Alexandre Dumas père (1802-1870)
1855
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1855
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Alexandre Dumas père (1802-1870) is a 1855 by Nadar, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This is a black-and-white photograph of Alexandre Dumas, the writer who gave us *The Three Musketeers*. He leans back in a chair, one hand tucked into his vest, looking straight at the camera with a relaxed but sharp gaze. Nadar didn’t stage his portraits with props or fancy backdrops. He let his subjects choose how to sit, which often made them look more like themselves. Dumas seems at ease here, but there’s still a spark—like he’s about to tell a story. If you like this kind of direct, uncluttered portrait, look up more work by Nadar (French, 1820–1910).
Celebrities he photographed included his friend, the wildly successful French novelist and playwright Alexandre Dumas, the author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers . In 1874, Nadar loaned his studio to a group of artists so they could mount the first exhibition of Impressionist painting, which included works by Berthe Morisot.
Nadar was an alias for Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, a prominent and well-connected photographer, caricaturist, and writer who photographed many of the cultural and political celebrities of the age.
Read the full account in the museum source.
French photographer who made sharp, era-defining portraits in the 1850s–70s. You’ll meet Man on a Horse from the 1860s, a sitter caught mid-gallop against Parisian skies, and the 1856 portrait of composer Gioachino…
See the richer artist page
