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About this quote

What does it mean?
He compares moonlight to sculpture and sunlight to painting.
In plain terms
Moonlight feels like sculpture; sunlight feels like painting.
What can you take from it?
Light changes how we perceive art.

Where it applies

  • observing natural light
  • art photography

Putting it to work

  • photographing under different light

Questions to consider

  • How does light change art for you?
  • Do you feel this distinction?

Another view

It is a subjective metaphor that not everyone agrees with.

More from Nathaniel Hawthorne

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  3. We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of waking from a troubled dream: it may be so the moment after death.

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