Developing new ways to represent the effects of changing light in the open air, the formation and movement of clouds across the sky and his love for the countryside of his youth, Constable’s best works are of the places he knew. To represent natural light and weather effects, he rejected the smooth finish encouraged by the academies, instead applying paint in expressive and descriptive marks. Although he was never financially successful, he became a major influence on later artists, particularly Delacroix and Géricault, the painters of the Barbizon School and the Impressionists.
Key Works
Boatbuilding 1814, VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON, UK
The White Horse 1819, THE FRICK COLLECTION, NEW YORK, US
The Hay Wain 1821, THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON, UK
Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Grounds c.1825, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK, US
Hadleigh Castle 1829, YALE CENTER FOR BRITISH ART, NEW HAVEN, CT, US
The Leaping Horse 1824–5, ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, LONDON, UK
INGRES
1780–1867 • NEOCLASSICISM
La Grande Odalisque
1814 OIL ON CANVAS
88.9 × 162.6 CM (35 × 64 IN)
MUSÉE DU LOUVRE, PARIS, FRANCE
Commissioned by Napoleon’s sister, Queen Caroline Murat of Naples, and exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1819, this exotic Turkish harem mistress is portrayed in the tradition of the reclining Venuses of the Venetian Renaissance. Her languid sensuality, elongated spine and pale limbs show influences from the Mannerists and contrast with the heavy surrounding drapery. Like David, Ingres’ forms are smooth and sculptural and his palette is muted and cool.
The French Neoclassical painter, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, believed firmly in the supremacy of line over color. Considered revolutionary in his lifetime because his ideas conflicted with those of his tutor, David, he ended up as revered as his master for his interpretation of Neoclassicism. He divided his time between Paris and Italy.
Born in Montauban, southwestern France, Ingres received his first training (in art and music) from his father, who was a painter and miniaturist. He showed a precocious talent, so at the age of 11 he was enrolled at the Académie Royale de Peinture, Sculpture et Architecture in Toulouse to study sculpture and painting. Six years later, he attended David’s studio in Paris and four years after that, he won the coveted Prix de Rome. Due to the government’s lack of funds he remained in Paris till 1806, painting portraits to earn a living.
During his first years in Rome, Ingres studied the Renaissance artists. When his four-year Prix de Rome period ended, he remained in Italy, drawing and painting portraits. He also began painting bathers—a theme that he returned to frequently during the course of his career. These elongated, smooth-skinned female nudes epitomized his belief in accuracy of line and demonstrated his admiration of mannerism and the works of antiquity. Yet for all his triumphs as a student, and his subsequent time in Rome, success in Paris was not forthcoming: the works he sent back (as part of the Prix de Rome’s rules) were not well received. He remained in Italy for 17 years and when he returned to France, his style was not as popular as the Romanticism that artists such as Delacroix were producing.
Although he considered himself a history painter in the tradition of David, Ingres’s large history paintings are not as powerful as his smaller, more intimate portraits, and bathers, or “odalisques.” These paintings, with their cool colors, smooth surfaces and imperceptible brushstrokes, gradually gained him recognition and The Vow of Louis XIII, exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1824, finally brought him critical acclaim and he became celebrated throughout France. In 1835, he returned to Rome as director of the French Academy of Arts there, and six years later, on his return to Paris, a great welcoming parade was held in his honor. By then, he was celebrated as equal to David for his Neoclassical approach and skill. His influence on later artists, and on academic art, was profound. Although his work is often seen as a direct contrast with Romanticism, the styles have many similarities.
Key Works
The Valpinçon Bather 1808, MUSÉE DU LOUVRE, PARIS, FRANCE
Louis-François Bertin 1832, MUSÉE DU LOUVRE, PARIS, FRANCE
Louise de Broglie, Countess d’Haussonville 1845, FRICK COLLECTION, NEW YORK, US
The Source 1856, MUSÉE D’ORSAY, PARIS, FRANCE
The Turkish Bath 1862, MUSÉE DU LOUVRE, PARIS, FRANCE
GÉRICAULT
1791–1824 • ROMANTICISM
The Raft of the Medusa
1818–19 OIL ON CANVAS
491 × 716 CM (193 × 282 IN)
MUSÉE DU LOUVRE, PARIS, FRANCE
This painting broke all the rules with its morbid depiction of human suffering. It is the moment when some of the survivors of the wrecked frigate, the Medusa, see another ship on the horizon. At least 147 passengers had been clinging to a hastily constructed raft and only 15 survived, experiencing starvation, dehydration, madness and cannibalism. The incident became an international scandal because the French captain had been acting under the authority of the recently restored French monarchy. Undertaking extensive research, Géricault worked for over a year on the work, interviewing survivors and visiting morgues and hospitals to study the dying and dead.
One of the most original pioneers of the Romantic Movement, Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault was a hugely influential painter and lithographer. His passionate temperament—and disregard for convention—helped to elevate him to the status of a legend during his remarkable, yet tragically short, career of just 12 years.
A dandy and a keen horseman, whose dramatic paintings reflected his colorful personality, Géricault was born in Rouen, France, to wealthy parents. His family moved to Paris when he was a child, and as he was avidly interested in horses and art, as a teenager he was taught by the artist Carle Vernet (1758–1836), who shared his passion. Next he studied with the Neoclassical painter Guérin, who also taught Delacroix. As with many artists of his era, however, Géricault received his most influential instruction over about six years, copying paintings at the Louvre. He was particularly inspired by the vigor of Rubens’ paintings, and after a two-year stay in Italy in 1816, he also integrated much of Caravaggio’s drama and chiaroscuro and Michelangelo’s classical techniques and forms into his own work.
Géricault’s first success was The Charging Chasseur, exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1812, which shows the influence of Rubens. It won him a gold medal and inspired many other artists who preferred this idea of realism and passion, rather than the cool and deliberate style of Neoclassicism. For a while he painted fairly small works, but after his trip to Italy, he began painting more dramatic and passionate works, often quite monumental in scale. With the energy and emotional intensity he portrayed, he showed the art world how the imagination and drama could enhance the impact of paintings. This violated the conventions of history painting, but rather than being condemned for it, his ideas and style became fashionable. His work always conveyed some sort of excitement or spirit, reflecting his own personality. Subjects included horses, cavalry officers and portraits of all types of people, including the insane—and even a couple of severed heads.