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an old photo of a man with a long beard and a mustachea close up of a card with a picture of a person on it
Balsan Encheres

749 - NICE–SAINT-RAPHAËL / JOURNALISM / LITERATURE – ALPHONSE KARR…
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Estimate €40
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Description
NICE–SAINT-RAPHAËL / JOURNALISM / LITERATURE – ALPHONSE KARR (*). PHOTOGRAPH, circa 1870, full-length portrait facing the camera, by NADAR, signed ‘N’ in the bottom right-hand corner and ‘NADAR’ on the reverse, ‘51 Rue d’Anjou St Honoré, Paris’. Albumen bromide mounted on card, visiting-card size 10.5 x 6.4 cm. ( * ) Jean Baptiste Alphonse KARR: born in Paris on 24 November 1808, died in Saint-Raphaël on 30 September 1890 – Novelist and Journalist – Son of the Munich-born pianist and composer Henri Karr, he studied in Paris at the Collège Bourbon (Lycée Condorcet). From the age of 20, he taught there as a supply teacher. He gave up teaching to devote himself to poetry and wrote exclusively in verse. *Le Figaro* rejected his manuscript and advised him to write in prose. He rewrote it and had it published. At the age of 24, he thus published his most famous novel, *Sous les tilleuls*, in two volumes, and… joined *Le Figaro*. In 1836, he contributed to the *Chronique de Paris*, founded by Honoré de Balzac. He was a friend of Victor Hugo. His novel *Histoire de Romain d’Étretat* put Étretat on the map, a place he often visited. He also brought attention to Trouville, Honfleur and Sainte-Adresse…He wrote for numerous newspapers and also penned serialised stories. From 1836 to 1839 he was editor-in-chief of *Le Figaro*; from 1839 to 1849 he published *Les Guêpes*, a satirical magazine which was his other literary success. Although opposed to the constitutional monarchy, he did not support Louis Napoléon Bonaparte and, in 1851, the future Napoléon III forced him to retire to the Côte d’Azur, then part of the Kingdom of Piedmont and Sardinia. There, he set up a florist’s business and was behind the first Battle of Flowers at the Nice Carnival. He left Nice in 1865, having been displaced by the construction of Nice Ville railway station, and moved to Saint-Raphaël. In 1882, ‘the People’s League Against Vivisection’ was founded, with Victor Hugo as its honorary president and Alphonse Karr as its executive president. The Académie Française awarded him the Prix Vitet in 1875. He is buried in Saint-Raphaël; the cemetery now bears his name.
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About the sale SALE OF COINS, BANKNOTES, MEDALS, CIVILIAN AND MILITARY HEADGEAR, INSIGNIA AND DECORATIONS – lots 300 to 598 Followed by OLD PAPERS, PHOTOGRAPHS, POSTCARDS, DOCUMENTS AND MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS – Lots 599 to 862
Auction location
Auction time 10/20/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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