When I Was a Photographer


1739	Ignace Tournachon born in Lyon.
1770	Ignace, now married to Jeanne-Marie Molin, daughter of the bookseller Alexis Molin, launches the Tournachon-Molin Press in Lyon.
1771	Birth of Victor Tournachon.
1793	Victor begins practicing as a printer.
1812	Death of Ignace Tournachon.
1817	Victor takes over the name “Tournachon-Molin” and joins forces with Hippolyte Seguin in Paris. They publish Félicité de Lamennais’s Essai sur l’indifférence en matière de religion.
1820	April 6. Birth of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon to Victor Tournachon and Thérèse Maillet in Paris.
1822	Nicéphore Niépce begins his experiments with photography.
1824	The Tournachon household moves to 41, rue Saint-André-des-Arts.
1825	Victor Tournachon’s press continues to be active but is running a deficit. August 26. Birth of Alban-Adrien Tournachon.
1826	November 11. Marriage of Victor Tournachon, aged 55, and Thérèse Maillet, aged 32.
1830	The press has financial difficulties.
1831–32	Félix is enrolled at the Pension Hubert in Versailles.
1833	Ruined by the high cost of publishing the Dictionnaire universel de droit français, Victor is forced to close his press.
1833–36	Félix studies at the Collège Bourbon and lives at the pension owned by Mr. Augeron.
1836	Victor Tournachon, ill, retires to Lyon with his family. Félix leaves the Collège Bourbon. Ernestine Lefèvre (future wife of Félix) is born to Édouard Lefèvre and Amélie-Elisabeth Planques at Épinay.
1837	Death of Victor Tournachon.
1837–38	Félix begins the study of medicine in Lyon. He contributes to L’Entr’acte lyonnais and Fanal du commerce.
1838	Félix returns to Paris and audits courses in medicine at the Hôtel-Dieu and Bicêtre. He works as a paste-up artist at the Journal des dames et des modes. He also writes for August Lireux’s Revue et gazette des théâtres. Félix takes “Nadar” (sometimes “Nadard”) as his nom de plume.
1839	Félix meets Karol d’Anelle. With Polydore Millaud he founds Le Négociateur, then L’Audience. With Léon Noël and Alfred Francey he launches the Livre d’or. August. The Académie des Sciences makes public Daguerre’s invention of the daguerreotype, a photographic image made directly on a metal plate.
1841–42	Félix frequents the “Society of Water-Drinkers,” Henry Murger’s band of artists. He signs himself “Nadard” in Les Papillotes.
1842	Nadar contributes to Millaud’s L’Âge d’or, publishing one of his early novels there. His first sketches are published by Martinet. July. Nadar is elected to the Société des Gens de Lettres.
1842–43	Nadar meets Charles Baudelaire through his friend Théodore de Banville.
1842–45	Nadar works at the republican daily Le Commerce. His actions are watched by the police.
1844–45	Nadar publishes La Robe de Déjanire, “L’Indienne bleue,” and “La Vie et la mort de Lequeux.”
1846	Nadar begins in earnest his career as a caricaturist; he works for the satirical journals Le Corsaire-Satan and La Silhouette.
1847–48	Niépce de Saint-Victor develops a method for making photographic negatives on glass coated with albumen, soon replaced by wet collodion.
1848	Nadar contributes to the Voleur and to Charles Philipon’s Charivari. February. Revolution breaks out in Paris. Pierrot ministre, a pantomime written by Nadar, is performed at the Théâtre des Funambules. Champfleury and Nadar argue and nearly fight a duel. March 30. Nadar and Adrien join a volunteer military expedition to win independence for Poland; are arrested, imprisoned at Eisleben in Prussia, then released, and return to Paris June 1. Nadar is sent by Jules Hetzel on a “secret mission” to Prussia. September. Nadar is back in Paris, contributing to Alphonse Karr’s Journal.
1849	Nadar draws and writes for Hetzel’s Revue comique à l’usage des gens sérieux. May. Nadar does his first work for Philipon’s Journal pour rire, and a long friendship begins. September-November. Nadar is in London.
1849–62	Nadar collaborates closely with Philipon. The drawings from his atelier are widely published, especially in Philipon’s Journal pour rire and the Petit Journal pour rire, and also in Auguste Commerson’s Tintamarre.
1850	August. Nadar is imprisoned in Clichy, for debts.
1851	London International Exhibition; the Crystal Palace draws crowds. Nadar goes to London in June. He meets Constantin Guys, who becomes a friend. Nadar begins planning a Panthéon of outstanding contemporaries.
1852	January. Nadar’s “Lanterne magique” (caricatures, or portraits charges, of celebrated men) begins appearing in Le Journal pour rire. Nadar builds up the store of portraits-charges he will use for his Panthéon. The first Nadar-Jury, caricaturing the Salon, published in L’Éclair; it will become a tradition, with installments published in years to come in Le Tintamarre, Le Rabelais, and Journal amusant.
1852–55	Henri Giffard attempts to fly a dirigible.
1853	June. Nadar moves with his mother to 113, rue Saint-Lazare.
1854	Nadar finances Adrien’s photography lessons from Gustave Le Gray and arranges the financial backing for Adrien’s studio at 11, boulevard des Capucines. Nadar himself learns the technique from Adolphe Bertsch and Camille d’Arnaud, and sets up a studio in his home at 113, rue Saint-Lazare. March. Nadar publishes the Panthéon Nadar. He brings out more portraits-charges in Binettes contemporaines. April. Nadar begins to photograph members of his family, friends, and colleagues. September 11. Nadar marries Ernestine-Constance Lefèvre.Nadar’s pantomimes, Pierrot boursier and Pierrot ministre, are performed at the Théâtre des Funambules by his friend Charles Deburau, and at the Folies-Nouvelles.
1854–55	Adrien’s studio is on the brink of financial ruin. From mid-September 1854 to mid-January 1855, Nadar collaborates with him to help save it. The mime Deburau is photographed there. Nadar arranges for the firm to exhibit at the Exposition Universelle of 1855.
1855	January 16. Adrien asks Félix to leave and to relinquish his share in the studio. Adrien wins a gold medal for the Pierrot photographs, exhibited under the name “Nadar jeune.” Adrien moves his studio to 17, boulevard des Italiens. Nadar returns to 113, rue Saint-Lazare. Thérèse Tournachon moves to the rue de Tivoli. Félix starts legal proceedings against Adrien to force him to stop using the name “Nadar jeune.” Adrien becomes a member of the Société Française de Photographie.
1856	January. Philipon creates the Journal amusant and soon afterward the Petit Journal pour rire, of which Nadar becomes editor-in-chief. Nadar publishes a collection of his stories, Quand j’étais étudiant. February 8. Paul Nadar is born to Félix and Ernestine. Adrien wins the first round of the lawsuit filed against him by Félix. Nadar wins a gold medal at the Exposition Photographique in Brussels. Nadar becomes a member of the Société Française de Photographie.
1856–59	Nadar produces reams of caricatures and articles for Philipon’s journals. He photographs his friends and eminent figures in literature and the arts; also actresses and singers.
1857	Nadar travels to Brussels, where he exhibits his portraits and wins a medal. December 12. The lawsuit against Adrien is concluded: the judge rules that Félix is “the only, the true Nadar.”
1858	February. The Petit Journal pour rire ceases publication. April 25. Adrien’s boulevard des Italiens studio is declared bankrupt. Nadar takes the first aerial photograph. October 23. Nadar files a patent for aerial photography. He takes the first photograph by artificial light. He publishes a revised Panthéon Nadar in the supplement to Le Figaro.
1859	March. Nadar is editor of Journal amusant. Nadar exhibits a large group of portraits from the Figures contemporaines at the Salon of the Société Française de Photographie. June 10. Adrien appeals the decision of December 1857; his appeal is rejected.
1860	February 21. Death of Thérèse Tournachon. Félix pays Adrien’s debts. July 12. Nadar establishes the Société Générale de Photographie to provide financial backing for a new studio at 35, boulevard des Capucines; Philipon is president.
1861	February 4. Nadar files a patent for photography by artificial light. April. He tries equestrian photography on the Champs-Élysées. September. Nadar’s studio on the boulevard des Capucines opens.
1861–62	Nadar takes photographs in the catacombs.
1862	Death of Henri Murger. Death of Charles Philipon.
1862–64	Adrien sets up a new photographic studio with J.-P. Johannes at 124, avenue des Champs-Élysées; they make equestrian portraits and animal pictures.
1863	Nadar meets Ponton d’Amécourt. July 6. The two men form the Société d’Encouragement pour la Locomotion Aérienne au Moyen d’Appareils Plus Lourds que l’Air. July 31. Nadar’s “Manifeste de l’autolocomotion aérienne” appears in La Presse. August. The Société founds its own journal, L’Aéronaute. October 4. First ascent of the Géant at the Champ-de-Mars. Built by Louis and Jules Godard, the balloon can carry twenty-four passengers in its two-story gondola. October 18. On its second ascent, the Géant crashes at Hanover; Félix and Ernestine are injured. November 21. Nadar is seriously in debt, according to a police department record.
1864	Nadar publishes Mémoires du Géant.
1864–65	Nadar photographs George Sand and Sarah Bernhardt. He photographs the sewers of Paris.
1865	Nadar exhibits his photographs in Berlin, Saint Petersburg, New Orleans, and Amsterdam. He publishes Le Droit au vol, with a preface by George Sand. He ascends in the Géant at Lyon (July 2) and at Amsterdam(September 11)
1867	June 23. Nadar makes his final ascent in the Géant, then sells the balloon. August 31. Death of Baudelaire.
1869	April 13. Adrien creates a firm to make photographic enamels; it will fail in 1872.
1870–71	The Franco–Prussian War and the siege of Paris give Nadar a final opportunity for aeronautics. He creates a military company of balloonists and makes numerous ascents for observation. The beginning of aerial postal service.
1871	Paris Commune. Nadar has difficulties with his health and with his business. He leaves the boulevard des Capucines for the rue d’Anjou.
1873	Nadar and Ernestine retire to the Hermitage in the forest of Sénart.
1874	April 15. The first Impressionist Salon opens in the rooms Nadar still holds on the boulevard des Capucines; exhibitors include Monet, Pissarro, Sisley, Renoir, Guillaumin, Cézanne, and Degas.
1877	Nadar publishes the Histoires buissonnières.
1878	Nadar helps to organize an exhibition of Daumier’s works. The Nadar Studio wins a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris.
1879	Death of Daumier. He is buried in Père-Lachaise cemetery.
1880	Nadar publishes Hôtellerie des Coquecigrues, filled with remembrances of friends and with a preface by Charles Bataille.
1882	Nadar publishes Sous l’incendie, on the war of 1870–71.
1884	Adrien exhibits with the Société des Artistes Français at the salon of 1884.
1886	Nadar and Ernestine travel to Italy. May 18. Nadar is a member of the jury for the first Exhibition of Photography in Florence. August 26. Nadar interviews the chemist Eugène Chevreul on his hundredth birthday. The intended sound-recording of the interview fails, but the text, “L’Art de vivre centenaire,” is published with the photographs in Le Journal illustré of September 5. Paul Nadar, who has worked with his father for years, is now virtually directing the studio.
1887	Ernestine suffers a stroke. Nadar writes for Le Temps and La Question sociale.
1889	Photographs by the Nadar Studio (father and son) are shown at the Exposition Universelle and win a grand prize.
1891	Paul Nadar founds the journal Paris-Photographe.
1893	Adrien lives at the retirement home at Saint-Perrine, then at the pension Galignani at Neuilly.
1894	January 17. Nadar is made an honorary member of the Société Aérophile de France. Paul’s Paris-Photographe faces financial disaster. Félix Nadar’s financial situation is precarious.
1895	April 1. Félix transfers legal ownership of the Nadar Studio to Paul. June. Nadar travels to Marseille and decides to make a new beginning there. December 5. A sale of lithographs and watercolors from the Nadar collection is held at the Hôtel Drouot, Paris.
1896	Nadar takes part in the publication of the Tombeau de Baudelaire, organized by Mallarmé. July. Nadar undergoes surgery.
1897	September. Nadar establishes a new photography studio in Marseille. He writes for the Petit Provençal. His collection of balloon-related objects is bought by the City of Paris and placed in the Musée Carnavalet.
1899	Nadar sells his studio in Marseille.
1900	The Exposition Universelle includes a retrospective of Nadar’s work. Nadar publishes Quand j’étais photographe. June. Nadar again undergoes surgery.
1903	January 24. Adrien dies, after ten years in a mental hospital.
1906	Nadar’s health deteriorates: he suffers from congestion of the lungs, recurrences of his asthma, and kidney stones.
1909	January 3. Death of Ernestine. July 25. Louis Blériot flies across the English Channel in a monoplane. Nadar’s telegram to him is published in La Presse.
1910	March 20. Death of Félix Nadar. He is buried in Père-Lachaise cemetery.
1911	Nadar’s Charles Baudelaire intime is published.
1939	September 1. Death of Paul Nadar. The studio, which passes to his daughter Marthe, survives only a few years longer.
1950	January. The Caisse Nationale des Monuments Historiques et des Sites acquires from Anne Nadar, Paul’s second wife, some 60,000 negatives from the Nadar Studio. The Bibliothèque Nationale acquires the prints (both original and modern), the archives, and the documents pertaining to Félix and Paul Nadar.