This comprehensive study offers detailed analysis of how classical painting challenged, resisted, and was influenced by the emergence of photography. Photography divided opinion since its invention; some saw it as an invaluable tool in the enhancement of artistic production, for others it was too mechanical to ever represent the grand concept of "art." This volume examines the fraught yet rich relationship that developed between them, from portraiture and landscapes to still lifes, nudes, and tableaux vivants. Accompanied by a rich selection of illustrations, the text charts this fascinating history from photography’s first forays into the public domain and the organizations set up to defend it against criticism, to the influence of figures such as Daguerre, whose daguerreotype invention raised the possibility of being able to accurately replicate images. This volume explores not only photography’s fight for recognition, but also its impact on painters of the day, as it challenged them to devise new ways to capture the human form, and forever changed the face of art.