Classicism in CrisisGros to Delacroix

Thomas Crow

Antoine-Jean Gros [French neoclassical/romantic painter, 1771-1835], The Battle of Nazareth (esquisse [sketch]), oil on canvas, 53 x 76”, Musée de Nantes, France. How is this painting made to cohere and what does that suggest about the origins of Romantic style? What new category of painting subject has been invented here? Points of view of “citizen soldiers.”

Antoine-Jean Gros, Napoleon in the Plague House at Jaffa, 1804, oil on canvas, 17’5” x 23’7”, Louvre, Paris. Where is Jaffa? How is the subject different from Gros’s Battle of Nazareth?

Antonio Canova [Italian neoclassical sculptor 1757-1822], Venus Victorious (Pauline Borghese as Venus), 1808, waxed marble, 79” long. Below, cameraman at the Getty Canova exhibition, 2007

Antonio Canova, Magdalene, 1796, marble, 37” high. Note Flaxman-inspired importance of line. Who was Giovanni Sommariva?

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon [French Romantic painter 1758-1823] Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime, oil on canvas, 96” x 9’7”, 1808 . What artists and works influenced this one and how is it different from them? Who commissioned this painting?

Théodore Géricault [French Romantic painter, 1791-1824] The Charging Light Cavalryman, 1812, oil on canvas, 349 x 266 cm., Louvre, Paris

Why is Gericault called the first great Romantic?

Théodore Géricault ,The Wounded Heavy Cavalryman, 1814, oil on canvas, 358 x 294 cmLouvre, Paris

What are the “failings” of this painting’s execution and how does Gericault “overwhelm” them? How is this figure different from Davidian heros and masculine types?

THÉODORE GÉRICAULT (French romantic painter, 1791-1824: 33 years) Raft of the Medusa, 1818–1819. Oil on canvas, approx. 16’ x 23’. Louvre, Paris. Note Baroque lighting and theatricality. What regime was in power at this time? Was Gericault typical of the artists who served the powers-that-be?

Two of many preparatory studies Gericault made for The Raft of the

Medusa

Théodore Géricault, Heads, oil on canvas study for The Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819

Théodore Géricault, Portrait of an Insane Man (kleptomania) 1822-23, oil on canvas, 24 x 20, Ghent Museum of Fine Arts

What was the subject of this series? Where was it made?

THÉODORE GÉRICAULT, Insane Woman (Envy), 1822–1823. Oil on canvas, approx. 2’ 4” x 1’ 9”. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon.

Eugène Delacroix (French Romantic painter, 1798 -1863) The Bark of Dante and Virgil, 1822, oil on canvas, 74 x 95”, Louvre, Paris. How old was the artist at this time? Did he paint this for the Rome Prize? What painting influenced this one?

“Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible.“ (Charles Baudelaire)

Eugène Delacroix, The Massacre at Scio, 1824, oil on canvas, 13’8” x 11’7”Louvre, Paris

Eugène Delacroix, Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi, 1827, oil on canvas, 84” x 56”, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, France

The figure is an allegory of what? What great English Romantic poet died here? How long did it take the artist to paint this large Orientalist painting? What was its purpose? Did Delacroixunderstand the situation well?

EUGÈNE DELACROIX (French Romantic Painter, 1798-1863). Death of Sardanapalus, 1826. Oil on canvas, approx. 12’ 1” x 16’ 3”. Louvre, Paris. Romanticism and Orientalism

EUGÈNE DELACROIX, Liberty Leading the People, 1830, oil on canvas, approx. 8’ 6” x 10’ 8”. Louvre, Paris.

Pages from Delacroix’s Moroccan notebook, 1832

Eugene Delacroix, The Women of Algiers, 1834, the Louvre. Orientalism

EUGÈNE DELACROIX, Tiger Hunt, 1854. Oil on canvas, approx. 2’ 5” x 3’ Louvre, Paris. // Romanticism

J-A-D Ingres (French neoclassical painter, 1780-1867) The Vow of Louis XIII, 1824, oil on canvas, 13’9”x 8’8” Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Montauban, France

J-A-D Ingres The Apotheoisis of Homer, 1827, oil on canvas, 12’8” x 16’11” Louvre, Paris