Honoré de Balzac is one of those who "opened the century." The author of The Human Comedy, and creator of the modern novel was also a perspicacious journalist and observer of the mores of his time who had been a contibutor to Philipon's journals before Nadar. Although he had been dead since 1850, he is portrayed as a bust at the head of the procession in both Pantheons. Throughout his life, Nadar expressed his unwavering admiration for Balzac. In 1847, for example, Nadar praised the older man's "impulsive, varied and infinite brilliance." The two first met in 1839: Nadar, just 19 at the time, had been sent as a courier to pick up a short story for Alfred Francey’s newspaper Le Livre d’or: “Sir, we don’t haggle here. Have you called upon a button-seller or an illustrious writer?” In deference to the great man’s work, Nadar couldn’t help but excuse the touch of vainglory.
This portrait was inspired both by the sculptor David d’Angers' bust and medals of Balzac, and by the daguerreotype of the great man taken with the Bissons, which Nadar had a copy of.