[Photographie] Portrait photographique de Maupassant

Original cabinet card photograph (1888-1900). This photographic sitting took place in July 1888 (though some sources give 1890 as the date), at which time Maupassant was 38 years old. Two photographs are known from this sitting, one showing his right profile and the other his left profile, as with the present example.

A photograph mounted on the publisher's card stock. Signed Nadar in the lower margin. The verso of the mount bears various advertisements relating to Nadar.

Guy de Maupassant was always reluctant toward photography, even hostile to the public dissemination of his image. Very few photographs of the writer exist, as he rarely sat for photographs and generally only for private purposes, but Félix Nadar was both an acquaintance and a friend within his circle. "Je me suis fait une loie absolue de ne jamais laisser publier mon portrait toutes les fois que je peux l'empêcher." Autograph manuscript note, undated, reproduced in the Pléiade album, p.8. This portrait by Nadar has remained the writer's most celebrated photographic likeness.

Photographs of the writer remain exceedingly rare on the market, particularly in cabinet card format, and none have appeared at auction in recent years. Our research has not enabled us to locate any examples in public collections apart from a demonstration print held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.