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Some artists can paint from life forever and never produce a great work of art. Other artists can paint exclusively from reference photos and create a masterpiece that far transcends the reference.
Talent, experience, craft and effort conspire together in all great works. Paints. brushes and yes reference photos are just some of the tools that help get to the end product.
Bougureau created great art. While he could have used photo references, I personally doubt it because he was known to be able to create portraits from memory. Was that the secret of the great masters? Having a photographic recall of images? Perhaps, but if most of you are like me, we can't capture that illusive, fleeting expression that makes a painting live and breath from a mental image of perfect recall. We mere mortals do that via a reference photo.
It is the ability to recognize and capture that illusive image combined with the magic of the ability to create a painting even beyond that image that separates the artist from the mere image reproducer.
For me the debate between photos and life is a tempest in a teapot. What really counts is the end product. Did we create a great work of art!
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