Provenance
before 1976 - 1984
Samuel Wagstaff, Jr., American, 1921 - 1987, sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1984.
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Not currently on view
[Self-portrait in striped coat]
Nadar [Gaspard Félix Tournachon] (French, 1820 - 1910)
French
Paris, France (Place Created)
about 1856–1858
Salted paper print
84.XM.436.22
18.1 × 13.3 cm (7 1/8 × 5 1/4 in.)
In this self-portrait, Nadar's myopia makes him appear to be intensely staring at the camera, producing the accurate impression of an unremittingly forceful personality. Suspended on a velvet ribbon, his eyeglasses dangle over one of his wrists. To give an impression of spontaneity, he may have intentionally arranged for them to be visible, because in the process of crossing his arms they would more naturally have fallen between his arm and chest. This photograph has the air of a person trying out an attitude in a mirror, and Nadar may have used a mirror to study its composition. The image's close-up intimacy results from the roughly cut edges, with the head and shoulders filling most of the frame.
Samuel Wagstaff, Jr., American, 1921 - 1987, 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. 50.
Hellman, Karen, ed. Real/Ideal: Photography in Mid-Nineteenth-Century France, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2016), fig. 26.
Aubenas, Sylvie, and Anne Lacoste, eds. Les Nadar: Une Légende Photographique, exh. cat. (Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, with BnF Éditions, 2018), p. 73.