In what ways have Landscape Artists adopted Romanticism in their work?
By Kiri-Ann Carter Unit 4 Critical and Contextual Studies
In this essay I am going to explore the ways in which landscape artists such as Constable and Turner, who were involved within the Romantic period, adopted the styles of Romanticism into their work. To do this I will explore each artist and one example of their work, and also explore the works of Kiefer, a 20th Century German painter who also explored the romantic techniques in a different style. To do this I will talk about how Romanticism became what it is known to be today, and what fuelled artists to create such radical landscape paintings. Throughout the History of Art, Landscape paintings was an established genre in Chinese art by the fourth Century CE, but in Western art, landscape paintings didn’t come into context until after the Renaissance period in the sixteenth Century. The main problem with landscape paintings was that it ranked extremely low in the academic hierarchy of the genres. The list stylised over the Renaissance period, and ran as following:
These rankings were definitively set out in 1669 by Andre Felibien, the secretary of the French Academy, in his preface to a series of published lectures which he delivered the Academy
. From this, the art world including Patrons, teachers and artists did not take landscapes paintings seriously, and attributed greater value to historical works, portraits and genre paintings. In addition the Renaissance, and the later movement ‘Neoclassicism’ followed Greek art in giving primacy to the human body, especially landscapes were incomparable. As art progressed, until early to mid-sixteenth century, landscapes were included in pictures purely as a setting for human activity. The painting may have a religious narrative, for which the scenery is merely a background. Although within the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, despite the number and high quality of landscape paintings during the sixteenth century, landscape paintings did not really come into its own genre until the end of the seventeenth century with the rise of Dutch artists, including Claude Lorrain, but even then the pastoral landscapes were settings for religious themes. After the Cataclysmic events of the French Revolution (1789-1793) and the Napoleonic Wars (1795-1815) Landscape paintings became one of the most popular types of art and rapidly blossomed into a major pictorial genre for artists, patrons and collectors. The Romantic Movement allowed landscape paintings to become what they are seen as today. Infact the nineteenth century produced many of the greatest landscape paintings ever seen. Two major traditions emerged: English and French, both of which were fuelled by what was happening at the time, and both of which influenced landscape painters
throughout Europe and North America, of not just the Nineteenth Century but the twentieth and even artists of today. ‘Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor in exact truth, but in a way of feeling’ –Charles Baudelaire, The Salon of 1846. From this became this problem of what Romanticism is, it is nearly impossible to concisely define what it was. When talking about the movement, the term ‘romance’ is not expressed in the sense of physical love, but instead the term ‘romance’ is in the sense of self-glorification. Romanticism, first defined as an aesthetic in literary criticism around 1800, gained momentum as an artistic movement in France and Britain in the early decades of the nineteenth century and flourished until mid-century. With its emphasis on the imagination and emotion, Romanticism emerged as a response to the disillusionment with the enlightenment values of reason and order in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789. Romantic artists often produced historical or legendary scenes, but generally set these in the middle-ages, rather than in Ancient times. It also developed a distinctive form of landscape painting. Classical artists reshaped nature to suit their ordered compositions, whereas Romantics portrayed it as wild and ungovernable. Romantic attitudes precluded the development of a single style. Romanticism being neither simply a reaction against nor a development from earlier styles, Romantic paintings
often presented the fear of a single person, the uncontrollable disillusionment of life. Creating such unforgettable scenes that portrayed hidden meanings, an allegory found in that of a Renaissance painting. They created new ways of displaying the sublime, and the inner self in a way still relatable and of Salon standard. It was fuelled from the fall of the French Monarchy and carried on to see the first and the last Emperor. It is known as one of the most successful art movements of the modern day, with works expanding throughout Europe and America- to depths never explored before in paint, the unknown and unexplainable feelings. During the start of the nineteenth Century, many changes were happening throughout England that fuelled artists to create art that reacted to these changes. The Industrial Revolution was one of these changes. As England grew and expanded into an Empire, or what is now known as the United Kingdom, this brought in more opportunities to trade, and from this- more opportunities to expand businesses and to create new industries with the help of new scientific discoveries that enhanced mechanical and technological changes. This up rise in machinery had a loss in jobs available, and so Romantic painters took this as an interest into their paintings. One Romantic artist who took upon the interest in the Industrial Revolution, and the change in machinery, and decline in jobs was John Constable.
Constable was famous for his landscapes, which were mostly of the Suffolk countryside, where he was born. He made many open air sketches, using these as a basis for his larger exhibition paintings, which were worked up in his studio. His pictures are extremely popular today, but weren’t as dramatically inspiring and well received in England during his lifetime. He did however, have considerable success in Paris, France. Constable was born in East Bergholt, Suffolk. He was largely self-taught, and developed slowly. In 1799 he was a probationer, and in 1800 a student at the Royal Academy in London, and later at the Paris Salon, and from this he influenced the Barbizon School and the French Romantic movement. Constable was very influenced by Dutch artists such as Jacob Van Ruilsdale, Rubens and the work of Claude Lorrain also proved to be useful colouristic and compositional models. However, the realism and vitality of Constables work make it highly original. Constable was very influential to French Romantic artists such as Delacroix, and was a big hit when one of his wellknown paintings ‘The Hay-Wain, 1821’ made it into the Royal Academy just three years later. In this painting John Constable chooses to depict a rural landscape which runs into the distance in sun-drenched meadows, offset by the cool waters of the river in the foreground. The theme of this painting is very much rural life, and the beauty of the landscape which Constable loved so much. The Hay-Wain is based on a site near Flat form, on the river Stour in Suffolk, England.
The Hay-Wain, 1821 John Constable National Gallery, London 1.3m x 1.8m The Hay-Wain is a type of horse drawn cart which would have been a common piece of agricultural equipment used during the artist’s youth. The cottage to the left of the image was rented by a farmer and stands behind the Flat form mill, owned by Constables father. Across the meadow in the distance to the right, a group of hay makers can been seen working. The farm workers are hard at work but seem contended and surrounded by beautiful scenery, All of these aspects illustrate Constables idyllic view of his home county in Suffolk.
However idyllic Constables view of Rural England was throughout his career, it’s unlikely that there was as much calm and happiness in the countryside during this period. Due to the onset of the industrial Revolution in the 19th Century, the takeover of the machinery left many people jobless. It may be that Constable did not want to paint images of these problems because he did not want to draw attention away from the natural landscapes itself. In the Hay-Wain the workers happily fit in with the setting and seem to live in harmony with the area. Originally named ‘Landscape: Noon’ this painting intrigued French artist Delacroix whilst on his visit to England in 1824. The sky interested the French Romantic the most, the use of colour and the way Constable applied white directly to the canvas in such an un-academic way, the impasto brushwork created the illusion of depth and definition in the sky, that Delacroix then went on to adopt into one of his own paintings ‘The Massacre at Chios, 1824’. Being a French Romantic painter, Delacroix like many others were more fuelled by the falling Monarchy and other saddening stories of other nations. This was unlike the English Romantics who looked more upon capturing the inner thoughts of the individual artists, rather than those who would be forgotten about otherwise. Romantics took it upon themselves to rid of paintings and sculptures relating to the ruling monarchy, as they felt they had been publicised for all the wrong reasons, and those stories of injustice and lost lives due to the Monarchies
Massacre at Chios, 1824 Eugene Delacroix The Louvre, France 4.2m x 3.5m wrong doing were never publically displayed. Delacroix’s painting ‘The Massacre at Chios’ was one painting that showed the inner feelings of those who had lost their lives from unnecessary extremities. Not only was this painting inspired by Constables ‘HayWain’, but also other cultures. This painting depicts the remake of a glorious and bloody event in the history of modern Greece.
In March 1821, under about four centuries of occupation, Greece had revolted against the Ottoman Empire. The Chios massacre was the telling of the tens of thousands of Greeks on the island of Chios, by Ottoman troops during the Greek war of Independence. The massacre provoked international outrage, and led to increasing support for the Greek cause worldwide. Unlike whereas in the Hay-Wain it is clear to see the love John Constable had for the landscape, in Delacroix’s ‘Massacre at Chios’, he created this scene from press coverage in the local newspaper. He did not visit Chios and the scene, although depicts a true telling of an unfortunate event, he created this false scene from his own Greek models. Both these examples, although are a part of the Romantic movement, whether it being or English or French origin both show different ideas of Romanticism, and show correct Salisbury Cathedral from the meadows, 1831 Charles Baudelaire was in saying that there was no precise John Constable subject matter or definition, but this dependency or feeling; National Gallery, London expressed in both aspects of each painting, Constables being of his own desires, and feelings, and Delacroix’s being 1.52m x 1.9m of an unknown feeling, one that can only be mimicked by the person themselves, yet he has created this bridge When this painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy, connecting us to those feelings we’ve never understood or Constable quoted nine lines from the four seasons: experienced before. Summer (1727) by Scottish poet James Thompson to expand on its meaning. Another painting that really exhilarates the definition of Romanticism is Constables ‘Salisbury Cathedral from the meadows’ 1831.
‘As from the face of heaven the scattered clouds Tumultous rove, Th’interminable sky sublime swelles, And o’er the world expands a pure azure, Though the lightened air a higher lustre and a clearer calm diffusive tremble; While, as if in sign of danger past, A glittering robe of joy, Set off abundant by the yellow ray, Invests the fields, And nature smiles reviv’d.’ -James Thompson, The Season: Summer 1727 The poem tells the mythical tale of young lovers Celandon and Amelia. As they walk through the woods in a thunderstorm, the tragic Amelia struck by lightning, and dies in her lovers arms. The poem has a religious message: it is an exploration of Gods power, and man’s inability to control his own fate. It is also a poem of hope and redemption. The rainbow appears as a ‘sign of dangers past’. The story of Celadon and Amelia has clear resonances with Constables own tragic loss. His own wife, Maria, died of tuberculosis in 1828, after just twelve years of marriage. It is likely that the poem has specific significance for the young couple. When Maria was unsure whether or not she should marry Constable, he quoted lines from the poem to her, to allay her fears. Although there is no direct evidence to confirm this, it seems likely that Constables Christian faith might have wavered during this difficult period of his life. If so, the inclusion of the rainbow might well also be symbolic of a sense of his spiritual reconciliation following a period of adversity,
‘Constable used the rainbow in his own ends to symbolise problems rather than solutions, particularly in ‘Salisbury Cathedral from the meadows’, in which it has been suggested that the rainbow symbolises not only the problems facing the Church of England at the time, but also the problems of his own life’ -John Constables skies: A fusion of art and science, Page 82, John E. Thornes. He included rainbows in many of his paintings after the death of his wife, and so it seems to be a symbolic gesture he uses to remember her by. It is surely significant in this respect that at the top of the Cathedral spire a crowning cross stands out boldly in front of the one bright spot in the turbulent sky. The scene depicts Salisbury Cathedral across the river Avon. The vantage point was well considered. For many months Constable produced many pencil and oil sketches from different viewpoints in preparation for the final design. In the end you are presented with a sort of a composite construction based on the sketches, with topographical features artfully manoeuvred into position, such as Leadenhall where the rainbow ends at the church of Saint Thomas, which neither can be seen from this final viewpoint. Up close Constables painterly method is even more impressive. Using a palette knife and brush, the effects are truly breath taking. Indeed few artists have shown such an extraordinary facility for capturing the textures of the natural world.
For Turner, the sun was God, but, for Constable it was the sky; a sort of sustained autobiography written in the clouds. They are all so beautifully observed. The spectrum of colours he uses throughout many of his paintings really reflect the Romantic Movement, he untruthfully portrays his homeland, and truthfully bases it around his personal life. Joseph Mallord William Turner was an English Romantic Landscape painter, watercolourist and print maker, whose style can be said to have laid the foundation for impressionism. Although Turner was considered a controversial figure of this day, he is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an emmence rivalling history painting. His work was exhibited when he was still a teenager. His entire life was devoted to his art and unlike Constable and other artists belonging to this movement, he was more successful throughout his career, this being because of his landscapes being of an historical genre, whereas Constables were more personal. He entered the Royal Academy of Art School in 1789, when he was only 14 years old, and he was accepted into the academy a year later. Sir Joshua Reynolds, president of the Royal Academy at the time, chaired the panel that admitted him. At first Turner showed a keen interest in architecture. But was advised to keep to painting. A watercolour of Turners was accepted for the summer exhibition of 1790 after only one year’s study. He then exhibited his first oil painting in 1796, ‘Fishermen at Sea’,
The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838 Joseph Mallord William Turner National Gallery, London 91cm x 122cm and thereafter exhibited at the Academy nearly every year for the rest of his life. Although he was renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape paintings. And is commonly referred to as ‘The painter of Light’. One of his most famous oil paintings is ‘The fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up’, painted in 1838.
HMS Temeraire was a 98 gun, second-rate ship of the line of the Royal navy and was launched in 1798, and served during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, and was famous for fighting in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. She was so well-known for her actions and her subsequent depictions in art and literature that she has been remembered as ‘The Fighting Temeraire’. In 1838, after 40 years of service, Turner created this magnificent depiction of her, he visualises her last voyage, the old man-of-war looking almost ghostly in the silvery light of the moon, while the sun in setting on the tug that tows her home. The scene depicted by JMW Turner occurred on the 6th of September 1838, as the Temeraire was pulled up the Thames to the breaking yard at Rotherhithe. However, the reality of the scene was slightly different. It is said that the Temeraire was infact pulled by two tugs not one, and there was no sunset according to observers on the day. The composition lovingly romanticises the passing of the Temeraire. Turner intended to invoke a nostalgic and sombre response from the viewer. The Temeraire was a vessel close to the heart of the artist, and as it tugged to its untimely death, Turner paints with reflection and admiration. As it was one of his later paintings, Turner really focused almost entirely on the lighting of this piece. He wanted the atmosphere to dominate, to evoke the feeling he felt during this scene. Romanticism is sometimes viewed as a reaction to its more serious predecessor, the neoclassical movement. As neoclassical artists focused on properly accounting history through a close attention to detail, Romantic artists flirted
with the themes of mans self-glorification, mans part in nature, divinity found in nature, and emotion. Though neoclassicism is generally associated with the history genre, Turner is credited with having embarked upon a subject matter accounts for recording history but in a different style than ever seen before. He used colour as an intensity of emotion to portray the passing of events. The way Turner has created this personal response to such an historical event is amazing, from the warm hues of the made-up sky to the intense browns and blue hue behind the sunset creates this visual version of what he is feeling at the present time, something Neoclassical artists were never associated with doing, as it was very radical to do so. One artist, who, although isn’t a part of the Romantic Movement, became so influenced by Romanticism, he then adopted the ideas of this movement into his own work. German Expressionist- Anselm Kiefer, was one artist who adopted Romanticism into his work, a mere 100 years after the movement had come to an end. Born into a Catholic family in the Black Forest Region of Germany in 1945, at the very end of the Second World War, Kiefer always knew that he wanted to be an artist. Following school he expanded his cultural education, which was wide ranging and largely self-taught, and briefly studied law at the University of Freiburg, before attending the Academy of Art in Karlsruhe.
Kiefer had taken inspiration from poets, philosophers, scientists and writers throughout his life. Although he acknowledges the influence of such artists as Van Gogh, Andy Warhol and German Romantic painter Casper David Friedrich, (who he nicknamed Master of Fog), Kiefer had created his own, distinctive iconography in which each element is located with symbolism and meaning. Kiefer takes a cyclical view of time and history rather than a linear and progressive one and, as a consequence, a handful overarching themes appear regularly in his work. He seeks to understand our purpose here on Earth, our relationship with the celestial, the spiritual and the weight of human history. His subjects may appear historical in their reference, but they are in essence of our time, as much about the world today as about the events of the past. Through his work, Kiefer struggles to make our passage through life. In 1995 Kiefer began to reincorporate the human figure into his work. Several pieces between 1995 and 1997 show him lying on the floor as if he were a corpse. Similarly, in his painting ‘The Renowned orders of the Night’ 1997, Kiefer portrays himself as a lonely figure lying on dry, cracked ground beneath the immense mantle of stars. Kiefer is fascinated by the night sky and its different interpretations throughout history, particularly those describing it as divine, mysterious kingdom recalling our origins and fate. This painting describes a deeper meaning of life that many people don’t understand. This inspiration is almost Romantic-like, the poetry of ruins, and the relationship between the human individual and the nature around him, much like Friedrich’s ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’ 1818.
The renowned order of the Lights, 1997 Anselm Kiefer Guggenheim 510cm x 500cm In ‘Specularity and the visual arts’ by Eric Kligerman, he states: ‘While Romanticism reflects on the state of a deferred redemption, Kiefer dispels any sense of a redemptive quality from his artwork…Much like Romanticism, his work reflected the state of the world around him in a bigger sense’ -Specularity and the Visual Arts, Page 216, by Eric Kligerman.
The way Kiefer has knocked this barrier between matter and mind to create his inner feelings on a canvas, something many landscape artists did in the Romantic period. What Kligerman is expressing is the way Kiefer has expanded the Romantic genre into this new radical and expressive style, only Romantics could replicate. Romanticism, being a reaction against classicism and solely based on not just the unknown but also self-glorification it is very difficult to justify what pieces of art after the Romantic movement were inspired by Romanticism within their work, as it was a new trend set by artists of this period to explore radical and new ideas that were never accepted before in the History of Art, which then allowed movements thereafter to follow it on. Romanticism really took away this idea of a hierarchy of genres and expressed its uniqueness and radical qualities. What really makes a romantic painting is the true mystery and unknown feelings their artwork possess along with selfglorification, making it significant for artists years after, and even today that Romanticism really created this bridge between genres, allowing artists such as Kiefer to then go on and create these radical depictions of landscapes with an understanding of the inner thoughts from that artist. What is apparent throughout each landscape studied throughout this essay is the chaos within each scene, whether it was depicting the sublime, or a chaotic, nostalgic appearance, it shows how open-ended the Romantic Movement was.
Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818 Caspar David Friedrich Kunstalle Hamburg 95cm x 75cm In summary the development seen throughout Romantic landscapes are what really justifies how art had progressed throughout the 19th/20th Century, and how the aims and characteristics of a Romantic painting are still used to this day.
Bibliography 1st Quotation: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa257/baudelaire1.html 1st Painting (The Hay-Wain): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hay_Wain 2nd Painting (Massacre at Chios): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Massacre_at_Chios 3rd Painting (Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury_Cathedral_from_the_Meadows 2nd Quotation: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-four-seasons-summer/ 3rd Quotation: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gbElMVjhzQC&pg=PA82&dq=salisbury+cathedral+from+the+meadows&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rVdTVeLlOqPB7AbX14B g&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=salisbury%20cathedral%20from%20the%20meadows&f=false 4th painting (The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fighting_Temeraire 5th Painting (The Renowned orders of the Lights): http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/en/works/the-renowned-orders-of-the-night/ 4th Quotation: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GrdDF4N_ptUC&pg=PA209&dq=kiefer+romanticism&hl=en&sa=X &ei=87RTVbGhD8rC7Aa0ooHoBw&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=kiefer%20romanticism&f=false 6th Painting (Wanderer above the sea of fog): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanderer_above_the_Sea_of_Fog Word Count: 3822