The general idea of romanticism is refreshingly different and not entirely as I expected it to be, the first thought that came to my mind was of course lovers. Romantic scenes probably laced with large amounts of cheese, thankfully this is not the case. Although romance has Its place in Romanticism it’s actually a lot darker and has more core values at Its core.
Background
When researching on the movement at (theartstory.org/movement-romanticism Seiferle, 2017 p.1) I found in the key notes that Romanticism was born from the French revolution and was defined by the nation fighting for freedom against injustices and spread throughout Europe. This was not limited to paintings but also in music, print making and so on. It began at around 1780’s and lasted til about the 1830’
Keynotes includes:
- The fight for freedom
- Express ones emotions within the artwork
- To speak out about injustices
- Express individuality
- Express ones own selves and often inner demons
- To show man’s connection with nature.
Some painters used nature to express themselves in both beautiful, idealistic landscapes, such as Caspar David Friedrich and his painting ‘Morning’ with it’s beautiful forest like landscape and the sunlight peeking out over the mountain ridges.
He was not the only one who used landscapes this way, Thomas Cole also used landscapes to show majestic mountains and winding rivers, bathed in sunlight with the passing of rain leaving from the west. Even the dark greys of wet weather doesn’t take away from the beauty of the picture, ‘The Oxbow, View from the mount Holyoke, Northampton, massachusetts after a thunderstorm’
Another who strongly influenced Romanticism was Théodore Géricault particularly with his painting ‘The raft of the Medusa’. Born into a wealthy tobacco family gaining access to the most prestigious schools was of little concern to the young artist. Using the skills that he’d gained to produce artworks that were often quite dark in nature, such as ‘Guillotined Heads’.
Some more tame such as ‘Male ‘académie’ Seated and Seen from Behind’ and yet all were beautifully done.
