Nadar
A flamboyant French innovator who pioneered aerial photography from a balloon and captured the defining portraits of 19th-century Parisian artistic life.
Born 1820 (age 206)·French photographer and balloonist·Birthday: April 5
Biography
Félix Nadar was a whirlwind of creativity who embodied the bohemian spirit of 19th-century Paris. Before he ever picked up a camera, he was a caricaturist and journalist, crafting sharp-witted profiles of the city's luminaries. This eye for personality perfectly translated to photography when he opened his lavish studio in the 1850s. There, he photographed everyone from Baudelaire and Berlioz to Sarah Bernhardt and George Sand, using simple backgrounds and dramatic lighting to create psychological depth. Never content with terra firma, his passion for ballooning led him to a world-first: in 1858, he captured a bird's-eye view of a French village, inventing aerial photography. He was also a fervent believer in the future of flight, financing and promoting early heavier-than-air experiments. Nadar lived with relentless curiosity, turning his name—a single, bold signature—into a brand synonymous with artistic modernity and technological daring.
#1 When Nadar Was Born
The biggest hits of 1820
Nadar's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1820Born
1825Started school
1833Became a teenager
1836Could drive
1838Could vote
1841Turned 21
1850Turned 30
1860Turned 40
1870Turned 50
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1880Turned 60
Edison patents the incandescent light bulb
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1890Turned 70
Wounded Knee massacre marks the end of the Indian Wars
President: Benjamin Harrison
1900Turned 80
Boxer Rebellion in China
President: William McKinley
2026Age 206 today
Gas: $3.91/galPresident: Donald Trump
Key Achievements
- Took the first successful aerial photograph in 1858 from a tethered balloon over the Bièvre valley.
- Created a seminal photographic pantheon of the leading artists, writers, and intellectuals of 19th-century France.
- Published the first ever photo-interview, a series of images with scientist Michel Eugène Chevreul, in 1886.
Did You Know?
His famous red-and-white studio sign was so large it was said to be visible across Paris.
He helped fund the construction of a massive balloon, 'Le Géant', which could carry multiple passengers.
He was the subject of a famous Honoré Daumier lithograph satirizing his passion for ballooning.
He reportedly took photographs in the Paris catacombs using artificial light, a technical feat for the time.
“null”
