Oscar Gustave Rejlander Art
Oscar Gustave Rejlander is a Swedish-born photographer, who was active in England and often known as ‘the father of art photography’, having pioneered practices such as combination printing. He also promoted photography's capacity to tackle subjects conventionally associated with painting. After studying lithography and painting in Rome, Rejlander arrived in England in the early 1840s and settled in Wolverhampton. A day's instruction with Nicolaas Henneman was his only training before he turned to photography in 1853. Throughout his professional career, Rejlander combined studio portrait work and other commissions with particular artistic projects, importing ideas and inspiration from such sources as Flemish and late Renaissance art, 18th-century English narrative works, or contemporary cartoons from papers like Punch. Rejlander vigorously defended photography's narrative capability, emphasizing artifice as a way to truth and creative expression. In 1862 he left Wolverhampton for a London studio, where judiciously placed windows enabled him to create subtle lighting effects for portraiture. Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and Alfred Tennyson were among his clients, as was Charles Darwin, for whose book On the Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) he created illustrations, using himself and his wife as models. But Rejlander never achieved commercial success, and died in poverty.
1870s Academic Oscar Gustave Rejlander Art
Ink
Mid-19th Century Academic Oscar Gustave Rejlander Art
Paper, Pencil, Color Pencil
2010s Academic Oscar Gustave Rejlander Art
Graphite
1890s Academic Oscar Gustave Rejlander Art
Carbon Pencil
1880s Academic Oscar Gustave Rejlander Art
Gouache, Pencil
1890s Academic Oscar Gustave Rejlander Art
Carbon Pencil
1870s Academic Oscar Gustave Rejlander Art
Chalk, Paper, Graphite
Mid-20th Century Academic Oscar Gustave Rejlander Art
Crayon
1810s Academic Oscar Gustave Rejlander Art
Pencil, Paper
1880s Academic Oscar Gustave Rejlander Art
Ink
1780s Academic Oscar Gustave Rejlander Art
Carbon Pencil, Paper, Chalk
1860s Academic Oscar Gustave Rejlander Art
Pastel
Early 20th Century Academic Oscar Gustave Rejlander Art
Crayon