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[Aimé] Millet

Creator

French Photographer · 1820–1910

MakerLithographerEngraver

> The sun is only the practitioner, M[r]. Nadar is the artist who wants to give him some work. So wrote a critic of Gaspard Félix Tournachon in 1859. Tournachon's nickname, Nadar, derived from youthful slang, but became his professional signature and the name by which he is best known today. Poor but talented, Nadar began by scratching out a living as a freelance writer and caricaturist. His writi

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Date: about 1855–1859
Medium: Salted paper print
Culture: French
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

Nadar inscribed the reverse side of this print with the name "Mille," probably an incomplete transcription of the name Millet. The sitter is thought to be the sculptor Aimé Millet, about thirty-seven at this time and poised on the brink of his first great success. Nadar placed Millet in a dynamic pose, his body turned away from the camera to the right and his head twisted back over his shoulder to the left. Both the set of his mouth and his forceful gaze indicate strength of purpose tempered by benevolence; the intensity and energy in this refined figure accord with contemporary descriptions of Millet. As often in Nadar's portraits, the white of the sitter's collar sets off the head from the somber tones of the clothing--in this case, a loose-fitting corduroy jacket. The cuff echoes the collar's white, but the sculptor's talented hands are not visible.

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