February 17
The Question of Art
Oscar Rejlander. Youthful Photography
Supplying Painting with an Additional Brush. c. 1856. |
"The photograph cannot deceive; there is no power in this marvelous machine either to add or to take from: we know what we see must be true." - 1860 article in Art Journal |
1839 Paul Delaroche declared "from this day, painting is dead" in reference to the newly announced daguerreotype |
Arguments
against photography's artistic merits: |
Machines
cannot create art |
Art should
be grand and dramatic, not realistic |
Photography
reduced art to common materials and anyone could do it |
Painters
feared that photography would make their media obsolete |
Nadar. Portrait of Charles Baudelaire.
1863. |
|
Photography
had become "the refuge of failed painters with too little talent" |
|
"I
am convinced that the badly applied advances of photography, like all
purely material progress for that matter, have greatly contributed to
the impoverishment of French artistic genius." |
|
"From that moment onwards, our loathsome society rushed, like Narcissus, to contemplate its trivial image on a metallic plate. A form of lunacy, an extraordinary fantaicism took hold of these new sun-worshippers." |
|
Eadward Muybridge. Woman with handkerchief. 1887.
http://www.randolfdimalanta.com/classroom/archive/spr_06/05Images/Lifedrawing/muybridge_handkerchief.jpg
Thomas Eakins. Jesse Godley. 1884 - 1885.
Newhall, Beaumont. The History of Photography.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 1982.
Jacob Riis. Street Arabs in Sleeping Quarters. 1890.
Marien, Mary Warner. Photography: A cultural History. Second edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.
Nadar
1820 - 1910
Nadar. Self-Portrait. c.
1855. Salt print.
Rosenblum,
Naomi. A World History of Photography. Abbeville Press, New York. 1989.
Gaspard Felix Tournachon
"Tourne a dard" = one who stings
Nadar's
aim in portraiture was to find "that instant of understanding that
puts you in touch with the model - helps you sum him up, guides you to
his habits, his ideas, and character and enables you to produce a really
convincing and sympathetic likeness, an intimate portrait." - A
World History of Photography |
Nadar. Sarah Bernhardt.
1865. Albumen print.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/Nadar_2.jpg/482px-Nadar_2.jpg
|
 |
Nadar. Sarah
Bernhardt. 1865. Albumen print. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/Nadar_2.jpg/482px-Nadar_2.jpg |
Napoleon
Sarony. Sarah Bernhardt. c. 1880. Albument print. |
"His portraits are works of art in every accepted sense of the word." - A World History of Photography |
|
Nadar considered himself a "daredevil, always on the lookout for currents to swim against."
Nadar "elevating photography to the condition of art", 1862, Honoré Daunier.
This caricature appeared in Le Boulevard on 25 May, 1862.
http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/1997_images/Background/History/nadar.jpg
Nadar. The Arc de Triumph and
the Grand Boulevards, Paris, from a Baloon. 1868.
Rosenblum,
Naomi. A World History of Photography. Abbeville Press, New York. 1989.
Nadar. The Catacombs. 1861 - 62.
http://www.masters-of-photography.com/images/screen/nadar/nadar_catacombs.jpg
Oscar G. Rejlander
1813 - 1875
Duchenne de Boulogne. Study of
muscles in the face and emotion. 1852-56.
Koetzle, Hans-Michael. Photo Icons: The Story Behind the Pictures . Volume 1. Koln: Taschen, 2002. 2 vols.
Oscar Rejlander. Pensive Young Girl. c. 1860.
http://www.geh.org/fm/rejlander/htmlsrc/m197202490002_jpg.html
Oscar G. Rejlander. Two Ways
of Life. 1857. Albumen silver print. 16" X 31".
http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_p/0_photographs_in_exhibitions_rejlander_-_two_ways_of_life.jpg
Women in center of Two Ways of Life
http://www.photogravure.com/photogravure_images/medium/Rejlander_01.jpg
separate negatives used in Two Ways of Life
http://www.cotianet.com.br/photo/great/Images/plus02/rejlander%20grafico.jpg
Raphael. School
of Athens. c. 1510-11.
Stokstad,
Marilyn. Art History. Revised Second ed. Vol. 2. New York: Prentice
Hall Inc., and Harry N. Abrams Inc., 2005.
"I am tired of photography-for-the-public, particularly composite photographs, for there can be no gain and there is no honour, only cavil and misrepresentation." - Oscar Rejlander in 1859 |
Henry Peach Robinson
1830 - 1901
Henry Peach Robinson. Fading Away. 1858. Albumen silver print.
Henry Peach Robinson. When the Day's Work is Done. 1877.
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=39351&handle=li
Photographic Societies & Amateur Photo Clubs
1858 Photography exhibition
Bajac,
Quentin. The Invention of Photography. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York.
2002.
Photographic societies provided: |
Organized exhibitions of photographic works |
Published magazines and newsletters with how-to information and scholarly discussion of theory |
Community of people who believed and defended the artistic virtues of photography |
Support and encouragement to the amateur and hobbyist |
Lady Clementina Hawarden
1822 - 1865
Lady Clementina Hawarden. Photographic Study. Early 1860s. Albumen silver print.
Lady Clementina Hawarden. Photographic
Study. c. 1863.
Newhall, Beaumont. The History of Photography.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 1982.
Lady Clementina
Hawarden. Daughters on
a Balcony. c. 1865.
Higonnet, Anne. Pictures of Innocence: Tthe
History and Crisis of Ideal Childhood. Thames and Hudson: London. 1998.
Lady Clementina Hawarden. Clementina Maude. c. 1862.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/25629-popup.html
Lady Clementina Hawarden. Isabella Grace and Clementina Maude. c. 1863.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/25701-popup.html
