From the first daguerreotypes of the late 1830s, and especially after the discovery of photographic printing techniques on paper in later years, the relationship between photography and painting was very close. The artificial eye of the camera of photographers such as Le Gray, Cuvelier, Nadar or Disderi, to name a few, stimulated in Manet, Degas and the young Impressionists the development of a new way of looking at the world. Photography served Impressionism not only as an iconographic source but also as a technical inspiration, both in the scientific observation of light or in the representation of an asymmetrical and truncated space, as well as in the exploration of spontaneity and visual ambiguity. Also, influenced by the new Impressionist style, some photographers began to worry about the materiality of their images and to look for formulas to make their photographs less precise and with a more pictorial effect.
The central role that photography has acquired today in the contemporary art scene has revived the interest of art historiography in the impact that its invention had on the visual arts. The exhibition The Impressionists and Photography , and this catalogue that reports on it, joins this historiographical line, proposing a critical reflection on the affinities and mutual influences between photography and painting, without forgetting the fruitful polemic between critics and artists that its appearance unleashed in France during the second half of the 19th century.
Text by Paloma Alarcó, Head of Curator of Modern Painting, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Dimensions: 200 x 275 mm (width x height)
288 pages
Spanish hardcover binding.
ISBN: 9788417173357
Publication produced in collaboration with the Community of Madrid, JTI and Samsung The Frame.
