The Figures and Inspiration Behind the Start of Romanticism

Paul Cezanne and Van Gogh are two famous painter of 19th century. They lead a new way to follow in the avant garde art movements by exploring. To illustrate, they include intimacy into the paintings because they start to think outside the box of traditional ways. They prefer to use intense colours in their paintings and also refuse to use black in their paintings; for instance, as in Gogh’s “The Starry Night” and Cezanne’s “La Mont Sainte Victorie.” Another thing we may take as different than others is their brushstrokes, they are rather thick and it gives a different perspective to their paintings as it can be seen in Van Gogh’s “Wheatfield with Crows.” As a result of their brushstrokes, these paintings cannot easily be seen with closer look, one must take a few steps back to see the whole painting and the unity in the combination of colours with the context. Moreover, they do not care about classic movements but their paintings are generally instinctual and their subjects are mainly come from environment, they paint the details of daily life such as “Card Players” and “The Night Café.” In addition to usage of vivid colours, they prefer sharp contours in their paintings. The humman figures in their paintings are clear but do not have details because they do not care about the anatomy of the body, they focuses on the daily experiences of the body. It is obvious that their paintings have so much in common. From my perspective, they are very enjoyable to observe and interpret because they take colourful spots in the nature and put them on their canvas with their own way also combine their own stories with these artistries.

All in all, with all these spesific ways of doing their paintings, they become important builders of the 20th century art movements. By taking impressionism, which is mainly about reflecting the nature as it is and painting the nature in that moment such as Claude Monet’s “Impression: Sunrise,” they combined nature with objects and started post-impressionism as a response to impressionism with their new artistic methods and techniques.

Romanticism is an important movement that had a huge effect on the literature, music, philosophy and art in Europe during 19th century because it arose to the surface due to French Revolution. The idea of liberty, equality and fraternity became important subject matters in the world and nationalism rose under the idea of pride in one’s country. Faith in man, in man’s destiny, in his dreams and passions came up as a result of the revolution because people started to see that as individuals and they had a chance to hear their voice in the community; therefore, individualism became another concept of the romanticism. Thus, people sympathised for the oppressed such as women, children and workers. By turning back to the individual, interest in simple life appeared as an important effect and it is resulted as the awareness of nature.

If we think all these themes, we can easily relate them to the “Liberty Leading the People” by Eugène Delacroix. Firstly, we have a strong female figure at the centre of the painting who carries France’s flag, which symbolizes liberty, equality and fraternity with its colours. These themes became popular after the revolution and we can see the idea of liberty with the female figure, who is bravely leading the people. It can also be seen as a reference to the feminist movement. At the same time, we can read human figures’ expressions as awakened because all of them are standing tall and kind of seemed as going forward regardless of age, class or gender. There is also the idea of unity under the same flag. There are also many dead people in the painting who are soldiers which refers to the revolution again. We can come up with this conclusion not only with the flag but also with the appearances of the Notre Dame in the background, its sphere is hazy. All in all, we can see that humankind in the centre of the painting, as J. J. Rousseau said “I am different from all the men I have seen. If I am not better at least I am different.” To illustrate, we have many figures but all of them are different from one another; it is obvious with their clothes, each of them represents variations of the same nation.

On the other hand, we have “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” by Caspar David Friedrich which is another significant representation of romanticism; however, we have another perspective of this era. For instance, the first thing that we may see is the relationship of humankind with the nature with the fog and the mountain. As similar to the Delacroix’s painting, we can see humankind in the centre of the painting. However, the world is covered with the fog and it continues till it became united with the sky. The painting evokes many natural elements in multiple ways. To illustrate, one can see the peaks of the mountains, the forest and the rocks on the horizon, all of which intertwined with the fog and made us questioning humankind’s place within this frame because the man standing tall but his one leg is in the front, and it seems his hand is in his pocket. This composition may lead us to the idea that he is questioning his existence in relation to the world around him or he is just wandering the nature. It may also link to the idea of individuality because we see a single male figure in the middle of the nature. From my perspective this painting evokes our sense of wonder and nature in ourselves because no matter how it is a representation of an arcadia, it seems gloomy. This contradiction makes me question the search for something unknown in the painting, this idea of search for something exotic, irrational, mythical and bizarre can be another theme of the romanticism.

If we think all the things mentioned, we may come up with the conclusion that painting of the Delacroix is a romantic painting because it evokes many feelings within relation to the revolution; on the other hand, Friedrich’s painting is another romantic painting which evokes the spirit of individualism, freedom and nature. In terms of their subject matters these two paintings are two outstanding representation of romanticism.

Marcel Duchamp was one of the Dadaist artists. Dadaism was a pessimistic art movement because it was started in 1917 and those were the World War I years. Therefore, humanity started to question the modernism which many of them hopeful that would bring peace. As a result of wars and chemical attacks, artists lost their hope on humankind. Dadaists open a new chapter in art by trying to do something that has never been done before. They believed that life has no meaning and there is no such thing as “future.” Marcel Duchamp’s famous “The Fountain” was one of the most unpredictable art movement. He brings up the questions such as how we should decide on whether something is art or not, is it really art, what is art and who decides all these questions? All these may think as a comment on the market; however, this originality begins to spread day by day. To illustrate, David Hensel’s “One Day Closer to Paradise” was one of the most interesting stories because people think the pedestal as art; thus, it brings us back to the problem of who determines the value of an art? As similar to this situation, it is known that Piero Manzoni makes his own comment on this topic by his “Artist’s Shit.” Thanks to Marcel Duchamp, people start to search for something unknown and maybe fallacious but thought-provoking at the same time. It leads a way to conceptual art. Robert Rauschenberg’s “Iris Clert’ Portrait” can be given as an example because it is actually a telegraph which is written “This is a portrait of Iris Clert if I say so.” It may be thought as another similar questioning about artists identity because artists give a meaning to these objects and label things that belongs to the daily life. To illustrate, Yves Klein registered a tone of blue and painted many paintings without adding any specific detail on it and by finding the “International Klein Blue” he started neo-realism. By his concept, there appears a new question about whether an artist earn money from art or not?

All in all, art movements branch out many concepts with the changes during the 20th century in all over the world. However, we may think “questioning” as a new theme in these movements because artists start to question every single detail related to daily life and consequently to the art. Giving meaning to an object and interpreting it from a different perspective became a major challenge during these years. All these can be taken as a comment on people that lead the market but also in general to the art itself at the same time. Therefore, by taking something quotidian and making it as an art object Marcel Duchamp started a work of art argument in art world.