The
Publication of the lyrical Ballads – Romanticism
Wordsworth & Coleridge
( Poetry inspires the painters Constable , Turner, Blake and Fuseli)
Romanticism “The
subjective view of the world” 1800-1890
William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23
April 1850) was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor
Coleridge (21 October 1772 – 25 July 1834) , helped to launch the
Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication
Lyrical Ballads
Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems
is a collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, first published in 1798 and generally considered to have
marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement in literature.
The immediate effect on critics was modest, but it became and remains
a landmark, changing the course of English literature and poetry.
The poetic principles discussed by
Wordsworth in the “Preface” to the 1800 edition of Lyrical
Ballads constitute a key primary document of the Romantic era because
they announce a revolution in critical notions about poetic language,
poetic subject matter, and the role of the poet.
One of the main themes of "Lyrical
Ballads" is the return to the original state of nature, in which
people led a purer and more innocent existence. Wordsworth subscribed
to Rousseau's belief that humanity was essentially good but was
corrupted by the influence of society. This may be linked with the
sentiments spreading through Europe just prior to the French
Revolution.
Romanticism was an artistic, literary,
and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of
the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate
period from 1800 to 1840
Romanticism elevated the achievements
of what it perceived as heroic individualists and artists, whose
pioneering examples would elevate society. It also legitimized the
individual imagination as a critical authority, which permitted
freedom from classical notions of form in art. There was a strong
recourse to historical and natural inevitability, a Zeitgeist, in the
representation of its ideas.
The importance the Romantics placed on
untrammelled feeling is summed up in the remark of the German painter
Caspar David Friedrich that "the artist's feeling is his law"
To William Wordsworth poetry should be
"the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings". In order
to truly express these feelings, the content of the art must come
from the imagination of the artist, with as little interference as
possible from "artificial" rules dictating what a work
should consist of.
The concept of the genius, or artist
who was able to produce his own original work through this process of
"creation from nothingness", is key to Romanticism, and to
be derivative was the worst sin. This idea is often called "romantic
originality."
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman clothed
with the Sun, 1805-1810 , Aquarelle (watercolor) , 40.8, Width: 33.7
cm
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12
August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely
unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal
figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the
Romantic Age.
“And behold a great red dragon,
having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast
them to the earth. ”
— (Rev.
12:3-4, KJV
The Dragon is seen ready to devour the
child of the pregnant woman as depicted in Revelation 12. This image
is similar to The Great Red Dragon and the Woman clothed in Sun but
shown from a different viewpoint. Emphasis is on line work and an
almost monocromatic color scheme with very little perspective depth
nor anatomical perfection. This watercolor painting is dark and
expresses dynamic movement and intensity of the scene.
The Nightmare , 1781 , oil on canvas ,
101,6 × 127 cm
Henry Fuseli (German: Johann Heinrich
Füssli) (February 7, 1741 – April 17, 1825) was a British painter,
draughtsman, and writer on art, of Swiss origin.Sleep and dreams were
common subjects for the Zürich-born Henry Fuseli, though The
Nightmare is unique among his paintings for its lack of reference to
literary or religious themes (Fuseli was an ordained minister).
The outstretched disproportionate pose of
the woman , the stylised head of the horse , and the nightmarish
sitting figure are indicitive of the romanticism ideals.
The focus is on imagery instead of
technical perfection of the form, which reflects the non-conformity
ideals of the romanticism period.
The painting seems to portray
simultaneously a dreaming woman and the content of her nightmare.
"Salisbury Cathedral from the
Bishop's Garden,", undated c. 1825 , oil on canvas, 13.63"
X 17.32
John Constable (11 June 1776 – 31 March
1837) was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known
principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale
"painting is but another word for
feeling"
As a gesture of appreciation for John
Fisher, the Bishop of Salisbury, who commissioned this painting,
Constable included the Bishop and his wife in the canvas. Their
figures can be seen at the bottom left of the painting, behind the
fence and under the shade of the trees.
The brooding dark tones and expressive
brushstrokes successfully elude to the forms ( trees water clouds etc
) without requiring intricate detail.
Fishermen at Sea,1796 , oil on canvas ,
Height: 914 mm (35.98 in). Width: 1,222 mm (48.11 in).
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA (23 April
1775 – 19 December 1851) was an English Romantic landscape painter,
watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial
figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated
landscape painting to an eminence rivaling history painting
A nocturnal moonlit scene, the image of
boats in peril contrasts the cold light of the moon with the
firelight glow of the fishermen's lantern.Wilton has said that the
image: "Is a summary of all that had been said about the sea by
the artists of the eighteenth century." and shows strong
influence by artists such as Horace Vernet Philip James de
Loutherbourg and Willem van de Velde the Younger. The image was
praised by contemporary critics and would found Turner's reputation,
both as an oil painter and as a painter of maritime scenes.
This painting was exhibited in 1796 was the
first oil painting exhibited by Turner at the Royal Academy.
Bibliography
Internet
Books
Anna C.Krausse , The story of painting
: from the renaissace to the present , 1995
DVD
and TV
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