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Started by: whacker (1039)

I found a copy of Dr. Miller's book on Lyon, very cheap and not at all rare. For what it is worth, I think, as a one time portrait painter myself (determined rather than talented!) the painting in the book, what used to be known as a frontispiece, is problematic. It seems unfinished. Either the fence behind him tapers off to nowhere or its perspective is wrong and is meant to be a continuation of the fence to our left. The steps lean to our left and are out of kileter to the horizontal castle in the background. The are other problems of structure but I will not go into them. In short, the work is amateurish. I do not know the size of the painting and if it is full size it may have more detail than is apparent from the photograph. As shown, the face lacks detail, the shadows used normally by a painter to delineate a face absent. George is outdoors but the light beneath his left eye comes from below, not above as one would expect. This could be explained by the placement of a reflector - a trick not unknown to painters at the time, but that is precluded by an examination of the fence uprights. Where they face the same direction as George's lit face, the same plane of the posts is in shadow. My best guess is that the whole thing is painted up out of some-one's imagination, not from life. I am sure there are more skilled painters out there than I, so comments would be welcome.

The photo is way outside of English copyright laws so if anyone would like a copy of the picture, email me and I shall be happy to send it to you.

Whacker.

Replied: 17th Jul 2013 at 17:31

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