ROMANTICISM ARTISTS : Painting Nature, Love, and Passions

History of Painting, narrating Art Movements.

Details of ''O Guarda-Sol'' -bye Francisco de Goya, oil on canvas, 1776-78

What is Romanticism: French Revolution was one of the real sources from which romanticism had evolved. Growing industrialization gave much impetus for escaping from the reality to the artists. In the field of art the word ‘Romanticism’ has a specific meaning. It conveys the concept showing of sentimentality on one hand; and on another it refers to the lack of idealism or reality that confines the artistic passion. For an artists falling under category of romanticism, the expression was the paramount element. They wanted freedom of expression, and they did it ignoring the social norms and the rules set by convention. Leaving every obstacle aside and trying to reclaim the artistic freedom, the romanticism artists filled their canvases with free play of emotion and imagination.

The artists known as the romantic painters were fantastic lover of the nature. In addition to their unmatched genius, these artists possessed passion for the artistic depiction. While painting persons romantic artists take look very minutely to the factors like the struggled the person had faced and the mood they generally remained occupied.

The subjects the artists followed romanticism movement of art were varied, but they have reserved their heart for the human nature and the aspects of men and women that would reveal his or her personality. Some of them had painted subjects showing culture and their ethnic origins; and some have chosen to paint nature. Following are the artists whom we can brand as the artists of romanticism era.

Eugene Delacroix Painting Romantic Realism : French romanticism artist Eugene Delacroix had allowed coming out all the passions he had and expressed it on canvases. Though Delacroix was a romantic painter, and weighed the passion much for the depiction of art, he tried painting as realistically as possible.

Caspar David Friedrich: Every painting, more or less, is a pictorial representation of emotions and ideas the artist had in his or her heart or mind. An artist conceives an idea and then tries to express it onto the frame as an artwork. There are subjects which can be expressed simply by depicting them on the canvas or paper if it is painted in watercolour. Caspar David Friedrich was an artist who love the German landscapes he was lining on and he painted it so beautifully.

John Constable: If it is spring; if there is strong wind of pleasure in the air; and if an artist like John Constable takes brush in hand; the message is clear: there would descend a masterpiece landscape on a canvas. The Artists carry a specific set of tools, when they stand before a canvas; and load their brushes with colours. Among these tools, intuition is the strongest tool pushing the artists to paint something that they have in mind.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780 –1867) was a French Neoclassical painter. His paintings suggest that he had tilted his work towards romanticism movement of painting. For a period he depended on the income received from miscellaneous pencil drawings he did for the tourists. La Grande Odalisque is one of his memorable paintings, the painting he did on a commission in 1814. In this portrait Ingress had displayed most of the characteristics his paintings were known to be possessing. After Ingres completed many illustrious portraits of the people of royal families and other people, he got the commission for painting this portrait of an extraordinary beautiful lady.

George Stubbs (1724 – 1806) was nicknamed as the painter of animals. His paintings of animals, especially of the horses are have made him an artist to be regarded equal to the great artists like Raynolds and Gainsborough. In earning this status, his knowledge about horses had played a great role. He had acquired the knowledge of the anatomy with care and keen observance of the horses.

Hudson River School Artists: This was called a movement within the romanticism. The artists who painted the landscapes of the River Hudson and its surrounding areas were known such. Among them, Thomas Cole was pioneer. Born in Briton and migrated to USA, he had acquired the elementary technique of paintings from a wandering painter. First he learned making portraits. After portrait painting, he shifted his attention to the landscape painting; and the colourful result is before the world.

Thomas Cole : Cole’s allegorical work was regarded with esteem. But there were some clients who preferred his American landscapes to other paintings. Reason was that these landscapes were simply identifiable. Among them the Hudson Valley Paintings were well received. Though remained a bit uneasy over his customers’ choices, Thomas Cole tried improvising his techniques painting landscapes. (Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons)