NADAR (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon) and Adrien Tournachon (French, 1820-1910 and 1825-1903)
Pierrot with fruit, 1854-1855
Gelatin coated salt print (vernis-cuir)
28.0 x 20.9 cm
Jean-Charles Deburau (1829-1873) was asked by Nadar and his brother Adrien to pose for a series of photographs of expressions and comical misadventures of the famous pantomime character Pierrot. Intended as publicity for the brothers’ struggling studio, the photographs were an enormous popular success and won the gold medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1855 in Paris. This print was part of the group exhibited at the Exposition Universelle of 1855.
According to Maria Morris Hambourg:
“Anything can happen in the magical world of the fairy pantomime. In answer to Pierrot's supplication a basket of fruit materializes between his hands, a gift from heaven that strikes him with delight…
The suite of pictures of Pierrot that Nadar devised was intended as a novelty to draw customers from the crowds strolling the boulevard. Had it been displayed, as he planned, in a sidewalk vitrine, this photograph would have charmed the knowing flâneur. Pierrot’s satisfying dream-come-true is no stage artifice but a real-life extravagance from Couturier, who, like the artiste-photographe and the mime, knew the value of a little well-paced publicity. To share in the feast one might visit the emporium across the way, the studio on the roof, or, of course, the Funambules.”