Jacques Offenbach (20 June 1819 – 5 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the Romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s. The risqué humour (often about sexual intrigue) and the mostly gentle satiric barbs in these pieces, together with Offenbach's facility for melody, made them internationally known, and translated versions were successful in Vienna, London, and elsewhere in Europe. In 1877, he started work on his cherished project, the opera The Tales of Hoffmann, but died before he could complete it.
This photographic portrait of Offenbach, dating from sometime in the 1860s, was taken by French photographer Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, who used the pseudonym Nadar; his portraits were notable for their natural poses and the way in which the subject's individual character was brought out.Photograph credit: Nadar; restored by Adam Cuerden