Art 

Painting with Light: Art and Photography from the Pre-Raphaelites to the Modern Age

In the nineteenth century, few viewing paintings in the great European and American galleries and museums were aware of the degree to which photography was being utilized by painters for the creation of their works. This mirrored a general lack of understanding of the extent to which Renaissance painters relied on the camera obscura, and similar optical tools, to achieve their increasingly-accurate results (see David Hockney\'s book

Thus photography, and the movement towards realism that it incarnated, was the aesthetic enemy, at least publicly. Hypocritically, the use of photography in the creation of paintings was the dirty secret that the art establishment chose to keep hidden from the public.

But all that is old news and in this new show we\'re told that "Tate Britain uncovers the dynamic dialogue between British painters and photographers; from the birth of the modern medium to the blossoming of art photography." So now it\'s all good and the role of photography in fine art has been rehabilitated. Whew. The

exhibition, running until 25 September, 2016, brings together just shy of 200 works to demonstrate the relationship between British photography and painting. Curiosities include examples of early 3D photography and examples of early color photography, as well as a previously unseen private album in which the Royal family for some reason re-enacts famous paintings.

Carol Jacobi, Curator British Art 1850-1915, Tate Britain, tells us that: “

offers new insights into Britain’s most popular artists and reveals just how vital painting and photography were to one another. Their conversations were at the heart of the artistic achievements of the Victorian and Edwardian era.” Could be. Call me old fashioned but I\'d be happy just to show up for the Dante Gabriel Rossetti, JMW Turner and Whistler canvases, and the art historical baggage be damned.

© Royal Photographic Society / National Media Museum/ Science & Society Picture Library

© Royal Photographic Society / National Media Museum / Science & Society Picture Library

Presented by Georgiana, Baroness Mount-Temple in memory of her husband, Francis, Baron Mount-Temple 1889

Photo credit: © Royal Academy of Arts, London; Photographer: John Hammond

Purchased with assistance from the Friends of the Tate Gallery 1983

The Bowder Stone in Our English Lakes, Mountains and Waterfalls as seen by William Wordsworth

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