Théophile Gautier
Ringmaster, publicist, and performer in a highly theatrical life, the legendary Nadar wore many hats–those of journalist, bohemian, left-wing agitator, playwright, caricaturist, and aeronaut. He had success in all these roles, but what he did best was collect a pantheon of friends whom he honored with his generous and perceptive photographic portraits.
The subject of this portrait, Théophile Gautier (1811-1872), was a poet, novelist, and engaging critic of art and literature who also defined the theory of art for art's sake-art pursued for its own intrinsic perfection. In this portrait by his intimate friend, the hirsute and disheveled writer appears in his working clothes, an apt embodiment of Gautier's self-description as "the terror of the bald and beardless bourgeois."
The subject of this portrait, Théophile Gautier (1811-1872), was a poet, novelist, and engaging critic of art and literature who also defined the theory of art for art's sake-art pursued for its own intrinsic perfection. In this portrait by his intimate friend, the hirsute and disheveled writer appears in his working clothes, an apt embodiment of Gautier's self-description as "the terror of the bald and beardless bourgeois."
Artwork Details
- Title: Théophile Gautier
- Artist: Nadar (French, Paris 1820–1910 Paris)
- Date: ca. 1856
- Medium: Salted paper print from glass negative
- Dimensions: Image: 24.8 x 19.7 cm (9 3/4 x 7 3/4 in.) oval
Mount: 26.9 x 21.7 cm (10 9/16 x 8 9/16 in.) - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Gilman Collection, Purchase, Harriette and Noel Levine Gift, 2005
- Object Number: 2005.100.256
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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