Alphonse Karr
Nadar French
Person in photograph Alphonse Karr French
Not on view
The French novelist, journalist and critic Alphonse Karr (1808–1890) first met Félix Tournachon in 1839, before the latter took up photography and became widely known by his pseudonym, Nadar. Nineteen at the time, Nadar was working primarily as a writer and caricaturist and was far less conservative than the older Karr, who disliked the young man’s radical politics. Nevertheless, Karr hired him in 1848 to work for his short-lived, pro-government newspaper, Le Journal. Even though their political opinions differed, the two men shared an aversion to the ascension of Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, and they remained friends after Karr moved to Nice in 1855. Nadar’s fondness for Karr, whom he called "a brother I would have chosen," comes through in this portrait, despite the rather imperious, stately pose.
