Vicky Salim                                 3/11/00

Neoclassical vs. Romantic

During the Georgian Age (1714-1830's) as London became more wealthy due to

trade, the style in art forms changed from neoclassical to a more modernly

romantic style. Neoclassical art in London was more calm and restrained in

feeling having a strict and clear expression. These paintings were often

stern and somber-like. Unlike romantic art, which was a more intense form of

art shown with emotional expression was too elusive to be defined like

classical art.

The Neoclassical period gave tribute to the Greco-Roman history within art

and literary forms. Paintings contained a subject matter and an idealized

view of political and social virtues relating to the classical period.

Neoclassical art restrained artists to express themselves in a certain way.

All this changed with the emergence of the Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment caused a new wave for this emotional need before the

American and French revolutions. As new philosophies arose and new ideas

about the British society emerged, the Enlightenment caused the people of

London to feel strongly against the established social order and traditional

systems. These thinkers claimed that traditional authority confined and

sustained the individual. So artists looked for ways to express themselves as

individuals through the Romantic manner which derived from the Enlightenment

period. This revolution is just what they needed.

The Romantic age was a more "emotional" era where artists concentrated more

on the beauties of nature. It first became a form of art in the 18th-century

where the word romantic was associated as feeling and the "romance-like" of

beauty. The romantics showed an "affinity for nature" showing a more highly

imaginative and exotic-like feeling. "Romanticism was a reaction against the

Baroque era" , it became a changed from artificiality to naturalism. Johann

Winckelmann, a German art historian and theorist was the first to recognize

the romantic style as a form of art, which went against strict and

traditional accepted art. Prominent thinkers during this time rationalized

that "If people were to only behave naturally, evil would disappear."

During the Romantic Age as London's streets became more industrialized the

manufacturing of towns and bridges inspired artists like J.M. W. Turner to

paint. The war between London and France gave way to the Romantic Movement

where citizens of London rejected neoclassicism and started to think "freely"

and imaginative, focusing on the beauties of nature and landscapes. Other

well-known English painters such as George Stubbs and William Blake began to

paint in romantic styles capturing an emotional state, which connected to

nature. Stubbs' famous paintings were often portraits of animal's i.e. the

painting: Lion Attacking A Horse (image) where he portrays the violence found

in nature through the movement shown in the painting. He was able to express

the dramatic images in his mind as well as reveal what he was feeling as an

artist. The expression of artists and any other common people was valued to

the people of London during this time as they sought to draw astray from

London's strict social order.

William Blake and John Constable often painted countryside's, that portrayed

drama of the sky, sunlight and wind. These elements portrayed a sense of

sentiment for the painters. Turner used watercolors to help give colored

tints to his paintings. This satisfied the romantic scene of sublime

picturesque states of emotion. By painting romantically, painters were able

to force the viewer to see what they saw.

    Since the English are thought to be "incurably literary people" , where

their paintings either usually told a story or drawn to make a moral point,

it was hard for the Romantic Movement to be so "free" with their artwork.

Turner was an artist who succeeded in  painting landscapes while making a

good name for himself.

    The Rococo style gave way to neoclassical art after it disappeared due to

the French Revolution. Neoclassicism during the 1700's was the type of art

Britain was not quick to reject. In this sense classicism holds a sense of

modernity. Neoclassical art was more revolutionary in visual arts having

influenced artists in a great sense. "All modern art can be said to derive

from romanticism"  because art forms such as expressionism and surrealism

carried throughout the world of art. The sense of freedom and self-expression

originally came from the romantic era and was seen more as a form of modern

art, yet neoclassical art was not easily forgotten.