Romanticism in the 19th Century .....................................................

Lecture 40

Unlike Neoclassicism, which is clearly a stylistic term, Romanticism

seems to me to be—and I emphasize “seems to me to be”—an attitude

¿ rst and foremost, and one that can ¿ nd expression in more than

one style.

I

n this lecture, we will look at several artists’ “brands” of Romanticism,
including those of Théodore Géricault, Eugène Delacroix, and William
Turner. As we will see, the highly personal qualities of Romanticism
make this style dif¿ cult to characterize. The painting by Goya we saw in
the last lecture—his Self-Portrait with Dr. Arietta—can easily be described
as an example of Romanticism in art. Indeed, it is precisely the personal,
autobiographical nature of that painting, the personal anguish of the artist,
that makes it a Romantic painting.

However, Romanticism is a tricky term to de¿ ne. It arose so gradually and in
so many places that it is an elusive concept. In France, it is closely connected
with literature, especially with Victor Hugo, who urged the freeing of the
artist from Classical restraints and rules. That it was also concerned with
political ideas connects it with Neoclassicism and suggests that these two
“isms” are not necessarily opposed in content. Unlike Neoclassicism, which
is clearly a stylistic term, Romanticism seems to be an attitude ¿ rst and
foremost—one that can ¿ nd expression in more than one style.

We s e e ¿ rst Paganini (1819), a chalk drawing by Jean-Auguste-Dominique
Ingres (1780-1867), one of the great draftsmen of the 19th century. This
portrait is a striking, fully Neoclassical rendering of Niccolò Paganini, the
famous Italian violin virtuoso, in which the delicately drawn body supports a
more forcefully modeled head.

A dozen years later, after one of Paganini’s concert appearances in Paris,
Eugène Delacroix produced this record of him, Paganini (1831). This is really
an impression rather than a traditional portrait, and it may have been painted
soon after Delacroix’s return from hearing and seeing Paganini in concert.