Romantic Tensions: A Gallery

This watercolor painting, entitled "Painting of Mont Blanc from the Miscellaneous Papers of Jane Williams" was painted in 1819 by Edward Williams. The artist stood across Lake Geneva from this perspective, allowing us to see Mont Blanc in all its sublime glory. Percy Shelley's poem "Mont Blanc" is one of the staples of Romantic literature, specifically poetry, during this time, and so this mountain is almost an artifact of the Romantics, although it still exists today, of course. The mountain is the highest in the Alps and Western Europe, resting on a border between Italy and France. The…

In this image, drawn by James Gillray in 1792, John Bull--who represents both England and King George III--alongside the Queen as they advise their daughters to boycott putting sugar in their tea, telling them it's "O delicious! delicious!" even without it. Leading up to the Romantic Era, people (including Samuel Coleridge and Robert Southey) refused to eat anything that was a product of slavery, and that included sugar since it came in from slaves in the West Indies. This practice was taken up by thousands of people in order to protest slavery, and it was particularly common among…

Opium was an incredibly popular drug during the romantic period. Opium was used for a wide variety of ailments, but Samuel Taylor Coleridge started using it to elevate the pain he felt in his knees. He soon became addicted to opium and had a plethora of reasons, real or imagined, to keep taking it. Opium caused its takers to enter a dream-like state. Some argue that opium inspires the mind in such a way that an author could achieve their best writing. Others argue that opium would merely unleash the creativity already inside of the author. For Coleridge, he believed that "opium made…

This painting was done by William Sadler II in June 1815. It is an oil painting that currently resides in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.  It depics the Battle of Waterloo in which Napoleon Bonaparte fought against their English foes who were led by the Duke of Wellington, their Prussian foes led by Gebhard Lebercht von Blucher,  as well as foes from the Netherlands, Hanover, the Duchy of Nassau, and the Principality of Bruswick-Wolfenbuttel. The painting shows the battle as one of many losses. All throughout the painting, dead soliders are piled atop each other in stacks. Leaders…

In his day, Lord Byron was viewed as a terribly controversial figure, and even by today’s standards his conduct would be considered quite unusual. In fact, it seems likely that he would now be viewed as a criminal, due to the fact that he was “enthralled by a young Greek boy of 15” when he, himself was 36 years-old (Drummond), but the Romantic Period had other qualms concerning him, as well. Of course, his bisexuality caused him to be viewed as a sexual deviant, and his club foot caused him to be viewed as a deformed sexual deviant, at that (Drummond), and yet, the people of England could…

Gothic language and literature is something that inspires writing and people even today. Despite seeming like an outdated form of writing there’s a lot of modern things that are influenced by this traditional writing. In order to elaborate on the elements of the Gothic I will use an example that is familiar to everyone. For instance, Harry Potter, which we all know and love, is a gothic influenced series. 

The first element that makes it gothic is that of Harry Potter himself. In traditional Gothic literature the main character is very relatable -- but must ultimately face the…

Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, by Caspar David Friedrich depicts a man standing on a rocky cliff face looking out over a landscape obscured by fog. It was painted in 1818 and is representative of Romantic era artwork. When we examine the painting, the middle third is dominated by the Wanderer and the rocks he stands upon, with the adjacent two thirds devoted to the obscured landscape. We've talked about concepts of space in class, and it's significant that so much space in this painting is devoted as equally to an obscure landscape as it is to the Wanderer if not more so…

The Romantic concept of the Sublime is defined by Edmund Burke as "Astonishment, and astonishment is that state of the soul, in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror. In this case the mind is so entirely filled with its object, that it cannot entertain any other" (Burke, On The Sublime). Unlike the rational ideals of the Enlightenment, the Romantic era is characterized by this emotional response to the Sublime - this awe of the majesty and power of nature. This concept is difficult to explain in words, but I find myself understanding a bit…

This painting is a prime example of romantic values and ideas. Painted by Eugene Delacroix, it is not only a political statement from the time, it is also an shift from earlier, classical art, because of its style. Classical art was very focused on recreating roman and greek antiquity in the use of color, lack of movement within the picture, and subjects. Romanticism, with its focus on feeling, sensuality, and soul instead of logic and reason, included motion as well as emotion. This painting, in particular, is quintessentially romantic because of its use of different societal figures: a…

"The Desperate Man" is a painting by Gustave Courbet. A self-portrait, it depicts the painter wrought with worry, his hands tearing at his hair. Courbet here appears as the essence of the Romantic artist -- the tourtured artist and genius, who is struggling for recognition in his work, politics, and money to earn a living. Courbet was beginning to shed the old tropes of those who came before him in favor of the new, Romantic ideals of painting and art, and this struggle of self-expression is captured within the piece. "The Desperate Man" acts as more than a self-portrait -- it is the…

his logo was designed in 1787 by Josiah Wedgewood for the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. The slave in the design is presented as helpless and was drawn that way to appeal to the superiority of white abolitionists, ignoring the fact that many Africans were in fact challenging slavery themselves. While this created a negative stereotype, it was also useful in rousing white abolitionists. By presenting a slave half-naked and vulnerable, kneeling as if in prayer, the movement was able to gain a wide range of sympathizers. Portrayed as weak, the logo elicits a…

This picture was published in 1840 as part of a novel written by Frances Trollope. The novel "The Life and Adventures of Michael Armstrong, The Factory Boy", was centered around the fictitious Michael Armstrong. This novel also demonstrated the lives and hardships that children during this time period endured. As the Industrial Revolution was coming into fruition, unfortunately, child labor was also on the climb. This novel, alongside this famous depcition of child labor, was created to draw awareness to and expose the conditions that factory workers were working in. More specifically and…