George Sand

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Artist: Nadar (French, 1820–1910)
Medium: Woodburytype
Size: 9 1/4 x 7 9/16 in. (23.5 x 19.21 cm) (image); 13 1/2 x 10 3/8 in. (34.29 x 26.35 cm) (sheet)
Museum: Minneapolis Institute of Art
Rights: Public Domain Mark

In writing about Nadar’s photographic portraits on view at the 1859 Photography Salon in Paris, the critic Philippe Burty could not have been more effusive. His portraits, Burty explained, were “works of art in every sense, in the way he lights his sitters, in the bearing and freedom of movement he allows them, in his absorbed search for the characteristic expression of each one’s nature.” It is no surprise, then, that his Paris studios were frequented by such luminaries as the feminist George Sand (Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, 18041876). She looks off to her left, into the near distance, as if lost in thought, a pose reflective of her career as a prolific novelist.

Text: Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), CC BY 4.0.