Lesson 2: The Impressionist Movement
Photography
Photography was another technology which indirectly influenced the Impressionist 'revolution'. In fact, the first group exhibition in Paris where the work of Monet, Renoir, and others was shown, was the former studio of the pioneer photographer Nadar.
Photography, when first invented, was once hailed as the 'end of painting', a sentiment still heard in some quarters today(!). But in actuality, what happened was that painters were freed by the invention of photography from simply replicating reality. Within fifty years of the invention of photography, artists were creating totally abstract canvases, which showed inner realities and poetic possibilities never dreamed of in the time of the Impressionists.
True, some portrait commissions must have been lost as a result of the invention of photography, but the fact is that painting could only gain. Artists could use photography to record scenes and people that they could later paint. Also, photography showed the true value of painting. A photograph could only provide a documentation of visible reality. A painting could be created from deep within the artist's psyche, something which could not be captured by a camera.
Just look at the difference between a video still I made of a scene near Mount Ste. Victoire near Aix-en-Provence in the South of France and the painting I made later. You can really see that photography can never replace painting!
Visit a site on Nadar at http://www.masters-of-photography.com/N/... and learn about his other passions. What other new technology fascinated Nadar, and how did he combine it with photography?
For further information on early photography read pages 28-29 in Impressionist Art - A Crash Course.
