NADAR Félix Tournachon, dit (1820-1910).

Lot 177
Go to lot
Estimation :
700 - 800 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 1 054EUR
NADAR Félix Tournachon, dit (1820-1910).
L.A.S. "Nadar", [April 1861?, to Émile PEREIRE, director of the Compagnie immobilière de Paris]; 3 pages in-8 (mourning with small lacks at the edges, the 2 ff. detached). Project for the installation of a photographic workshop in the Grand Hôtel. [The construction of the Grand Hôtel began on April 5, 1861, near the work on Charles Garnier's future Opera House]. "It is three o'clock in the morning and I jump out of bed to write to you [...]. In this hotel which will present all the comforts, all the utilities, all the elegance of modern life, I suppose that a traveler, in the last moments of a very busy stay, is surprised by the obligation to leave his portrait in Paris or to take it away. - At the Hotel de l'Opéra, this traveler must obtain this portrait at a sign, without leaving home, in his room if he so desires, in his robe and slippers, and this, at any time of the day, evening or night"... In the attic of the hotel, a special photographic establishment has been set up, reserved for the clientele, and which must be "managed by a man whose name is a guarantee of conscientious work. The proximity of my establishment, where everything is arranged for a service as important as it may be, will allow me to occupy less space than any other on the roof of the hotel. - This neighborhood will become an attention by the telegraph wires which will connect the two buildings. The first results of my photography with electric light allow me to guarantee the result of my operations at any time. As for the question of name, I have never had the vanity to claim only one merit in photography and I owe it the notoriety that I can have: honesty in the work. [...]. The Hotel de l'Opéra will be the only Majesty whose patent I will have requested"...
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue