with a bit of comparison to begin (insert bad joke here… )
TRANSCRIPT
ROMANTICISM: THE POWER OF
PASSIONWith a bit of Comparison to Begin
(Insert Bad Joke Here…)
LET’S COMPARE AND CONTRASTNeoclassicism
Romanticism
Realism
Values Order, solemnity
Intuition, Emotion, Imagination
Hard-edged,Realistic
Tone Calm, rational Subjective, spontaneous, nonconformist
Precise, Muted colors
Subjects Greek and Roman history; mythology
Legends; exotic; nature; violence
Peasants; Working Class
Technique Stressed drawing with lines, not color; no trace of brushstrokes
Quick brushstrokes, strong light-and-shade contrasts
Soft, wispy strokes, often monochromatic
Role of Art/Composition
(Role) Morally uplifting; inspirational
(Comp) Use of a diagonal
(Role) only what they could see or touch
Miscellaneous Founder: David Narratives of heroic struggle, landscapes, wild animals
Represented nature with photographic accuracy
A DAY OF ROMANCE It’s time for the rebellion against the
Neoclassic’s Age of Reason! It’s time for the 50 year “Age of Sensibility”! It’s time for emotion and intuition over
rational objectivity! It’s time, as landscape painter Caspar David
Friedrich wrote, for the artist to “paint not only what he sees before him, but also what he sees in him!”
But as Billy Joel said, Only the Good Die Young…(yea, that’s what I said) Romantic poets and composers like Byron, Keats,
Shelley, Chopin, and Schubert all died young
I CAN BE YOUR HERO, BABY… Romantics lifted the status of landscape
painting by giving natural scenes heroic overtones
Both man and nature were seen as touched by the supernatural and one could tap this inner divinity
Therefore, the Romantic gospel went by relying on instinct
FRENCH ROMANTICISM Gericault (1791-1824) The Romantic movement started with one painting,
“The Raft of the Medusa” on a huge 16’ by 23 ½’ canvas
The backstory to the painting is that a government ship (let’s call it the Medusa), was carrying French colonists to Senegal sank off the west coast of Africa due to the incompetence of the captain (who happened to be a political appointee)
The captain and crew were first to evacuate and took over the lifeboats, towing a makeshift raft piled with 149 passengers
Eventually, they cut the towrope, leaving the immigrants to drift under the equatorial sun for 12 days without food or water, suffering unspeakable torments. Only 15 of 149 lived
FRENCH ROMANTICISM Gericault investigated the story like a reporter,
interviewing survivors to hear their grisly tales of starvation, madness, and cannibalism
He studied putrid bodies in the morgue to enhance the accuracy of the painting
He sketched decapitated heads of guillotine victims and faces of lunatics in an asylum
Though a realistic event, this painting exemplifies Romanticism because the straining, contorted body language of the nude passengers says everything about the struggle for survival
Struggling for survival was a theme Gericault obsessed over
“THE RAFT OF THE MEDUSA” The painting’s fame broke the stranglehold of the
Classical Academy The painting also led French art to stress emotion
over intellect moving forward Personally, Gericault had no concern for his own
well-being, dedicating himself to a life of passion and defending the downtrodden
His teacher called him a madman He was banned from the Louvre for brawling in the
Grande Galerie He was fascinated by horses—which led to his death
because a series of riding accidents killed him at 32. He only showed three painting publicly in his
decade-long career, yet still was a star, energetically handling rousing scenes of titanic struggle
FRENCH ROMANTICISM Delacroix (1798-1863) He became the leader of the Romantic movement after
Gericault’s death Delacroix believed the artist should feel the agony of
creation (because that’s normal) and was consumed by the flame of genius
“The real man is the savage” –Delacroix’s journal He was described as being “passionately in love with
passion” –Romantic poet Baudelaire His subjects came from stirring topical events Violence was embedded within his exotic images “Massacre at Chios” was painted after hearing news of
Turks slaughtering Christians on the island of Chios Reaction was mixed:
Purists called it a “massacre of painting” Spectators wept when they saw the pitiful babe clutching its
dead mother’s breast What do you think?
“MASSACRE AT CHIOS” (1824)
FRENCH ROMANTICISM Delacroix is a weird dude In 1832, he infiltrated a Moroccan harem and made
hundreds of sketches, fascinated by the colorful costumes and characters
For the next thirty years he stuck to lush colors, swirling curves, and animals like lions and tigers and horses knotted in combat
Dude loved violence though Just look at “The Death of Sardanapalus” Delacroix based the painting on Lord Byron’s verses
of the Assyrian emperor Sardanapalus who ordered his possessions destroyed before burning himself on a funeral pyre
The only problem is those possessions included his ladies of the night…
“THE DEATH OF SARDANAPALUS” (1827)
“THE DEATH OF SARDANAPALUS” (1827) Delacroix portrays the shocking instant when servants
execute the king’s harem girls and horses The background in better lighting is flaming red with intense
vivid light/dark contrasts There are turbulent forms shown in broad brushstrokes,
emblematic of Romanticism Under Delacroix color became indispensable, especially
when painting human forms This differed from the Neoclassics before him applied color
as a tint instead of forms of line drawing Delacroix’s goal was not to reproduce reality precisely, but
rather to capture its essence He established the right of a painter to defy tradition and
paint as he liked His arrogance was also fantastic (at least to study) “If you are not skillful enough to sketch a man falling out of
a window during the time it takes him to get from the fifth story to the ground, then you will never be able to produce monumental work.”
BRITISH ROMANTICISM John Constable (1776-1837) Focused on “boyhood rambles through moors and meadows” for the
subjects of his poetry and art He looked down on landscape painters who based their work on tradition
rather than what they actually saw All his paintings were based on nature in his native Suffolk, England
(never traveled abroad) Scenes are serene, untroubled, and gentle “The sound of water escaping from mill-dams, willows, old rotten plans,
slimy posts, and brickwork—I love such things. These scenes made me a painter.”
As a boy, he went “skying” – sketching cloud formations as source material for paintings, believing the sky was “the key note, … and the chief organ of sentiment” in a painting
His love of clouds, sun, and shadow led him to make the first oil sketches ever painted outdoors
He believed landscapes just be based on observation “Imagination never did, and never can, produce works that are to stand
by comparison with realities” Tiny dabs of color flecked with white simulated the shimmer of light on
surfaces
“THE HAY WAIN” (1821)
BRITISH ROMANTICISM J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) He painted rural landscapes with a smooth, detailed
technique Later he experimented with more radical techniques
and evolved an original style that influenced later generations of artists
He aimed to evoke awe in his viewers and shifted his subject from calm countrysides to Alpine peaks, flaming sunsets, and the me of man’s struggle against the elements
His color was meant to inspire feeling and he was the first to abandon brown or buff priming for a white undercoat, making the final painting stand out
He neutralized deep tones by adding white and left light tones like yellow undiluted for greater luminosity
“CROSSING THE BROOK” (1815)
“RAIN, STEAM, AND SPEED – THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY” (1844) P. 80 ANNOTATED MONA LISA
U.S. ROMANTICISM Focus was two subjects: nature and the natural man Nature: landscapes Natural man: genre paintings of common people in
ordinary activities The subjects in each were seen through rose-colored
glasses Forests were always picture-postcard perfect Happy settlers were always cheerful, both at work and at play
Before 1825, Americans felt nature was menacing; after 1830 the wilderness became a symbol of America’s unspoiled national character
U.S. writers like Emerson and Thoreau preached that God inhabited nature
No longer did Europe restrict U.S. painters; now the grandeur of the American continent was the artist’s inspiration
U.S. ROMANTICISM Thomas Cole (1801-1848) He scaled peaks throughout the Hudson
River valleys to make pencil sketches of untouched natural scenes
During the winter, he showed the essential mood of a place in oil paintings
He shows the foreground in minute detail and blurs distant vistas to suggest the infinite American landscape
Behold, “The Oxbow”
“THE OXBOW” (1836)
“THE OXBOW” Okay, this is going to sound as corny as possible but I
have to quote the book here. The adjectives are so over-the-top. It’s fantastic!
“Cole faithfully reproduced rocks, juicy vegetation, a gnarled tree, and his folding chair and umbrella. The blond panorama of the Connecticut River Valley and receding hills seems to stretch forever. The painting depicts the moment just after a thunderstorm, when the foliage, freshened by a cloudburst, glistens in a theatrical light.”
Somebody towel that author off… Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever been that excited over
anything in my life And it’s a nice painting and all, but it’s a river, a tree,
and some hills…it’s not like seeing the image of the Virgin Mary (sorry, Abhishek)
U.S. ROMANTICISM Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900) and Albert Bierstadt
(1830-1902) were the Lewis and Clark of painting according to The Annotated Mona Lisa
What does that even mean? Better yet, who are the Lewis and Clark of this class? Anyway, apparently they were Lew and Clark because
they sketched the savage beauty of nature from the lush vegetation of the tropics to the icebergs of the Arctic
Bierstadt’s most famous work, “The Rocky Mountains” shows them as a Garden of Eden
He used compositional devices such as a highly detailed foreground (the peaceful encampment of the Shosone Indians) and distant soaring mountains pierced by a shaft of sunlight
To close today, here it is…
“THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS” (1863)