Photograph of Edmond de Goncourt

GONCOURT, Edmond de. Portrait for La Galerie Contemporaine by Nadar. Woodburytype print with artist's information printed on mount, matted and framed in polished dark wood. [Paris: Nadar, ND]. A visually arresting portrait of Edmond de Goncourt by famed portrait photographer Nadar (Gaspard-Felix Tournachon 1820-1910). "Nadar's notoriety in photography came after successful careers first in writing and publishing and then in caricature. Nadar's turn to portrait photography appears to be a natural progression from his work in caricature." "Galerie Contemporaine, stands out due to its ambitious scope, as well as for the quality of the photographic imagery it contained. Underpinned by a certain patriotic sentiment and a more sophisticated approach to celebrity, the subtitle Litteraire Artistique declares the work's focus of interest to be high art. In fact Galerie Contemporaine evolved into the most impressive set of celebrity portraits published in nineteenth-century France, forming a vital visual record of the leading figures who shaped public life, in science and politics as well as the arts, during the Second Empire and the emergent Third Republic." Hannavy, John, editor. Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-century Photography, p. 971 and 567.