攝影術對中國近代寫實繪畫影響之探討 — 以吳友如新聞畫為例

Abstract

The invention of photography, not only had influenced on the Impressionism in the 19th and the Modern Art in the 20th century, but also enforced the west artists to turn to perform what photography can't attain. Therefore, the stimulation to the traditional west realistic drawing development from the invention of photography is remarkable.

After the Popium War, the Chinese market was opened, the cameras and photography were introduced to China and developed very quickly. This enterprise became the most popular business in Shanghai in the late Ching Dynasty. Chinese artists almost gathered in Shanghai. Those artists can't avoid the influence from photography and it is impossible to know nothing about that. Didn't they have any reaction to the west photography? What are the reaction of these artists who enjoyed Chinese traditional culture under the impact of modern photography? Did their reaction same as the west artists? Did the photography have any influence on the develpment of realistic drawing in the Chinese modern times? These abovementioned questions will be discussed in this study.

This study indicate that the introduction of photography to China not only had influenced on the Chinese modern times drawing development but also was the dynamic to the development of Chinese realistic drawing. The key person is, Wu Yo-ru, the artist for the newspaper in the late Ching Dynasty. Wu knows photography well and his works, especially illustrations in the newspaper are very realistic. The role of his drawing is equal to the realistic pictures in the current newspaper. Therefore, he can be regarded as the most “realistic artist” in Chinese drawing history. Xu Bei-hong was deeply influenced by Wu, his Chinese and west combining drawing style originates from Wu. So we can conclude that realistic drawing popular in late Ching Dynasty was influenced by the stimulation of west photography. Both of Chinese and west drawings are influenced by photography in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. But their develpment is absolutely different. It's the strong contrast in the Chinese and west drawing history.