The piece I am copying is "Self Portrait, the Desperate Man" by Gustave Courbet.
The real difference between my final reproduction of this piece and the piece itself is not the obvious visual differences (striking example of Realist painting vs. amateur student exercise). Instead, what is lost in my reproduction is the aura of emotion surrounding the work. I hold no claim to the authenticity of the artist's despair. None of the wild-eyed desperation that Courbet painstakingly immortalized on his canvas with each brushtroke transmits to my own drawing pad. I am not communicating anguish, nor am I expressing my own style. My reproduction will have but a shadow of the original's raw honesty.
That doesn't make mine any less interesting or fun to look at, however. It just means that mine, as Walter Benjamin would agree, has been ripped rudely from its author and plunked down awkwardly outside of tradition.
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