ROMANTICISM
Eugene Delacroix (FRENCH)
Theodore Gericault (FRENCH)
Francisco Goya (SPANISH)
John Constable (ENGLISH)
Joseph Turner (ENGLISH)
Hudson River School
Thomas Cole
Frederick Edwin Church
Asher B. Durand
Albert Bierstadt
Robert Duncanson
ROMANTICISM
Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres Master of Drawing NEOCLASSICAL
Eugene DelacroixSelf-Portrait, 1837 ROMANTIC
ROMANTICISM Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781.
The woman lies asleep, draped across the bed. An incubus, a
demon believed in medieval times to prey, often sexually, on sleeping
women, sits on the woman.
In the background, a ghostly horse with flaming eyes bursts into the scene from beyond the curtain.
Romantic artists liked to depict the dark terrain of the human
subconscious. In their images of the sublime and terrible, artists
often used something of Baroque dynamism with natural details in their quest for moving visions.
This contrasted the more intellectual, rational Neoclassical
themes and presentations. These were not exclusive traits however.
The word nightmare is actually derived from the words night and
mara. Mara was a spirit in northern mythology that was thought to
torment and suffocate sleepers.
ROMANTICISM
Francisco Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, 1798
Goya reflected on the Enlightenment and Neoclassical eras’ penchant for rationality and order in order to come to the ultimate decision to dismiss Neoclassicism. The
Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters is an etching and aquatint from Los
Caprichos, a series.
This image shows Goya asleep, resting on a table or writing stand, surrounded by
menacing creatures who seem ready to attack. The owls symbolize folly, and the
bats symbolize ignorance.
ROMANTICISM Francisco Goya, The Family of Charles IV, 1800.
Goya was recognized for his skill fairly early in life and appointed as the Pintor del Rey (Painter to the King) in 1786. He was later appointed to First Court Painter in 1799, and produced works such as this.
The Family of Charles IV shows King Charles IV and Queen Marie Luisa surrounded by their children. Goya used his predecessor Diego Velazquez’s Las Meninas as inspiration for the work. The royal family appears facing viewers in an interior space. Goya includes himself in the rear left of the painting in the act of painting on a large canvas.
ROMANTICISM Francisco Goya, The Third of May 1808, 1814.
The Spanish people, finally recognizing the French as invaders, sought a way to expel the foreign troops.
On May 2, 1808, in frustration, the Spanish
attacked the Napoleonic soldiers in a chaotic and
violent clash. In retaliation and as a show of force, the French responded the next
day by executing numerous Spanish citizens. This
tragic event is the subject of Goya’s most famous
painting, The Third of May 1808.
ROMANTICISM
Francisco Goya, Saturn Devouring One of His Children, 1819.
Goya’s later works were called the “Black Paintings.” His declining heath only contributed to his state of mind. His works
became increasingly disillusioned and pessimistic. This painting depicts the raw carnage and violence of Saturn, wild eyed and
monstrous, as he consumes one of his children. Because of the similarity of Kronos and Khronos (the Greek word for time),
Saturn has come to be associated with time. This has led to an interpretation of Goya’s painting about the artist’s despair over
the passage of time. Despite the image’s simplicity, it conveys a wildness, boldness, and brutality that cannot help but evoke and
elemental response from any viewer.
The demons that haunted Goya emerged in his art. Historian Gwyn Williams nicely sums up Goya’s Black Paintings with this
quote: “As for the grotesque, the maniacal, the occult, the witchery, they are precisely the product of the sleep of human reason; they are human nightmares. That these monsters are
human is, indeed, the point.”
ROMANTICISM
Théodore Géricault, Insane Woman, 1822-1823.
Gericault examined the influence of mental states on the human face and believed, as others did, that a face accurately revealed
character, especially in madness and at the instance of death.
He made many studies of the inmates at hospitals and institutions for the criminally
insane, and he studied the severed heads of guillotine victims.
These portraits present the psychic facts with astonishing authenticity, especially in contrast to earlier idealized commissioned portraiture.
The more the Romantics became involved with nature, sane or mad, the more they hoped to
reach the truth.
HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL
The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism. Their paintings depict the Hudson River
Valley and the surrounding area, as well as the Catskill Mountains, Adirondack Mountains, and White Mountains of New Hampshire. Note that "school" in this sense refers to a group of people whose outlook,
inspiration, output, or style demonstrates a common thread, rather than a learning institution.
Thomas Cole, The Oxbow, 1836.
HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL
Some of the artists included in this ‘school’ or
group are:
Thomas Cole
Frederick Edwin Church
Asher B. Durand
Albert Bierstadt
Robert Duncanson
Thomas Cole, The Oxbow, 1836.
HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL Asher B. Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849.
Kindred Spirits is perhaps the best known painting of Hudson River School painter Asher Durand. It depicts the recently deceased painter Thomas Cole and his friend the poet William Cullen Bryant in the Catskill Mountains. The landscape is not a literal record of a particular site but an idealized memory of Thomas Cole's discovery of the region.
Bryant's daughter Julia donated the painting to the New York Public Library in 1904. In 2005, it was sold at auction to Walmart heiress Alice Walton for $35 million, a record for a painting by an American artist.
REALISM The Barbizon School
The Barbizon school(circa 1830 – 1870) of painters is
named after the village of Barbizon (France) where the
artists gathered. The Barbizon painters were part of a movement towards realism in art which arose
in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time.
Millet, The Gleaners, 1857. REALISM
REALISM The Barbizon School
Millet, The Gleaners, 1857. REALISM
In 1824 the Salon de Paris exhibited works of John Constable. His rural scenes
influenced some of the younger artists of the time, moving them to abandon
formalism and to draw inspiration directly from nature. Natural scenes became the
subjects of their paintings rather than mere backdrops to dramatic events.
During the Revolutions of 1848 artists gathered at Barbizon to follow Constable's
ideas, making nature the subject of their paintings.
One of them, Jean-François Millet, extended the idea from landscape to figures — peasant figures, scenes of
peasant life, and work in the fields. In The Gleaners (1857), Millet portrays three
peasant women working at the harvest. There is no drama and no story told,
merely three peasant women in a field.
REALISM
Created 1st known image in 1826
Worked with Niepcé. After Niepcé’s death, added a lens and a positive metal image (Daguerrotype)
Discovered light-sensitive paper, Negative image on metal for countless reproductions
Discovered using silver nitrate on glass made for clearer pictures in just a few seconds
Joseph-Nicéphore Niepcé
Louis-Jacques Daguerre
Henry Fox Talbot
Frederick Scott Archer
Great names in Photography
REALISM
Eugene Durieu and Eugéne Delacroix, Draped Model, 1854.
The collaborative efforts of Delacroix and Eugene Durieu as seen in this
photograph demonstrate the symbiotic relationship between
painters and photographers.
This photograph provided Delacroix with a permanent image
of the posed nude female model, photographers sometimes also
attempted to create the mood through careful lighting and the
draping of the cloth.
REALISM Capturing an Artist’s Likeness
Nadar, Eugene Delacroix, 1855.
This portrait shows the painter at the height of his career. In the
photograph, the artist appears with remarkable presence. His gesture and expression create a revealing
mood that seems to tell viewers much about him.
The new photographic materials made possible the rich range of tones in Nadar’s images. Glass negatives and albumen printing
paper could record finer detail and wider range of light and shadow.
REALISM
Discovered light-sensitive paper, Negative image on metal for countless
reproductions
Henry Fox Talbot