Prior to the invention of photography, realistic images of the world could only be produced by skilled artists. In today’s world, we are so swamped with images that it is hard to imagine just how special and unique it must have felt to see a well-executed realistic painting. And, within the Western tradition, the skills of professional artists had steadily improved over the centuries; by the 19th-century, artists such as the Pre-Rafaelites and the French Neoclassicists have achieved dazzling visual realism in their work.