[Self-Portrait in Costume]

1862–64

Not on view

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.

Artwork Details

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
Curatorial Department: Photographs

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late 18th or early 19th century

The Refectory of the Imperial Asylum at Vincennes, Charles Nègre French, Salted paper print from glass negative — The Refectory of the Imperial Asylum at Vincennes
Charles Nègre
1858–59

Eugène Pelletan, Nadar French, Salted paper print from glass negative — Eugène Pelletan
Nadar
1855–59

Moulin Rouge: La Goulue, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec French, Lithograph printed in four colors; three sheets of wove paper — Moulin Rouge: La Goulue
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Printer Affiches Américaines, Charles Lévy
1891

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