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Lot Essay
A partir des années 30, Paul Outerbridge, dont les photographies ont déjà été publiées dans Vanity Fair et Vogue, commence à utiliser le procédé carbro tricolore. Il est l’un des pionniers car peu de photographes sont capables de manipuler ce procédé délicat. Outerbridge utilisait trois négatifs noir et blanc, chacun étant photographié avec un filtre de couleur (cyan, magenta, jaune). Pas moins de neuf heures de travail étaient nécessaires pour réaliser une image, expliquant la rareté des œuvres réalisées.
Outre des commandes d’images publicitaires, Outerbridge commence à œuvrer vers des images plus libres notamment des nus avant-gardistes plus personnels. Dans l’œuvre présentée, la composition classique n'est pas sans rappeler la Grande Odalisque peinte par Ingres en 1804.
Si la forme et les clairs-obscurs fascinent particulièrement l’artiste, il s’intéresse également aux multiples nuances et aux tonalités que permet d’obtenir ce procédé couleurs. Ici, toute une harmonie de tonalités bleutées, qu'il s'agisse du couvre lit sur lequel pose le modèle, du mur ou du rideau richement ornementé, qui semblent former un écrin pour mieux révéler la beauté de ce corps dénudé.
“A good nude, as much as possible, should embody a universal concept of feminine beauty, and a great deal of experience with the subject is necessary before one can arrive at much of a result."
Paul Outerbridge, in Photographing in Color, 1940.
From the 1930s, Paul Outerbridge, whose photographs had already appeared in Vanity Fair and Vogue, began using the carbro tricolour process. One of its pioneers, few photographers were capable of handling the delicate process. Outerbridge used three black and white negatives, each photographed with a different colour filter (cyan, magenta and yellow. Not only technically difficult, but time consuming, no fewer than nine hours of work were required to create an image, which explains the rarity of the works created.
Alongside his commercial work, Outerbridge started exploring freer images and particularly more personalised avant-garde nudes. In the work presented here, the classical composition is reminiscent of La Grande Odalisque painted by Ingres in 1804.
Although Outerbridge was especially fascinated by form and chiaroscuro, he was also interested in the multiple nuances and tones this colour process made it possible to obtain. Here, a whole harmony of bluish tones, from the bed cover on which the model is posed to the wall or the richly decorated curtain, seem to form a casket, to better display the beauty of this naked body.
Outre des commandes d’images publicitaires, Outerbridge commence à œuvrer vers des images plus libres notamment des nus avant-gardistes plus personnels. Dans l’œuvre présentée, la composition classique n'est pas sans rappeler la Grande Odalisque peinte par Ingres en 1804.
Si la forme et les clairs-obscurs fascinent particulièrement l’artiste, il s’intéresse également aux multiples nuances et aux tonalités que permet d’obtenir ce procédé couleurs. Ici, toute une harmonie de tonalités bleutées, qu'il s'agisse du couvre lit sur lequel pose le modèle, du mur ou du rideau richement ornementé, qui semblent former un écrin pour mieux révéler la beauté de ce corps dénudé.
“A good nude, as much as possible, should embody a universal concept of feminine beauty, and a great deal of experience with the subject is necessary before one can arrive at much of a result."
Paul Outerbridge, in Photographing in Color, 1940.
From the 1930s, Paul Outerbridge, whose photographs had already appeared in Vanity Fair and Vogue, began using the carbro tricolour process. One of its pioneers, few photographers were capable of handling the delicate process. Outerbridge used three black and white negatives, each photographed with a different colour filter (cyan, magenta and yellow. Not only technically difficult, but time consuming, no fewer than nine hours of work were required to create an image, which explains the rarity of the works created.
Alongside his commercial work, Outerbridge started exploring freer images and particularly more personalised avant-garde nudes. In the work presented here, the classical composition is reminiscent of La Grande Odalisque painted by Ingres in 1804.
Although Outerbridge was especially fascinated by form and chiaroscuro, he was also interested in the multiple nuances and tones this colour process made it possible to obtain. Here, a whole harmony of bluish tones, from the bed cover on which the model is posed to the wall or the richly decorated curtain, seem to form a casket, to better display the beauty of this naked body.