Provenance
-1984
Samuel Wagstaff, Jr., American, 1921 - 1987, sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1984.
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Not currently on view
The Infant Photography Giving the Painter an Additional Brush
Oscar Gustave Rejlander (British, born Sweden, 1813 - 1875)
British
London, England (Place Created)
about 1856
Albumen silver print
84.XP.458.34
6 × 7.1 cm (2 3/8 × 2 13/16 in.)
Oscar Rejlander's photograph could be read as a metaphor of his own career. The additional "brush" or image-making tool provided by photography to painters was evident from the beginnings of the medium. Many early practitioners arrived at photography from painting, as did Rejlander. Photographs were often thought of and used as sketching tools for painters. Although photographs never managed to signal the death of painting as initially predicted, they did frequently assume the function that drawing had traditionally held in relation to painting.
Compositionally, this is an unusual photograph. Rejlander employs a
Samuel Wagstaff, Jr., American, 1921 - 1987, sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1984.
The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Collections. 7th ed. (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2007), p. 299, ill.
Pauli, Lori; with essays by Jordan Bear, Karen Hellman, and Phillip Prodger. Oscar G. Rejlander: Artist Photographer. (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada; New Heaven: Yale University Press, 2018), p. 232.