The latest phase of using photography to help out the drawing is found in some modern illustrations where the lens has found the outline, the right placing of the scene on the paper, the right proportion and perspective in buildings, and the general light and shade of the scene for the illustrator—the human hand only coming in to give breadth of effect, to undo the tell-tale finish of the photograph, and to make it into what is called "a picture" on the lines of a Turner or a Whistler.
All these were unknown ways in Leighton's youth, and to the end of his life he could make no use whatever of photography in his work. He took a kodak with him once on his travels, but the results were amusingly negative. "From the moment an artist relies on photography he does no good," was a statement I heard him make. Leighton believed in no short cuts. Enthusiasm, labour, sacrifice, renouncement,—these, and these alone, he maintained, can secure for the artist a worthy success.
STUDY OF A FADED FLOWER OF PUMPKIN. Rome, 1854
Leighton House Collection
STUDY OF FLOWER OF A PUMPKIN. Meran, 1856
Leighton House Collection[ToList]
STUDIES OF BRANCHES OF VINE. Bagni di Lucca, 1854
Leighton House Collection[ToList]