TODAY'S FEATURED POST

Photographing Artwork in Museums

Howard Lyon

by Howard Lyon   detail from The Oreads by William Bouguereau I just returned from France. Had a wonderful time with the whole family and saw some amazing sights. At the top of my list was the Musée d'Orsay. It has risen to the top of my list of favorite museums. Photos of paintings don't really come close to capturing the experience of seeing an original, but I do find them useful in my study and…

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EVERYDAY ORIGINAL

Diplodocus

YESTERDAY’S POST

Image

Rückenfigur

Lauren Panepinto

September 4, 2025 - I didn't know there was a word for this until recently, but of course there is, and of course it's German. Rückenfigur (literally "back-figure") is a compositional device in painting, graphic art, photography, and film. A person is seen from behind in the foreground of the image, contemplating the view before them, and is a means by which the viewer can identify with the image's figure and then recreate the space to be conveyed. (from Wikipedia) The textbook example of this is this image is Caspar David Friedrich's Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog: And in fact, I only heard the term Rückenfigur at all because there was just a Caspar David Friedrich exhibit at The Met. He loved this device and it shows up in his work a number of times:   Obviously Friedrich…

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