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Th[éophile] Gautier

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 1856
Medium: Salted paper prints from glass negatives
Culture: French
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

Here Theophile Gautier embodies the image of the Romantic poet. He sports an elegant cap of damask cloth trimmed with braid. His shaggy beard and hair seem to grow right into his furry overcoat. He stands gazing thoughtfully away from the camera, solemn and erect, his hand thrust into his waistcoat. Gautier was a poet and journalist who championed the concept of "art for art's sake," that is, that art need serve no other purpose than to exist for its own achievement. He later softened his approach, explaining that, "smitten in my youngest years with painting and sculpture, I became a delirious lover of art." Gautier and Nadar were lifelong friends. As editor of the journal *L'Artiste*, Gautier published many of Nadar's photographs, including this portrait in 1859. The oval print is of the kind that Nadar offered for sale in his studio, an edition print. Another print of this same image is arched at the top like a tombstone.

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