The Nadars, a photographic legend

The Nadars

fr

Close-up of Nadar's Pantheon with Félix Nadar's self-portrait and dedication in the center

Félix Nadar, 1854

Lithography, 30.8 × 24.6 cm.
BnF, Prints and Photographs Department, TF-1133 (1)-FOL
© Bibliothèque nationale de France
In one corner of the vast, ambitious lithography - a group portrait of the literary celebrities of the time - Félix Nadar, the artist, slipped himself in behind the humorous dedication addredssed to 19th-century specialists from the fourth millennium. He caricatured himself with long legs and wide open, near-sighted eyes, using the codes that his contemporary press illustrators used to sketch him.