The Shadow of Desire: Painting the Origins of Art (Ca. 1625–1850)

François Chauveau after Charles Le Brun, “The Invention of Painting”, 1695. – Source

Jean Raoux, The Origin of Painting, ca. 1714–17. – Source

Print by Bernard Picart, 1727, whose caption reads: “Dibutade first conceived of sculpture when he saw his daughter tracing the shadow of her lover on the wall.” – Source

Frontispiece from John Dryden’s translation of Charles-Alphonse Dufresnoy’s The Art of Painting (1750). – Source

Unknown artist, “The Invention of Painting”, ca. 18th century. – Source

Simon François Ravenet I after John Hamilton Mortimer, The Origin of Drawing, 1771. – Source

Alexander Runciman, The Origin of Painting, ca. 1773. – Source

Joseph Wright, The Corinthian Maid, 1782–84. – Source

Jean-Baptiste Regnault, Butades or the Origin of Painting, ca. 1785–86. – Source

Joseph Benoît Suvée, The Invention of the Art of Drawing, ca. 1791. – Source

Trade card for Thomas Sandby, 1791. – Source

Jean-Charles Tardieu, “A Shepherd Drawing a Portrait of his Shepherdess”, 1793. – Source

Trade card of John Jeffryes, 1794. – Source

Benjamin West, The Origin of Painting, ca. 1795. – Source

Study for a trade card of Richard Collins, ca. 1800. – Source

Pietro Antonio Novelli, “Caliria, daughter of Dibutad, draws the silhouette of her beloved”, ca. before 1804. – Source

Ferdinand and Heinrich Olivier, The Invention of the Art of Drawing (the daughter of Butades of Sicyon and her Lover), 1804. – Source

Antoine-Claude Fleury, The Origin of Painting, 1808. – Source

Louis Ducis, The Invention of Painting, ca. 1808. – Source

Marie-Pauline Soyer after Jeanne-Élisabeth Chaudet, Dibutade Coming to Visit Her Lover’s Portrait, ca. 1810. – Source

Alexandre-Charles Guillemot, The Myth of Dibutade or the Invention of Drawing, 1825. – Source

Heinrich Eddelien, The Origin of Painting, 1831. – Source

Eduard Daege, The Invention of Painting, 1832. – Source

Johann Erdmann Hummel, The Invention of Drawing, ca. 1834. – Source

Johann Georg Hiltensperger, “Legend of the daughter of the Corinthian potter Butades”, 1845–48. – Source

Edmund Blair Leighton, The Shadow, ca. 1909. – Source