The presentation will introduce creativity outstanding painters France, Germany, Spain and England of the era of romanticism.
Romanticism in European painting
Romanticism is a direction in the spiritual culture of the late XVIII - the first thirds of XIX century. The reason for its appearance was disappointment in the results French Revolution. The motto of the revolution is "Freedom, Equality, Fraternity!" turned out to be utopian. The Napoleonic epic that followed the revolution and the gloomy reaction caused moods of disappointment in life, pessimism. A new fashionable disease has spread rapidly in Europe" world sorrow and appeared new hero, yearning, wandering around the world in search of an ideal, and more often in search of death.
The content of romantic art
In an era of gloomy reaction, the English poet George Byron became the ruler of thoughts. His hero Childe Harold is a gloomy thinker, tormented by longing, wandering the world in search of death and parting with life without any regret. My readers, I'm sure, now remembered Onegin, Pechorin, Mikhail Lermontov. The main thing that distinguishes romantic hero, this is an absolute rejection of gray, everyday life. The romantic and the layman are antagonists.
"Oh let me bleed
But give me space soon.
I'm scared to suffocate here
In the damned world of merchants...
No, better vile vice
Robbery, violence, robbery,
Than bookkeeping morality
And the virtue of well-fed faces.
Hey cloud, take me away
Take it with you on a long journey
To Lapland, or to Africa,
Or at least to Stettin - somewhere!
G. Heine
Escape from the gray everyday life becomes the main content of the art of romanticism. Where can a romantic "escape" from the ordinary and dullness? If you, my dear reader, are a romantic at heart, then you can easily answer this question. Firstly, the distant past becomes attractive for our hero, most often the Middle Ages with its noble knights, tournaments, mysterious castles, beautiful ladies. The Middle Ages were idealized and glorified in the novels of Walter Scott, Victor Hugo, in the poetry of German and English poets, in the operas of Weber, Meyerbeer, and Wagner. Walpole's Castle of Otranto, the first English "Gothic" horror novel, was published in 1764. In Germany in early XIX century Ernest Hoffmann wrote "Devil's Elixir", by the way, I advise you to read it. Secondly, a wonderful opportunity for "escape" for the romantic was the sphere of pure fiction, the creation of a fictional, fantastic world. Remember Hoffmann, his Nutcracker, Little Tsakhes, Golden Pot. It is understandable why Tolkien's novels and stories about Harry Potter are so popular in our time. Romance is always there! It's a state of mind, right?
Third way the departure of a romantic hero from reality - an escape to exotic countries untouched by civilization. This path led to the need for a systematic study of folklore. The art of romanticism was based on ballads, legends, epics. Many works of romantic visual and musical art are associated with literature. Shakespeare, Cervantes, Dante again become the rulers of thoughts.
Romanticism in the visual arts
In each country, the art of romanticism acquired its own national traits, but at the same time, all of their works are characterized by a lot in common. All Romantic artists are united by a special attitude towards nature. The landscape, in contrast to the works of classicism, where it served only as a decoration, a background, acquires a soul for the romantics. The landscape helps to emphasize the state of the hero. It will be useful to compare European fine art of romanticism with art and
Romantic art prefers night landscape, cemeteries, gray fogs, Wild rocks, ruins of ancient castles and monasteries. special treatment to nature contributed to the birth of the famous English landscape parks (remember the regular French parks with straight alleys and trimmed bushes and trees). The subjects of paintings are often stories and legends of the past.
Presentation "Romanticism in European Fine Art" contains a large number of illustrations acquainting with the work of outstanding romantic artists of France, Spain, Germany, England.
If the topic is of interest to you, it may be interesting for you, dear reader, to get acquainted with the material of the article " Romanticism: passionate nature " on the Arthive site dedicated to art.
I found most of the illustrations in excellent quality on the site Gallerix.ru. For those who want to delve into the topic, I advise you to read:
- Encyclopedia for children. T.7. Art. – M.: Avanta+, 2000.
- Beckett V. History of painting. - M .: Astrel Publishing House LLC: AST Publishing House LLC, 2003.
- Great artists. Volume 24. Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes. - M .: Publishing house "Direct-Media", 2010.
- Great artists. Volume 32. Eugene Delacroix. - M .: Publishing house "Direct-Media", 2010
- Dmitrieva N.A. Short story arts. Issue III: Countries Western Europe XIX century; Russia XIX century. ‒ M.: Art, 1992
- Emokhonova L.G. World Artistic Culture: Proc. Allowance for students. avg. ped. textbook establishments. - M .: Publishing Center "Academy", 1998.
- Lukicheva K.L. The history of painting in masterpieces. - Moscow: Astra-Media, 2007.
- Lvova E.P., Sarabyanov D.V., Borisova E.A., Fomina N.N., Berezin V.V., Kabkova E.P., Nekrasova World art culture. XIX century. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2007.
- Mini encyclopedia. Pre-Raphaelism. - Vilnius: VAB "BESTIARY", 2013.
- Samin D.K. One hundred great artists. – M.: Veche, 2004.
- Freeman J. History of Art. - M .: "Publishing house Astrel", 2003.
Good luck!
(French romanticisme), ideological and artistic direction in European and American spiritual culture con. 18 - 1st floor. 19th centuries As a style of creativity and thinking, it remains one of the main aesthetic and worldview models of the 20th century.
Romanticism arose in the 1790s. first in Germany and then spread throughout the Western European cultural region. His ideological ground was the crisis of rationalism of the Enlightenment, the artistic search for pre-romantic trends (sentimentalism, "storming"), the Great French Revolution, German classical philosophy.
To the main features romantic style it is necessary to attribute the game element, which dissolved the aesthetic framework of classicism; heightened attention to everything peculiar and non-standard (moreover, the special was not simply given a place in the universal, as the baroque style or pre-romanticism did, but the very hierarchy of the general and the individual was turned over); interest in myth and even an understanding of myth as an ideal romantic creativity; symbolic interpretation of the world; striving for the ultimate expansion of the arsenal of genres; reliance on folklore, preference for an image over a concept, aspirations for possession, dynamics for statics; experiments in synthetic unification of the arts; aesthetic interpretation of religion, the idealization of the past and archaic cultures, often resulting in social protest; aestheticization of everyday life, morality, politics.
In the visual arts, romanticism manifested itself most clearly in painting and graphics, less clearly in sculpture and architecture (for example, false Gothic). Majority national schools Romanticism in the visual arts developed in the struggle against official academic classicism. Developing in many countries, romanticism everywhere acquired a bright national identity due to local historical traditions and conditions. The most consistent romantic school has developed in France, where artists, reforming the system means of expression, dynamized the composition, combined the forms with a violent movement, used a bright saturated color and a broad, generalized manner of writing (painting by T. Gericault, E. Delacroix, O. Daumier, plastic art by P.J. David d "Angers, A.L. Bari, F Ryda) In Germany and Austria, early romanticism was characterized by close attention to everything acutely individual, melancholic-contemplative tonality of the figurative-emotional structure, mystical-pantheistic moods (portraits and allegorical compositions by F.O. Runge, landscapes by K.D. Friedrich and J.A. Koch), the desire to revive the religious spirit of the German and Italian painting 15th century (creativity of the Nazarenes); Biedermeier art (the works of L. Richter, K. Spitzweg, M. von Schwind, F. G. Waldmuller) became a kind of fusion of the principles of romanticism and “burgher realism”. In the UK, the landscapes of J. Constable and R. Bonington are noted for the romantic freshness of painting, the fantastic images and unusual expressive means - the work of W. Turner, attachment to the culture of the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance- the work of the masters of the late Romantic Pre-Raphaelite movement Sh.G. Rossetti, E. Burne-Jones, W. Morris and others). In other countries of Europe and America, the romantic movement was represented by landscapes (paintings by J. Inness and A.P. Ryder in the USA), compositions on themes folk life and history (the work of L. Galle in Belgium, J. Manes in the Czech Republic, V. Madaras in Hungary, P. Michalovsky and J. Matejko in Poland, etc.).
Gericault, Delacroix and his followers. A decisive departure from classicism, in content, was the painting by Géricault: “The Raft of the Frigate Medusa”, the plot of which is based on a real and, in addition, a modern event [The French frigate Medusa died in 1816; The voyage of those fleeing on the raft had already lasted 12 days, when the Argus frigate removed several dozen dying people from it. In 1875 Gericault had an imitator in the person of Alfred Roll.]; in the salon of 1819, this painting was a striking success. On a raft made from the remains of a frigate, moving among the waves, under a bad sail, a group of half-dead people and corpses is depicted at the moment when the sail of the ship became visible in the distance. Although in this work the expressiveness of forms and faces is more remarkable than the color, nevertheless, the homogeneous gray tone impressive. Unfortunately, Gericault died a few years after this picture, without fulfilling his further artistic intentions. It should be noted that this negative K., a realist artist, came from the workshop of Guerin. It is difficult to say how Gericault would have been received in the first years of our century, if he had been possible at that time; but now its revolutionary direction for art took place again in the period of the development of liberal ideas in French society. It was not until 1818 that the last Allied troops cleared France, and the restoration went its own way; but the lessons of the great revolution did not remain without trace, and the minds were slowly and in a different order preparing the second revolution. Painting that obediently followed the changes social order, although it could not, in its essence, follow all the twists and turns of the rapid flow of ideas, but even now it was gradually preparing for a revolution, which took on a decisive character in the works of Delacroix, starting with his painting "Dante's Boat", which appeared in the salon of 1822. , i.e. 3 years after the “Raft of the frigate Meduza”. A student of the classic Guerin, Delacroix, however, was resolutely against the instructions of his teacher. The picture was met by part of society and criticism with censure, the other - with delight. Even Gro, a classicist in principle, approved of the painting's colorfulness, advising the artist to improve his drawing of forms. Scene taken from Divine Comedy» Dante, from the 8th song of Hell, depicts the terrible voyage of the poet, accompanied by Virgil, through the waters of the Wrathful. This picture was followed by The Massacre on the Island of Chios, which also aroused great praise not only for the expression strong passions but also for the fact that the artist declared himself an enemy of despotism and a friend of freedom; all sympathies were on the side of the unfortunate heroes of the Greek uprising against their oppressors - the Turks. Supporters of K. condemned this picture more than the first, and the same Gro, paraphrasing the name of the picture, called it "the beating of painting." Extremely passionate letters were written on both sides. critical articles; views seemed irreconcilable, since some considered the beauty of forms and lines to be the principle of art, the nobility of which should not be violated even by suffering, and antique themes most suitable for the personification of their views; others found beauty in the power of expression and in life, the reproduction of which requires strong color, variety in colors and tones, as one of the means for transferring the viewer to reality. Some demanded from the artist, above all, mental work, others - inspiration by feeling. David put colorfulness in a subordinate position to the drawing, that is, to lines and form, and the corresponding composition; the painting technique of the school was calm and coloring was allowed as much as was necessary to distinguish one subject from others. Some found Delacroix's composition in The Massacre on the Island of Chios to be disorderly, not obeying any rules, inelegant, and the painting sketchy, unfinished, the forms of people wrong, the expressiveness coarse; Delacroix's admirers forgave him for the shortcomings of the drawing, not always noticing them, carried away by the specificity of faces and positions and the romanticism or drama of the whole. Delacroix said about himself: “For me, no work is possible if imagination does not play a role in it. If I am not agitated, like a snake in the hand of a Pythia, I remain cold; This must be acknowledged and this must be obeyed. But with such a temperament, which, however, was not expressed, however, in his life, he nevertheless persistently pursued artistic idea and interpreted it in all sorts of ways, which is a lot of evidence in the 6000 drawings left after his death. The artistic temperament forced him to look for ardent themes, to express passions brought to extreme limits; his brush is, as it were, hasty, but in essence resolute; he took all the colors, but not randomly, and combined them harmoniously. But the work, smooth, unified, everywhere equally thought out and equally related to all parts of the picture, as in David, could not express what Delacroix was looking for. The artist searched for and found plots corresponding to his temperament not in history, but in the creations of literature, where, if there were descriptions historical figures and events that have already passed through the imagination. Delacroix was fond of the writings of Dante, Byron, Shakespeare, Goethe, Walter Scott; from here he appeared, in addition to the already named paintings: “Sad Greece on the ruins of Missolungi”, “Beheading of Marino Faliero”, “Death of Sardanapalus”, “Killing of the Bishop of Lyutti by the Boar of Arden, Vil. Delamarck" (from "Quentin Durward"). The last of these paintings (under fire lighting) made a terrible impression with brutal faces and wild passion. actors scenes. Delacroix received from his admirers the name "Victor Hugo of painting", while his enemies called him "Robespierre and executioner of painting". New direction, given painting, which was quickly joined by many, was called romantic. Delacroix, in contrast to David, led a quiet life, did not enter into politics, and only once responded to the struggle of parties with the painting “Freedom on the Barricades”, where the figure of a woman embodied the poetic work of Auguste Barbier, written shortly after the July Revolution [Criticism, however, has not yet I completely decided who borrowed from whom: whether the painter was from the writer, or vice versa.]. After V. Hugo wrote "Les Orientales", Delacroix, in search of a colorful, travels to Tangier and Algiers, resulting in paintings of brilliant color - "Algerian women in a harem", "Jewish wedding in Morocco", etc., where his themes are already calm. Of the romantics, Eugene Deveria deserves mention, for a while he overshadowed the founder of the school with his painting “The Birth of King Henry IV”; in addition, Sigalon, Poterle, Boulanger, S. Evre - all romantics of the second category. Sigalon (1788-1837) wrote bloody, terrifying scenes: "Narcissus" and "Locusta testing poison on a slave" (1824), "Josabeth in the massacre", Boulanger - "Mazeppa tied to a wild horse", scenes of misfortune from "Romeo and Juliet" and "Lucretius Borgia" by V. Hugo, "Judith", "Triumph of Petrarch" - all this in a bold colorful way new school. In 1861, he exhibited "The Sabbath", according to V. Hugo, - wild dance randomly intertwined figures. Ari Schaeffer liked to depict passions that were not so ardent and disturbing, but deeply penetrating into the heart, which is different from Delacroix, but nevertheless he is a romantic. “The Corpse of Gaston de Foix on the Battlefield of Ravenna” is the first painting already strongly belonging to the romantic school, “The Souliot Women” (1827) - even more so, “Faust and Mephistopheles” (1881), “Gretchen”, “Francesca da Rimini "(In Kushelevskaya art gallery, in St. Petersburg. academy of arts.), according to Dante, "Paolo" (1835) and many religious paintings.
Alexandre Gabriel Dean in scenes Eastern life excellently portrayed the colorful play of light and colors ("Turkish Patrol", "Turkish Guard", "Monkey-Painter", "Monkey-Musician"). He loved to depict biblical scenes and even imagined that he had a special vocation for this kind; placed figures among large landscapes of a romantic nature. Its main advantage is color. Camille Roqueplan (1803-1855) - a romantic, although he came out of the classical school: “Scene from the Confessions of Rousseau”, “The Lion in Love”, “Antiquary”, “Scene from Bartholomew night»; Eugene Isabey (son of Jean-Baptiste), Narcisse Diaz; Robert Fleury took historical plots and different good drawing: "Scene from Bartholomew's Night", "Marino Faliero", "Religious Competition in Poissy" (1840). Alexandre Hesse (b. 1805), a student of Gros, also departed from classicism. Some of these artists, as well as Champmartin, Gigoux, different styles. Indeed, romanticism did not have definite, restrictive and constraining rules, the individuality of the artists was so free that some of them are even known only for their virtuosity, others took scenes simply from the works of the latest fashion writers and lived by someone else's fiction at all costs. Some, as we have seen, portrayed ugliness or extremes that aroused disgust. Therefore, Romanticism had its enemies, who considered the principles of the Romantics as false as those of David. This one closed in the ancient pagan world, romanticism - mainly in the Middle Ages, according to Walter Scott; There was only a chronological permutation. Romantics in every way wrote the martyrs of Chateaubriand and took types from literature up to and including Alfred Musset and Eugene Sue. Delacroix was indeed a general, but without an army, since his followers gradually reached the path that led to the negation of art and replaced the art of painting with adroit technique. They founded literary painting and showed how far it can go: pictures have become vignettes for books. One critic, referring mentally to the time of David, says that there are two kinds of innovators: one destroys, the other creates. David belonged to the first: although he founded nothing, his activity did not pass without a trace and useless, for he crushed the degenerate painting. Romanticism, in turn, dropped the school of David, but the time of romanticism has passed. He did not produce anything worthy of life in the offspring. Were talented, but for the most part works produced impressions strong in suddenness, and not such that would penetrate deeply and would remain for a long time. Of the artists, the most important and most powerful opponent of romanticism was Ingres. At the beginning of his activity, he himself did not enjoy the location of the academy; although he received the 1st Roman award for "Achilles" at the age of twenty, but only at the age of 43 was he included among the members of the academy. Neither the ancient ideals of David, nor, even less, pure nature satisfied him; he understood the false pathos of the pseudo-classical school, but on the other hand he hated the direction and painting of Delacroix to such an extent that he transferred the hatred to himself and could not hear his name without a hostile feeling. The coloring of Ingres is, of course, superior to that of David; loving beautiful, noble forms, he did not imitate in painting simply sculptural works, like David, but also did not like the coloring of the romantic school, nor strong expressions of passions. Despite his removal from both extremes, he is rather a moderate and modified classical idealist. The conciliatory direction, emanating from romanticism, belongs to Delaroche (a student of Gros), who tried to combine a correct and thorough drawing with harmonic color, without giving a dominant advantage to either one or the other quality. The content of his paintings is usually dramatic or tragic, but he avoids the sharply ugly, which the close followers of Delacroix were not afraid of. In addition, Delacroix took his stories from history ("Cromwell and Charles I, lying in a coffin", "The Assassination of the Duke of Guise", "Edward's Sons"). Delaroche is related in spirit to the poets C. Delavigne and A. de Vigny. Couture (see), who went through the school of Gros and Delaroche, also followed a conciliatory path; his “Romans of the times of decline”, which glorified him throughout France, however, represent the decline of classicism in forms, but in a colorful sense they do not reach top level romantic school.
The art of romanticism is formed in polemics with classicism. IN social aspect the emergence of romanticism is associated with the Great French Revolution of the 18th century, it arises as a reaction of general enthusiasm about its beginning, but also as a deep disappointment in the capabilities of a person in its defeat. Moreover, German romanticism was later considered a bloodless version of the French Revolution.
As an ideological and artistic movement, romanticism declares itself in the first half of the 19th century. It occurs primarily as literary direction- here the activity of romantics is high and successful. No less significant is the music of that time: vocals, instrumental music, Musical Theatre(opera and ballet) of romanticism still form the basis of the repertoire today. However, in the visual and spatial arts, romanticism manifested itself less clearly both in the number of created works and in their level. Romantic painting reaches the level of masterpieces in Germany and France, the rest of Europe lags behind. It is not customary to talk about the architecture of romanticism. Some originality here reveals only garden art, and even then the romantics develop here the idea of an English landscape, or natural, park. There is also a place for some neo-gothic tendencies of romance, which saw their art in the series: gothic - baroque - romanticism. There is a lot of such neo-gothic in the Slavic countries.
Fine art of romanticism
In the XVIII century. the term "romantic" meant "strange", "fantastic", "picturesque". It is easy to see that the words "romance", "roman" (knightly) are etymologically very close.
In the 19th century the term was interpreted as the name of a literary movement, opposite in its settings to classicism.
In the visual arts, romanticism manifested itself interestingly in painting and graphics, less clearly in sculpture. The most consistent school of romanticism developed in France, where there was a stubborn struggle against dogmatism and abstract rationalism in official art in the spirit of academic classicism. The founder of the romantic school of painting was Theodore Géricault (1791-1824). He studied with the masters of classicism, but, having retained from classicism the attraction to generalized heroic images, Gericault for the first time expressed in painting a sense of the conflict of the world, the desire for an expressive expression of significant events of our time. Already the first works of the artist reveal high emotionality, the "nerve" of the era of the Napoleonic wars, in which there was a lot of bravado ("Officer of the horse rangers of the imperial guard, going on the attack", "Wounded cuirassier leaving the battlefield"). They are marked by a tragic attitude, a feeling of confusion. The heroes of classicism did not experience such feelings or did not express them publicly and did not aestheticize despondency, confusion, melancholy. Picturesque canvases Romanticism artists are painted dynamically, the color scheme is dominated by a dark tone, which is enlivened by intense color accents, impetuous impasto strokes.
Gericault creates an incredibly dynamic picture of "Running free horses in Rome." Here he excels in the persuasiveness of the transfer of movement of all previous artists. One of the main works of Gericault is the painting "The Raft of the Medusa". In it he depicts real facts, but with such power of generalization that contemporaries saw in it not the image of one particular shipwreck, but of the whole of Europe in despair. And only a few, the most persistent people continue the struggle for survival. The artist shows a complex scale human feelings- from gloomy despair to a stormy explosion of hope. Dynamics this canvas determined by the diagonal of the composition, effective modeling of volumes, contrasting changes in light and shade.
Gericault managed to prove himself as a master of the portrait genre. Here he also acts as an innovator, defining the figurative specifics of the portrait genre. In the "Portrait of a twenty-year-old Delacroix" and in self-portraits, the idea of a romantic artist as an independent creator, a bright, emotional personality is expressed. He laid the foundations for the romantic portrait, later one of the most successful romantic genres.
Gericault also joined the landscape. Traveling around England, he was struck by her appearance and paid tribute to her beauties, creating many landscape paintings painted both in oils and watercolors. They are rich in color, fine in observation, not foreign social criticism. The artist called them "Large and small English suites". How typical for a romantic to call a pictorial cycle a musical term!
Unfortunately, Gericault's life was short, but he laid the foundation for a glorious tradition.
Since the 1820s became the head of romantic painters Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863). He experienced a strong influence of Gericault, with whom he was friends from the student's bench. He studied the painting of old masters, especially Rubens. Traveled around England, was fascinated by the painting of Constable. Delacroix possessed a passionate temperament, powerful creative imagination and high efficiency. From the initial steps in the professional field, Delacroix resolutely follows the romantics. The first painting he exhibited was of Dante and Virgil in a boat crossing the Styx ("Dante's Boat"). The picture is full of tragedy, gloomy pathos. With the next canvas, "Massacre on Chios," he responded to real events related to the suffering of the Greeks from the Turkish yoke. Here he openly expressed his political position, taking the side of the Greeks in the conflict, with whom he sympathized, while the French government flirted with Turkey.
The painting caused both political and art criticism attacks, especially after Delacroix, influenced by Constable's work, rewrote the painting in lighter colors. In response to criticism, the artist creates the canvas "Greece on the ruins of Missolungi", in which he again refers to the burning theme of the struggle of Greece for liberation from the Turkish yoke. This painting by Delacroix is more symbolic, a female figure with a raised hand in a gesture of either cursing the invaders, or in a call to fight, personifies the whole country. It seems to anticipate the image of Freedom in the coming, famous work artist.
Looking for new heroes strong personalities Delacroix often refers to literary images Shakespeare, Goethe, Byron, Scott: "Tasso in the asylum", "Death of Sardanapal", "Murder of the Bishop of Liege"; makes lithographs for "Faust", "Hamlet", expressing the subtlest shades of feelings of the characters, which earned Goethe's praise. Delacroix comes to fiction the way his predecessors approached Holy Scripture, making it an endless source of subjects for paintings.
In 1830, under the direct influence of the July Revolution, Delacroix painted a large canvas "Liberty Leading the People" ("Freedom at the Barricades"). Above the realistically depicted figures of participants in the revolutionary struggle, poor, mostly young people, inspired by the struggle, a magnificent woman hovers, reminiscent of the "geniuses" of Veronese. She has a banner in her hands, her face is inspired. This is not just an allegory of freedom in the spirit of classicism, it is - tall symbol revolutionary impulse. However, it is impossible to abandon the living, sensual female figure - she is so attractive. The picture turned out to be complex, charming, dynamic.
Like a real romantic, Delacroix travels through exotic countries: Algiers, Morocco. From the trip, he brings five paintings, among which "Lion Hunt in Morocco", apparently a tribute to his beloved Rubens.
Delacroix works a lot as a decorator, creating monumental works in Bourbon and Luxembourg palaces, Parisian churches. He continues to work in the portrait genre, creating images of people of the era of romanticism, such as F. Chopin. Creativity Delacroix belongs to the heights of painting of the XIX century.
Painting and graphics German romanticism tends to be sentimental for the most part. And if the German romantic literature really constitutes an entire era, you cannot say the same about the visual arts: in literature there were "Storm and Onslaught", and in the visual arts - the idealization of the family patriarchal life. In this sense, creativity Ludwig Richter (1803-1884): "Forest spring near Aricci", "Wedding procession in spring", etc. He also owns numerous drawings on the themes of fairy tales and folk songs made in a dryish manner.
But there is one scale figure in German romanticism which cannot be bypassed. This Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). He was a landscape painter and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Later he settled in Dresden and taught.
His landscape style is original, the paintings are remembered from the first meeting, it is felt in them that these are landscapes of a romantic artist: they consistently express the specifics of a romantic worldview. He painted landscapes of southern Germany and the Baltic coast, wild rocks overgrown with forests, desert dunes, and a frozen sea. People are sometimes present in his paintings, but we rarely see their faces: the figures, as a rule, turn their backs to the viewer. Friedrich sought to convey the elemental power of nature. He searched for and discovered the consonance of natural forces and human moods and quests. And although he reflects life quite accurately, Friedrich's art is not realistic. This frightened Soviet art critics in the recent past, little was written about the artist, there were almost no reproductions of him. Now the situation has changed, and we can enjoy the deep spirituality of his paintings, the melancholy detached contemplation of Friedrich's landscapes. The clear rhythm of the composition, the severity of the drawing are combined in his works with the contrasts of chiaroscuro, rich in lighting effects. But sometimes Friedrich comes in his emotionality to aching melancholy, a sense of the frailty of everything earthly, to the stupor of a mystical trance. Today we are experiencing a surge of interest in the work of Friedrich. His most successful works are "Death of Nadezhda in the Ice", "Monastic Cemetery under the Snow", "Mass in a Gothic Ruin", "Sunset on the Sea" and others.
IN Russian romanticism there is a lot of contradiction in painting. Besides long years it was believed that good artist- realist. This is probably why the opinion was established that O. Kiprensky and A. Venetsianov, V. Tropinin and even A. Kuindzhi are realists, which seems to us incorrect, they are romantics.
Romanticism(Romanticism) is an ideological and artistic movement that emerged in European and American culture the end of the 18th century - the first half of the 19th century, as a reaction to the aesthetics of classicism. Initially formed (1790s) in philosophy and poetry in Germany, and later (1820s) spread to England, France and other countries. He ordained latest development art, even those of its directions that opposed it.
Freedom of self-expression, increased attention to individual, unique human traits, naturalness, sincerity and looseness, which replaced the imitation of the classic samples of the 18th century. The Romantics rejected the rationalism and practicality of the Enlightenment as mechanistic, impersonal, and artificial. Instead, they prioritized the emotionality of expression, inspiration.
Feeling free from the declining system of aristocratic rule, they sought to express their new views, the truths they had discovered. Their place in society has changed. They found their reader among the growing middle class, ready to emotionally support and even bow before the artist - a genius and a prophet. Restraint and humility were rejected. They were replaced by strong emotions, often reaching extremes.
Young people were especially influenced by Romanticism, who got the opportunity to study and read a lot (which is facilitated by the rapid development of printing). Ideas inspire her individual development and self-improvement, the idealization of personal freedom in the worldview, combined with the rejection of rationalism. Personal development was placed above the standards of a vain and already fading aristocratic society. The romanticism of educated youth changed the class society of Europe, becoming the beginning of the emergence of an educated "middle class" in Europe. And the picture Wanderer above the sea of mist" With with good reason can be called a symbol of the period of romanticism in Europe.
Some romantics turned to the mysterious, the enigmatic, even the terrible, folk beliefs, fairy tales. Romanticism was partly associated with democratic, national and revolutionary movements, although the "classical" culture of the French Revolution actually slowed down the arrival of Romanticism in France. At this time there are several literary movements, the most important of which are Sturm und Drang in Germany, primitivism in France, led by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the Gothic novel, interest in the sublime, ballads and old romances (from which the term "Romanticism" actually came from) is increasing. source of inspiration for German writers, theorists of the Jena school (the brothers Schlegel, Novalis and others), who declared themselves romantics, was the transcendental philosophy of Kant and Fichte, which put at the forefront creative possibilities mind. These new ideas, thanks to Coleridge, penetrated into England and France, and also determined the development of American transcendentalism.
Thus, Romanticism was born as a literary movement, but had a significant influence on music and less on painting. In the visual arts, Romanticism manifested itself most clearly in painting and graphics, and less so in architecture. In the 18th century, the favorite motifs of artists were mountain scenery and picturesque ruins. Its main features are the dynamism of the composition, volumetric spatiality, rich color, chiaroscuro (for example, the works of Turner, Géricault and Delacroix). Among other romantic painters, one can name Fuseli, Martin. The work of the Pre-Raphaelites and the neo-Gothic style in architecture can also be seen as a manifestation of Romanticism.
IN late XVIII At the beginning of the 19th century, the ideas of classicism and the Enlightenment lost their appeal and relevance. New which, in response to the canonical methods of classicism and moral social theories Enlightenment appealed to man, his inner world, gained strength and mastered the minds. Romanticism was very widespread in all areas cultural life and philosophy. Musicians, artists and writers in their works sought to show the high destiny of man, his rich spiritual world, the depth of feelings and experiences. From now on, a person with his inner struggle, spiritual quests and experiences, and not "blurred" ideas of general well-being and prosperity, have become the dominant theme in works of art.
Romanticism in painting
The painters convey the depth of ideas and their personal experiences through the created with the help of composition, color, accents. IN different countries Europe had its own characteristics in the interpretation of romantic images. This is due to philosophical trends, as well as the socio-political situation, to which art was a lively response. Painting was no exception. Fragmented into small principalities and duchies, Germany did not experience serious social upheavals, the artists did not create monumental canvases depicting titan heroes, here the interest was deep spiritual world man, his beauty and majesty, moral quest. Therefore, romanticism in German painting is most fully represented in portraits and landscapes. The works of Otto Runge are classic examples of this genre. In the portraits made by the painter, through a fine study of facial features, eyes, through the contrast of light and shadow, the artist's desire is conveyed to show the inconsistency of the personality, its power and depth of feeling. Through the landscape, a slightly fantastic, exaggerated image of trees, flowers and birds, the artist also tried to discover the versatility human personality, its similarity with nature, diverse and unknown. bright representative romanticism in painting was the landscape painter K. D. Friedrich, who emphasized the strength and power of nature, mountain, sea landscapes, consonant with man.
Romanticism in French painting developed according to other principles. Revolutionary upheavals, stormy public life manifested themselves in painting by artists' inclination to depict historical and fantastic subjects, with pathos and "nervous" excitement, which was achieved by bright color contrast, expression of movements, some randomness, spontaneity of the composition. The most complete and vivid romantic ideas are presented in the works of T. Gericault, E. Delacroix. Artists masterfully used color and light, creating a pulsating depth of feelings, a sublime impulse for struggle and freedom.
Romanticism in Russian painting
Russian social thought responded very vividly to new directions and currents emerging in Europe. and then the war with Napoleon - those significant historical events which most seriously influenced the philosophical and cultural searches of the Russian intelligentsia. Romanticism in Russian painting was represented in three main landscapes, monumental art, where the influence of classicism was very strong, and romantic ideas were closely intertwined with academic canons.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, increasing attention was paid to the image creative intelligentsia, poets and artists of Russia, as well as ordinary people and peasants. Kiprensky, Tropinin, Bryullov tried with great love to show the depth and beauty of a person’s personality, through the look, turn of the head, the details of the costume to convey the spiritual quest, the freedom-loving nature of their “models”. Great interest in the personality of a person, its central place in art contributed to the flourishing of the self-portrait genre. Moreover, the artists did not paint self-portraits to order, it was a creative impulse, a kind of self-report to contemporaries.
Landscapes in the works of the Romantics were also distinguished by their originality. Romanticism in painting reflected and conveyed the mood of a person, the landscape had to be in tune with him. That is why the artists tried to display the rebellious nature of nature, its power and spontaneity. Orlovsky, Shchedrin, depicting the sea, mighty trees, mountain ranges, on the one hand, conveyed beauty and multicolor real landscapes, on the other hand, created a certain emotional mood.
