19th Century Landscape Painting and Romanticism

LANDSCAPE PAINTING 19TH CENTURY

Royal Academy founded in 1768; Foundation of the Water-colour society in 1804; Painters fought for more recognition compared with the other arts (literature and architecture in particular); New National Gallery was founded in 1824.

Caspar David Friedrich

1- German romantic landscape painter. Best known for allegorical landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning mists, barren trees or gothic or megalithic ruins. 2- Topographical interest endured 3- Travel at home and abroad, the search for the picturesque and primitive, the medieval. Ex: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818): In the foreground, a young man stands upon a rocky precipice with his back to the viewer. The wanderer gazes out on a landscape covered in a thick sea of fog.

David Wilkie

1- Attention to sentiment and domestic. 2- Dutch influence. 3- Sentiments aroused by old age, duty well done and recollections of young prowess. The Blind Fiddler (1806): He is shown playing before a family group in a crowded interior. They are grouped before the fireplace, the fiddler seated on a chair with his bags besides him.

J. H. Fuseli

1- Swiss painter who lived and ended his career in Britain. 2- Romantic painter, 1st to see the abilities of Constable and Turner. The Nightmare (1781): It shows a woman in a deep sleep with her arms thrown below her, and with a demonic figure crouched on her chest.

J.M.W Turner

1- Most gigantic painter of the romantic period in England 2- Great landscapes 3- Also, traits of history, sensationalism, sentiment and piety 4- His vision and the dissolution of colour and shape appeared incomprehensible for many.

The Slave Ship (1840): It shows an enormous deep red sunset over a stormy sea. In the foreground can be seen a number of bodies floating in the water; their dark skin and chained hands and feet indicate that they are slaves, thrown overboard from the ship.

John Crome

The River Wensum, Norwich (1814): It shows cottages at the water's edge on the right, and on the left of the river an avenue of trees on the riverbank, blue sky with clouds.

John Sell Cotman

Painter of the primitive (ruins, cottages, cows, donkeys). A castle on a river with 4 cattle wading: It shows a ruined castle with central tower, river in foreground, cattle wading on far bank, mountains and trees in the background.

Paul Sandby

1- Great with watercolours 2- Called the father of the topographical tradition in English landscape 3- Through the views of Britain he painted in the middle years of 18th century, he awakened the British people to the natural beauties of their own country. The Rainbow (1770s): It shows a forest path after a storm has passed. Leaves and trunks glitter, other trees are plunged in darkness. Far away, an invisible sun that has pierced through blackness lights up the spire of a church like a ghostly apparition.

William Gilpin: English artist, Anglican cleric, schoolmaster and author, best known as one of the originators of the idea of the picturesque "that kind of beauty which is nice in a picture". Landscape with a waterfall: It shows a waterfall surrounded by a forest of different trees. In the centre of the illustration can be seen two men.