NADAR: (1820-1910)

NADAR: (1820-1910) Gaspard-Felix Tournachon. French photographer, caricaturist and balloonist, the first person to take aerial photographs (1858). A.L.S., Nadar, one page, 8vo, Boulevard des Capucines, Paris, n.d., to a friend, in French. The photographer commences his letter by stating ´Je ne suis pas quemandeur et tu dois avoir des recommandations par dessus la tête a propos de bien des choses et encore de ton salon´ (Translation: ´I am not one to make demands, and you must be inundated with recommendations on all sorts of matters, not least regarding your salon´) and continues ´Cependant il y a un intérêt si sérieux pour le très galant homme que je te présente, M. Delafolie, que je te demande deux lignes pour lui; et tâche à ton tour de trouver l´occasion de mettre à l´épreuve ma bonne volonté pour toi´ (Translation: ´However, there is such serious interest in the most gallant gentleman I am introducing to you, Mr Delafolie, that I am asking you to write a few lines on his behalf; and do try, in turn, to find an opportunity to put my goodwill towards you to the test´). Some light creasing to the edges and with a few small repaired tears to the lower edge, G

Nadar´s letter is written on the red printed stationery of his photographic studio at 35 Boulevard des Capucines, famously the location of the First Impressionist Exhibition in April 1874. Ironically, Nadar had recently vacated the premises, and the artists rented the empty rooms. The exhibition included works by Pissarro, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Cézanne, Morisot, and others. It was here that the critic Louis Leroy coined the term ´Impressionists´ after mocking Monet's Impression, soleil levant.