RealismArtistic movements in the 19th century were direct reactions towards (or against) political and social situations during the time. Romanticism was a movement against the ideas of the Enlightenment that had been ingrained into European people since the early 1700s. The Enlightenment emphasized reason and uniform ideals in the arts. Romanticism can be seen as a direct revolt against the Enlightenment. Romantic artists constantly strived for unique and different ideas, whereas the thinkers of the Enlightenment valued uniformity. (Art Periods: Romanticism) Realism, in contrast to Romanticism, showed an objective, unemotional view of the world. The goal of Realist artists was to record an impartial view of the ideas of French society in the 19th century. The major contributor to the development of Realism was the social and political unrest in Europe in 1848. The French painters reacted to the three-day revolution in February of that year. At the end of the revolution, Louis-Philippe resigned, which led to several consecutive disorganized governments that attempted to lessen the severe unemployment problems. Realism began to depict ordinary workers and farming communities in scenes of everyday life. The paintings from this period are very true to life without any flourishes. (Rosenblum, pg.218)An exceptional example of a Romantic painting is The Hay Wain by John Constable. (Rosenblum, pg. 157-158) It is a picture that conveys the Romantic idea that nature is the embodiment of all possible feelings. (class notes) The Hay Wain won a gold medal at the Salon of 1824 and was innovative because of Constable’s use of a palette knife to apply paint. A major contributing factor in the genius of Constable’s work is that he painted his works outside, as a part of nature, rather than in a studio. (Rosenblum, pg.158) In this particular painting, as well as most of his others, he had a personal connection to the site that ...
