15 Famous People of the Past Whose Depictions Prove That Photoshop Existed, Even in the Nineteenth Century

Photo editing programs have long been a part of our lives, so you can rarely see a photo that hasn’t been retouched. However, it’s wrong to think that Photoshop belongs only to the modern world. People have been improving the looks of their portraits for centuries. That means there were specialists in photo retouching that date all the way back to the nineteenth century. Even painters have worked hard to make models look more beautiful than they really were.

At Bright Side, we searched the archives and found photos of royalty from the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, and we compared them to their portrait paintings. At the end of the article, we’ll show you what Vincent van Gogh really looked like.

Isabella II of Spain (1830 — 1904)

Mary of Teck, the spouse of George V (1867 — 1953)

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the mother of Queen Elizabeth II (1900 — 2002)

Princess Helena of the United Kingdom (1846 — 1923)

Victoria, Princess Royal, German Empress (1840 — 1901)

Charlotte of Belgium (1840 — 1927)

Sophie of Württemberg, Queen of the Netherlands (1818 — 1877)

Queen Victoria (1819 — 1901)

Maria Christina of Austria, Queen-consort of Spain (1858 — 1929)

Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Parma, Princess-consort of Bulgaria (1870 — 1899)

Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia (1882 — 1957)

Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria’s fifth daughter (1857 — 1944)

Alexandra Feodorovna, the spouse of Nicholas II of Russia (1872 — 1918)

Princess Alice of Battenberg, the mother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II (1885 — 1969)

Alexandra of Denmark, the spouse of Edward VII (1844 — 1925)

Bonus: Vincent van Gogh (1853 — 1890)

What do you think about Photoshop? Do you use it often? Tell us in the comments below.