Casanova's masterpiece, ''H ...
, was a printer and bookseller. Nadar began to study medicine but quit for economic reasons after his father's death.
Nadar started working as a caricaturist and novelist for various newspapers. He fell in with the Parisian bohemian group of
Gérard de Nerval,
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...
, and
Théodore de Banville. His friends picked a nickname for him, perhaps by a playful habit of adding "dar" to the end of words, Tournadar, which later became Nadar.
His work was published in ''
Le Charivari'' for the first time in 1848. In 1849, he founded ''La Revue Comique à l'Usage des Gens Sérieux''. He also edited ''Le Petit Journal pour Rire''.
From work as a caricaturist, he moved on to photography. He took his first photographs in 1853, and in 1854 opened a photographic studio at 113 rue St. Lazare.
He moved to 35 Boulevard des Capucines in 1860. Nadar photographed a wide range of personalities: politicians (
Guizot,
Proudhon), stage actors (
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including '' La Dame Aux Camel ...
,
Paulus Paulus is the original Latin form of the English name Paul. It may refer to:
Ancient Roman
* Paul (jurist) or Julius Paulus (fl. 222–235 AD), Roman jurist
* Paulus (consul 496), politician of the Eastern Roman Empire
* Paulus (consul 512), R ...
), writers (
Hugo,
Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fro ...
,
Sand,
Nerval,
Gautier,
Dumas), painters (
Corot,
Delacroix,
Millet
Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...
), and musicians (
Liszt,
Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...
,
Offenbach,
Verdi,
Berlioz).
Portrait photography was going through a period of native industrialization, and Nadar refused to use the traditional sumptuous decors; he preferred natural daylight and despised what he considered to be unnecessary accessories. In 1886, with his son Paul, he did what may be the first photo-report: an interview with the great scientist
Michel Eugène Chevreul
Michel Eugène Chevreul (31 August 1786 – 9 April 1889) was a French chemist and centenarian whose work influenced several areas in science, medicine, and art. His early work with animal fats revolutionized soap and candle manufacturing and led ...
, who at the time was 100 years old.
It was published in ''Le Journal Illustré''.
File:Brooklyn Museum - Nadar Élevant la Photographie à la Hauteur de l'Art - Honoré Daumier.jpg, ''Nadar élevant la Photographie à la hauteur de l'Art'' ("Nadar elevating Photography to Art"). Lithograph by Honoré Daumier, appearing in ''Le Boulevard'', 25 May 1863
File:Henry de Montaut, Petit, Catastrophe du ballons Le Géant. - La nacelle rasant le sol à Nieubourg (Hanovre). - D`après les renseignements fournis par M. Nadar. Gravure 1863.jpg, 1863: Disaster with ''Le Géant'' at Neustadt am Rübenberge at Hanover. Illustration in a newspaper
File:Felix Nadar in a balloon, late 1860s photographer Felix Nadar (4559203377).jpg, Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon) c. 1863, studio portrait, carte-de-visite
File:Nadar, Félix - Self-portrait.jpg, Studio portrait of Nadar in a balloon basket, c. 1863
In 1858, he became the first person to take
aerial photograph
Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography.
Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing ai ...
s. This was done using the
wet plate collodion process, and since the plates had to be prepared and developed (a process that required a chemically neutral setting) while the basket was aloft, Nadar experienced imaging problems as gas escaped from his balloons. After Nadar invented a gas-proof cotton cover and draped it over his balloon baskets, he was able to capture stable images.
He also pioneered the use of artificial lighting in photography, working in the catacombs of Paris. He was thus the first person to photograph from the air with his balloons, as well as the first to photograph underground, in the
Catacombs of Paris.
In 1867, he published the first magazine to focus on air travel: ''L'Aéronaute''.
In 1863, Nadar commissioned the prominent balloonist
Eugène Godard
Eugène Godard Ainé was a notable French Aeronautics, aeronaut, born in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, Clichy on August 26, 1827, died in Brussels on September 9, 1890.
Biography
In 1841, 14-year-old Eugène Godard enrolled at the Conservatoire nati ...
to construct an enormous balloon, high and with a capacity of , and named ''Le Géant'' (The Giant).
On his visit to
Brussels with ''Le Géant'', on 26 September 1864, Nadar erected mobile barriers to keep the crowd at a safe distance.
Crowd control barriers are still known in Belgium as ''Nadar barriers''.
''Le Géant'' was badly damaged at the end of its second flight, but Nadar rebuilt the gondola and the envelope, and continued his flights. In 1867, he was able to take as many as a dozen passengers aloft at once, serving cold chicken and wine.
For publicity, he recreated balloon flights in his studio with his wife, Ernestine, using a rigged-up balloon gondola. He stayed a passionate aeronaut until he and Ernestine were injured in an accident in ''Le Géant''.

''Le Géant'' (The Giant) inspired
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
's ''
Five Weeks in a Balloon''. Nadar was the inspiration for the character of
Michael Ardan in Verne's ''
From the Earth to the Moon''.
In 1862, Verne and Nadar established a ''Société pour la recherche de la navigation aérienne'', which later became ''La Société d'encouragement de la locomotion aérienne au moyen du plus lourd que l'air'' (The Society for the Encouragement of Aerial Locomotion by Means of Heavier than Air Machines).
Nadar served as president and Verne as secretary.
During the
Siege of Paris in 1870–71, Nadar was instrumental in organising balloon flights carrying mail to reconnect the besieged Parisians with the rest of the world, thus establishing the world's first
airmail service.
In April 1874, he lent his photo studio to a group of painters to present the first exhibition of the
Impressionists.
He photographed
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
on his death-bed in 1885. He is credited with having published (in 1886) the first ''photo-interview'' (of famous chemist
Michel Eugène Chevreul
Michel Eugène Chevreul (31 August 1786 – 9 April 1889) was a French chemist and centenarian whose work influenced several areas in science, medicine, and art. His early work with animal fats revolutionized soap and candle manufacturing and led ...
, then a centenarian).
His photographs of women are notable for their natural poses and individual character.
Nadar was recognized for breaking the conventions of photographic
portrait, choosing to capture the subjects as active participants.
As of 1 April 1895, Nadar turned over the Paris Nadar Studio to his son Paul. He moved to
Marseille, where he established another photography studio in 1897. On 3 January 1909 he returned to Paris.
Nadar died on 20 March 1910, aged 89. He was buried in
Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. The studio continued under the direction of his son and long-term collaborator, Paul Nadar (1856–1939).
Works
Towards the end of his life, Nadar published ''Quand j'étais photographe'', which was translated into English and published by MIT Press in 2015. The book is full of both anecdotes and samples of his photography, including many portraits of recognizable names.
[Adam Begley]
"The absurd life of Félix Nadar, French portraitist and human flight advocate"
''The Guardian'', 23 December 2015.
The painter
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres sent some of his clients to Nadar to have their photographs taken as studies for his paintings.
Gallery
File:JapaneseMissionAndNadarSon.JPG, Nadar's son (center) with Yatsu Kanshiro (left) and an unnamed samurai (right), photographed by Nadar. They were members of the Second Japanese Embassy to Europe in 1863
File:Dessin de Nadar 1850.jpg, Caricature of Balzac, 1850
File:Charles Baudelaire.jpg, Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...
File:Sarah Bernhardt, par Nadar, 1864, sepia.jpg, Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including '' La Dame Aux Camel ...
File:Georges Ernest Boulanger by Atelier Nadar.jpg, Georges Boulanger
File:BRÉSIL, Marguerite Neurdein. Photo Nadar.jpg, Marguerite Brésil Marguerite may refer to:
People
* Marguerite (given name), including a list of people with the name
Places
*Marguerite, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
*Marguerite Bay, Antarctic Peninsula
*Marguerite Island, Adélie Land, Antarctica
...
File:LeBris1868.jpg, Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II (could be misattributed, some sources say the photographer was ''Pépin fils'')
File:Maréchal Canrobert by Nadar.jpg, François Certain de Canrobert
File:Georges Clemenceau Nadar.jpg, Georges Clemenceau
File:Atelier Nadar - Pierre Kropotkine.jpg, Peter Kropotkin
Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (; russian: link=no, Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин ; 9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, historian, scientist, philosopher, and activis ...
File:Prince Czartoryski by Nadar.jpg, Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski
File:Claude Debussy ca 1908, foto av Félix Nadar.jpg, Claude Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
File:Félix Nadar 1820-1910 portraits Eugène Delacroix.jpg, Eugène Delacroix
File:Paul Gustave Dore by Felix Nadar 1855-1859.jpg, Gustave Doré (1859)
File:Alexandre Dumas Nadar.jpg, Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where ''Suffix (name)#Generational titles, '' is French language, French for 'father', to distinguish him from ...
File:N Gabrielli par Nadar.jpg, Nicolò Gabrielli di Quercita
File:Galliffet, Gaston de.jpg, Marquis de Galliffet
Gaston Alexandre Auguste, Marquis de Galliffet, Prince de Martigues (Paris, 23 January 1830 – 8 July 1909), was a French general, best known for having taken part in the repression of the 1871 Paris Commune. He was Minister of War in Waldeck-Ro ...
, the ''fusilleur de la Commune''
File:Charles Gounod (1890) by Nadar.jpg, Charles Gounod in 1890
File:Elisabeth de Gramont - Nadar - 1889.jpg, Élisabeth de Gramont, 1889
File:Franz Liszt by Nadar, March 1886.png, Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
File:Ilja Iljitsch Metschnikow Nadar.jpg, Ilya Mechnikov
File:Jean-François Millet by Nadar, Metropolitan Museum copy.jpg, Jean-François Millet
File:Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, close up, with slight smile by Nadar.jpg, Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar, king of Persia 1848–1896
File:George Sand by Nadar, 1864.jpg, George Sand (1864)
File:Édouard de Reszke by Nadar (BPL Hale Coll).jpg, Édouard de Reszke
File:Séverine, debout, un poing sur la hanche - Nadar.jpg, Séverine (c. 1895)
File:Émile Zola Nadar.jpg, Émile Zola (1895)
File:Pedro II do Brasil por Nadar 1891.png, Pedro II of Brazil
Don (honorific), Dom PedroII (2 December 1825 – 5 December 1891), nicknamed "the Magnanimity, Magnanimous" ( pt, O Magnânimo), was the List of monarchs of Brazil, second and last monarch of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. ...
See also
*
Prix Nadar, French
photojournalism
Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...
prize given in Nadar's name
*
Mononymous person, a person known with only one word
*
Michel Ardan, a character from the 1865 novel ''
From the Earth to the Moon'' who was inspired by Nadar
References
External links
*
*
1867 Caricature of Nadar by André GillArticle about Nadarby
Bruce Sterling
Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author known for his novels and short fiction and editorship of the ''Mirrorshades'' anthology. In particular, he is linked to the cyberpunk subgenre.
Sterling's first ...
Article about Nadarby Roger Cicala
numerous photographs by Nadar
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nadar
Pioneers of photography
1820 births
1910 deaths
Aerial photographers
French balloonists
French caricaturists
Portrait photographers
Artists from Paris
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
Lycée Condorcet alumni
19th-century French photographers
20th-century French photographers