The Origin of Painting

Exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1785 alongside its companion piece The Origin of Sculpture, this painting engages with an ancient literary myth recorded by Pliny the Elder: painting was invented when a Corinthian girl traced the shadow of her departing lover on a wall, fixing his likeness before he left for war. The story made painting originate in love and loss — a profoundly resonant narrative for an era deeply invested in the theoretical foundations of the arts. Regnault's treatment gave him an opportunity to combine a touching sentimental narrative with the display of classical setting, idealised figure, and lamplight effects. The subject was taken up by several contemporaries, including Wright of Derby and Hamilton, suggesting it struck a particular chord with Enlightenment aesthetic theory's interest in origins and the natural basis of artistic impulse. The Louvre holds the work, one of Regnault's most theoretically ambitious pictures.

The artificial lamplight creates a distinctive warm core of illumination that fades toward cooler peripheral zones — a lighting challenge that Regnault resolves through careful tonal gradation. The girl's profile against the wall is the compositional and narrative focus: her act of tracing simultaneously defines the pictorial subject and illustrates the mythic origin of representation itself.