The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pierrot Laughing

Artist:: Adrien Tournachon (French, 1825–1903)
Date:: 1855
Medium:: Gelatin-coated salted paper print (vernis-cuir)
Dimensions:: 27.3 x 19.8 cm (10 3/4 x 7 13/16 in.)
Classification:: Photographs
Credit Line:: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1998
Accession Number:: 1998.57

This artwork is not on display

Description

We owe the contemporary image of Pierrot to the famous mime Jean-Gaspard Baptiste Duburau, who replaced the ruff and wide white hat of the commedia dell'arte character with the long blank face and black skull cap that we recognize today. Charles Duburau, his son and also a mime, was asked by Nadar and his brother Adrien to pose for a series of "têtes d'expression" that would serve as publicity for the brothers' struggling studio. The series was an enormous popular success.
Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Inscription: Stamped, recto, bottom right: "Nadar jne"; inscribed in the hand of the sitter in ink on mount, recto, bottom left: "Souvenir le 7 9re [November] 1858"; bottom right, below image: "Mes amitiés à M. // Metinger // Ch Deburau"; blindstamped on mount, recto, bottom center: "TOURNACHON-NADAR // 17 BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS 17"
Provenance

Galerie Texbraun, Paris, France (Hugues Autexier and François Braunschweig); Jean-Michel Braunschweig, Paris, France (brother and heir to François); [Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris, France]
See also
Who
Nadar (59)

Adrien Tournachon (9)
What
Photographs (31,852)

Salted paper prints (1,575)
Where
Europe (146,011)

France (46,759)
When
A.D. 1800-1900 (77,921)
In the Museum
Photographs (28,759)
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
The Rise of Paper Photography in 1850s France

Nadar (1820–1910)

Commedia dell'arte

France, 1800–1900 A.D.