Girl with a Tress

Recreation by Kelsey Jones

This painting, by Ivan Kramskoi, falls slightly outside of our date range, but I wanted to include it to show the way artists continued to manipulate light in the name of realism long after the Renaissance had ended.  Kramskoi's fame is in early 19th century Russia, where his extremely true to life images created a movement.  He believed that only through the accurate portrayal of the subject down to the last detail could their true nature be revealed.  It is interesting, then, that in this painting also we find unrealistic lighting.  In the painting below it looks so real, almost more so than in the recreation above.  The difference is found in quality of light, which isn't altogether unnatural, and the number of light sources, which is.  The location of the painting is unclear, but the suggestion of flowers and trees in the background, and the warm color and downward direction of the light seems to suggest an outdoor, sunny environment.  In the recreation, the sun was recreated using, obviously, one light source.  But the difference between the two is clear: Kramskoi's painting simply has more light in more angles than is possible with the sun as a light source.  Observe the full illumination of the top of the girl's head, the back-lighting of her face, and the angled side lighting of the hair that sprawls down her chest.  Two light sources are required for this painting to work realistically.  But though the German master of realistic detail's intent is to convey reality, the methods he uses to portray it (to recreate the sun, in this case) is artificial.