Brock and Gilbert's genius
Both of these works have been shown before here on English Sculpture. These are better pictures and from more than one angle.
“Eve” by Sir Thomas Brock, R.A.
“Mother And Child, Reading Lesson” by Sir Alfred Gilbert, R.A.
These are good examples of the genius of English sculptors that have been so overlooked by the world in recent years.
The presence they have is awe inspiring.
On a technical point -
Taking good pictures of sculpture is challenging. The back ground is eliminated by our brains but the camera will not do that. Lighting marble is no problem but again we have the problem of what the eye sees and what the camera sees. I have cut one out for you and given you two different lighting shots to illustrate this. Keeping the camera steady is also a problem, no flash no tripod. Flash would distort the lighting so carefully arranged by the staff of the V & A.
posted by Robert at 9:56 am
7 Comments:
I am really enjoying your sites. I think what you are doing is really effective.
I like being able to look through the pictures and enjoy, then read your tech notes and go back and see what you mean. Its really something I can do and understand when I am floundering in so many other things. I think this reaches a part of me that hasn't effectively seen the light of day in a while.
I like the 3rd picture of her. Its like a movie moment, and the reading lesson is lilly white and beautiful. great pics.
I'm so glad you're hauling that camera back to the galleries, Robert.
Not to give any product endorsements, but
here's a brand with optical image stabilization that works for me.
I usually take about 5 shots of each view -- and one of them turns out fine.
I love the size you're putting up on the site -- very lucious -- very enjoyable.
There's something very wholesome about English sculpture -- though sometimes it's a little more wholesome than I am.
Thanks Chris, looks good. I do tend to take more than one picture that's why it takes so long to process them from raw images.
Wholesome, we tend to talk about bread being wholesome. A wholesome woman would be on the verge of being fat. I will have to check with that dictionary you mentioned some time ago.
Thank you, Robert. I especially like the mother and child sculpture. It's amazing that one can convey such tenderness from such hard materials as marble and stone.
You know, I think a photograph also emphasizes the supports equally with the statue--where the eye and brain dismiss them as negligible or absent.
The first looks so luminous. And I love the arms in the second: what graceful circling, and the tilt of the wrist and drooping fingers are beautiful.
What Chris means is that he cannot imagine them frolicking through his dreams. Or arriving as a birthday gift of dancing girls. Something like that!
I was at the V&A this weekend and spent pretty much the whole of Saturday afternoon with Brock's Eve, sketching her under the guidance of a friend of mine.
I'm pretty much in love with that sculpture - the model must have been absolutely stunning, but it's not just that: Brock captures the flow of shapes brilliantly - the transition from the top of her hip to her rib cage is so perfect it almost makes me weep. Well, it made me weep when I was trying to draw it, because I just couldn't capture it properly...
I'd link to what to I drew, but unfortunately it's neither online nor any good, so I'll link you to my friend Mark's picture instead.
Welcome Iain, do let us see your drawing. Mark's picture is excellent, I am specially glad he has attempted to do a hand, very difficult, but he has done well indeed. I would like to do a comment for him on that site/blog/forum but seems you have to pay!
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