In the early 1860s, the famous portrait photographer Nadar was spotted at Parisian soirées decked out in an odd outfit—a mash-up of fanciful indigenous North American dress and a retro, full-bottomed baroque wig—a get-up referred to in the contemporary press as an “eskimo costume from the Sundays of Louis XIV.” Undoubtedly harking back to weekend balls held at Versailles during the reign of Louis the Great, Nadar’s weird evening wear permitted the self-aggrandizing photographer, a fervent republican, to capitalize on the romantic notion of the noble savage even while thumbing his nose at imperialist policies that endangered Native peoples.
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Title:[Self-Portrait in Costume]
Artist:Nadar (French, Paris 1820–1910 Paris)
Date:1862–64
Medium:Salted paper print from glass negative
Dimensions:Image: 22.1 x 13.2 cm (8 11/16 x 5 3/16 in.), arched, unevenly trimmed Mount: 30.8 x 21.3 cm (12 1/8 x 8 3/8 in.)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Gilman Collection, Purchase, Harriette and Noel Levine Gift, 2005
Object Number:2005.100.267
Inscription: No inscriptions or annotations visible
[...]; [Galerie Texbraun, Paris, until deaths of owners and gallery dissolution in 1986]; Estate of Francois Braunschweig; his brother Jean-Michel Braunschweig; Gilman Paper Company Collection, New York, purchased June 20, 1988
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Howard Gilman Gallery: Inaugural Installation," October 16, 1997–February 1, 1998.
J. Paul Getty Museum. "Nadar Warhol," July 20, 1999–October 10, 1999.
Andy Warhol Museum. "Nadar Warhol," November 6, 1999–January 30, 2000.
Baltimore Museum of Art. "Nadar Warhol," March 12, 2000–May 28, 2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 28," January 9 - May 13, 2001.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Framing a Century: Master Photographers, 1840–1940," June 3–September 1, 2008.
Bibliothèque nationale de France. "Les Nadar," October 16, 2018–February 3, 2019.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Alter Egos | Projected Selves," November 22, 2021–May 1, 2022.
Feyrnet, X. "Courrier de Paris." L'illustration: journal universel 39 (1862). p. 213.
Callias, Hector de. "Le Monde Comme Il Va." L'Artiste (1864). p. 181.
Baldwin, Gordon, and Judith Keller. Nadar--Warhol, Paris--New York : photography and fame. J. Paul Getty Museum ed. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1999. p. 113.
Lerner, Jillian. "Nadar’s Signatures: Caricature, Self-Portrait, Publicity." In History of Photography. Vol. 41, no. 2. London: Taylor and Francis, 2017. pp. 108 –125.
Aubenas, Sylvie, and Anne Lacoste. Les Nadar: Une légende photographique. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2018. no. 17, p. 86.
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![[Self-Portrait in Costume], Nadar (French, Paris 1820–1910 Paris), Salted paper print from glass negative](/Rodan/dist/svg/rolling-0.9s-30px.svg)
