This portrait of Adolphe Crémieux is a good example of Nadar's photographic style. A strong portrait without studio attributes, just the model and beautiful light. This vintage CDV is made after the original salt print portrait taken in December 1856, see last image for reference only.

Crémieux was sixty when he sat for Nadar in December 1856. It was a pleasure for Nadar to photograph him, he admired the man whose political views often coincided with his own. Nadar began the sitting, the only one that he ever described in detail, by talking and laughing with Crémieux while placing him in the best lightened adjusting the lens.

Isaac-Jacob Adolphe Crémieux (1796 – 1880) was born in Nîmes to a wealthy Jewish family. He was a French lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Justice under the Second Republic and Government of National Defense. On 24 February 1848 he was chosen by the Republicans as a member of the provisional government, and as minister of justice he secured the decrees abolishing the death penalty for political offenses, and making the office of judge immovable. That same year he was instrumental in declaring an end to slavery in all French Colonies, for which some have called him the French Abraham Lincoln. At first he supported Louis Napoleon, but when he discovered the prince's imperial ambitions he broke with him.

The albumen CDV is in good condition with nice tonality. Dry stamp in the lower left corner. Nadar's iconic imprint on the verso.

Literature:
Nadar Warhol: Paris New York by Gordon Baldwin and Judith Keller, J. Paul Getty Museum 1999 (p. 106)