With the Century of the Lights, the shadows assume a new paper in painting: they are used as a way to study the human personality, by projecting the profile of faces in a plain surface.

However, it was also in the 18^th century when the shadow is valued by its narrative qualities, mostly negative: it starts appearing the “esthetic of the sinister”, for example with Goya, William Holman Hunt, Joseph Wright of Derby, Jean-François Millet, Emile Friant between others. 

Emile Friant’s painting, Cast Shadows, uses the simple black and with effect to bring an atmosphere of sadness, displeasure and infertility for this couple. Note the woman’s face: it has even less colour than the man’s face, it is as white as the wall… Their shadows represent their future…. their only future… 

Goya also uses the shadow and the lack of definition in his paintings to bring a negative atmosphere. The painting Old man and old woman eating a soup is a simple example of it: blurred surfaces of a rotten yellow darkened by shadows, removes all the freshness and light and life from these two carcasses, waiting for death…

Also the painting of Goya called Perro – The Dog, is one of the most amazing paintings that I have ever seen. For his loneliness, for his sadness, for his fear… such a strong simplicity! This is an abandoned dog, scared, wounded and waiting for death, the same death that came for his owner…

William Holman Hunt’s painting, The shadow of death, represent Jesus Christ in a scene before being condemned. Without knowing he’s future, Jesus’ projected shadow seems to guess that death is waiting for Him, and death by crucifixion.

Joseph Wright of Derby’s painting, An experiment on a bird in an air pump, the shadows bring a mysterious environment around an experiment with a live bird, to which some children assist, chocked (watch the figures on the bottom right corner). It is a scene forewarning death.

Also Jean François Millet, is his painting Man with a hoe, used shadows and light to represent the unhappiness and disappointment of a man whose life is framed in a torrid desert land. The physical effort, the exhaustion, the immense heat, the lack of strength…