Romanticism (Contextual Studies)

Romanticism was an art movement that had a great significant impact on the world, specifically Western Europe at the turn of the 19th Century.  After taking information from a large number of sources, it's clear that many people have a different and sometimes conflicting understanding of Romanticism's role and core values.  Many claim that the movement was a counter argument to the Age of Enlightenment, whereas some of the artwork was instrumental in the French revolution, which can be considered a triumph of the Enlightenment.  In truth, I am not sure I fully understand it, but I feel that Romanticism meant a lot to a lot of different people.

The Age of Enlightenment signaled a great change for a lot of people.  Occurring sometime around 1715, the Enlightenment follows on from the Scientific revolution and marks a time when intellectual ideas were put forth to the masses, conflicting with the ideals of the Church and often Monarchies and Matriarchs.  Philosophy would also play a key part of life in the 18th century, resulting in many people questioning life and it's values.  The Encyclopedia was published for the first time in 1751, and information was being readily made available.  The Age of Enlightenment would be crucial to Romanticism and it's significance.

At first Romanticism seemed to be a counter argument to the Enlightenment.  It depicted overly beautified subjects, idealising them.  Artists were beginning to paint with emotion and passion, almost exploiting beauty in their works.  This tended to be in two forms.  The first of which was landscapes.  Nature itself was considered an affront to the scientific ideals of the Enlightenment, and was therefore the perfect counter argument for a lot of artists.  Artists like Casper David Friedrich was one of these such artists.  His work would go on to feature grand and epic nature scenes, though each one would contain a Human element.

Wanderer above the sea of fog from 1818 is my favourite of Friedrich's paintings.  It shows a man conquering a mountain and towering over a fog draped landscape.  The atmosphere is simply incredible.  I challenge anyone to look at this image and not feel inspiration prod at them.  Everything about this image is grand and beautified.  Exaggerated into ideal view of what could be a gritty and dark image.  The bright blues really stand out in stark contrast to the darker tones of the foreground and the man.

Chalk Cliffs on Rugen also from 1818 is similar in it's glorification of nature, yet differs in it's representation of Mankind.  Unlike before, this image suggests a more observant role.  The colours are brighter and warmer, oranges and reds being introduced into the originally cool pallet.  It's clear that Friedrich's affair with Romanticism changes throughout his life and works, and I feel the perfect example of this is the below image, Two men contemplating the Moon from 1825-1830, near the end of Romanticism.  This image is simply beautiful.  Unlike before with the Wanderer, this image treats the people as observers rather than the dominant force.  It's almost reflective in it's portrayal.  The pallet is dulled, yet features more colours.  It manages to capture an almost nostalgic feeling.

However, Romantiscism would begin to mean something very different.  Through raw emotion and passion, the ideals behind the movement would begin to change.  This leads us to the second focus of Romantiscism.  Rather than focusing on nature and glorifying the past and past ideals, Romantiscism would turn to focus on the individual, be it a person or an idea, or in some cases, a group.  This would lead to a sense of rebellion, passion fueled ideals against the Church and Monarchs that the Enlightenment had been debunking.  This is most evident during the French Revolution.  Artists such as Gericault and Delacroix were instrumental at the time.

Theodore Gericault, arguably most famous for the above painting, depicted a rather graphic and horrible scene in an oddly beautiful manner.  The Raft of the Medusa from 1818 shows a raft of survivors from a shipwreck who were abandoned by their Captain, a representative of the French Monarchy.  Ultimately those on the raft would turn to cannibalism and murder in an effort to survive.  The image painted by Gericault, though horrific, almost glorifies the scene.  The people involved are modeled on Greek statues and art forms, which most artists believed to be a representation of true beauty of the Human form.  The lighting is idealistic, the composition painting a triangle pointing towards hope.  The whole scene is depicted as a heroic struggle on the part of those on the raft, despite the horrific nature of the scene.  It highlights the actions taken by the French monarchy that led to this incident.

Similarly, Eugene Delacroix's painting Liberty Leading the People from 1830 (towards the end of Romanticism) shows actions taken during the French Revolution, highlighting the heroic nature and the struggles of the people as they fought to overthrow the French Hierarchy.  Similar to The Raft of the Medusa in many ways, it depicts what is at it's core a graphic and horrific moment in history.  His composition leads to focus on Liberty, a symbol of freedom for the French people, as she literally leads them forward in their war on the French government.  Both of these paintings utilise traditional techniques to show the establishment in a negative light, highlighting the struggles of mankind.

Somewhere between the two is J.M.W. Turner who painted numerous landscapes that included industrialised vehicles such as trains and boats, took a slightly different approach.  His method bordered on impressionistic and abstract, and pitted bright light and dull tones against each other to create these deeply atmospheric images.  Very similarly to Raft of the Medusa, this painting Slave Ship from 1830 shows a ship abandoning numerous people who had been thrown overboard.  Lifeless corpses can be vaguely made out floating in the foreground.  This echoes the theme of a horrific moment in time being glorified by the art style and contrasts the ideals of the time.

In truth, I'm not sure I fully understand what defines Romantiscism.  To me it feels as though there were two forms of Romantiscism.  Both seem to be overly beautified and idealistic, though the intent differs greatly.  The first, glorifying nature and past ordeals, whilst the second fights alongside the ideals of the Enlightenment to encourage rebellion against the old ways.  Both seem to use a colour and bright pallet couple against heavy and dark tones.  Both are fueled by passion and emotion and try to convey a strong message.

On a personal note, I feel a stronger appreciation for these images and the movement itself once I understood them a little more.  Initially I considered images like these, specifically Delacroix's Liberty, to be stuffy and 'old fashioned'.  Now, I appreciate not only their importance, but the sheer defiance of the artist to contradict the norm like this.  I have a newfound admiration for these artists and the works they accomplished. 

Practical Work

I wasn't really sure how to approach practical work with Romanticism.  I was still left a little confused as to what made a Romanticist painting a Romanticist painting.  So, to try and help me gain a better understanding, I tried to recreate a few of my favourite paintings from the movement.

This is a small section of Rain, Steam and Speed by JMW Turner.  This was a painting I really admired from the movement.  When I painted this, I had very little experience with painting, and this was a challenge for me.  I'm usually clean and tidy with my approach to things, and I tend to stick closely to form and shape.  With this painting, all of those values are thrown directly out of the window.  Painting this forced me to be free and wavy and loose.  It's not something that comes naturally to me, but the fact that the result forms a coherent image was astounding.  It really helped change my perception of what I could do with paint, and how different applications of the brush could work.

This tiny acrylic painting is a replica of Friedrich's Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog.  And in a word, it's terrible.  I focused on the background, and tried to recreate the fog lifting and merging with the harsh shape of the rocks.  It didn't turn out as well as I hoped.  To make it worse, I free handed in navy the outline of the figure, and needless to say, I ended up with this terrible example of the Human body.  I'm quite ashamed of this, to be honest.  So much so, I considered not uploading it.  Still though, any painting experience I can get...

I experienced a similar thought process with Impressionism here.  I learnt more about painting and applications than I did the movement itself, which is not in my mind a bad thing.  But I do with I understood Romanticism a little better.  It's a bizarre one for me.  I sort of view it as 'Rose Tinted Glasses', in which I mean a favourable representation of past events.  Some of these artworks were truly epic.