Degas’ photos of women bathing, Gérôme supporting photography as a fine art, Pierre Bonnard’s snaps of Marthe, and the extreme realism of Ellen Altfest.
photography
JMW Turner photographed in a dageurreotype in 1847, paintings mocking early photographers, then their influence over views, and used by Thomas Eakins.
The long-running thread in many of his paintings, his quest for visual truth, seen in the blind Michelangelo, the arena, a courtesan on trial, and Truth coming out of her well.
Two unusual treatments of popular myths, an enigmatic series of the personification of Truth, two religious works, and a work that inspired Surrealists in the 20th century.
Tulips to mark a stock market crash and recession, David’s lust for Bathsheba, his work as a sculptor, Pygmalion and Galatea, and a summary of his career.
Paintings in which he helped set the thumbs up and down sign, and painted himself making a sculpture he had previously painted in a painting as a sculpture.
From an early painting of the blind Michelangelo to that of a nude courtesan before a Greek court, vision and visual fidelity was his recurrent theme.
An American fan of Vermeer who trained under Gérôme in Paris thought he’d discovered Vermeer’s optical secrets, and revived his defocussed style.
Photographic lenses introduced depth of field effects, something not normally seen in normal human vision. A few paintings followed photographs.
Brunelleschi’s perspective projection was just a start. With optical instruments and later photography, painters exploited the visual effects of unusual projections.
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