Ancien atelier Nadar
MonumentHidden Treasure
Ancien atelier Nadar, located in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), is a medieval landmark built in the Middle Ages. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Medieval (11th-15th century)
- Location
- Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 43.2977, 5.3806
- Mérimée Reference
- PA13000075
Nadar's last creative refuge in Marseille, this double building on the Canebière is the only 19th-century professional photographic studio preserved in France - a unique witness to a golden age of portraiture.
History
In the heart of Marseilles, on the corner of Rue Noailles and La Canebière, stands a discreet architectural ensemble steeped in extraordinary history: the former Nadar studio, the final sanctuary of one of France's greatest 19th-century photographers. Listed as a Historic Monument since 2012, it is the only 19th-century professional photographer's studio in France to have been identified and preserved - an absolute rarity in the country's photographic heritage. The complex comprises two buildings with distinct characteristics. On the street side, a typical nineteenth-century Marseilles building housed the flats where Nadar lived with his wife, above a busy ground floor commercial space. Set back at the end of an inner courtyard, an older eighteenth-century building housed the heart of the studio: a vast shooting room bathed in light from a zenithal skylight, crowning the photographic laboratories on the lower floors. This controlled light, captured by the glass, was the portraitist's main tool. From 1897 to 1903, these walls vibrated to the rhythm of Marseille's socialites and its most brilliant intellectual gatherings. Here, under the Provencal sun, Nadar recreated the atmosphere of his legendary Parisian studio on the Boulevard des Capucines - the very same one where the Impressionists had first exhibited. Mistral, the Lumière brothers, the whole of Marseilles and visiting celebrities made up a clientele as fervent as it was illustrious. Despite the collapse of the studio structure in spring 2014, the heritage and symbolic value of the site remains intact. The building on the street itself remains as architectural testimony to this unique moment when photography, literature and the arts came together on Marseille's most famous avenue. For anyone with a passion for the history of photography, the Belle Époque or Marseille's urban heritage, this is a must-see, moving place to visit.
Architecture
The former Nadar studio is an attractive, heterogeneous ensemble comprising two buildings with different origins and purposes. On rue Noailles, the façade of the building is a typical example of Marseille's bourgeois architecture from the last quarter of the 19th century: three storeys of flats, a regularly ordered façade punctuated by windows with moulded frames, and a commercial ground floor that opens onto the street in the style of the Canebière's tenement buildings. The materials used - local limestone and lime render - blend perfectly with the surrounding urban fabric. At the far end of the courtyard, the eighteenth-century building had a more sober and functional architecture. It was Nadar himself who transformed its profile by adding an entirely glazed upper storey - a light metal-framed glass roof, typical of photographers' studios in the second half of the 19th century. This arrangement allowed abundant, even natural light to flood into the large shooting room, avoiding harsh shadows that were incompatible with portraiture. The lower levels, sheltered from the light, housed the photographic development and printing laboratories. This layout - light at the top, chemistry in the basement - represented the optimal configuration for professional studios of the time, of which the Nadar studio in Marseille was the most accomplished expression known to date in France.
Related Figures
Nadar (Gaspard Félix Tournachon, 1820-1910) — photographe, caricaturiste et aéronaute, fondateur de l'atelierPaul Nadar (1856-1939) — fils de Nadar, qui hérita de l'atelier parisien et dont la brouille poussa son père à s'installer à MarseilleFernand Detaille — photographe marseillais, successeur de Nadar à la tête de l'atelier à partir de 1903Frédéric Mistral (1830-1914) — poète provençal, prix Nobel de littérature, habitué de l'atelierLouis Lumière (1864-1948) et Auguste Lumière (1862-1954) — pionniers du cinéma, alors établis à La Ciotat, fréquentant l'atelier
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Ancien atelier Nadar located?
Ancien atelier Nadar is located in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, France.
When was Ancien atelier Nadar built?
Ancien atelier Nadar dates back to a period built in the Middle Ages (11th-15th century).
Is Ancien atelier Nadar open to visitors?
Ancien atelier Nadar is currently closed to visitors.