Painting vs Photography

The sharp perspective in 'House Painters' slices the image in half--something that is accentuated in painting, but would not be as visible in a photograph. This was painted right when photography was influencing panting, but the French impressionists were actually more influenced by Japanese woodblock prints than photos.

clipped from www.nytimes.com The most effective instrument of control in his urban compositions is his use of unswerving perspective. In “House Painters,” from 1877, the street zooms back in a line so ruthlessly defined and straight that it divides the scene into two separate planes of reality, one occupied by four workmen touching up a shop front, the other by a virtual ghost town in some other universe.