Jason Zappulla

Pd. 7
AP Art History Photography Analysis Essay
#116 vs. #125
Photography had a large impact on painting. With the advent of
painting, people no longer had to rely on painting as the sole way to
realistically depict the world around us. This gave artists even greater
freedom to experiment with more abstract and artistic, if less strictly
realistic, styles and methods. An example of this is Gare St. Lazare, by
Monet. In that work, Monet takes an industrial and urban scene, and
paints it in the style of a landscape painting. The freedom of painting
allows Monet to experiment with unique lighting, perspective, and
color; for example, Monet removes traditional notions of contours and
lines in this painting.

Mont Sainte-Victoire by Czanne also shows the influence of

photography on painting. Like Monets work, Cezannes painting does
not place high emphasis on realism, and it is instead somewhat
abstract. Unlike a photo or realistic painting, Mont Sainte-Victoire has a
sense of roughness and flatness, but also retains some depth. Like
Monet, Cezanne also plays with perspective, by situating the paintings
viewpoint so that the left peak is the highest point, even though that is
not actually the case. Experimenting and adjustments like this would

be difficult to reproduce with photography, so instead, Cezanne and

Monet use the medium of painting to play with less realistic and more
experimental styles that photography could not imitate.