Neoclassicism began in the late 18th century as a reaction against Rococo styles and was adopted by leaders of the French Revolution who wanted to associate themselves with the stability and heroism of ancient Greek and Roman styles. Jacques-Louis David was a leading Neoclassical painter who appealed to republican sentiments with works like Oath of the Horatii. Romanticism emerged in reaction to Enlightenment rationalism and the Industrial Revolution, emphasizing emotion, imagination, and individualism in the arts. Romantic painters like Gericault, Delacroix, and Friedrich focused on landscapes, mythology, and exotic subjects to convey intense emotions.

1. Neoclassicism & Romanticism
By: Ansley Lawhead

2. Neoclassicism Beginnings
• late 18th
& early 19th
century
• In France, this “True Style” was a reaction
against Rococo levity.
• Style adopted by the leaders of the French
Revolution.
• Became most closely associated with the
revolutionary movements of the period.

3. Neoclassicism Characteristics
• Associations with heroic subject matter
• Formal clarity
• Impression of stability & solidity
• References to Athenian democracy and
Roman Republic.

4. Jacques-Louis David
• Leading Neoclassical painter
• Appealed to republican sentiments associated
with Classical antiquity.
• Famous Works:
– Oath of the Horatii
– Death of Marat

5. Jacques-Louis David
Completed in 1784
Oil on Canvas
10’10” x 13’ 11”
Louvre
Completed in 1793
Oil on canvas 65” x 50 3/8”
Royal Museum of Fine Arts Brussels

6. Napoleon and the Arts
• Jean-Francois-Therese Chalgrin:
- Arc de Triomphe
- Place Charles de Gaulle in Paris
- 164 ft high
Charles Percier & Pierre F.L Fontaine
-Place Vendome Column
- 44 meters high
- stone core encased in the
bronze of
1250 cannons captured at the
Battle of Austerliz.
-Completed in 1810

7. Napoleon and the Arts II
Antonio Canova:
-Maria Paolina Borghese as Venus
-1808
-White marble
-Galleria Borghese, Rome
Marie-Guillemine Benoist:
-Portrait of a Negress
-Oil on canvas
-Louvre
-31 in x 25 in

8. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Napoleon Enthroned:
-1806 -Musee de I’Armee Paris
-Oil on canvas
-8 ft. 8 in
Grande Odalisque:
-oil on canvas - Indicates Romantic shift
-1814
-Louvre

9. Neoclassicism in America
• Thomas Jefferson: American who most embodied Neoclassicism.
Jefferson designed his
own home, Monticello,
himself.
Jefferson was inspired by the Maison
Carree at Nimes in southern France for
the design of a new State capitol in
Virginia.
Rotunda, University of Virginia. Pride and
joy of Jefferson who is deemed, “Father
of the University.”

10. Romantic Era Beginnings
• The term “Romantic” is derived from the Romance
languages (French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, &
Romanian) & from medieval tales of chivalry & adventure
written in those languages.
• The era is an artistic, literary, & intellectual movement that
originated in the 2nd half of the 18th
century in Western
Europe.
• Reaction to the Industrial Revolution.
• Revolt against aristocratic social & political norms of the
Age of Enlightenment.
• Response against the scientific rationalization of nature.

11. Romanticism characteristics
• Embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and
literature.
• Legitimized individual imagination as a critical
authority---brought freedom from classical notions of
form in art.
• Nostalgic for the past & believes in idealistic
participation in current events.
• Strong emphasis placed on intuition, imagination, and
feeling.
• The mind = site of mysterious, unexplained, & possibly
dangerous phenomena.

12. Romantic Visual Arts
• Artists used their works for highlighting
national identity & exoticism.
• Most Romantic artists painted landscapes that
usually showed nationalism or exoticism
through adventure of far-away places.
• Nature used to convey emotions.

13. Romantic Arts
• Artists found the natural world less a model of
perfection and more a source of mysterious
powers.
• Painters painted from many supernatural
texts & stories.
• Known as a time of surging emotions. For
example, the supernatural represented love &
fear was portrayed through demons.

14. Romantic Painters
• William Blake: Engraver, painter, & poet.
• Theodore Gericault: Committed to social justice
& interested in human psychology.
• Eugene Delacroix: Most prominent figure in
French Romantic painting.
• Francisco de Goya y Lucientes: Leading Spanish
painter of the late 18th
& early 19th
centuries.
Obvious support intellectual & political freedom.

15. Theodore Gericault, Raft of the Medusa.
-Oil on canvas
-16 ft x 23 ft 6 in
-Louvre
-1819
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
The Witches Sabbath
-1799
-Oil on canvas
-Museo Lazaro Galdiano,
Madrid
Examples of Romantic Art

16. Blake: “God Creating the Universe”
-British Museum
-Relief etching finished in gold,
Watercolor on paper
- 9 1/4 x 6 5/8 in
Delacroix: “Death of Sardanapalus”
-oil on canvas
-1827
-12’ 1” x 16’ 3”
-Louvre
Examples of Romantic Art

17. Romantic Painters
• Caspar David Friedrich: Known for poetic
landscapes.
• John Constable & Joseph Mallord William Turner:
In England, the 2 greatest Romantic landscape
painters.
• Thomas Cole: habit of journeying on foot through
northeastern states whilst making pencil sketches
of landscape.

18. Examples of Romantic Art
Thomas Cole View from Mount Holyoke,
Northampton, Massachusetts after a
Thunderstorm.
-1836
-Oil on canvas
-4 ft. 3.5 in x 6 ft 4 in.
-Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Caspar David Friedrich, Two Men
Contemplating the Moon
-1819
-Oil on canvas
-13 ¾ x 17 ½ in
-Germaldegalerie Neue Meister,
Staaliche Kunstsammiungen, Dresden

19. Constable:
“Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Garden
-1823
-87.6 cm x 111.8 cm
-Victoria and Albert Museum
Turner: “Burning of the Houses of Lords
and Commons”
-1835
-oil on canvas
-92 x 123 cm
-Philadelphia Museum of Art