Romanticism: Art, Literature, and Revolution
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic and literary movement that emerged at the end of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It gave strength, excitement, freedom, and imagination in the correction of classical art forms; it was a rebellion against social conventions. Romanticism opposes the corseted character of academic painting, breaking the rules of composition. The French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars which raged in Europe, and the internal crisis of the Ancien Régime system caused the loss of faith in Reason.
A new sensibility characterized by a core value given to sentiment, the exaltation of passion, intuition, imagination, and individual freedom. Independence movements occur, nationalism develops, industrialization, the rise of the bourgeoisie, renewing architecture, and the picture appears. The texture begins to be valued in itself, and rough surfaces appear. The brushwork is free, lively, and full of expression. Disappears against the color line, releasing the forms and limits defined too. Light is important, and taking care of their gradations to be effective and dramatic. Compositions are hectic, unbalanced, often complex, with many characters, very sharp gestures, dramatic, and tragic.
Representatives
- In France: Géricault and Delacroix.
- In England: Visionaries: Fuseli and Blake.
- In Germany: Friedrich.
Géricault
Géricault is a bridge artist; during his short life, he passes from his neoclassical formation approach to the predecessor of romantic realism. He demonstrates qualities that distinguish him clearly from the neoclassical school painters like Jacques-Louis David: he prefers to address issues of daily life, elevated to heroic deeds, showing the despair and suffering of the people. For independence of style and little docile nature, Géricault was sidelined from the great official commissions. Admirable examples are the “London Scene: Pity the Sorrows of a Poor Old Man” and “The Piper.” He is a painter who represents the passage of classicism, in which he is formed as an artist, to Romanticism, while anticipating realism, being greater the significance of his work.
Delacroix
Delacroix was an artist of great success in his time; his work still keeps a reminiscence of Classicism to Romanticism, while being lighter. He felt a great attraction to the liberation war that pitted Greece against the Turkish Empire. On several occasions, he represented issues with this topic. Although he did not take an active part in the revolution of 1830, his masterpiece, Liberty Leading the People, is the epitome of all political and social concerns. The technique of Delacroix, the great contrasts of color, applied with small brushstrokes to create a particular effect of vibration, had an important influence on the Impressionists. He is also famous for his newspapers, in which he manifests his literary talent and expresses his views on art, politics, and life.
Blake
Blake: Original personality, poet, visionary, artist… He is considered a pre-Romantic, convulsed by its figures and the application of color. He reflects a fantasy world, wildly imaginative, in which mythology and religion are mixed. This fantasy world has also to be considered a precursor of Surrealism. His work takes place during the Neoclassical period but has the passion of Romanticism, the imagination of Surrealism, and aesthetically announces the organicism of Art Nouveau.