In this paper, a generative model based method for recovering both the shape and the reflectance of the surface(s) of a scene from multiple images is presented, assuming that illumination conditions are known in advance. Based on a variational framework and via gradient descents, the algorithm minimizes simultaneously and consistently a global cost functional with respect to both shape and reflectance. Contrary to previous works which consider specific individual scenarios, our method applies to a number of scenarios -- mutiview stereovision, multiview photometric stereo, and multiview shape from shading. In addition, our approach naturally combines stereo, silhouette and shading cues in a single framework and, unlike most previous methods dealing with only Lambertian surfaces, the proposed method considers general dichromatic surfaces.