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Gaspard-Félix Tournachon
(1820–1910)

Other names: Nadar/Nadard

Biographical

A writer, caricaturist, and photographer, Tournachon began studying medicine in 1837 before turning to journalism, writing newspaper articles under the pseudonym 'Nadar' from 1938, and gaining election to the Société des Gens de Lettres in 1842. He began his professional career as a caricaturist in 1846, working for Le Corsaire-Satan and La Silhouette. In 1848 he joined a volunteer military expedition with his brother in support of Polish independence, an effort that resulted in their arrest, imprisonment at Eisleben, and return three months later. Financial difficulties led to his imprisonment in Clichy for debts in 1850. Tournachon turned increasingly to photography from 1853, opening a portrait studio in his house on rue Saint-Lazare and developing a reputation as an expert practitioner. Recognition followed with a gold medal at the Exposition Photographique in Brussels in 1856 and membership in the Société Française de Photographie in the same year. In 1858 he became the first person to undertake aerial photography from a balloon. In 1860 he founded the Société Générale de Photographie. A serious accident occurred in 1863 during a flight in the hot-air balloon Le Géant, in which both Tournachon and his wife were injured. His work reached an international audience in 1865 through exhibitions in Berlin, Saint Petersburg, New Orleans, and Amsterdam. From 1874 his gallery in the famous red building served as a venue for Impressionist exhibitions. The Nadar Studio received a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1878. Formal recognition continued with honorary membership of the Société Aérophile de France in 1894. Tournachon transferred legal ownership of the Nadar Studio to his son in 1895. His final major venture came in 1897 with the opening of a photography studio in Marseilles, which he sold by 1899.

Place of birth and death: Paris
Place of burial: Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris

Son of Victor Tournachon and Thérèse Maillet, he married Ernestine Lefèvre, †1909, in 1954 and had issue.