When in Marrakech, I found myself at an exhibition called A Moroccan Winter, showing paintings by Majorelle and his contemporaries. I was blown away.
It's always a bit cliché to speak about light and darkness in painting but, in this case, it's what really gave me pause. I don't expect it to have the same impact on screen but take a look at this:
What I find striking, when in front of the actual canvas, is the luminosity of the mountains in the background. It's what draws the eye and gives the painting this photographic look: despite the precision and the contrast of the group in the foreground, all these people are n the shadow while the mountain is beaming in the distance. The ancestor of HDRI.
Same here: I find it quite bold to paint the main subjects completely in the shadow, as Étienne Girardet did. Shadow that we only really see because of the sun spot in the lower left corner:
(But it's called "Sous le Burnous", "under the coat", so I guess it makes sense.)
He voluntarily reduced his color palette to represent the absence of light and, in an almost negligible portion of the canvas, revealed the fire of the sun.
Then, of course, there is Majorelle: shadow is no longer the absence of light but is embeded in the subject itself. All the way. This one really struck a chord with me:
Choukrane guys, choukrane.
PS: And this guy was looking at me. He looked away just when I took the picture.
