ROMANTICISM painting: authors and works

If we delve into the painting of Romanticism and its main painters, there is no doubt that we have to start with one of the most influential figures in contemporary painting, first romantic painter and pioneer of various movements of the artistic avant-garde of the early twentieth century, Francisco de Goya.

In this new lesson from unPROFESOR.com we show you the painters and works of painting of Romanticism that you have to know to know how to recognize the main figures and most emblematic paintings.

Index

1. What are the most outstanding painters of Romanticism by stages?
2. Francisco de Goya (1746-1828)
3. Théodore Géricault (1791 - 1824)
4. Eugene Delacroix (1798 - 1863)
5. William Turner (1775 - 1851)
6. Caspar David Friedrich (1774 - 1840)

If we stick to the different phases of the Romanticism painting we can highlight the following painters:

Preromanticism (1770-1820)

At this initial moment, romantic paintings present characteristics of contemporary style such as Rococo or Neoclassicism, although the themes are already fully romantic. Thus, the romantic painters of this early period are:

• Spain: As we have already pointed out, Francisco de Goya is considered one of the great precursors of the movement.
• England: Precursor country of the movement with Thomas Girtin as a prominent painter.
• Germany: The most outstanding figure is Caspar David Friedrich with the emblematic painting The Wayfarer Above the Sea of ​​Clouds.
• France: The French Romanticism of this moment has Hubert Robert, Paul Dalaroche and Antoine-Jean Gro, Francoise Gerard and Théodore Géricault, as protagonists and parents of romantic painting.

Full Romanticism: 1820-1850

• France: At this time, France became one of the leading countries and leaders of the movement with figures such as Eugéne Delacroix and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
• England: Landscaping gains strength from the hand of painters like Turner or John Constable.
• Germany: Carl Spitzweg.
• Spain: Painters such as Jenaro Pérez Villaamil, a painter highly influenced by the school, stand out. British, especially by Turner, Antonio de Brugada, Francisco de Paul Van Halen, José María Avrial and flowers.
• Other Romantic painters from this stage were Thomas Cole, Aleksander Orłows-ki, and Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov.

Post-Romanticism (1850-1870)

• Spain: In the middle of the century, names such as Pablo Gonzalvo, a large format painter, Cecilio Pizarro, Vicente Poleró, Pedro Pérez de Castro, Lluis Rigalt or Joaquín Cabanyes, among others, were added.
• France: Camille Corot, landscaper.
• England: The pre-Raphaelite movement stands out with painters such as John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Shakespeare Burton or Edward Burne-Jones, among others.

One of the most prominent authors of Romanticism painting was Francisco de Goya. And it is that Experts point out that Goya's works as On May 3, 1808 in Madrid (1814), The disasters of war (1810-1815) and the Black paints (1820-1824) they already announce Romanticism. Works full of drama, imagination and passion in which he captured the traumatic experiences lived during the Napoleonic invasion.

Goya uses more marked lines, chiaroscuro and bright colors to recreate an atmosphere of brutality, fear, violence and all the nonsense and cruelty of war.

Their Black Paintings are really disturbing works and are considered precedents of later movements such as expressionism or surrealism.

Géricault He is he quintessential romantic artist, since from the beginning of him he was attracted to capture suffering, pain, madness and despair. Thus, Géricault did not follow the paths taken by the academic painters and chose to be independent without his works being well accepted by the critics.

One of the causes of this rejection was his scathing criticism of society and his taste for portraying crazy and maniacal characters from mental hospitals or asylums. He also showed scenes as dramatic and bloody as that of The raft of the jellyfish, representation of the shipwreck of the frigate Medusa and the raft of its survivors. Some people who were forced to practice cannibalism in order to survive when no one came to their rescue.

Géricault was involved to the point of visiting the survivors to show the wounds, their suffering or the madness they reached or make numerous sketches of human remains and corpses to be the most realistic possible. One of the young men in the painting, the one holding an old man in a red cloak, is a portrait of Delacroix.

This box full of drama, dark and raw it became one of the most emblematic paintings of French Romanticism.

Another of his best known works is The crazy woman, one of the ten paintings of insane people painted by the author.

Delacroix he is another of the great authors of Romanticism painting. In his work the influence of Michelangelo, Rubens, Constable and Turner can be seen. Influences that can be seen in the juxtaposition of tone, small brushstrokes, rich coloring and compositions full of contained movement.

Like Géricault, Delacroix reflected in his works current affairs and historical issues in which he prevails exoticism, being especially interested in oriental culture. His works also became emblematic and constitute a benchmark in the history of Art.

Thus, works like Dante's boat (1822), Orphan in the cemetery (1824), Sardanápalo's death (1827) or Liberty leading the people (1830), are among the best known of the painter.

Turner, great watercolorist and member of English Romanticism, he was one of the great landscapers of the time, creating suggestive and subdued atmospheres. All full of harmony and with colors that help capture those ethereal environments, turning the atmospheric effects into the core of the compositions.

Landscapes in which small figures appear as a counterpoint to the grandeur of the landscape. Some works in which always it reflects the grandeur and power of nature over the human being. Thus, it usually reflects catastrophes, subsidence and fires.

Among his works stand out Snowstorm: Hannibal and his army crossing the Alps, circa 1812, Ulysses mocking Polyphemus, 1829., Childe Harold's pilgrimage to Italy, around 1832, Fire of Parliament on October 16, 1834, 1835. The Daredevil towed to its last berth for scrapping, 1835, Rain, steam and speed, 1844.

We finish this review of the authors and works of Romanticism painting to talk about Caspar David Friedrich, the author of another of the most representative paintings of Romanticism, The walker on the sea of ​​clouds (h. 1817).

Introducer of Romanticism in Germany, Caspar David Friedrich was one of the most appreciated authors of the time for the impressive allegorical landscapes of him, Thus, nature is the protagonist, the human being being a mere spectator. Mountains, seascapes, always lonely, majestic and impressive, always drawing inspiration from well-known sites.

Other works are The Sea of ​​Ice (1824), The Stages of Life (1835) and Easter Morning (1835).

If you want to read more articles similar to Romanticism painting: authors and works, we recommend that you enter our category of History.

• Neret, Gilles (1999) Eugene Delacroix 1798-1863. The Prince of Romantic Painters, Taschen
• Toman, R (2008) Neoclassicism and Romanticism, H.F Ullmann
• Ramos, Domingo (2015) The painting of the soul. Romanticism and religion of the 19th century in Germany, Pontifical University of Salamanca