George Sand,

1864, printed 1877

Largely remembered for his insightful photographs of cultural celebrities, Nadar captured George Sand (1804–1876) at the height of her international fame as a novelist, essayist, and critic. A free-spirited aristocratic woman with a scandalous reputation, Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin published under the pen name George Sand—and, on occasion, dressed like a man—because she felt that doing so offered her greater liberty in Paris at a time when women’s role in society was severely limited. Here, Nadar sensitively portrays Sand as a respected doyen of the French literary establishment.