No one explored notions of celebrity and portraiture more exhaustively during the nineteenth century than French photographer Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, known as Nadar. This delicately toned salted paper print picturing the writer, journalist, and politician Eugène Pelletan is substantial in size, expertly printed, and possibly unique. Nadar, who opened his Paris studio in 1854, also ran a thriving business making small cartes de visite for his clients—most of them members of the Parisian elite.
Additional text from Seeing Through Photographs online course, Coursera, 2016