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[Self-portrait in striped coat]

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 1856–1858
Medium: Salted paper print
Culture: French
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

In this self-portrait, Nadar's myopia makes him appear to be intensely staring at the camera, producing the accurate impression of an unremittingly forceful personality. Suspended on a velvet ribbon, his eyeglasses dangle over one of his wrists. To give an impression of spontaneity, he may have intentionally arranged for them to be visible, because in the process of crossing his arms they would more naturally have fallen between his arm and chest. This photograph has the air of a person trying out an attitude in a mirror, and Nadar may have used a mirror to study its composition. The image's close-up intimacy results from the roughly cut edges, with the head and shoulders filling most of the frame.

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