Getty Museum
Augustin-Eugène Scribe (1791-1861) playwright, librettist
Creator
Nadar [Gaspard Félix Tournachon]French Photographer · 1820–1910
All works by this person →> 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
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1855–1859
- Medium
- Salted paper print
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Playwright Eugène Scribe poses more conventionally than most of Nadar's sitters from this period. In his mid-sixties, the successful playwright wore elegant and expensive formal daytime clothing. He displays neither playfulness in his costume, as in some Nadar portraits, nor much liveliness of expression. The line of Scribe's mouth is so uncommonly straight as to give little idea of temperament. His left eye is mild and even, but his right eye arrestingly burns out from deep shadow, providing a clue to the anxiety that reportedly caused the playwright to gnaw on his handkerchief when a rehearsal was going badly. Scribe persevered in writing plays despite the failures of his first thirteen works. Critical and popular acclaim, and ultimately great wealth, rewarded his tenacious productivity in writing more than 230 plays and librettos, or texts for musical works. His work is now seldom performed, save for a few operas for which he wrote the librettos.
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