-Artwork-

The Romantic Period1820-1860

Analysis of ArtworkRomanticism refers to a movement in art,

literature, and music during the 19th century.

Romanticism is characterized by the following:Interest in the Common Man/ChildhoodStrong Senses/Emotions/FeelingsAwe of NatureCelebration of the IndividualImportance of Imagination

Romanticism in ART“Defined as an aesthetic in literary criticism

around 1800Gained momentum as an artistic movement

in France and Britain in the early decade of the 19th century and flourished until mid-century

Emphasis on imagination and emotionAsserted the originality of the artist- a

central notion of Romanticism Emphasis on the SUBLIME- ‘all that stuns

the soul, all that imprints a feeling of terror, leads to the sublime’ (Denis Diderot, French philosopher)”

Information from Kathryn Calley Galitz: Department of 19 th Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Romanticism in ART “Recurring images of shipwrecks and other representations

of man’s struggle against the awesome POWER OF NATURE was common

Interest in the individual and subjective Exploration of emotional states extended into the animal

kingdom, marking the Romantic fascination with animals as both forces of nature and metaphors for human behavior

In favor of imaginary and exotic subjects In its stylistic diversity and range of subjects, Romanticism

defies simple categorization Poet and critic Charles Baudelaire wrote in 1846,

‘Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor in exact truth, but in a way of feeling.’”

Information from Kathryn Calley Galitz: Department of 19th Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Eugène Delacroix. Girl Seated in a Cemetery. 1824. Oil on canvas. Louvre, Paris, France.

http://www.abcgallery.com/D/delacroix/delacroix42.html

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Girl Seated in a Cemetery• “An air of sorrow and fearfulness emanates from the

picture, and tears well from the eyes of the grief-stricken girl as she looks apprehensively upward.

• The dimness of the sky and the abandoned laying-ground are consonant with her expression of melancholy.

• The girl's body language and clothing evoke tragedy and vulnerability: the dress drooping down from her shoulder, a hand laid weakly on her thigh, the shadows above the nape of her neck, the darkness at her left side, and the cold and pale coloring of her attire.

• All these are combined to emphasize a sense of loss, of unreachable hope, her isolation, and the absence of any means of help, as she is also looking on toward an unseen and unknown spectacle or spectre.” Wikipedia.org

Caspar David Friedrich. The Wanderer Above the Sea Fog. 1818. Oil on canvas. Hamburg.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caspar_David_Friedrich_032.jpg

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The Wanderer Above the Sea Fog• “In the foreground, a young man stands upon a rocky precipice

with his back to the viewer. He is wrapped in a dark green overcoat, and grips a walking stick in his right hand.

• His hair caught in a wind, the wanderer gazes out on a landscape covered in a thick sea of fog.

• In the middle ground, several other ridges, perhaps not unlike the ones the wanderer himself stands upon, jut out from the mass.

• Through the wreaths of fog, forests of trees can be perceived atop these escarpments. In the far distance, faded mountains rise in the left, gently leveling off into lowland plains in the east. Beyond here, the pervading fog stretches out indefinitely, eventually commingling with the horizon and becoming indistinguishable from the cloud-filled sky.”

Wikipedia.org

Eugène Delacroix. The Lion Hunt. 1861. Oil on canvas. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.

http://www.abcgallery.com/D/delacroix/delacroix41.html

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The Lion Hunt• “Beginning in the fifteenth century, Western artists were

fascinated by the mystery and exoticism of the Middle East. • In 1832, Delacroix made a lengthy trip to Morocco, Algeria,

and Spain that provided lasting inspiration for his work. • Lion Hunt, painted almost thirty years later, reflects this

experience, but it is also influenced by the hunt pictures of the seventeenth-century master Peter Paul Rubens.

• Swirling around the central figure of the embattled lioness, the composition draws its dynamism from the passionate color and expressive turbulence of Delacroix's innovative style.”

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/lion-hunt-31063

Two Men Contemplating the Moon, ca. 1825–30Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774–1840)

Oil on canvas http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/10/euwc/ho_2000.51.htm

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Caspar David Friedrich: Germany’s most famous Romantic painter

• Two men in painting: Friedrich himself, on the right, and his talented young colleague August Heinrich

• “Mood of pious contemplation relates to fascination with the moon as expressed in contemporary poetry, literature, philosophy and music

• Both figures are seen from the back so that the viewer can participate in their communion with nature

• Both wear Old German dress (adopted in 1815 by radical students as an expression of oppostion to the ultraconservative policies then being enforced in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars”"Caspar David Friedrich: Two Men Contemplating the Moon" (2000.51) In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2000.51. (December 2008)

Mother and Child by the Sea, 1830Johan Christian Dahl (Norwegian, 1788–1857)

Oil on canvas http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/roma/ho_2007.164.2.htm

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Johan Christian Dahl• “Friend of Caspar David Friedrich• Adopted Friedrich’s common elements of paintings:

– Mysterious, mood-enhancing effects of dusk, fog, moon and twilight

– Evocative shape of anchors (evoke loneliness in his paintings- not in Dahl’s paintings)

• Elements of this painting:– Recurrent image of shipwreck– With her mother’s outstretched arm supporting her, the girl

points to an approaching boat, seemingly in anticipation of a long-awaited

– Large anchor silhouetted by the reflected light of the full moon add a hopeful note to what might otherwise have been a melancholy image

– reunion with a loved one”"Johan Christian Dahl: Mother and Child by the Sea" (2007.164.2) In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2007.164.2.

(December 2008)

The Lady of Shalott (1888). John William Waterhousehttp://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Image:JWW_TheLadyOfShallot_1888.jpg

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The Lady of Shallot• “Painting representing a scene from Lord Alfred Tennyson’s 1832 poem of the same name• He was a Romantic writer• Poet is describing the plight of a young woman isolated under an undisclosed curse

in a tower near King Arthur’s Camelot• Forbidden to look directly at reality or the

outside world: instead she was doomed to view the world through a mirror and weave what she saw into tapestry”

• “Finally looked out directly at Camelot when she saw Sir Lancelot passing. This brought about a curse

• Lady escaped by a boat during an autumn storm; as she sailed towards Camelot and certain death, she sang a lament

• Her frozen body was found shortly afterwards by knights and ladies of Camelot, one of whom was Lancelot”

Information from wikipedia.org

From part IV of Tennyson’s poem“And down the river’s dim expanse

Like some bold seer in a trance,Seeing all his own mischance—With glassy countenanceDid she look to Camelot.And at the closing of the dayShe loosed the chain, and down she lay; The broad stream bore her far away,The Lady of Shalott.”