Romanticism

Romanticism initially developed in Germany, in 19th century painting, and then spread to the rest of Europe, summarized by the words “Sturm und drang”, storm and impetus.

The romantic artist wants to describe pure and strong feelings, free from neoclassical composure and coldness. Romanticism is a new inner drive, a new key to understanding reality that brings to light its poignant and tormented side, exalting the spiritual beauty of life.

These aspects are interpreted in different ways by painters in various areas of Europe: in Germany, as in England, the concept of the sublime is strongly developed, with names such as Caspar David Friedrich and William Turner. Their Romanticism offers an interpretation of man’s spiritual relationship with nature, captured in its most spontaneous aspect, such as the stormy sea, the fog and the force of the wind, with the intention of transmitting its most sublime aspects, leaving in the soul a sense of beauty, of suspension, of infinity.

In France, artists such as Delacroix and Géricault represent a patriotic Romanticism, with the desire to transmit strong values ​​and ideals of freedom.

In the meantime, historical romanticism was developing in Italy, of which Francesco Hayez was the greatest exponent.

Realism

From the second half of the 19th century, Romanticism slowly gave way to a new current, Realism. The aim is to portray, as the name suggests, Reality.

Subjects that in the past were neglected because they were not important and ideal enough now become the heart of the work, such as the fatigue of work or social injustices.

We therefore find the realist paintings of Courbet and Daumier, who want to show the living conditions of workers, simple and poor people like farmers or workers. Millet on the other hand represents a rural world while still maintaining romantic and idyllic characteristics.

In Italy this new realist trend causes some artists to gather in Florence, in the Caffè Michelangelo. They will be derogatorily defined as “Macchiaioli” for their stain painting technique.

Impressionism

Impressionism was born in the second half of the 19th century and wants to represent reality not as it is but as it is seen by the artist’s eyes, using lights and colors to express it.

One of the main exponents of Impressionism, as well as its precursor, is Manet. In 1863 in Paris he exhibited the painting “Le déjeuner sur l’herbe”, which caused scandal not only for the clear rejection of academic technical rules, but above all for the subject, defined as immoral.

Subsequently, in 1874 the first official exhibition of impressionist painters took place at the studio of the photographer Felix Nadar, in which the painters Claude Monet, Edgard Degas, Alfred Sisley and Pierre-Auguste Renoir participated. This exhibition is defined by art critics as Exposition Impressioniste, a definition that takes inspiration from Monet’s painting, “Impression, soleil levant”.

Impressionist art has in common with realist art the scientific approach to reality, the grasping of its concrete aspects as much as possible.

While for realism this approach basically translates into social denunciation, impressionist artists study technical realism, that is, the perfect interpretation of optical phenomena through particular attention to color and above all to light.

Light is the true subject of impressionist paintings. The impressionist artist aims to capture the moment, fix it in the canvas; this is why a new technique of painting en plain air was born, also made possible by the availability of new types of colour, more resistant to air.

Post-Impressionism

Towards the end of the 19th century, various artistic experiences developed, all collected under the term Post-Impressionism and all with the aim of transmitting the interiority of the painter, and not reality.

Three of the main Post-Impressionist artists are Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Edvard Munch. In their paintings the shapes and colors are deformed, with the aim of representing the artist’s interiority, made up of feelings and sensations.

Increasingly moving towards the technical improvement of this pictorial trend, we find Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) and his cubism, and Georges Seurat, the main exponent of pointillism.

Symbolism

Meanwhile, in France, a new artistic movement, symbolism, is asserting itself, in pure contrast to Impressionism and its interpretation of reality.

We therefore find evocative paintings, full of interest in dreams, inner vision and imagination, with names such as Gustave Moreau, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Odilon Redon, the greatest symbolist painter.

Divisionism at the end of the 19th century

Between the 19th and 20th centuries, Italy saw the birth of a new artistic movement: divisionism, with paintings created through the breakdown of colour, applied with long, stringy brushstrokes.

Among the main artists of Italian divisionism we find Giovanni Segantini, Gaetano Previati and Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo. We can consider this artistic current a premise of futurism, which in the twentieth century saw names such as Giacomo Balla, Luigi Russolo, Gino Severini and Umberto Boccioni.