1046
Bierstadt adopted from photography can be seen in
Thunderstorm in the Rocky Mountains, 1859 (Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston, gift of Mrs. Edward Hall and
Mrs. John Carroll Perkins). In this work he placed the
foreground, middle ground and distance all below eye
level at the lower portion of his canvas. The way that
Bierstadt painted the large rocks in Thunderstorm in
the Rocky Mountains may also have been infl uenced
by stereoscopes that brought dimension to objects in
the foreground. Beirstadt’s accurate rendering of geo-
logical and botanical forms leads viewers to believe
that real scenes are represented in his paintings. His
landscapes, were however idealized views that relied
on truthful details.
The art critic John Ruskin (1819–1900) was interested
in how photography could bring truthfulness to fi ne art.
He studied daguerreotypes of architecture and landscape
views in an attempt to capture their detail and tonal
qualities within his own drawings. The Pre-Raphealite
Artists, whose work he championed, used photographs
as an aid in creating their paintings. Ruskin’s writings,
however, encouraged artists to paint from nature and
only use photographs for drawing or studies. As time
past, he grew even less enthusiastic about photography’s
role in painting, and wrote in 1868 that “I knew every-
thing that the photography could and could not do;—I
have ceased to take the slightest interest in it.”
Impressionist Painters and Photography
Impressionist artists had a close association with pho-
tographers. In 1874, the conservative judging at the
French Academy exhibitions prompted Claude Monet
(1840–1926) and other Impressionists to exhibit their
works independently in the studio of the photographer
Nadar. French and American Impressionist artists, noted
for painting out of doors (en plein air) using loose
brush work, relied on photographs to understand the
placement of forms, to capture particular times of day,
and the changes of light and shadow on fi gures and the
landscape.
The American artist Theodore Robinson (1852–
1896) noted that “Painting directly from nature is
diffi cult as things do not remain the same; the camera
helps to retain the picture in your mind.” Robinson
fi rst used photographs to create crayon portraits in the
1870s. He continued to use photographs as an aid in
painting portraits and landscapes during his years in
Giverny with Claude Monet. Robinson often used a
grid on his cyanotypes or albumen prints as a guide to
transfer the composition onto canvas. He stated that “I
must beware of the photo, get what I can of it and then
go.” While transferring the photographic image on to
canvas, he freely made alterations such as removing or
repositioning objects and fi gures. Robinson’s paintings
At the Fountain, also entitled Josephine in the Garden,
c. 1890, (Canajoharie Library and Art Gallery) was one
of a series of paintings created after photographs of this
subject (c. 1890, cyanotype, Terra Foundation for the
Arts, Gift of Mr. Ira Spanierman, C1985.13). His oil on
canvas of Two in a Boat, 1891 corresponds to his albu-
men print of the subject (Terra Foundation for the Arts,
Gift of Mr. Ira Spanierman, C1985.1.1). Robinson used
a grid on the photograph as an aid to transfer the forms
of the boat and fi gures onto canvas, but omitted one of
the boats that did not suit his sense of composition when
he was painting the subject.
Nineteenth century painters were working from pho-
tographs that provided tonal variations, but no informa-
tion about color. Impressionist artists used photographs
in the same way they used pencil sketches. Impression-
ists usually remained faithful to the colors they recalled
from direct observation. They had to rely on nature, their
imagination and their talent as painters, to transform the
photographs they used into paintings.
Portrait and landscape photographers often framed
their subjects following traditions found in painting.
Impressionist painters however, noticed that many pho-
tographs taken by amateurs did not follow these tradi-
tions and showed major fi gures, not framing devices, at
the edge of the picture. This is demonstrated in many of
Edward Degas’ (1834–1917) paintings including Car-
riage at the Races, c. 1873 and Bouderie, 1873–1875. At
times photographs captured awkward poses and cut off
fi gures at the edge of the picture. Edward Degas noticed
these images and began to purposely paint fi gures at the
edge, rather than center of the canvas.
Degas’ accurate copying of photographs also resulted
in a new somewhat distorted perspective in some of his
works. His paintings, at times, show large foreground
fi gures and a much smaller scale for fi gures only a bit
further away. This exaggerated perspective could be
found in all styles of painting copied from photographs.
It was often a point of criticism, and was even the subject
of a Nadar cartoon in 1859 that ridiculed the exaggerated
foreshortening and impossibly large shoes of a seated
fi gure with his legs outstretched towards the viewer.Nude Studies Used by Painters
Nude photographs were used by artists as studies for
painted fi gures. Eugene Delacroix and (1798–1863)
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) were both drawing and
painting nudes from photographs by the mid 1850s.
Eugene Durieu, and Julien Vallou de Villeneuve were
among the many photographers in France providing
nude studies to painters. Paul Cézanne used a photo-
graph of a nude male for his painting The Bather, c. 1885
(Museum of Modern Art). In this painting, Cézanne
transformed a photographic image of a nude male in a