1 Romantic painters

2 Outline Introduction Part I. Romanticism Part II. Painters in France Part III. Painters in Europe Conclusion References

3 Introduction The key belief of Romanticism was the value of individual experience or individualism Romanticism refers to a movement in the arts flourishing in the late 18th to the mid 19th century that rebelled against academic Neo-Classicism It was the first cultural movement to involve all of Europe in art, architecture, literature and music Romantics sought far away places and exotic adventures; It implies the placement of intuition and emotion over reason Sentimental and magical, feelings of melancholic, reverie, legendary, folkloric or chivalrousFusion of the elemental forces of nature, sense of awe inspiring emotion Sympathized with the fantasy and spirituality of the Gothic, interest in passions, increasing emphasis on mood

4 Part I. Romanticism European and American movement from 1800 to 1850 The word romantic first became current in 18th-century English and originally meant “romancelike,” resembling the strange and fanciful character of medieval romances Feeling began to be considered more important than reason both in literature and in ethics, an attitude epitomized by the work of the French philosopher Jean Jacques RousseauJean Jacques Rousseau In France the formative stage of romanticism coincided with the Napoleonic Wars ( ), the first French romantic painters found their inspiration in contemporary eventsNapoleonic Wars Landscapes suffused with romantic feeling became the chief expression of romantic painting in England, as in Germany

5 Part II. Painters in France The main figure for French romanticism was Théodore Géricault ( ), French painter, perhaps the most influential artist of his time, and a seminal figure of the 19th- century romantic movement in artThéodore Géricault The powerful brushstrokes and conflicting light and dark tones heighten the sense of his isolation and vulnerability Géricault's masterpiece, Raft of the Medusa ( ), portrays on a heroic scale the suffering of ordinary humanity The painting's disturbing combination of idealized figures and realistically depicted agony, gigantic size and graphic detail Its depiction of a politically volatile scandal (the wreck was due to government mismanagement) caused controversy

6 Théodore Géricault. The Raft of the "Medusa" Oil on canvas. 490 x 720 cm. Louvre

7 Part II. Painters in France Delacroix often took his subjects from literature, used color to create an effect of pure energy and emotion compared to music His Death of Sardanapalus (1827), inspired by a work of the English romantic poet Lord Byron; illustrations of various works of Shakespeare, Walter Scott, and GoetheLord Byron Energetic vibration intensified by long, nervous brushstrokes; Rejects neoclassical emphasis on form and outline Delacroix 's masterpiece, Liberty Leading the People one of the most famous romantic paintings Celebrates the day of 28 July 1830, when the people rose and dethroned the Bourbon king, but failed to proclaim a republic

8 Delacroix. Liberty Leading the People (28 July 1830) Oil on canvas. Louvre, Paris

9 Part III. Painters in Europe German romantic painting, like German romantic poetry and philosophy, was inspired by a conception of nature as a manifestation of the divine The greatest German romantic painter, Caspar David FriedrichCaspar David Friedrich Landscapes suffused with romantic feeling, chief expression of romantic painting in England: John Constable and TurnerJohn Constable Turner Goya ( ), innovative Spanish painter and etcher By 1786 Goya worked in an official capacity for King Charles III, the most enlightened Spanish monarch of the 18th centuryGoya The horrors of warfare were of great concern to Goya at the time of the Napoleonic occupation of Spain In 1814 he completed Second of May, 1808 and Third of May, 1808 (both Prado)

10 Goya. The Third of May, 1808: The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid Oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid

11 A Mill at Gillingham in Dorset (Parham's Mill) Oil on canvas. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, USA

12 Conclusion Toward the middle of the 19th century, romantic painting began to move away from the intensity of the original movement Among the outstanding achievements of late romanticism are the quiet, atmospheric landscapes of the French Barbizon school, which included Camille Corot and Théodore RousseauBarbizon schoolCamille CorotThéodore Rousseau The influence of romanticism can be traced from Constable through the Barbizon school to impressionism, but a more direct descendant of romanticism was symbolismimpressionism Virtually all modern art derived from romanticism Primacy of artistic freedom, originality, and self-expression in art were originally conceived by the romantics

13 Delacroix. The Death of Ophelia Lithograph. Louvre

14 References