Theme In Romantic Paintings.

The paintings done where a reaction to neoclassicism’s rational approach, a lot of the paintings give a sense of an impressionistic feel. These paintings where look down on and criticized by the academics.  Romantics showed madness, horror, violence and the supernatural these theme’s would not be shown in neoclassical art.

Henri Fuseli- The nightmare

This painting depicts a woman who is having a nightmare, an incubus that looks back at you is drawn as a grotesque monster weighing down on her chest. The horse emphasizes the nightmare as Henri Fuseli painted a mare, as in a night mare.  Fuseli was inspired by German folklore tales about people who sleep alone being possessed. Fuseli liked to draw the supernatural and exaggerated the truth which brought him criticisms as it was not seen before in neoclassical paintings, obviously he was trying to break from the norm and revolutionize art.

Théodore Géricault -The raft of Medusa.

In this era artists thought a lot about tragedy and incorporated them into their work, some which actually happened. In this painting that Gericault did shows the tragedy of people who were lost at sea for about 13 days, they were stranded on a raft with no supplies and tragically ate each other to survive. Gericault wanted to portray this horrible event and talked to people who were on the raft also he visited morgues to see the damage people inflicted on their victims.

Liberty Leading the People -Eugene Delacroix

Romanticism was also a time of unrest, in that time it was common for people to move away from the system and rebel. This paining represents rebellion where the woman is an allegorical figure representing liberty. Delacroix’s work in itself shows rebellion as his work seems sketchy and unfinished which at the time brought him great criticism as his work was not as refined as the neoclassical paintings.

Francisco Goya

Goya was a Spaniard who saw the horrors of war and made representations creating a set of prints which he called the disasters of war. They are very disturbing and show the conflicts between civilians and soldiers also these prints are seen as a protest against violence. 

Bibliography

The Nightmare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2013. The Nightmare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nightmare. [Accessed 26 February 2013].

Henry Fuseli - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2013. Henry Fuseli - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fuseli. [Accessed 26 February 2013].

Henry Fuseli, (2013), The Nightmare [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.barewalls.com/i/c/547407_The-Nightmare.jpg [Accessed 26 February 13].

Romanticism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2013. Romanticism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism. [Accessed 05 March 2013].

Eugène Delacroix - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2013. Eugène Delacroix - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix. [Accessed 05 March 2013].

Théodore Géricault - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2013. Théodore Géricault - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9odore_G%C3%A9ricault. [Accessed 05 March 2013].