I've been colourising again! My starting image is another glass negative from the batch I bought a couple of weeks ago. By just holding the glass up to the light it was a little unclear what the image was, but after a good high-quality scan and a digital wash and brush-up, what appears is a quite charming Victorian photograph of a woman and a child with a hoop. Why anyone believed that they could improve on this image I can't understand, but I handed the digital scan over to a mate of mine (a certain Pierre-Auguste Renoir) to see what he could do with it.
The result is quite cute, but perhaps a little gaudy. He has added too much blue to her dress and got rid of the poor mother entirely! Amusing as it is, I can't see the colourful result stand the test of time. It looks more like a biscuit-tin than a serious attempt at photographic art.
Mr. Renoir's work is quaint enough, but it'll never sell...
ReplyDeleteI agree with "The Silver Fox": Renoir would have a hard time selling that kind of sentimental tosh in this day and age - even for biscuit tins. But the painting shows how uneven the work of even the best of artists can be. Degas is another and doubtless I'm in the same boat.
ReplyDeleteI had a pair of shoes very like that when I was 11. Slightly higher heel but the bow was just the same. A lot of my friends had the same style - they were all the crack. Thanks for reminding me. I loved those shoes.
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