BOME

The Romantic Movement: A Period of Expression

The romantic period, maybe the most inspiring to the Western civilization, showed emotion, intensity and imagination never seen before. This movement developed in the late 18th century, stressed emotion, imagination and freedom from classical correctness in art forms. It represented a sort of rebellion against social conventions in all aspects of culture icluding art, literature, music, and social criticism in Western society. Generally, romantic paintings can be characterized by a highly imaginative and subjective approach, involving emotional intensity with a dreamlike quality. The period marked an aesthetic and ideological shift away from the lavish and decadent styles of the courtly Rococo, exploring sensibility as the new human law of the heart. Lastly, it eventually gave way to the stark rationalism and scientific positivism of Realism in the second half of the nineteenth century Jean Jacques Rousseau, a French writer, stated in his novel Moral Letters, "For us, existence is feeling: and our capacity to feel inarguably precedes our reason." This statement sums up the feelings surrounding the roma ntic period and how it was portrayed through art.

Delacroix Self Portrait 1835

Eugene Delacroix was a very well known romantic painter and used overtly romantic and allegorical figures to protray movemement and emotion on the canvas. In this self portrait, contemporaries described him as the perfect man of the world, short but sinewy, his clear countenance pale, almost yellowish, framed by dense, jet-black hair, which rendered him somewhat exotic. Charles Baudelaire described the Delacroix in the painting as having an "expression of a wild cat." The small self-portrait is painted with small, fine details and depicts him with energetic features and a captivating gaze. The picture is built up on a transparent light-brown background, with sparing use of colors, with only one bright red stripe at the throat. Otherwise the artist’s entire attention is devoted to the face composed of densely articulatedbrushwork, loosely framed by the luxuriant black hair.

~Colonialism and Imperialism ~ The Romantic Movement

~How the Orient Came To Be ~

~ Orientalism: An Artistic Movement ~Delacroix's Pre Orient Work~

Delacroix's Post Orient Work ~ The Days After Delacroix ~

~ Bibliography ~

Questions, Comments Problems? Don't Hesitate to contact us: webmaster@kirschnet.com