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Fotografía
En este artículo pionero, publicado en Londres en 1857, la historiadora del arte Lady Elisabeth Eastlake repasa la historia de la aún joven ciencia fotográfica y analiza los efectos que la rápida difusión de la fotografía ya estaba teniendo en los usos sociales y en las prácticas artísticas de la época.
64 pages, Paperback
Published September 23, 2019
About the author
Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake
107 books5 followersElizabeth Rigby, Lady Eastlake, was an English art critic.
She was born in Norwich into the large family of Edward and Anne Rigby. Her father, a physician and classical scholar, and her mother included her in their social life and conversation with prominent citizens and intellectuals.
In 1842, the widowed Anne Rigby moved with her daughters to Edinburgh, where Elizabeth's literary career brought entry to an intellectual social circle including prominent figures such as Francis Jeffrey, John Murray and David Octavius Hill, who photographed her in a series of about 20 early calotypes, assisted by Robert Adamson.
In 1849, Elizabeth married Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, artist, connoisseur, Director of the National Gallery in London, and in 1853 the first president of the Photographic Society. She joined him in an active working and social life, entertaining artists such as Landseer and mixing with a wide range of well-known people, from Lord Macaulay to Lady Lovelace. Her habit of continental travel continued through the 1850s and 1860s as she and her husband toured several European countries in search of new acquisitions for the gallery.
In 1857, she published her essay Photography, one of the earliest commentaries on it, effectively denying 'works of light' a place among the fine arts, and detailing its permeation of nineteenth-century culture, its social institutions and the home, pronouncing it “a household word and a household want”.
She continued to write prolifically, helping to popularise German art history in England, both as critic and as translator (Waagen and Kugler). Sometimes, she collaborated with her husband, and she wrote a memoir of him after his death in 1865.
Italian art also absorbed her attention; Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, Raphael and Dürer were the subjects of her Five Great Painters (1883). In 1895 her nephew Charles Eastlake Smith edited her Letters and Correspondence.
In the 20th century, aside from her Photography, she was remembered mostly for her scathing review of Jane Eyre, of which she strongly disapproved. She disputed the morality of the novel, writing that ‘the popularity of Jane Eyre is a proof how deeply the love for illegitimate romance is implanted in our nature’ and summarising with ‘It is a very remarkable book: we have no remembrance of another combining such genuine power with such horrid taste’.
She is also known for her attacks on John Ruskin, assumed to be linked to her role as confidante to his estranged wife, Effie Gray.
She was born in Norwich into the large family of Edward and Anne Rigby. Her father, a physician and classical scholar, and her mother included her in their social life and conversation with prominent citizens and intellectuals.
In 1842, the widowed Anne Rigby moved with her daughters to Edinburgh, where Elizabeth's literary career brought entry to an intellectual social circle including prominent figures such as Francis Jeffrey, John Murray and David Octavius Hill, who photographed her in a series of about 20 early calotypes, assisted by Robert Adamson.
In 1849, Elizabeth married Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, artist, connoisseur, Director of the National Gallery in London, and in 1853 the first president of the Photographic Society. She joined him in an active working and social life, entertaining artists such as Landseer and mixing with a wide range of well-known people, from Lord Macaulay to Lady Lovelace. Her habit of continental travel continued through the 1850s and 1860s as she and her husband toured several European countries in search of new acquisitions for the gallery.
In 1857, she published her essay Photography, one of the earliest commentaries on it, effectively denying 'works of light' a place among the fine arts, and detailing its permeation of nineteenth-century culture, its social institutions and the home, pronouncing it “a household word and a household want”.
She continued to write prolifically, helping to popularise German art history in England, both as critic and as translator (Waagen and Kugler). Sometimes, she collaborated with her husband, and she wrote a memoir of him after his death in 1865.
Italian art also absorbed her attention; Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, Raphael and Dürer were the subjects of her Five Great Painters (1883). In 1895 her nephew Charles Eastlake Smith edited her Letters and Correspondence.
In the 20th century, aside from her Photography, she was remembered mostly for her scathing review of Jane Eyre, of which she strongly disapproved. She disputed the morality of the novel, writing that ‘the popularity of Jane Eyre is a proof how deeply the love for illegitimate romance is implanted in our nature’ and summarising with ‘It is a very remarkable book: we have no remembrance of another combining such genuine power with such horrid taste’.
She is also known for her attacks on John Ruskin, assumed to be linked to her role as confidante to his estranged wife, Effie Gray.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 7, 2024
Como siempre los artículos y ensayos escritos por mujeres nos llegan las traducciones dos siglos después... Me hace plantearme donde estaríamos si pudiéramos haber abordado estas informaciones primero.
Siempre es un gusto leer cosas escritas por historiadoras del arte, un artículo sencillo que nos hace un repaso de la invención de la fotografía y nos da visión de la época .
Siempre es un gusto leer cosas escritas por historiadoras del arte, un artículo sencillo que nos hace un repaso de la invención de la fotografía y nos da visión de la época .
August 31, 2026
Es muy interesante ver como en un artículo de 1857 emergen ideas que siguen siendo aplicables, o que suscitan las mismas cuestiones, que hoy en día.
Lady Eastlake cuestiona la “pertenencia” de la fotografía en el arte, dando argumentos como “cuanto más perfecta es una máquina imperfecta tanto más se verán sus imperfecciones” y destacando que la fotografía “está hecha para la época actual, en la que el anhelo de arte es compartido por una pequeña minoría, y el público en general desea -o, mejor, necesita- hechos baratos, rápidos y abundantes”
Creo que no es difícil ver como estas mismas sentencias se pueden aplicar a la problemática de la IA generativa que hay hoy en día, y aunque pueda parecer que en un inicio se da una opinión en contra de la fotografía como arte, repasando el final leemos que “cuanto más amplio sea el terreno que pueda ocupar la máquina, más excelsa será la posición que ocupe la inteligencia creadora”.
Visto de este modo, y volviendo al siglo XXI, el único punto a resolver es en quién se pone el foco en el uso de la máquina para crear arre…
“Cabe esperar que dejaremos de oír hablar […] del ‘mal arte’ -y dejaremos de ver ese aún más miserable error de la vida llamado ‘mal artista’” - Todos podemos equivocarnos.
Lady Eastlake cuestiona la “pertenencia” de la fotografía en el arte, dando argumentos como “cuanto más perfecta es una máquina imperfecta tanto más se verán sus imperfecciones” y destacando que la fotografía “está hecha para la época actual, en la que el anhelo de arte es compartido por una pequeña minoría, y el público en general desea -o, mejor, necesita- hechos baratos, rápidos y abundantes”
Creo que no es difícil ver como estas mismas sentencias se pueden aplicar a la problemática de la IA generativa que hay hoy en día, y aunque pueda parecer que en un inicio se da una opinión en contra de la fotografía como arte, repasando el final leemos que “cuanto más amplio sea el terreno que pueda ocupar la máquina, más excelsa será la posición que ocupe la inteligencia creadora”.
Visto de este modo, y volviendo al siglo XXI, el único punto a resolver es en quién se pone el foco en el uso de la máquina para crear arre…
“Cabe esperar que dejaremos de oír hablar […] del ‘mal arte’ -y dejaremos de ver ese aún más miserable error de la vida llamado ‘mal artista’” - Todos podemos equivocarnos.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews