A[uguste] Préault

Getty Museum

A[uguste] Préault

Creator

Nadar [Gaspard Félix Tournachon]

French Photographer · 1820–1910

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> 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
1854–1855
Medium
Salted paper print
Culture
French
Department
Photographs
Institution
Getty Museum

A favorably disposed nineteenth-century critic described the fiery sculptor Antoine Augustin Préault thus: "The fever of poetry, the drunkenness of beauty, the horror of vulgarity, and the madness of glory possessed and tormented Préault." Nadar's portrait captured the sculptor's turbulent energy through the tense twist of the pose. Préault's body turns to his right, his head slightly to the left, and his eyes farther to his left. His folded arms wrap around his body, momentarily holding in check his considerable physical and intellectual power, the better to be unleashed. By using strong overhead diagonal light to shape the large dome of the head and to cast half the face into shadow, Nadar emphasized the gravity of Préault's presence. Sitter and photographer produced a portrait that reveals the essence of the man rather than merely his appearance.

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