Provenance
- 1984
André Jammes, sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1984.
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[Felix Nadar in the Gondola of a Balloon]
Nadar [Gaspard Félix Tournachon] (French, 1820 - 1910)
French
about 1863
Albumen silver print
84.XM.343.1
7.8 × 5.6 cm (3 1/16 × 2 3/16 in.)
Despite its small scale, Nadar meant this
These photographs were a mixture of self-aggrandizement and profit-seeking and, at least to a modern eye, also humorous for their incongruities. The woven basket in which Nadar posed was probably a laundry hamper suspended on ropes in the studio--too small to carry a man comfortably for any distance, particularly kneeling, as the five-foot-ten Nadar must be doing. To give a modest illusion that he was flying, he posed his pretend balloon against a painted backdrop of clouds. He may have chosen dandyish clothes in order to imply that ballooning was a safe, even gentlemanly enterprise, in which money could be judiciously invested. His binoculars advertise the view to be had from on high, and the anchor adds a note of authenticity.
André Jammes, sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1984.
Baldwin, Gordon, and Judith Keller. Nadar Warhol: Paris New York: Photography and Fame. Introduction by Richard Brilliant. (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1999), p. 43.