The definition of beauty has taken a few turns along the way, hasn’t it? When we think back now to the academic process of rendering what is seen being judged for its exactitude seems almost preposterous. Yet we have to put our head into a world pre photography, when the talent to represent what the eye beholds lay only in the brush stokes of the artist.
It was as dramatic as going back to the invention of fire, and how light first shone in the darkness so we could see anything in the night at all… how precious fire must have been for ages is how precious representing reality was for ages as well.
To let go of representation at this stage meant to paint what was actually being seen in all its misty haze and irresolute line. Monet’s gift of seeing what light did and how it actually refracted in air was actually closer to painting reality than what the realists were doing. Imagine that?!
Thank you for sharing 🙏
The definition of beauty has taken a few turns along the way, hasn’t it? When we think back now to the academic process of rendering what is seen being judged for its exactitude seems almost preposterous. Yet we have to put our head into a world pre photography, when the talent to represent what the eye beholds lay only in the brush stokes of the artist.
It was as dramatic as going back to the invention of fire, and how light first shone in the darkness so we could see anything in the night at all… how precious fire must have been for ages is how precious representing reality was for ages as well.
To let go of representation at this stage meant to paint what was actually being seen in all its misty haze and irresolute line. Monet’s gift of seeing what light did and how it actually refracted in air was actually closer to painting reality than what the realists were doing. Imagine that?!