Exhibit:

Romanticism: A Class Gallery

Preview of images

Constable's Wivenhoe Park painting
Liberty Leading the People
Frankenstein Movie Cover Birth of Frankenstein's Monster Scene

Friedrich, WandererThis gallery is part of ENGL 202's build assignment.  Research some aspect of Romanticism and then contribute what you have learned to our shared class resource.  As the assignment states, "Add one timeline element, one map element and one gallery image about the Romantic period to our collective resources in COVE Editions.  Provide sufficient detail to explain the historical or cultural detail that you are presenting. Interlink the three objects. I have provided one image as an example of what is required.

Images in this Exhibit

John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, Essex (1816)
Constable's Wivenhoe Park painting

John Constable painted Wivenhoe Park in 1816. In Art and Illusion, E. H. Gombrich sees this painting as the apogée of changes to art that were implemented in the Renaissance (e.g., the adoption of perspective and the illusion of three-dimenionality). As he writes,

Constable’s painting of Wivenhoe Park looks so natural and obvious that we are inclined to overlook its daring and its success.  We accept it as simply a faithful record of what the artist actually saw in front of him—”a mere transcript of nature,” as paintings of this...
The Corn Laws of 1815 Image of Riot

After The Corn Laws of 1815, riots broke out over the cost of bread. This led to the destruction and violence depicted in the image. London was most hostile to the law due to the higher population of working-class people who now struggled to afford food. The movement to the repeal the corn laws made heavy use of imagery in its campaign material. The law lasted for quite a while, so even though there was resistance, the laws persisted. The image shows the struggle of the poorer men of the era.

 

Sources:

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The Cow-Pock—or—the Wonderful Effects of the New Inoculation!

In 1802, James Gillray, the famed satirist and cartoonist, etched this scene of Edward Jenner Inoculating patients. This grotesque scene of people morphing into cows encapsulates the state of affairs within the vaccination debate at the time. Their were many that were weary of the growing practice, similar to the vaccine hesitancy seen today. Vaccine hesitancy is an issue that is common across both modernity and post-modernity. Many people feared that the procedure was not safe, and could lead to people developing bovine features. Gillray is seen here exaggerating these claims. 

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Portrait of Frederic Chopin and George Sand

Painted by Eugene Delacroix in 1838. The painting depicts legendary Romance pianist Frederic Chopin and his then lover, French writer Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, better known by her pseudonym George Sand.

The portrait depicts Chopin playing piano to the right while Sand listens and sews, to his left.

The portrait was never finished by Delacroix, and though was originally a double portrait, was later cut in two and sold as individual portraits of Chopin and Sand. We do not know how the idea of the painting came about, nor do we know for sure how the painting looked before it...
Edmund Kean as Richard the III

This is an oil painting done in the early 19th Century by George Clint. It depicts Edmund Kean as King Richard III ordering the Duke of Buckingham as a part of a production of Shakespeare's Richard III. This portrait displays important characteristics that set Kean Apart in this time, like his greasy black hair, sharp features, and grumpy disposition, making him the perfect shakespearian villain. Before Kean, even the villains in stage productions of Shakespeare's works tended to be tall and gorgeous, but Kean revolutionized the way that villains were protrayed on stage. The dark, rich...
Grip the Raven

This bird, named Grip, is thought to have inspired Poe's "The Raven."

Grip was Charles Dickens' beloved pet raven. He was a mischevious creature with an impressive vocabulary for a bird. Dickens was very fond of Grip to the point where he made the bird a character in the novel "Barnaby Rudge." Unfortunately, Grip suddenly died one night in 1841. This is possibly due to his odd habit of eating paint. Dickens mourned him, fondly writing to a friend about how he spent his last moments saying his favorite phrase (Halloa, old girl.) and how he'd bother his children by biting them. Rather...
La Mort de Marat

This painting by neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David depicts the death of Jean-Paul Marat, a French revolutionary leader. He was murdered by Charlotte Corday, a member of the Girondin political party, a direct enemy of the Montagnard party that Marat belonged to. Corday sneaked into his chamber while he bathed under the guise of a reporter and fatally stabbed him. In the months after, David, a fellow Montagnard, painted a perfectionist view that changed certain details from what actually took place, like leaving out Marat's skin condition, or not leaving the knife impaled in his chest...
A Windmill near Norwich and the Year Without a Summer

The year of 1816, the year that Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron spent their time in Geneva together, was known in Europe as "the year without a summer". This was due to the eruption of Mount Tambora in present-day Indonesia (then the Dutch East Indies), quite possibly the most powerful eruption in recorded history (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research [UCAR], 2012). The amount of ash sent into the atmosphere caused cooler temperatures by nearly three degrees Celsius (UCAR, 2012) around the world, causing many crops to fail.  Beyond the temperature, the weather...
The Coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte

On December 2, 1804 at Notre-Dame de Paris in France, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned as Emperor of the French. After placing the crown on his own head, Napoleon elected to crown his wife, Josephine, as Empress himself. The image shows Josephine kneeling before Napoleon to be crowned. The women holding Josephine's train are Napoleon's sisters. While the coronation was controversial, it is very important to the Romantic era. 
The Brighton Royal Pavilion

This painting was completed within a year of the completion of the Pavilion's expansion. It depicts the main dining hall, decorated with bright colors and images of the Far East.
Portrait of Victor Hugo

This portrait of Victor Hugo shows the famous author and poet sitting in his home in Paris, resting an arm on top of a book and scratching the top of his head. Hugo is well known for famous Romantic works such as Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This depiction of Hugo has become a so-called cliche because of its utter simplicity compared to its monetary value. This painting, titled Victor Hugo, can be found in the Museum of French History at Versailles.

Source: http://www....
Painting of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

This is an image of the "Father of Romanticism," Jean-Jacques Rousseau. You can see the transition of the Enlightenment period to the Romantic period through the color of Rousseau's clothes. The clothing depicted shows a connection to the Earth and the humility of the philosopher. In the Romantic period artists used brown, earthy colors to relate a love of nature, the brown clothing Rousseau wears lets us connect him with his role in the transition to the Romantic period. 
A Wild Scene

Thomas Cole painted A Wild Scene in 1831-1832. This painting exemplifies the values of Romanticism, in particular the emphasis on the relationship between human spirituality and nature, which had not previously been examined during the Enlightenment. Romanticism marked a shift away from the Renaissance and the Enlightenment because rather than stressing scientific observation  and personal achievement, Romantics took a more holistic, empirical worldview.

In this painting, humans are depicted as being part of nature rather than superior beings. Nature is seen as...
Bass Clarinet: A new timbre for new times

Like other clarinet varieties, bass clarinets are typically made of grenadilla (African Blackwood), with plastic resin as a cheaper alternative. German silver (an alloy of copper, zinc, and nickel) makes up the various keys to shine without allowing tarnish. Materials such as cork, leather, felt, wax, and stainless steel help line and work spring mechanisms within the instrument. Cane reed is used to create the vibrations needed to produce sound, as it is with many other woodwinds.

The standard bass clarinet consists of six main parts: the mouthpiece (with reed and ligature), crook/...
"Vindication of the Rights of Woman" by Mary Wollstonecraft

Title page of the 1792 American edition of Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects. The facing page contains an inscription by woman suffragist Susan B. Anthony.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Wollstonecraft#/media/1/646679...
La Liberté guidant le peuple (Liberty Leading the People)
Liberty Leading the People
Liberty Leading the People is a painting by Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix in the year of 1830, commemorating the July Revolution of 1830, where King Charles X of France was overthrown and a new governmental monarchy was installed. Depicted in the painting is the iconic Lady Liberty, Marianne, leading the people forward and over the barricade with the flag of the French Revolution in her hand. She represents the very concept of Liberty and is depicted as a fierce individual, charging forward bare-feet and bare-breasted.
Houses of Parliament

Houses of Parliament on the River Thames at night. Notice the ornate architecture, and emphasis on aesthetic style over practicality. The steeples are reminiscent of medieval castles and churches, a rejection of neo classical style.
The Coronation of Napoleon

This painting by Jacques-Louis David depicts the infamous ceremony of Napoleon Bonaparte officially assuming the title of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French People. Jacques-Louis David painstakingly detailed all those in attendance at the coronation, with Napoleon’s brothers, sisters, mother, and ministers positioned throughout the scene.  

The focal point of the piece is Napoleon himself, standing at the point where all other figures in the painting face. Napoleon’s attire and regalia reflect the combination of ancient and new values that Napoleon championed; resting on Napoleon’s...
Queen Victoria's Coronation

This is a picture of Queen Victoria' Coronation on June 28, 1838. This was the beginning of her 63 year long reign as monarch. Queen Victoria was coronated at West Minister Abbey.

Picture Source:  https://www.rct.uk/collection/406993/queen-victoria-receiving-the-sacrament-at-her-coronation-28-june-1838
The Production of Frankenstein
Frankenstein Movie Cover Birth of Frankenstein's Monster Scene

The 1910 movie Frankenstein is a production based on Mary Shelly's famous novel. Despite the movie's reflection of the book, the director (J. Searle Dawley) left out some pretty important material and chose to add some of his own.

In the novel, Frankenstein's monster represents the moral dilemma that results from societally biased judgment. The readers follow the monster as he attempts to find a home, somebody to love him. After several rejections, the monster becomes bitter and the reader gets to experience the pain and uncertainty that accompanies abandonment and isolation-- an...