With all the fuzz about IA image “stealing” illustrator job, I am curious about how much photography changed the art world in the 19th century.

There was a time where getting a portrait done was a relatively big thing, requiring several days of work for a painter, while you had to stand still for a while so the painter knew what you looked like, and then with photography, all you had to do was to stand still for a few minutes, and you’ll get a picture of you printed on paper the next day.

How did it impact the average painter who was getting paid to paint people once in their lifetime.

  • ndru@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    Just to add some cool etymology to your reply: the word silhouette comes from a type of affordable portrait made by quickly painting or cutting out a persons profile in black paper. These, and portrait miniatures, fell quickly out of favour with the advent of photography.

    The word silhouette is derived from the name of Étienne de Silhouette, a French finance minister who, in 1759, was forced by France’s credit crisis during the Seven Years’ War to impose severe economic demands upon the French people, particularly the wealthy.[3] Because of de Silhouette’s austere economies, his name became synonymous with anything done or made cheaply and so with these outline portraits.[4][5] Prior to the advent of photography, silhouette profiles cut from black card were the cheapest way of recording a person’s appearance.[6][7]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silhouette

    This is also an interesting article on the subject of pre-photographic portraiture: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_miniature

    • markr@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Also illustrators for newspapers - as the tech for mechanical reproduction made it possible to put photographs into newspapers and magazines most of those jobs disappeared.