Early 19th Century ArtRomanticism and Realism

and Neoclassicism

Romanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe.

In part, it was a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature, and was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature.

Stokstad notes that both Neoclasscism and Romanticism remained vital in early 19th century European and American art.

Romanticism

The movement validated strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, terror, horror and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic categories.

In European painting, led by a new generation of the French school, the Romantic sensibility contrasted with the Neoclassicism being taught in the academies.

Romanticism

How do we read the paintings that fall into this middle space between Neoclassicism and Romanticism?

How should we describe them?

What characteristics can we identify?

War,History Painting,and Napoleon

Jacques-Louis DavidNapoleon Crossing the Saint Bernard1800-1801oil on canvas

•What is written on the rocks in the lower left?•How did Napoleon actually cross the Alps?•What makes this image Neoclassical?•What makes this image suggestive of Romanticism?•How is the composition influenced by the Baroque? •How is the composition here profoundly different from the composition of The Oath of the Horatii (1784)?

Jacques-Louis DavidThe Oath of the Horatii 1784

Napoleon Crossing the Saint Bernard 1800-1801

Jean-Auguste-Dominique IngresNapoleon I on the Imperial Throne1806oil on canvas

Ingres’ teacher was David.

Antoine-Jean GrosNapoleon in the Plague House at Jaffa1804 oil on canvas

Gros’ teacher was David.This image is very emblematic of Romantic paintings.

Antoine-Jean GrosThe Battle of Abukir

1806 oil on canvas

Antoine-Jean GrosNapoleon Bonaparte on the Battlefield of Eylau, 1807

1808 oil on canvas

Eugene DelacroixScenes from the Massacre at Chios1822-1824oil on canvas

Goya Francisco de Goya Y Lucientes

The Third of May, 1808: The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid1814oil on canvas

Jacques-Louis DavidThe Death of Marat1793oil on canvas

Goya Francisco de Goya Y Lucientes

Chained Prisoner1806-12indian ink wash

Goya Francisco de Goya Y Lucientes

Family of Charles IV1800

oil on canvas

Las Meninas or The Family of Philip IVDiego Velázquez 1656-1657 oil on canvas

Jean-Auguste-Dominique IngresMonsieur Bertin1832oil on canvas

Jean-Auguste-Dominique IngresPrincess de Broglie1851-53oil on canvas

Orientalism and Ingres

Orientalism is a term used to identify works of art made by European artists which depict Middle Eastern subjects. Orientalism is widely used in art to refer to the works of the many Western 19th century artists, who specialized in "Oriental" subjects, often drawing on their travels to Western Asia and/or the Middle East.

Edward Said (Orientalism, 1978) argues that European artists tend to essentialize their Middle Eastern subjects. To essentialize means to present a subject or a culture as monolithic or one-dimensional. To essentialize means to represent something in terms of what are believed to be its “essential” elements. Usually this sort of representation reveals more about the maker of the image than about the actual subject.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique IngresLarge Odalisque

1814 oil on canvas

Why could we consider this work “mannerist?”Why is this work exemplary of the style taught by the French Academy?

Jean-Auguste-Dominique IngresThe Bather1808oil on canvas

Jean-Auguste-Dominique

IngresThe Turkish Bath1862oil on canvas on wood

Jean-Auguste-Dominique IngresLarge Odalisque1814

Jacques-Louis David Madame Récamier 1800

How are these two images similar?

Romantic and Realist LandscapesQuestion: What is the artist using the landscape to accomplish? How can the viewer tell? What visual evidence is there?

RomanticismUsually Romantic works have dramatic and intensely emotional subject matter but Romantic landscapes also often also meant to convey the artist’s almost religious reverence for the landscape—which became increasingly important as a industrial revolution intensified.

Romantic landscape painting is

dramatic• the content emphasizes turbulent

or fantastic natural scenery• disasters• the sublime (something that

inspires awe)

naturalistic• the content represents tranquil

nature• the content signals a religious

reverence toward nature

Romantic painting is characterized by

• fluid, loose brushwork• strong colors• complex compositions• powerful contrasts of light

and dark• expressive poses and

gestures

Joseph Mallord William TurnerFisherman at Sea 1796 oil on canvas

Joseph Mallord William TurnerSnow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps

1812 oil on canvas

Joseph Mallord William TurnerPeace--Burial at Sea

1842 oil on canvas

Caspar David Friedrich Monk by the Sea1809 oil on canvas

He felt like many Romantics that “God was manifest in the landscape and that art was the ideal mediator between the divinity in nature and the individual” (Stokstad , 993).

Poet on a MountaintopShen ZhouMing dynasty, c.1500leaf from an album

Caspar David Friedrich The Abbey in the Oakwood1810 oil on canvas

Thomas ColeThe Oxbow1836Oil on canvas

Thomas Cole The Oxbow (The Connecticut River near Northampton) 1836

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Ville d'Avray 1867

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot The Bridge at Mantes 1868-70

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Mill at Saint-Nicolas-les-Arras 1874

Types of Paintings•religious images

•portraits

•history paintings

•still lifes

•genre* (scenes from every day life)

* Genre painting is a fairly new development at the end of the 16th century (1580’s).

Religious Images

GoyaThe Holy Family1780oil on canvas

GoyaPortrait of the Duchess of Alba1797oil on canvas

Portraits

Goya The Third of May, 1808: The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid1814 oil on canvas

History Paintings

Still Lifes

GoyaDead Birds1808oil on canvas

Genre

GoyaThe Snowstorm1786oil on canvas