The beginning of the 19th century was a time of cultural and spiritual upsurge in Russia. If in economic and socio-political development Russia lagged behind advanced European states, then in cultural achievements it not only kept pace with them, but was often ahead. The development of Russian culture in the first half of the 19th century was based on the transformations of the previous time. The penetration of elements of capitalist relations into the economy has increased the need for literate and educated people. Cities became major cultural centers.
New social strata were drawn into social processes. Culture developed against the background of the ever-increasing national self-awareness of the Russian people and, in connection with this, had a pronounced national character. She had a significant influence on literature, theater, music, and fine arts. Patriotic War of 1812, which to an unprecedented degree accelerated the growth of the national self-awareness of the Russian people and its consolidation. There was a rapprochement with the Russian people of other peoples of Russia.
The beginning of the 19th century is rightly called the golden age of Russian painting. It was then that Russian artists reached a level of skill that put their works on a par with the best examples of European art.
Three names reveal Russian painting of the 19th century - Kiprensky , Tropinin , Venetsianov. Everyone has a different origin: an illegitimate landowner, a serf and a descendant of a merchant. Everyone has their own creative aspiration - romantic, realist and “village lyricist”.
Despite his early passion for historical painting, Kiprensky is known primarily as an outstanding portrait painter. We can say that at the beginning of the 19th century. he became the first Russian portrait painter. The old masters, who became famous in the 18th century, could no longer compete with him: Rokotov died in 1808, Levitsky, who survived him by 14 years, no longer painted due to an eye disease, and Borovikovsky, who did not live several months before the uprising Decembrists, worked very little.
Kiprensky was lucky enough to become an artistic chronicler of his time. “History in faces” can be considered his portraits, which depict many participants in the historical events of which he was a contemporary: heroes of the War of 1812, representatives of the Decembrist movement. The technique of pencil drawing, the teaching of which was given serious attention at the Academy of Arts, was also useful. Kiprensky created, in essence, a new genre - a pictorial portrait.
Kiprensky created many portraits of Russian cultural figures, and, of course, the most famous among them is Pushkin. It was written by order Delviga, the poet’s lyceum friend, in 1827. Contemporaries noted the amazing similarity of the portrait to the original. The artist freed the image of the poet from the everyday features that are inherent in the portrait of Pushkin by Tropinin, painted in the same year. Alexander Sergeevich was captured by the artist at a moment of inspiration when he was visited by a poetic muse.
Death overtook the artist during his second trip to Italy. In recent years, much has gone wrong for the famous painter. A creative slump began. Shortly before his death, his life was overshadowed by a tragic event: according to contemporaries, the artist was falsely accused of murder and was afraid to leave the house. Even marrying his Italian pupil did not brighten up his last days.
Few people mourned the Russian painter who died in a foreign land. Among the few who truly understood what kind of master Russian culture had lost was the artist Alexander Ivanov, who was in Italy at that time. In those sad days he wrote: Kiprensky “was the first to make the Russian name known in Europe.”
Tropinin entered the history of Russian art as an outstanding portrait painter. He said: “A portrait of a person is painted for the memory of those close to him, those who love him.” According to contemporaries, Tropinin painted about 3,000 portraits. Whether this is so is difficult to say. One of the books about the artist contains a list of 212 precisely identified persons whom Tropinin portrayed. He also has many works entitled “Portrait of an Unknown Woman”. State dignitaries, nobles, warriors, businessmen, minor officials, serfs, intellectuals, and figures of Russian culture posed for Tropinin. Among them: historian Karamzin, writer Zagoskin, art critic Odoevsky, painters Bryullov and Aivazovsky, sculptor Vitali, architect Gilardi, composer Alyabyev, actors Shchepkin and Mo-chalov, playwright Sukhovo-Kobylin.
One of Tropinin’s best works is a portrait of his son. It must be said that one of the “discoveries” of Russian art of the 19th century. there was a child's portrait. In the Middle Ages, a child was viewed as a small adult who had not yet grown up. Children were even dressed in outfits that were no different from adults: in the middle of the 18th century. girls wore tight corsets and wide skirts with flaps. Only at the beginning of the 19th century. they saw the child in the child. Artists were among the first to do this. There is a lot of simplicity and naturalness in Tropinin’s portrait. The boy is not posing. Interested in something, he turned around for a moment: his mouth was slightly open, his eyes were shining. The child's appearance is surprisingly charming and poetic. Golden disheveled hair, an open, childishly plump face, a lively look from intelligent eyes. You can feel how lovingly the artist painted the portrait of his son.
Tropinin painted self-portraits twice. On the later one, dated 1846, the artist is 70 years old. He depicted himself with a palette and brushes in his hands, leaning on a mashtabel - a special stick used by painters. Behind him is a majestic panorama of the Kremlin. In his youth, Tropinin possessed heroic strength and good spirits. Judging by the self-portrait, he retained his strength of body even in old age. The round face with glasses radiates good nature. The artist died 10 years later, but his image remained in the memory of his descendants - a great, kind man who enriched Russian art with his talent.
Venetsianov discovered the peasant theme in Russian painting. He was the first among Russian artists to show the beauty of his native nature in his canvases. The Academy of Arts did not favor the landscape genre. It occupied the penultimate place in importance, leaving behind an even more despicable one - household. Only a few masters painted nature, preferring Italian or imaginary landscapes.
In many of Venetsianov’s works, nature and man are inseparable. They are connected as closely as a peasant is with the land and its gifts. The artist created his most famous works - “Haymaking”, “On the arable land. Spring”, “At the harvest. Summer” - in the 20s. This was the peak of his creativity. No one in Russian art was able to show peasant life and the work of peasants with such love and as poetically as Venetsianov. In the painting "On the Plowed Field. Spring" a woman is harrowing a field. This hard, exhausting work looks sublime on Venetsianov’s canvas: a peasant woman in an elegant sundress and kokoshnik. With her beautiful face and flexible figure, she resembles an ancient goddess. Leading by the bridles of two obedient horses harnessed to a harrow, she does not walk, but seems to soar over the field. Life around flows calmly, measuredly, peacefully. Rare trees turn green, white clouds float across the sky, the field seems endless, on the edge of which a baby sits, waiting for its mother.
The painting “At the Harvest. Summer” seems to continue the previous one. The harvest is ripe, the fields are full of golden stubble - the time has come for the harvest. In the foreground, putting her sickle aside, a peasant woman is breastfeeding her child. The sky, the field, and the people working on it are inseparable for the artist. But still, the main subject of his attention is always the person.
Venetsianov created a whole gallery of portraits of peasants. This was new for Russian painting. In the 18th century people from the people, and especially serfs, were of little interest to artists. According to art historians, Venetsianov was the first in the history of Russian painting to “accurately capture and recreate the Russian folk type.” “The Reapers”, “Girl with Cornflowers”, “Girl with a Calf”, “Sleeping Shepherd” - beautiful images of peasants, immortalized by Venetsianov. Portraits of peasant children occupied a special place in the artist’s work. How good is “Zakharka” - a big-eyed, snub-nosed, big-lipped boy with an ax on his shoulder! Zakharka seems to personify an energetic peasant nature, accustomed to work from childhood.
Alexey Gavrilovich left a good memory of himself not only as an artist, but also as an outstanding teacher. During one of his visits to St. Petersburg, he took on a novice artist as a student, then another, a third... This is how a whole art school arose, which went down in art history under the name Venetsianovsky. Over a quarter of a century, about 70 talented young men passed through it. Venetsianov tried to redeem serf artists from captivity and was very worried if this failed. The most talented of his students, Grigory Soroka, never received his freedom from his landowner. He lived to see the abolition of serfdom, but, driven to despair by the omnipotence of his former owner, he committed suicide.
Many of Venetsianov’s students lived in his house with full support. They learned the secrets of Venetian painting: firm adherence to the laws of perspective, close attention to nature. Among his students were many talented masters who left a noticeable mark on Russian art: Grigory Soroka, Alexey Tyranov, Alexander Alekseev, Nikifor Krylov. “Venetsianovtsy” - they lovingly called his pets.
Thus, it can be argued that in the first third of the 19th century there was a rapid rise in the cultural development of Russia and this time is called the golden age of Russian painting.
Russian artists have reached a level of skill that puts their works on a par with the best examples of European art.
Glorifying the heroic deeds of the people, the idea of their spiritual awakening, exposing the ills of feudal Russia - these are the main themes of the fine arts of the 19th century.
In portraiture, the features of romanticism - the independence of the human personality, its individuality, the freedom to express feelings - are especially distinct.
Many portraits of Russian cultural figures, including children's portraits, were created. The peasant theme, the landscape that showed the beauty of our native nature, is coming into fashion.
Romanticism (French romantisme), an ideological and artistic movement in European and American culture of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Born as a reaction to the rationalism and mechanism of the aesthetics of classicism and the philosophy of the Enlightenment, which took hold during the revolutionary break-up of the old world order, romanticism contrasted utilitarianism and the leveling of the individual with aspirations for boundless freedom and the infinite, a thirst for perfection and renewal, and the pathos of personal and civil independence.
The painful discord between ideal and reality formed the basis of the romantic worldview; His characteristic affirmation of the intrinsic value of human creative and spiritual life, the depiction of strong passions, the spiritualization of nature, interest in the national past, the desire for synthetic forms of art are combined with the motives of world sorrow, the desire to explore and recreate the “shadow”, “night” side of the human soul, with the famous “romantic irony”, which allowed the romantics to boldly compare and equate the high and the low, the tragic and the comic, the real and the fantastic. Developing in many countries, romanticism everywhere acquired a strong national identity, determined by local historical traditions and conditions.
The most consistent romantic school developed in France, where artists, reforming the system of expressive means, dynamized the composition, combined forms with rapid movement, used bright rich colors and a broad, generalized style of painting (painting by T. Gericault, E. Delacroix, O. Daumier, plastic - P.J. David d'Angers, A.L. Bari, F. Ryud). In Germany and Austria, early romanticism is characterized by close attention to everything highly individual, a melancholy-contemplative tonality of the figurative-emotional structure, mystical-pantheistic moods (portraits and allegorical compositions by F.O. Runge, landscapes by K.D. Friedrich and J.A. Koch), the desire to revive the religious spirit of German and Italian painting of the 15th century (the work of the Nazarenes); L. Richter, K. Spitzweg, M. von Schwind, F.G. Waldmüller).
In Great Britain, the landscapes of J. Constable and R. Bonington are marked by the romantic freshness of painting, the fantastic images and unusual means of expression are the works of W. Turner, G.I. Fusli, with an attachment to the culture of the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance - the work of the masters of the late romantic Pre-Raphaelite movement (D.G. Rossetti, E. Burne-Jones, W. Morris and other artists). In many countries of Europe and America, the romantic movement was represented by landscapes (paintings by J. Inness and A.P. Ryder in the USA), compositions on themes of folk life and history (the works of L. Galle in Belgium, J. Manes in the Czech Republic, V. Madaras in Hungary, P. Michalovsky and J. Matejko in Poland and other masters).
The historical fate of romanticism was complex and ambiguous. One or another romantic tendency marked the work of major European masters of the 19th century - artists of the Barbizon school, C. Corot, G. Courbet, J.F. Millet, E. Manet in France, A. von Menzel in Germany and other painters. At the same time, complex allegorism, elements of mysticism and fantasy, sometimes inherent in romanticism, found continuity in symbolism, and partly in the art of post-impressionism and art nouveau.
Reference and biographical data of the "Small Bay Planet Art Gallery" were prepared on the basis of materials from the "History of Foreign Art" (edited by M.T. Kuzmina, N.L. Maltseva), "Art Encyclopedia of Foreign Classical Art", "Great Russian Encyclopedia".
Art, as we know, is extremely multifaceted. A huge number of genres and trends allows each author to realize his creative potential to the greatest extent, and gives the reader the opportunity to choose exactly the style that he likes.
One of the most popular and, without a doubt, beautiful art movements is romanticism. This trend became widespread at the end of the 18th century, covering European and American culture, but later reaching Russia. The main ideas of romanticism are the desire for freedom, perfection and renewal, as well as the proclamation of the right of human independence. This trend, oddly enough, has spread widely in absolutely all major forms of art (painting, literature, music) and has become truly widespread. Therefore, we should consider in more detail what romanticism is, and also mention its most famous figures, both foreign and domestic.
Romanticism in literature
In this area of art, a similar style initially appeared in Western Europe, after the bourgeois revolution in France in 1789. The main idea of romantic writers was the denial of reality, dreams of a better time and a call to fight for a change in values in society. As a rule, the main character is a rebel, acting alone and seeking the truth, which, in turn, made him defenseless and confused in front of the world around him, so the works of romantic authors are often imbued with tragedy.
If we compare this direction, for example, with classicism, then the era of romanticism was distinguished by complete freedom of action - writers did not hesitate to use a variety of genres, mixing them together and creating a unique style, which was based in one way or another on the lyrical principle. The current events of the works were filled with extraordinary, sometimes even fantastic events, in which the inner world of the characters, their experiences and dreams were directly manifested.
Romanticism as a genre of painting
Fine art also came under the influence of romanticism, and its movement here was based on the ideas of famous writers and philosophers. Painting as such was completely transformed with the advent of this movement; new, completely unusual images began to appear in it. The themes of Romanticism addressed the unknown, including distant exotic lands, mystical visions and dreams, and even the dark depths of the human consciousness. In their work, artists largely relied on the heritage of ancient civilizations and eras (the Middle Ages, the Ancient East, etc.).
The direction of this trend in Tsarist Russia was also different. If European authors touched on anti-bourgeois themes, then Russian masters wrote on the topic of anti-feudalism.
The craving for mysticism was much less pronounced than among Western representatives. Domestic figures had a different idea of what romanticism was, which in their work can be seen in the form of partial rationalism.
These factors became fundamental in the process of the emergence of new trends in art on the territory of Russia, and thanks to them, the world cultural heritage knows Russian romanticism as such.
The presentation will introduce the work of outstanding painters of France, Germany, Spain and England of the Romantic era.
Romanticism in European painting
Romanticism is a movement in the spiritual culture of the late 18th - first third of the 19th centuries. The reason for its appearance was disappointment in the results of the French Revolution. The motto of the revolution is “Freedom, equality, brotherhood!” turned out to be utopian. The Napoleonic epic that followed the revolution and the gloomy reaction caused a mood of disappointment in life and pessimism. A new fashionable disease “World Sorrow” quickly spread in Europe and a new hero appeared, yearning, wandering around the world in search of an ideal, and more often - in search of death.
Contents of Romantic Art
In the era of gloomy reaction, the English poet George Byron became the ruler of thoughts. His hero Childe Harold is a gloomy thinker, tormented by melancholy, wandering around the world in search of death and parting with life without any regret. My readers, I’m sure, now remember Onegin, Pechorin, Mikhail Lermontov. The main thing that distinguishes a romantic hero is his absolute rejection of gray, everyday life. The romantic and the philistine are antagonists.
"Oh, let me bleed,
But give me space quickly.
I'm scared to suffocate here,
In the damned world of traders...
No, better is a vile vice,
Robbery, violence, robbery,
Than accountant morality
And the virtue of well-fed faces.
Hey little cloud, take me away
Take it with you on a long journey,
To Lapland, or to Africa,
Or at least to Stettin - somewhere!
G. Heine
Escape from the gray everyday life becomes the main content of the art of romanticism. Where can a romantic “escape” from everyday life and dullness? If you, my dear reader, are a romantic at heart, then you can easily answer this question. Firstly, The distant past becomes attractive to our hero, most often the Middle Ages with its noble knights, tournaments, mysterious castles, and Beautiful Ladies. The Middle Ages were idealized and glorified in the novels of Walter Scott, Victor Hugo, in the poetry of German and English poets, in the operas of Weber, Meyerbeer, and Wagner. In 1764, the first English "Gothic" horror novel, Walpoll's The Castle of Otranto, was published. In Germany at the beginning of the 19th century, Ernest Hoffmann wrote “The Devil’s Elixir”; by the way, I advise you to read it. Secondly, a wonderful opportunity for “escape” for a romantic was the sphere of pure fiction, the creation of an imaginary, fantastic world. Remember Hoffmann, his “Nutcracker”, “Little Tsakhes”, “The Golden Pot”. It’s clear why Tolkien’s novels and Harry Potter stories are so popular these days. There are always romances! After all, this is a state of mind, don’t you agree?
Third way The romantic hero’s escape from reality is an escape to exotic countries untouched by civilization. This path led to the need for a systematic study of folklore. The art of romanticism was based on ballads, legends, and epics. Many works of romantic visual and musical art are associated with literature. Shakespeare, Cervantes, Dante again become the rulers of thoughts.
Romanticism in fine arts
In each country, the art of romanticism acquired its own national characteristics, but at the same time, all their works have much in common. All romantic artists are united by a special attitude towards nature. The landscape, in contrast to the works of classicism, where it served only as decoration, a background, for romantics acquires a soul. The landscape helps to emphasize the state of the hero. It will be useful to compare European fine art of romanticism with art and.
Romantic art prefers the night landscape, cemeteries, gray mists, wild rocks, ruins of ancient castles and monasteries. A special attitude towards nature contributed to the birth of the famous landscape English parks (remember regular French parks with straight alleys and trimmed bushes and trees). The subjects of paintings are often stories and legends of the past.
Presentation "Romanticism in European fine arts" contains a large number of illustrations introducing the work of outstanding romantic artists of France, Spain, Germany, and England.
If the topic interests you, perhaps you, dear reader, will be interested in reading the material in the article “ Romanticism: passionate nature" on the Arthive website dedicated to art.
I found most of the illustrations in excellent quality on the website Gallerix.ru. For those who want to go deeper into the topic, I recommend reading it:
- Encyclopedia for children. T.7. Art. – M.: Avanta+, 2000.
- Beckett V. History of painting. – M.: Astrel Publishing House LLC: AST Publishing House LLC, 2003.
- Great artists. Volume 24. Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes. – M.: Publishing house “Direct-Media”, 2010.
- Great artists. Volume 32. Eugene Delacroix. – M.: Publishing house “Direct-Media”, 2010
- Dmitrieva N.A. A Brief History of Art. Issue III: Countries of Western Europe of the 19th century; Russia of the 19th century. ‒ M.: Art, 1992
- Emokhonova L.G. World artistic culture: Textbook. A manual for students. avg. ped. textbook establishments. – M.: Publishing Center “Academy”, 1998.
- Lukicheva K.L. History of painting in masterpieces. – Moscow: Astra-Media, 2007.
- Lvova E.P., Sarabyanov D.V., Borisova E.A., Fomina N.N., Berezin V.V., Kabkova E.P., Nekrasova World artistic culture. XIX century. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2007.
- Mini-encyclopedia. Pre-Raphaelism. – Vilnius: VAB “BESTIARY”, 2013.
- Samin D.K. One Hundred Great Artists. – M.: Veche, 2004.
- Freeman J. History of Art. – M.: Astrel Publishing House, 2003.
Good luck!
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Romanticism (French romantisme) is an ideological and artistic movement in the culture of the late 18th century - the first half of the 19th century, characterized by the affirmation of the intrinsic value of the spiritual and creative life of the individual, the depiction of strong (often rebellious) passions and characters, spiritualized and healing nature. It has spread to various spheres of human activity. In the 18th century, everything strange, picturesque and existing in books, and not in reality, was called romantic. At the beginning of the 19th century, romanticism became the designation of a new direction, opposite to classicism and the Enlightenment.
Originated in Germany. The harbinger of romanticism is Sturm and Drang and sentimentalism in literature.
Romanticism replaces the Age of Enlightenment and coincides with the Industrial Revolution, marked by the appearance of the steam engine, steam locomotive, steamship, photography and factory outskirts. If the Enlightenment is characterized by the cult of reason and civilization based on its principles, then romanticism affirms the cult of nature, feelings and the natural in man. It was in the era of romanticism that the phenomena of tourism, mountaineering and picnics took shape, designed to restore the unity of man and nature. The image of a “noble savage”, armed with “folk wisdom” and not spoiled by civilization, is in demand.
The category of the sublime, central to romanticism, was formulated by Kant in his work Critique of Judgment. According to Kant, there is a positive pleasure in the beautiful, expressed in calm contemplation, and there is a negative pleasure in the sublime, formless, infinite, causing not joy, but amazement and comprehension. The chanting of the sublime is associated with romanticism’s interest in evil, its ennobling and the dialectic of good and evil (“I am part of that force that always wants evil and always does good”).
Romanticism contrasts the educational idea of progress and the tendency to discard everything “outdated and outdated” with an interest in folklore, myth, fairy tales, the common man, a return to the roots and to nature.
Romanticism contrasts the tendency towards atheism with a rethinking of religion. “True religion is the feeling and taste of infinity” (Schleiermacher). The deistic concept of God as the Supreme Mind is contrasted with pantheism and religion as a form of sensuality, the idea of the Living God.
In the words of Benedetto Croce: “Philosophical romanticism raised the banner of what is sometimes inaccurately called intuition and fantasy, in defiance of cold reason, abstract intellect.” Prof. Jacques Barzin noted that romanticism cannot be considered a rebellion against reason: it is a rebellion against rationalistic abstractions. As Prof. writes. G. Skolimowski: “Recognition of the logic of the heart (about which Pascal speaks so expressively), recognition of intuition and the deeper meaning of life is tantamount to the resurrection of a person capable of flying. It was in defense of these values, against the invasion of philistine materialism, narrow pragmatism and mechanistic empiricism, that romanticism rebelled.”
The founders of philosophical romanticism: the Schlegel brothers (August Wilhelm and Friedrich), Novalis, Hölderlin, Schleiermacher.
Representatives: Francisco Goya, Antoine-Jean Gros, Theodore Gericault, Eugene Delacroix, Karl Bryullov, William Turner, Caspar David Friedrich, Carl Friedrich Lessing, Carl Spitzweg, Carl Blechen, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, Lucy Madox Brown, Gillot St. Evr.
The development of romanticism in painting proceeded in sharp polemics with adherents of classicism. The Romantics reproached their predecessors for “cold rationality” and the lack of “movement of life.” In the 20-30s, the works of many artists were characterized by pathos and nervous excitement; they showed a tendency towards exotic motifs and play of imagination, capable of leading away from the “dull everyday life”. The struggle against frozen classicist norms lasted a long time, almost half a century. The first who managed to consolidate the new direction and “justify” romanticism was Theodore Gericault.
One of the branches of romanticism in painting is the Biedermeier style.
Romanticism first arose in Germany, among writers and philosophers of the Jena school (W. G. Wackenroder, Ludwig Tieck, Novalis, brothers F. and A. Schlegel). The philosophy of romanticism was systematized in the works of F. Schlegel and F. Schelling
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