The Nadars, a photographic legend

The Nadars: a clan that lived and breathed photography from the dawn of the technique’s modern era to the early 20th century. The brilliant and flamboyant Félix, flanked by his brother Adrien, a bohemian artist and inspired photographer; and his son Paul, a modern businessman and promoter of Kodak in France.

Adrien Tournachon, Félix Nadar’s younger brother, was a laid-back artist, the very archetype of the bohemian. Pouring his talent and artistry into photography in the early 1850s, he brought great cachet to the emerging art form.
“One day someone introduced you to him, he embraced you immediately; the next, he would be speaking to you most familiarly; the third, he would take your portrait, as well as your wife’s and your children’s – for free, just for the the pleasure of being agreeable. And that is how you wind up with a set of magnificent photographs – how every well-known man in Paris, from Victor Hugo, who is somewhat well-known, to Fattet, who is extremely so, possesses his very own portrait by Nadar.”

Philipon, Director of the Journal amusant
Unlike his uncle and father, Paul was the only Nadar who would devote himself exclusively to photography. Paul inherited the name Nadar and would do his best to emancipate himself from it. When he took over the task of running the studio, his goal was to turn it into a modern business. The younger man would find it difficult to live up to his father’s reputation or to leave his own name on the next stage of the family business’s history.

If God had put a race of Nadars on the Earth, the sky would already have been scaled. Nadar, what a noisy name for both the eyes and the ears! It is everywhere, it resounds everywhere!

Arsène Houssaye, Director of the newspaper L'Artiste

Explore the Portrait of the Three Nadars

Photography is a family affair. As “Nadar” has become a shared pseudonym, it has also become an internationally recognized brand. The Nadar name stirs the imagination with caricatures, photographs and aerostats.

the Nadar studios

Two emblematic places, where light reigned supreme

Explore the Nadar studios

The Art of the Portrait

From the painter’s studio to the photographer’s, from engravers’ copper plaques to photographic plates, light and shadow are always the key. The Nadars stand out for their exceptional photographic acuity, their search for an “intimate resemblance,” or, as it would be called later, “the true image.” These portraits contributed to revealing photography’s authentically artistic dimension.

Find out more about the Nadars’ portraits

Félix Nadar’s portrait of Bakunin in one of the photographer’s favorite poses

“Everyone was always welcome at the Nadars. In their home, Alexandre Dumas père rubbed shoulders with Jacques Offenbach, Victorien Sardou mixed with Gustave Doré, and the distinguished actors of the Comédie Française troupe mingled with Henri Rochefort.”

Bohemian Life and Small Newspapers

Bohemians was the name given to a category of impoverished young artists looking for a place in the era’s strictly stratified society. They were able to seize the opportunities offered by a turbulent century. Félix and Adrien got their start at a time when “newspaper culture” was developing. The multiplication of titles offering an outlet for illustrations and sketches opened up a vast field that they were able to take advantage of. For them as well as for others, caricature – an art of the gaze – led them to the practice of photography.

See the portrait gallery

249 caricatures

Nadar’s Pantheon

In 1854, Nadar published a monumental lithography

Explore Nadar’s Pantheon

“Natural light was indispensable for photography before the advent of artificial light and more sensitive processes. The first Nadar studios included outdoor areas: a roof-top terrace for Adrien and a ground-floor garden with a glass-roofed atrium for Félix. On the upper floors, huge windows allowed him to take advantage of as much light as possible.”

Eyewitnesses to the Transformations of the 19^th Century

An important period for advertising, the press, and the world of finance, the 19^th century was attached first and foremost to the spectacle of itself. It loved to see its own reflection in light comedy, World’s Fairs, military reviews and carnivals. The Nadars contributed to that social inventory in which the vainglorious rubbed shoulders with the glorious, and “marble” busts with “plaster”. From caricatures, which exposed the workings of social farce through humor, to photography, which often formalized it, the Nadars always strove to delve behind the social masquerade to find the truth that faces contained.

Explore the uses of photography

Innovation at the Heart of their Work

Entrepreneurship was one of the guiding principles of the 19th century. Whether the goal was wealth or power, conquering nature through science, or achieving the best possible world by fomenting revolution or inventing utopia, the Nadars participated fully in the ideas of their time. While others headed off to search for gold, the Nadars were photographic pioneers, searching for light and exploring what could be done with it. Félix also struggled against the burden of gravity, both Newton’s, through his “heavier than air” campaign and his Le Géant balloon, but also more metaphorically, against the burden of the conservatism of the powers that be, through his never-ending passion for free-thinking and his unstinting generosity towards those who had been “crushed by life.”

Exploring Underground Paris

“Artificial light, aerostatic photography, plotting topographic maps and strategic military operations, etc.; the Nadars were at the root of numerous patent applications, not all of which were crowned with success.”

With his “Society for the Encouragement of Aerial Locomotion via Heavier than Air Craft,” founded in 1863, Félix Nadar was seen as a pioneer in the history of aviation. Although his 45-meter- (148-foot-) tall hot-air balloon, Le Géant, was a failure as a commercial endeavor, he soon came up with the idea of pairing photography with aerial navigation.

Discover the Nadar: the game

Who Is It?

Joséphine Baker

Victor Hugo

Sarah Bernhardt

George Sand

Honoré de Balzac

Gustave Doré

Félix Nadar

Un acrobate

Gérard de Nerval

Les frères Nadar

Maryse Bastié

Alexandre Dumas

Thérèse Maillet

Ernestine Nadar

Charles Baudelaire

Théophile Gautier

Paul Nadar

Un cavalier arabe

Honoré Daumier

Les frères Goncourt

Joséphine Baker or Maryse Bastié