Études d'après nature

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Under Études d'après nature is meant as a teaching tool and templates imaginary photographs of the 19th century . They were initially used in lessons, for example in the training of visual artists, but were later increasingly used as work templates by fully trained artists. Popular motifs were nude models, animals and nature photos.

prehistory

Female nude

Félix-Jacques Moulin is considered to be one of the founders of the Études d'après nature . He was sentenced to one month in prison and a fine in 1851 for distributing photographs classified as pornographic by the authorities. In order to avoid further punishment, he called his prints around 1852 unceremoniously as "Études photographiques" and also delivered them to the official offices. From now on they were assigned to the field of painting and its models and thus to the academies, which had long served as templates for artists' needs. "An academy , as the definition goes from the late 18th century, is the replica of a living, drawn, painted or modeled model."

Art education

The third step in artistic training was already entitled “Étude d'après nature” and referred to the copying of masterpieces of painting and sculpture . Only the most gifted or particularly wealthy students had the opportunity to study and paint living nude models . Until 1880, these were male models in class. Female models only posed in private studios. Moulin and his contemporaries, including Julien Vallou de Villeneuve, Louis-Camille d'Olivier and Pierre-Ambroise Richebourg , based their photographs on the traditional poses of the painted models. So photography initially followed the example of painting.

Conversely, since the 1850s, photographs have also been used more and more frequently as templates in art academies - depending on the level of technical development in photography, initially in France and England, and later in Germany, Austria and Italy.

Image industry

Young oak - nature study

In the 1850s, a real "image industry with photographic master studies that were sold through the art, book and graphics trade" developed. “Ètudes d'après nature” catalogs were published primarily by Adolphe and Georges Giraudon and Calavas.

Photographs in the art academies

Even if traditional structures had to be changed, this development did not pose a serious problem for the art academies . After all, the use of photographs was cheaper and cheaper than working with a living model. In addition, photography had the advantage of absolute accuracy: it was an immobile image that could be studied at will. Here is how Paul Delaroche notes about the artist who uses photography:

“ What impresses him [the artist] most about the photographic drawings is the inimitable delicacy of the picture, which in no way disturbs the calm effect of the masses, nor does it damage the overall impression in any way. The accuracy of the lines, the precision of the forms is as perfect as possible in Daguerre's pictures, and one recognizes in them at the same time a broad, powerful modeling and a whole in tone as in effect. In this process the painter will find a rapidly working means of making collections of studies which he would otherwise only be able to produce with great expenditure of time, effort and with much less perfection, however great his talent may be. “However, copying pictures and architecture was still part of the curriculum of the academies.

The relationship between photography and painting

Motion study

In the 19th century photography was not on an equal footing with painting ; she was denied art status. Nevertheless, photographs in the style of études d'après nature from the 19th century can still be found in the collections of the academies: In the Academia di Brera in Milan, the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the art academies in Berlin and Vienna Corresponding archives have been preserved. In the collections, photographs are often kept right next to the studies of the academy members. The photographs often bear strong signs of use, such as drawn grids. This shows that these photographs were everyday objects and belonged to the teaching material collection. Often they were even commissioned from the photographer for specific purposes. Photographic templates could be produced within a very short time and thus helped to shorten the painter's work process. In addition, thanks to the photographs, the painters were able to deal longer and in more detail with the object, a person in a certain pose or a non-transportable object such as a tree or a building. “Photography was an instrument to enable perception. What was revealed was the beauty of nature, not the artistic beauty of the photographic structure; nature was taken in. "

Archives

“ In the 1860s, the first systematically structured photography archives for academic teaching in painting, sculpture and architecture were created. “The photographs were kept in the collections of the academies as sample sheets and the first systematically structured photo archives were created in the 1860s. Only positives were collected. Similar or matching prints were often mounted next to each other on a board, a cardboard box. A form was adhered to, which was intended for use in the classroom and in the studios. This explains the signs of use on many of the photographs that have been preserved.

Painters and the études d'après nature

Nude study

Photographs as templates were not only used in the academies. Even well-known artists such as Delaroche, Degas , Gustave Courbet , Gérôme or Delacroix have commissioned or used such photographs. On the one hand, it took less time and on the other hand, unusual poses could be captured. Jean-Léon Gérôme commissioned a nude study from the photographer Nadar for his painting “Phyrne devant l'Aréopage” (1860). Courbet used calotypes by Julien Vallou de Villeneuve for his paintings "Les Baigneuses" (1853) and "L'Atelier" (1855). In 1851-55, he had brought a series of women's nudes under the title “études d'après nature” as artwork on the market. These weren't the only works by Courbet that were inspired by nude photography. The often great similarity between the photographs and the paintings is therefore not surprising.

But photography was not only well received in the area of ​​depicting the body. Photography was widely used in painting, especially when it came to depicting weather phenomena, especially clouds. According to John Ruskin, phenomena like waves and clouds were difficult to reproduce in painting. Painters like Caspar David Friedrich , John Constable and William Turner gratefully accepted the possibilities of photography. Photographers devoted to the creation of cloud images included Charles Marville , Gustave Le Gray and Roger Fenton . Ten years later, around 1860, photographs by John Vaugham and August Kotzsch, among others, followed .

Photographic animal studies also found their way into studios in the 19th century. In contrast to the previous, not very vivid animal drawings, they offered a more lively and lifelike image. Rosa Bonheur was probably the best-known French animal painter of the 19th century. She also had an extensive study collection of photographs. But the relationship between painting and photography remained ambivalent. According to Arnold Böcklin , painting only "highlights petty stories and almost makes the overall form disappear". Nonetheless, it can be shown that Arnold Böcklin also occasionally used photographs as templates for portrait paintings.

Expression Study

Delacroix

Also Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) made use of photography. In fact, he was the first major artist to use nude photography as an aid. In 1853 he produced a large number of nude studies together with Eugène Durieu . Some of the photos were used for the painting “L'Odalisque” (1857), among others. "In addition, an album with 40 nude photos of female and male models from the 1850s / 60s has been preserved in a Parisian private collection, which is very likely also from Delacroix's estate."

Motifs

While nudes were the most seductive and controversial motif, it was far from the only one. Individual body parts were also shown more and more frequently. There are, for example, entire boards with prints of various hand positions by Louis Igout . Also preserved in archives are recordings of architecture, landscapes, art reproductions and studies of animals, plants, flowers and trees. Still lifes , landscapes and portraits were rarely taken.

Nature studies

Nature study - stairs

Nature studies were also an important area. By 1870 they were so widespread that the writer Gaston Tissandier came to the conclusion: " A landscape painter cannot get enough inspiration from some of these admirable photographic studies of nature ."

Nature study - tree

Barbizon

In the middle of the 19th century, a special relationship between painters and photographers developed in the Fontainebleau forest . Painters like Albert Brendel, Jean-Baptiste Corot, Ferdinand Chaigneau or Théophile-Narcisse Chauvel discovered this small forest in the Barbizon area and spent a lot of time there for their studies and paintings. Over time, photographers have become aware of this and have oriented their photographs in the forest on the paintings of the artists. Artistic landscape photography was created in this forest and is therefore closely interwoven with “ the work of the artists who, as the so-called Barbizon School, revived open-air painting in the mid-19th century ”.

Comment (1873)

“ Art history is not indebted to any technical aid of the present day to such thanks as photography. It actually enabled us to conduct comparative studies with a level of certainty on which the change in subjective mood, the lighting, the time of day, the storage location no longer has any influence. The objects separated by the furthest distance are reproduced by photography, with the fidelity of which nothing can compete, before us next to each other for examination and allows us to come to perceptions which we would not have thought of before. "

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b See Font-Réaulx, Dominique Planchon-de: La photographie comme modèle: les études d'après nature, in: Autour du Symbolisme. Photography et peinture au XIXe siècle. Brussels 2004, p. 59.
  2. ^ Pohlmann, Ulrich: A new art? A new nature! Photography and painting in the 19th century. Munich 2004, p. 70.
  3. ↑ . See font Réaulx, Dominique Planchon de La photographie comme modèle: les études d'après nature, in: Autour du Symbolisme. Photography et peinture au XIXe siècle. Brussels 2004, p. 60.
  4. ↑ a b Cf. Pohlmann, Ulrich: Eine neue Kunst? A new nature! Photography and painting in the 19th century. Munich 2004, p. 7.
  5. ↑ Cf. Pohlmann, Ulrich: Eine neue Kunst? A new nature! Photography and painting in the 19th century. Munich 2004, p. 11.
  6. ↑ See Giraudon, Adolphe and Georges: Une bibliotheque photographique. Expositions à Bourges, aux Archives Départementales du Cher, du 15 avril au 13 juillet 2005 et à Paris, au Musée Rodin, du 13 mai au 19 juin 2005, Paris 2005
  7. ^ A b Pohlmann, Ulrich: A new art? A new nature! Photography and painting in the 19th century. Munich 2004, p. 10.
  8. ↑ a b Cf. Pohlmann, Ulrich: Eine neue Kunst? A new nature! Photography and painting in the 19th century. Munich 2004, p. 12.
  9. ^ Pohlmann, Ulrich: A new art? A new nature! Photography and painting in the 19th century. Munich 2004, p. 331.
  10. ^ Pohlmann, Ulrich: A new art? A new nature! Photography and painting in the 19th century. Munich 2004, p. 326.
  11. ↑ Cf. Pohlmann, Ulrich: Eine neue Kunst? A new nature! Photography and painting in the 19th century. Munich 2004, p. 326.
  12. ↑ Cf. Pohlmann, Ulrich: Eine neue Kunst? A new nature! Photography and painting in the 19th century. Munich 2004, p. 72.
  13. ↑ a b Cf. Pohlmann, Ulrich: Eine neue Kunst? A new nature! Photography and painting in the 19th century. Munich 2004, p. 10.
  14. ↑ Cf. Pohlmann, Ulrich: Eine neue Kunst? A new nature! Photography and painting in the 19th century. Munich 2004, p. 172.
  15. ↑ Cf. Pohlmann, Ulrich: Eine neue Kunst? A new nature! Photography and painting in the 19th century. Munich 2004, p. 100.
  16. ↑ Cf. Pohlmann, Ulrich: Eine neue Kunst? A new nature! Photography and painting in the 19th century. Munich 2004, p. 71.
  17. ^ Pohlmann, Ulrich: A new art? A new nature! Photography and painting in the 19th century. Munich 2004, p. 71.
  18. ↑ a b c Pohlmann, Ulrich: A new art? A new nature! Photography and painting in the 19th century. Munich 2004, p. 148.