The Nadars, a photographic legend

The Nadars

fr

Gérard de Nerval (1808-1855)

Félix Nadar, around 1850

Preliminary drawing for Nadar's Pantheon (N° 16 in the Pantheon)
Charcoal sketch on brown paper with white-gouache highlights, 23.4 x 15.5 cm.
BnF, Prints and Photographs Department, STORAGE ECU BOX-NA-88
© Bibliothèque nationale de France
Gérard de Nerval (1808-1855). For Nadar’s generation, he and Théophile Gautier represented the mindset of the 1830s – a blend of art and whimsy, as well as the wealthy Bohemia of the Impasse du Doyenné. But above all, Nerval was a cardinal literary figure. In an article mourning the death of the author of Fleurs du mal (Flowers of Evil), Nadar wrote, “For literary people, Baudelaire’s and Gérard de Nerval’s lives will always be remembered as two examples of professional dignity, two stunning examples — that will serve no purpose.” Gérard de Nerval helped Nadar find work at the Journal founded by Alphonse Karr in 1848. The two men saw each other on a daily basis, as they were jointly in charge of Parisian news and of what was then known as "cooking" the paper.