Paul Delaroche Loved Photography, Actually
Few statements about the impact of technology on creativity are as widely cited as Paul Delaroche’s dramatic pronouncement upon first witnessing early photographs (daguerreotypes) in 1839:
“From today, painting is dead!”
This catchy quip has been widely invoked as either a prescient testament to the corrosive influence of technology on art or as emblematic of the perennial resistance of traditionalists to the inexorable march of innovation.
However, closer scrutiny of historical records reveals it to be entirely apocryphal: there is scant proof to suggest Delaroche ever uttered these words. We got hold of a copy of the book ‘Parallel Lines: Printmakers, Painters and Photographers in Nineteenth-Century’ by historian Stephen Bann, in which he explains the origins of the quote.
It is this quote says Bann that “has served more than any other to fix the relationship between painting and photography in a condition of mythic stasis” - its origins were contained in an 1959 monograph on Daguerre that established the source for the quote: an 1873 survey, 34 years after those words supposedly left Delaroche’s lips.
On top of this, Delaroche's other documented comments on the subject reveal a strikingly different stance, calling photography:
“A great advantage for art.”
Delaroche's attitude echoed that of Samuel Morse, who said photography was a “wonderful discovery” that was “an immense service rendered to art” in an 1845 speech he made as president of the National Academy of Design concerning the question: “Will not the Daguerreotype affect unfavourably the Arts of Design?”
NOTE: We explored Morse’s speech about photography and art in this post
Paul Delaroche would eventually be elected into the the Academy, which makes us wonder - if Delaroche did declare painting dead in reaction to seeing early photographs, perhaps reports on Samuel Morse’s speech changed his mind - leading to the development of a more progressive attitude.
As for the statement ‘From today, painting is dead!’, it is better understood as a mythic expression of the anxiety that new technologies often engender within the arts. Delaroche’s proven positive attitude to photography offers a more constructive framework for considering the impact of technological change on the creative realm, underscoring the potential for symbiosis and augmentation rather than replacement and obsolescence of the artist.
"witnessing early photographs (daguerreotypes) in 1939" is 1839.
"1873 survey, 33 years after" -possibly 34.