Romantic Blog

 

In this week's assignment, I will be talking about styles of art from the Romantic Era. A style that I like and one that I don't like. As one style would evolve, another style would emerge as an antidote or refinement of that style. The following styles are part of the expansion of the Romantic Era style of Art that was evolving and rapidly changing in the 1800s.

• Romantic
• Realist
• Naturalist
• Nationalist
• Impressionist and Post Impressionist

 I like the Art Nouveau style shown here in these lamps by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Art Nouveau was short-lived and it was inspired by nature. Art Nouveau is characterized by its use of long organic lines as you can see in the dragonfly body in the top lamp. And is most often seen in jewelry and glass design, posters, architecture, and illustration. The color scheme was often muted like the below orange-browns and mustard greens of these glass lamps. The tone was one of rich colors and became because of the use of glass and not paint in Tiffanys Art. You can read more about the below Tiffany lamps here. European museums and collectors bought Tiffany’s works from the Paris-based dealer Siegfried Bing, who pioneered the market in Art Nouveau between 1896 and 1902. The company won gold medals at World’s Fairs in Paris, St Petersburg, and Turin between 1900 and 1902. But interest faded in Europe as art nouveau was superseded by art deco and modernism. Art Nouveau is an international style of art wanting to modernize the design. Artists would draw inspiration from geometric patterns and organic patterns naturally found. These Tiffany lamps evoke an emotion of reminiscing in my childhood. Growing up in the late '70s and early '80s owning a Tiffany lamp was a type of status symbol. To own one meant you were successful and boujee. I remember visiting my Aunt and she owned a Tiffany lamp and it made me think she was rich! 

Dragonfly, created in 1906. Artist Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Pebble, created in 1901-04. Artist Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Pond Lilly, created in 1903. Artist Louis Comfort Tiffany.

A style of Romantic Era Art that I like is the Realist style that came out of the Hudson River School. It's an American Art movement formed in the mid 1800'sby landscape painters. I  particularly like this painting called  Mount Tallac from LakeTahoe because I met my husband in Tahoe 16 years ago. And because I like the idea of the landscape painters. The artist of the Hudson River School kept with the Romantic trend of the Romantic Era in the idea that nature was seen as a manifestation of God's bounty. Hudson River paintings reflect three themes of America in the 19th century. Discovery, exploration, and settlement.  This style of Romantic painting actually invented its own style called luminism. Luminism would use structure, tone, and light to show magnificence. The light in this painting is soft and cool. The brushstrokes are concealed so that the painter's personality can be minimized. The Luminism in this painting creates a mood that to me creates harmony with nature. I could see myself sitting on the rocky beach soaking in all the pristine beauty of the waterfall in the distance. If you would like to look at more of Thomas Hill paintings click here. Fun fact Thomas Hill's 1865 View of the Yosemite Valley was chosen to be the backdrop of the head table at Barack Obama's inaugural luncheon, to commemorate Lincoln's 1864 signing of the Yosemite Grant. A painting has been chosen for every inaugural luncheon since 1985.

View of Yosemite Valley. Artist Thomas Hill. Created in 1865.

Mount Tallac from Lake Tahoe. Artist Thomas Hill. Created in 1880.

As I was reading the Romantic Era assignment I immediately realized that I was not visually drawn to Impressionistic and post-impressionistic Painters like Vincent VanGogh and Claude Monet. I've always wanted to be swept away by their famous works of art but I've never been able to get into it. It's sorta the same feeling I get when I try to read anything by Stephen King - I feel like, "Why, just why??" Impressionism was attacked for not having a "good" technique. More than just subject matter but a transitionary impression of a moment. Like you'll see in Starry Night. In Starry Night there is a dizzying array of vibrant colors when looked at up close but when you look at the painting from afar the image comes together. The personal styles and favorite subjects tend to be a common theme of Artists during this era as well as using the transitionary effects of light and spontaneous compositions. Most Art consists of loose brush strokes and dabs of broken color. VanGogh was known to just dump colors straight from the paint tube onto the canvas and go from there. He would use shadow and light to create dimension. Starry Night uses texture as each swirl on the painting is scoops of paint. This painting uses asymmetrical lines. His use of white color in this painting creates a spiral effect in the clouds. Today, Vincent van Gogh stands as one of the most celebrated artists of the 19th century, and his painting, The Starry Night, completed in 1889, is not only one of his most famous works, but also one of the most famous paintings in the world. Yet Van Gogh and his beloved painting were not always as famous as they are today. Carouthers, 2020). You can read more about VanGogh on this website.

Monet was in the post-impressionistic era. This era was more confined, controlled, formalized, and organized. Monet would paint people and places and subjects he knew best. His first and second wives were often his models. Monet’s asymmetrical arrangements of forms emphasized their two-dimensional surfaces by eliminating linear perspective and abandoning three-dimensional modeling. He brought a vibrant brightness to his works by using unmediated colors, adding a range of tones to his shadows, and preparing canvases with light-colored primers instead of the dark grounds used in traditional landscape paintings. (Auricchio,2004) Impression, Sunrise takes Monet's interest in light, color, and spontaneity to new heights. As with his other works in the series, the artist opted to focus on the sunlight's ephemeral effects on the water. While the hazy silhouettes of rowboats, ships, and smokestacks are evident in the composition, the emphasis is mostly on the breaking sunlight and its undulating reflections. To read more about Claude Monet and see more of his art click here.

Starry Night. Artist Vincent VanGogh. Created in 1889.

Impression Sunrise. Artist Claude Monet, Created in 1872. 

Citations:

Crichton-Miller, Emma. “The Temptations of Tiffany Glass.” Https://Www.Apollo-Magazine.Com/Collectors-Focus-Louis-Comfort-Tiffany-Glass/, Apollo Magazine, 20 Apr. 2021, www.apollo-magazine.com/collectors-focus-louis-comfort-tiffany-glass.

“Thomas Hill - The Complete Works.” Https://Www.Thomas-Hill.Org/, www.thomas-hill.org. Accessed 5 July 2021.

Auricchio, Laura. “Claude Monet (1840–1926).” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art., Oct. 2004, www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cmon/hd_cmon.htm.

Carouthers, Peggy. “A Brief History of VanGough’s ‘Starry Night.’” Artandobject.Com, 24 July 2020, www.artandobject.com/news/brief-history-van-goghs-starry-night.