Painters with a photographic eye

[peterm1]

I am just watching a video about Andrew Wyeth - American Painter (born 1917 - died 2009)

I was not previously much aware of him (if at all) but I was interested to find out more and set about Googling him. One of the things that struck me about some of his work is just how much of a photographic eye he had. I particularly mean in terms of choice of subject and composition more so than that his images are necessarily look like anything other than paintings. And yes the more I think about it on, reflection it does definitely have something to do with his choice of subject..............and the fact that he was a "realist" in style. At the end of the video Michael Palin (who narrates) refers to Wyeth capturing "....the universal in his own backyard." Isn't that exactly what most of us photographers strive to do most of the time (particularly now with lockdowns)? But more to the point, isn't that the essence of good image making - capturing the universal in the detail and the ordinary?

In other words had he been using a camera I would have looked at his images and thought "Golly he has caught that moment well".
It struck me as a possible idea for a thread here - which painters strike you in the same way. Are there others? I am sure there must be. (Hopper perhaps?)
Ironic in a way. I struggle, usually unsuccessfully, to try to make photos that have a painterly quality about them. And here is a painter - a genius none the less who effortlessly make paintings that look like photos (while retaining their painterly aspects).

The video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNuGbKIoUds

Some images by Wyeth:

 

[Pfreddee]

Edward Hopper: how about Night Hawks?

With best regards.

Pfreddee(Stephen)

 

[xayraa33]

Thanks for the heads up on that video, Peter.

 

[PKR]

Many Painters paint from photographs. They often make the photos and then, paint from the image.

But, some Painters paint from other's photos. I've been hired to create photos for commercial illustrators. Also, some painters paint from photos without permission. One photographer I knew, sued Andy Worhol for lifting several images. There was a large settlement.

Recently, a photographer, who's name many would know, had several if his better known images copied by a painter. This kind of thing is common now with the kiddies ripping anything and everything on the web.

I've been ripped too many times, mostly by other photographers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photorealism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Close

 

[charjohncarter]

Edward Hopper: how about Night Hawks?

With best regards.

Pfreddee(Stephen)

For sure Edward Hopper.

 

[Dan Daniel]

Richard Estes, of course-

And Vermeer. Photographic eye before there was photography.


Atget had a card on his door, Documents for Artists (in French, of course). There are a few references to drawings and paintings that used photographs bought from him.

 

[Bill Clark]

Andrew Wyeth is just one of many who used this “photographic” look as the basis of their art. John Singer Sargent, I believe, could be said to be the same cut of cloth as Andrew Wyeth. I believe that Vermeer's paintings, few that there are, to be similar to looking at a photograph. The camera obsecura helped.

There are many others.

They learned from the studies that the Greeks and Romans who figured out the best positions to make of the female and male body to look beautiful. They carved statues, some of which survive even today that depict these positions.

Monte Zucker spent a good amount of time in class showing us how to make beautiful photographs of people using this information as the basis of his classical style of photography. It is the three very important ingredients used that make people look beautiful. I found not many photographers understood this and it gave me more opportunities as people love the results of this style of photography, especially those who were willing to invest more of their money hiring a photographer who understood and practiced this.

At any rate, here is some information on John Singer Sargent:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Singer_Sargent

Thanks for starting this thread.

 

[Steevo]

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas

John Szarkowski makes the point in one of his books that Edgar Degas adopted a camera-like composition for many of his horse racing pictures.

 

[PKR]

Richard Estes, of course-

And Vermeer. Photographic eye before there was photography.

Atget had a card on his door, Documents for Artists (in French, of course). There are a few references to drawings and paintings that used photographs bought from him.

Vermeer and the Camera Obscura: Part I

It is impossible to express the beauty [of the camera obscura image] in words. The art of painting is dead, for this is life itself: or something higher, if we could find a word for it.
— Constantijn Huygens, private letter April 13, 1622

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/camera_obscura/co_one.html

 

[Pál_K]

...
Some images by Wyeth:

...

That one is amazing. I could look at it for hours.

Richard Estes, of course-

...

Richard Estes and his photorealism style of painting is one of my favorite painters. I discovered him long ago and have sought out his work.

Oddly, Stephen Shore's photos in Uncommon Places, which I admire greatly, appear to me as photorealistic paintings!

 

[RichC]

Moving away from America... The Dane Vilhelm Hammershøi (d. 1916), with his depiction of light, graphic compositions and people caught unawares - often seen from the back.

 

[Brian Atherton]

One who has a draughtsman’s photographic eye for perspective and detail and has who used photography intensively, both in his preliminary work and in finished artworks: David Hockney.

Edit: Also Sir Peter Blake

 

[David Hughes]

A lot of painters were influenced by photography. Some were appalled that they would lose all their customers and others saw it as a way of seeing.

Here's a famous one from a long time ago that shocked a lot of people, it's by Degas and was painted in 1873:-
https://www.edgar-degas.net/the-cotton-exchange-new-orleans.jsp

Regards, David

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

I visited the museum/gallery at Chadd's Ford in Pennsylvania, where Wyeth, like his father before him, worked.

His father was a famous book illustrator and you can see the continuation of that realist style in to his son's works. While exceptionally well executed it isn't a style that I found particularly entrancing - I wonder actually if photography would have been a better medium. But that's by the by.

 

[lynnb]

One who has a draughtsman’s photographic eye for perspective and detail and has who used photography intensively, both in his preliminary work and in finished artworks: David Hockney.

Edit: Also Sir Peter Blake

Hockney is one of my favourite modern artists. He has a very interesting book "That's the Way I See It" on how he sees which I can recommend. I love his work "peach blossom highway", where he used pictures of surfaces to create an illusion of space.

His pool pictures probably remind me of photography the most.

 

[mconnealy]

From New Mexico

Blumenschein-Star Road and White Sun 1920
Ernest L. Blumenschein (1874-1960) / Public domain

 

[lynnb]

Thanks for sending me down this rabbit hole Peter. It's interesting to look at the cross-pollination of ideas between art and photography in the early years (and also later). I've just come across The Cow Girl by Julien Dupré (1851-1910). Could easily be a photograph from the same period.

 

[Out to Lunch]

There are also painters who take photographs themselves and, later reproduce these photos on the canvas.

 

[andyturk]

Robert Bechtle

 

[peterm1]

Wow there are some great ideas in here.