On View
Not on viewObject number1968/9.74
Nadar élevant la Photographie à la hauteur de l'Art (Nadar Raising Photography to the Level of Art)
Artist
Honoré Daumier
(French, 1808-1879)
Date1862
Mediumlithograph
Dimensionsimage: 10 5/8 × 8 5/8 in. (27 × 21.9 cm)
sheet: 17 5/8 × 12 1/8 in. (44.8 × 30.8 cm)
mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
sheet: 17 5/8 × 12 1/8 in. (44.8 × 30.8 cm)
mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Credit LineDirector's Fund
Exhibition History"French Scenarios," KIA Long Gallery (May 21 - Sept. 20, 2004).
"Humor & Satire: Prints, Drawings & Paintings from the Permanent Collection," KIA Long Gallery (Feb. 5 - Apr. 2007).
"Curator's Choice: European Works on Paper," KIA Long Gallery (May 9 - Aug. 27, 2008).
"Lasting Legacy: A Collection for Kalamazoo," Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan (Sep. 6, 2014 - Jan. 4, 2015).
"L'esprit: Exploring Wit and Beauty in French Prints," works from the KIA permanent collection (June 15 - August 25, 2019).
"L'esprit: Exploring Wit and Beauty in French Prints," [Travel Version], Sardoni Art Gallery at Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA (August 3, 2021 - October 10, 2021).Label TextBorn into a poor family in Marseille in 1808, when a new group of leftwing working-class journals emerged in the wake of France’s July Revolution of 1830, Honoré Daumier quickly rose to prominence as Paris’s pre-eminent social and political satirist, relentlessly mocking the wealthy and powerful over the following four decades through his clever and cutting cartoons.
Nadar Raising Photography to the Level of Art celebrates one of photography’s early masters. The mononymous Nadar was passionate about both photography and ballooning, and used those skills to become a pioneer in aerial photography. In this work, Daumier captures Nadar’s flamboyant personality and dedication to his craft. Though the medium was barely two decades old at the time, by the 1860s photography was a major industry in Paris, with countless studios fulfilling rampant demand among a growing middle class for personal portraits. Nadar was the preeminent figure in this industry, establishing a substantial reputation in the 1850s in part because of his many portraits of celebrities, which included images of many of the day’s foremost politicians, artists, writers, actors, and musicians.
Daumier, ever the satirist, exaggerates the situation by showing a Paris skyline in which nearly every building has a marquee proclaiming “PHOTOGRAPHIE” to every passerby and Nadar, oblivious to his loss of his hat, is focused monomaniacally on the aerial photography he pioneered. Nadar, a brazen self-promoter, has evidently affixed a smaller version of the huge sign that decorated his studio to his balloon basket. Daumier’s caption mocks Nadar and other photographers’ efforts to establish their medium’s reputation as an art form at a time when most viewed it as an uncreative commercial process.
