Romanticism 1780-1830

Romanticism

1780-1830

Most art movements start as a reaction to current events like war, politics and technological changes.  Romanticism was a reaction to the Enlightenment, as well as the Industrial Revolution. The Enlightenment was about change and industrialising Europe, the Enlightenment focused on reason, looking forwards and putting their stamp on nature. Romanticism however was about emotion, passion, in-bracing nature and the past.

Romanticism did what it said, it romanticised. As a movement it glorified revolution, they wanted the people that viewed their art to have a feeling for the subject, rather then just the paintings technical value.  Their work usually broke the foreground of their paintings, by having parts of the figures close to the viewer. This was another way of making the viewer feel like they were involved with the painting and the subject.  

Jacques Louis David: The Death of Marat,1793.

French

Besides rejecting the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism encouraged revolution. This piece is about the death of Jean-Paul Marat, who was assassinated by Charlotte Corday.  Marat's death became a symbol of revolution, this is partly down to how David depicted him. Jean-Paul Marat was 50 at the time of his death and had a terrible skin condition, all of which David didn't show in his painting. 

Caspar David Friedrich: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818.

 German.

Here we have a man standing with his back to us, looking out over a fog filled valley. Even though you can't see the man's face, you get a sense of what he's experiencing. One of the key factors of Romanticism is nature, Friedrich embraces this throughout his work. His overwhelming landscapes usually include a small figure, that looks insignificant against the landscape. He shows nature as something that we should be lucky to have, especially as at the time industrialism was on the rise.      

Other work 'Morning' and 'Solitary Tree'

Theodore Gericault: The Raft of the Medusa,1819.

French

 Eugène Delacroix: Liberty Leading the People,1830.

French

This painting shows the uprising of the French Revolution, a mixture of different social classes running through the streets of Paris, being led be Liberty. The bare footed and chested woman carrying the flag of France, in one hand and a bayonet rifle in the other, is completly fictional. She's a symbol of liberty, there to show and lead the people to a better world. In one of the videos we watched in class, they talked about how Delacroix pained her like a Greek goddess.

 Delacroix would have learnt life drawing  from models as well as from statues. Romanticism painters made links to the past in their art work repeatedly. The composition of the painting is like a pyramid, drawing your eyes up to liberty. the people at the bottom of the painting are lying in the foreground, making them the closest to the viewer. This is something you see quite often in Romanticism, the idea of the subject reaching out to the viewer.   

John Constable: The Haywain, 1821

J. M. W. Turner: The Slave Ship, 1840

J. M. W. Turner: Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway,1844.

British