The term is still in common use among photographers. But cameras can’t deliver this effect as powerfully as painters can, because cameras are unable to respond to a wide enough range of intensities, and the silhouettes tend to go to black.
Artists of the 19th Century did wonders with contre jour. You’ll find it with Royal Academicians like Atkinson Grimshaw (upper left), Barbizon painters like Constant Troyon (the other images here), and American landscapists like Frederick Church.
Troyon’s student Leon Belly used this effect to capture a feeling of dazzling, intoxicating illumination in several of his Orientalist paintings, like this one of water buffalo in a desert oasis. I learned about contre-jour lighting from art historian Kristian Davies, who discusses it in his brilliant book The Orientalists (Laynfaroh, 2005).
When a form is placed contre-jour, it goes into silhouette. The colors weaken. Shadows stretch forward. Details disappear as the glare of the light spills over the edges of the form. The sun itself often shines from inside the frame of the picture, making the viewer’s eyes squint involuntarily.
I’ve been fascinated by the idea of contre-jour since starting work on Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara, and it crops up in quite a few of the paintings in the new book, like the one above, where Arthur and Bix are approaching the Imperial Palace.
Today I visit Rhode Island School of Design. Stay tuned in a couple of days for the report.
I really can't recommend that book, The Orientalists, enough. It's amazing. I'm really happy to see it influencing your style-- and I love your homage to Leon Belly.
ReplyDeleteSome older Hollywood films used what we call "back-lighting" for the same effect. Check out old westerns, especially the John Ford black and white films to see how wonderfully he used that technique. In his westerns he would almost always use backlighting in the exterior vistas.
ReplyDeleteI recently checked the book out via Inter-Library Loan. Great book, I'll certainly buy it when I get the chance.
ReplyDeleteThanks for blogging, I really enjoy reading it.
Thank you James!
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing web journal. Every entry makes me want to get off the computer and back to painting. Thank you.
Or on stage, profile lighting, to project the subject forwards and accentuated the outline of the body.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I am not a painter but a photograpgher and work hard to seperate my work from the wolves of the pack. Thanks for the ideas.
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