Romantic Analysis - Comparing Aesthetics; Impressionism vs Pre-Raphaelite

The Romantic era is one of the most unique eras, as it brought a multitude of unique styles, techniques, and values to the world of art. Today, we'll be dissecting two popular styles from this period, Impressionism and Pre-Raphaelite. Without further ado, let's hop in.

IMPRESSIONISM

First finding it's grounds in the 1860s, being a gorgeous style all on its own, impressionism thrives on its focus on the fleeting. With visible brushstrokes and an emphasis on bright color, impressionism focuses on the "idea" or impression of an image, rather than the realistic details.

To start us off, we open with a Claude Monet piece titled Garden Path at Giverny.

Garden Path at Giverny, 1902, by Claude Monet

Claude Monet is a French Painter and one of the leading founders of the Impressionist style. Some famous pieces of his include Impressionist Sunrise, being one of the first of its kind under the "impressionist" style, but some of my personal favorites of his include: Women in the Garden, Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son, and Cliff Walk at Pourville. And many more we (unfortunately) don't have the time to look through.

I picked the Garden Path at Giverny because of just how strong the piece is. I love how lush it all feels. From the big brush strokes, it gives you enough detail to inform you of just how luscious and diverse the garden is. It's like you can pick apart and separate the flowers, and despite so much, the piece never feels muddy or crowded to me. It feels like a living, breathing garden. And it's inviting, too.

From the atmosphere alone, it's warm, bright, and someplace you'd want to visit outside the city. This is aided by its usage of 1-Point perspective, not only making an obvious path for the viewer to follow visually, but inviting them to be a part of the piece. It feels like a garden you could walk along. The piece itself is incredibly warm, as well. It barely uses any cool tones, even the shadows feel more like a deep purple rather than your typical blue or cool shadows.

It's bright, vibrant, and bold. Claude Monet's style often reminds me of the Rococo style in how it focused more on a "whimsical" feel rather than capturing something dramatic or overly moody. It's a piece I'd look at and feel a similar feeling close to home. The whole piece just feels alive to me.

Claude Monet's usage of color is awe-inspiring, and how he paints shows just how important light and atmosphere are to me. He creates such a unique perspective that I don't think realism captures as well. It's a feeling, rather than an image. His color range is wide, but you rarely ever see black used, and whites are only used sparingly. It creates a gorgeous myriad of colors that one can greatly appreciate.

Another piece I adore is by Van Gogh, titled The Red Vineyard.

The Red Vineyard, 1888, by Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh is an artist famous for many things, but one of his most famous pieces will always be Starry Night. While it's undoubtedly gorgeous, a few of his other pieces I personally favor include Café Terrace at Night, The Starry Night Over The Rhone, and Wheatfield with Crows.

Van Gogh is famous for his impressionist work, but also for having a hard time with his art. Not only was he under massive ridicule, but he also grew depressed, which eventually led to his own suicide in 1890. While misfortune seemed to follow him in life, his artworks still live on.

Above is The Red Vineyard, which is the only known piece he's ever sold in his lifetime, which I think is one of his strongest pieces. The impressionist style is vivid in this painting as we can see the impact of the visible brushstrokes in the water. The way the warm light of the sun and the figures reflect in the water is gorgeous. It's enough detail to provide depth, while still feeling like a gorgeous river. The vivid blues and yellows contrast beautifully and complement each other extremely well.

I also love how subtle it is, but as you move from the left of the piece to the right there seems to be a gradual brightening and saturation of colors. You can feel the sense of light and how much it changes the right side, compared to the left, which is darker, and is missing the brighter yellow that the sun and river have. The cooler blues and greens of the figures, ground, and houses along the horizon line aren't just for contrast and for them to stand out, but also to help ground the piece and create a sense of depth.

Speaking of the horizon line, you can see how things fade and grow smaller out in the distance. Something I can appreciate is that despite the obvious line for the horizon, it bleeds into the background and creates a sense of movement from being a curved line, rather than a straight line. It gives the piece depth and adds a sense of realism that a simple straight line wouldn't. The curves of the river, the horizon, and the vineyard create a movement that the eyes can follow along the page, while still keeping them within the image.

While I love the impressionist style, it's time to move on to our next style.

PRE-RAPHAELITE

In comparison to the impressionist style, the Pre-Raphaelite style finds its grounds on realism, choosing to take a more detailed and serious approach. Growing popular around the 1850s to 1860s, while it originally touched on the themes of religion, it found itself including literature and poetry as well. Especially on the topics of love and death.

Our third piece is by Francis Dicksee, titled La Belle Dame Sans Merci.

La Belle Dame Sans Merci, 1901, by Francis Dicksee

 Sir Francis Bernard Dicksee was an English Victorian painter. Particularly known for his more dramatic pieces. His most notable specialty included romantic and intimate scenes. Some pieces of his I enjoy are: The Daughters of Eve, A Reverie, and Romeo and Juliet.

Already, you can see the differences between Impressionism and Pre-Raphaelitism. Francis's brushstrokes bleed into the painting, barely visible as it gives a smooth, almost photographic look. His paintings feel like they come right out of a fairytale. It hinges on a sense of whimsy that I find admirable.

His color palette leans towards a softer, pastel look. In the piece we can see how it benefits him, giving a soft atmosphere as the two figures stare at each other. It creates a romantic image, especially with the use of pinks in the woman's dress, as well as the pink in the flowers. It's flirtatious and playful.

There's also a sense of flow and movement in the piece. Though it's slowed down for intimacy, you can feel the weight of the woman's hair as it drapes and flows down. The red cloth tied to the horse also has a sense of movement. The way its legs are positioned and posed also adds to this sense of movement. The whole piece feels like a snapshot was captured, like an intimate memory.

Your eyes are immediately drawn to the figure and slowly brought down, only to curl along the right of the image and along the top, meeting back at the center. It drags your eyes across it to take in the details, but the centerpiece is established via the strong pink of the dress, her orange flowing hair, and the metallic color of the suit, which isn't seen anywhere else. There's a sense of visual grounding as well, as the green in the girls' flower crown matches the foliage around them, the pink flowers match her dress, and the brown belts of the knight match the horse. Overall, it creates a gorgeous yet cohesive image to look at.

My only nitpick is the knight's pose, which feels silly in contrast. Whether he's attempting to keep balance or not, he doesn't feel relaxed, which betrays the intimate feeling of the painting. Whether it was intentional or not, I'm unsure, but it makes you question the intent behind it.

The next piece and final piece is by William Hunt, titled Our English Coasts (Strayed Sheep)

Our English Coasts (Strayed Sheep), 1852, by William Holman Hunt

William Hunt was an English painter and one of the founding fathers of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group dedicated to reviving British art, primarily taking inspiration from pre-Rennaisance and Italian art. William Hunt himself is known for his detailed pieces, vivid colors, and rich symbolism. Some paintings of his I enjoy include The Light of the World, The Hireling Shepard, and The Festival of St. Swithin or The Dovecote.

Something I enjoy about this piece is how, instead of the focal point being center stage, it feels more like a scene you'd see in a movie or a picture. A majority of the movement comes from the right side, making the composition feel heavier to the right. While some of the sheep do bleed into the center, your focus is primarily on the herd.

 The lighting adds to this as well. The light is incredibly warm, coming from the right side. Automatically, we're drawn to everything that's in the light, compared to everything in shadow. The sheep in the bushes, for example. It blends in from the lack of light, hidden away in the foliage. Compared to the other sheep, the light draws our eyes to the herd instead.  What saves the piece from being so dominant is the posing, however.

As you can see, a majority of the sheep are to the right, but many are posed differently. Instead of them all walking in one direction many are resting, lounging. Some sheep are tilted up to the camera/the viewer, while others are looking out to the left side, which draws our eyes to look that way as well. The steepness of the hill on the left side also, while not feeling as heavy as the right, still draws our attention to it. We follow the slope and go downward, our eyes following the ocean and the curve back up the hill, and then back to the sheep again.

The piece overall is gorgeous. It feels calm. I can feel the sense of rest and the slowness of the image, like the water would be gently swaying in the background along with the flowers and the leaves. The choice of focusing on sheep adds to this feeling. It feels like a scene you'd drive by while on the road.

COMPARING AESTHETICS

Comparing Impressionism and Pre-Raphaelitism is like comparing night and day. The difference between the details, subject matter, and values breathes wonders.

Pre-Raphaelitism is much more serious and much more realistic. It values its deeper symbolism, it's focus on love, death, and intimacy. It also has a sense of a storyteller's element, focusing on literature, poetry, and even biblical matter. Compare that to Impressionism? You have something much simpler, more focused on the idea of an image, rather than the details.

Impressionism uses bold, striking color combinations, with a popular usage of blue and yellow contrast from Van Gogh. It captures the moment through its quick and simple brush strokes, and its focus on color makes most pieces immediately visually striking. Especially with the difference in texture from the more obvious brush strokes. Compared to Pre-Raphaelitism, which gives a smooth, camera-like effect.

Both styles are gorgeous, and both play a major role in art and the Romantic Era. I wouldn't want a world where one was missing, but one style speaks to me the most.

Despite its simplicity, impressionism has such a strong impact on me. I value the simplistic but profound nature of capturing the feeling rather than stressing over the details. Something about the style feels free and flowing, while still carrying a level of technical skill and understanding. Pre-Raphaelitism is gorgeous, and its value of boldness and deeper themes is admirable. But impressionism chooses to pick a moment and capture it. 

The use of brighter, more vibrant colors is something I appreciate, especially as most artworks stray from the usage of blacks and pure whites. It also has a greater focus on form, in a way that's similar to gesture drawing.

Both styles go for a sense of intimacy, but while Pre-Raphaelitism's sense of intimacy is eternal, focused, deep, and romantic, the intimacy that impressionism captures is from a single, fleeting moment. A once-in-a-lifetime picture. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Claude Monet.” Diego Rivera, 2010, www.claude-monet.com/

“Dicksee, Frank Bernard, 1853–1928 | Art UK.” Artuk.org, https://artuk.org/discover/artists/dicksee-frank-bernard-18531928

Samu, Margaret. “Impressionism: Art and Modernity - the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Metmuseum.org, Oct. 2004, https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/impressionism-art-and-modernity

Tate. “William Holman Hunt 1827-1910 | Tate.” Tate, 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-holman-hunt-287

The Art Story. “The Pre-Raphaelite Movement Overview.” The Art Story, 2019, www.theartstory.org/movement/pre-raphaelites/.

VincentVanGogh.org. “Vincent van Gogh.” Henri Matisse, 2009, www.vincentvangogh.org.

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