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Constable to Delacroix Teachers' Pack: English

Constable to Delacroix Teachers' Pack: English

Constable to Delacroix to Constable

Théodore Géricault Severed Heads about 1818 The National Museum of Fine , Stockholm

5 February – 11 May 2003 British and the French Romantics Supported by John Lyon’s Charity

Notes for Teachers by Miquette Roberts 2 1

Advice for teachers The argument of the exhibition and flickering brushwork of ’sJohn of brushwork flickering and colour broken the by struck much so was Delacroix Eugène compositions. figure for setting the been only previously had which on focus new a to led work this for enthusiasm . British much so contained they because Salons British the as known became 1827, and 1824 of Salons the , the in held Twoexhibitions years. sponsored for government seen not had they which another’scountries one explore to able then were tourists as well as Artists Channel. the across travel for allowed 1815 in defeat ’sas final soon as began English things of discovery of process The watercolour. in of appearance everyday the recording of tradition English the and paper Bonington’son P works R of colours fresh the sketches, Constable’soil John full-sized of surface paint animated the as art British in features such of artists French earlier by discoveries of result a as being into came only however, claim, that exhibition this of curators The Impressionism. French with associated innovations the in culminating way, the leading as art French of think people most since argument new a is This France. in art of course the changed Britain of literature and painting landscape the in interest French Waterloo, of battle the after that, believe curators Its idea. an illustrate to created exhibition an is This art British of discovery French The exhibition the of argument The his of foreground the repainted have to thought is he that Salons, these of first seen from its outskirts. its from seen London of watercolours painted he example their Following watercolourists. were Fielding Copley and Thales friends his where London to travelled he 1825 In from 18.30, please phone 020 7887 3959. 7887 020 phone please 18.30, from February 7 Friday on View Private Education our to tickets free For class. their bring they when take to focus what decide to pre-visit a make will teachers Ideally Art. as well as literature English and History French, including areas curriculum many to relevant is exhibition This Scenes from the Massacres of Chios of Massacres the from Scenes 1824 to achieve a similar effect. effect. similar a achieve to 1824 Hay Wain Hay 1821, exhibited at the at exhibited 1821, The argument of the exhibition the of argument The

The French discovery of British literature While many French artists placed human struggle at the forefront of their art in larger than life figures taken from the Bible and mythology, their source of inspiration moved to British literature in the writings of, for example, Shakespeare, Byron and Scott. But the most dramatic change of all, highlighted in this exhibition, is the move away from the celebration of a contemporary hero, Napoleon, to the realisation that there are no lasting heroes. Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa 1819, represented the death of the hero writ large. His painting continues to hang in the Louvre but a full-scale reproduction made by academicians in 1859 is on view at Britain and Géricault may well prove to be the real star of this exhibition.

These notes trace changing attitudes to the concept of heroism teachers for Advice 1 brought about by the Napoleonic wars but many other approaches would be possible, from the study of the technique of watercolour to the illustration of themes in English literature. Primary teachers could focus on the drama of and compare the story it tells with the subject of marine paintings not only in the exhibition but in room 13 of the collection displays. Literacy skills will be developed through storytelling and links will be found in the exhibition to themes such as travel, transport and the elements.

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War and heroism French art before Waterloo In next. happened what for important are they but moved be to fragile too and large too both are works These Louvre. the of Galerie Grande the in displayed now are which canvases vast on career his of highlights documented day the of painters Leading artists. engaged politically of succession a of art the in expression found him in invested hopes the power in remained Napoleon as long as For France. to glory fresh bring would he conquests his through that thought was It administration. its to order and country his to leadership bring could who man a as career,appeared his had of outset the at least at Bonaparte, Napoleon upheaval. in monarchy,was France Bourbon the of downfall the and 1789 of Revolution the of start the From Louvre the of Galerie Grande the in display on heroes of Paintings France 1 nineteenth-century.the of beginning the at country each in produced being was that art of kind the consider us let 1815, post place took that ideas of cross-fertilisation the considering Before Waterloo before art British and French of painting Louvre the for sketch preparatoryGros’ Antoine-Jean at Look battle? the paints he way artist’sthe fromthe attitude guess you Can • death. to often and conflict into troops their take who leaders the to and war artist’sto about attitude Think TurnerGros.by and scenes battle at Look attention. our for emperor the of figure the with vie which wounded and dead the of figures life than larger by filled is canvas the of foreground The questioning). self- of result the be well may gaze emperor’sunquiet the and Eylau at died 25,000 nearly victory: pyrrhic a been had battle (This soldiers. Prussian wounded after look to doctors bringing battle, by exhausted shown is 1808 of subject the while bodies, sufferers’ the of one on sore infected an touch to daring in courage emperor’spersonal hero. his within concealed being human the forgot never artist the heroic, remain Napoleon’sof career stages later the chronicle which canvases his of those Although suicide. committed eventually he that period his and himself about uncertainty of full so man a Gros, Antoine-Jean was successor and assistant his of dedication the withdrew he that greatly so Beethoven von Ludwig upset that act an glorification, emperor’sself • Do you think this picture glorifies war? glorifies picture this think you Do • Napoleon’sinterpret you expression?do How • or horseback on Emperor the – more attention your attracts What • The Coronation of Napoleon of Coronation The the suffering soldiers? suffering the Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau of Battlefield the on Napoleon Napoleon visiting the Plague Victims at Jaffa at Victims Plague the visiting Napoleon 1808, for example, J L David celebrated the celebrated David L J example, for 1808, Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau of Battlefield the on Napoleon Eroica 1807 Toledo1807 Art of Museum symphony to Napoleon. David’sNapoleon. to symphony 1804 shows the shows 1804 French art before Waterloo before art French 1

Courage, glory and compassion had traditionally been exemplified in art by reference to heroes of the distant, often classical, past. The innovation of these paintings is that they drew attention to the heroism of the present day, which, by association, was seen as equal to that of the past. These were modern history paintings, the genre considered to be the highest form of art because it treated profound human emotions whose contemplation was capable of ennobling the spectator. All other categories of art including landscape and portraiture were considered to be inferior.

Antone-Jean Gros Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau 1807 War and heroism and War 1

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Paintings of war British art before Waterloo • Compare the body language of the figures in the paintings. What paintings. the in figures the of language body the Compare • unreal almost distant, a is war that fact the convey Wilkie does How • paintings? two the in mood differencein the is What • Eylau of Battlefield the on Napoleon Apsley House, courtesy of the Trustees of the V&A. Photo V&A Picture Library Library Picture V&A Photo TrusteesV&A. the the of of courtesy House, Apsley country as portraits. as country this in genre a popular as not were they but in produced were paintings . history a considered been have not would painting Wilkie’sheroism, of acts than rather people ordinary depicts it Because Bonington. P R and Delacroix Eugène by seen also was it Institution Royal the at showing second its on and 1821 of spring the in studio Wilkie’sin progress in it saw He events. momentous people’sto response ordinary on focused it because Géricault Théodore on impression profound a made work This soldiers. serving younger of company the in inn an outside reminiscing pensioners old of scene a for asked he Instead aggrandisement. self- of work a want not did he Napoleon Unlike himself. Wellington of Duke the by suggested been had matter subject of choice the Interestingly David Wilkie’sDavid of subject the is England in lives peaceful leading while war of news to reacted people ordinary way the and battlefield the on life experienced soldiers way the between existed that war.gulf to The relates which of little matter,subject very of choice artists’ in reflected war.is distant This the by unaffected largely been had England in life however, French, everyday the of experience the to contrast In 1815. in Waterloo at Napoleon’sdefeat until final 1793 from peace of intervals short with France with war at been had England scenes Everyday England 2 Compare two war paintings: Wilkie’spaintings: war two Compare Wilkie David kind of shapes do the bodies describe? bodies the do shapes of kind painting? his in people the for concept The Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Waterloothe Dispatch Reading Pensioners Chelsea The The Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Waterloo Dispatch Waterloo the Reading Pensioners Chelsea The Chelsea Pensioners Chelsea . 1822 and Gros’ and 1822. The Battle of Waterloo and its consequences its and Waterloo of Battle The 2 The Battle of Waterloo and its consequences

J M W Turner’s The Field of Waterloo 1818, is an unusual example of history painting in that it has no heroes, only the dead and the dying and frantic women searching through inert bodies to find their loved ones. Turner attracted a great deal of criticism in England for this picture, a rude awakening at a time when most people were celebrating victory. Turner knew that the Duke of Wellington had achieved his victory at enormous cost to both sides, as his quotation in the Academy catalogue makes clear. ‘Friend, foe, in one red burial blent’ is taken from Byron’s Childe Harold. Byron’s compassion for the slain of both sides had likewise been condemned by Sir . The dark horror of The Field of Waterloo marks the culmination of a series of war paintings, begun by French artists like Gros, in which suffering and loss of life are made plain and the concept of heroism questioned.

Heroic English aristocrats In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the easiest way for an English artist to make a living was by painting portraits of the rich and aristocratic. In the paintings of Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830), President of the Royal Academy, the nobility of the art stemmed from the aristocratic appearance of the sitters. Théophile Gautier drew attention to Master Charles William Lambton, exhibited in the 1827 , pointing out that the sitter’s ‘pearly visage (is) so sombre and clear (that) it conjures the look of the young Byron’. Figures like this looked like heroes even though their appearance was not necessarily backed up by valorous deeds. Aided and abetted by poet ’s writings in praise of dandyism, French artists turned from heroism on the battlefield to the glamour of good looks and of stylishness of dress. During his visit to London in 1825, Eugène Delacroix visited Sir Thomas Lawrence in his studio and came away with an admiration for the artist which was, at least in part, due to Lawrence’s good looks.

J M W Turner The Field of Waterloo 1818 Tate The Battle of Waterloo of Battle The 1

7 2 The modern hero is the dandy Charles Baudelaire was therefore greatly assisted in his championship of the art of Eugène Delacroix by the fact that his subject was also handsome and may have had aristocratic blood. He looked and behaved as if he were ‘un parfait gentleman‘. And of course the home of such gentlemen was England. Beau Brummell was just one example of a man whose fame owed everything to his tailor. Hence Delacroix’s eagerness to promote ‘the taste of English style in footwear and clothing’ with the help of his friend the British artist R P Bonington. On his return from England in 1826 Delacroix painted his ideal of the English gentleman in Louis-Auguste Schwiter 1826–30 which was a tribute to the portrait style of Lawrence. The demeanour of Schwiter, who was a 21 year old painter, is that of a dandy aspiring to perfection through the simplicity of his impeccable dress. What a disappointment for Delacroix then, when Turner visited him in 1829, to discover that far from having the The Battle of Waterloo and its consequences appearance of ‘un gentleman’, the English artist looked like a ‘farmer with his rough black coat and heavy boots.’ It was a pity that Turner’s ungainly appearance and clumsiness of speech prevented a friendship between two artists who shared so many interests, not least their fascination with colour. Appearance was very important in an age where people believed that the way you looked was the way you were.

Eugene Delacroix Louis-Auguste Schwiter 1826–30 , London

1 Find examples of men who appear like heroes because they are well dressed. Compare the fashionable men and women of the early nineteenth-century with today’s fashionable people. • Do they have any points in common? Would Louis-Auguste Schwiter look out of place among today’s celebs. in the Ivy restaurant or in Hello magazine? • Can you understand why Baudelaire thought it a virtue to be Find heroes of fashion fashionable?

8 The Battle of Waterloo and its consequences its and Waterloo of Battle The 2 The face reveals all At the time it was believed that there was a strong correlation between appearance and personality. Features like the shape of a head or the expression in the eyes could provide a clue to personality disorders. For this reason psychiatrist Etienne Georget thought that by studying the face of the woman in Géricault’s Monomania: Portrait of a Excessively Jealous Woman c1822, he would be able to work out what was wrong with her. For that reason, he commissioned Géricault to paint ten portraits of his clients to use as demonstrations in his courses on pathology.

Human beings were the vehicle through which the French had traditionally explored qualities such as ambition, heroism and sacrifice both on stage and on canvas. The humans engaged in moral struggle in JL David’s paintings have much in common with heroes and heroines in the seventeenth-century plays of Pierre Corneille where the choice is always one of love or duty. Even after the heroic times embodied in the person and career of Napoleon Bonaparte were over, people in the grip of strong emotion remained centre stage.

Théodore Géricault Monomania: Portrait of an Excessively Jealous Woman c1822 Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon-Studio Basset Reading facial characteristics facial Reading 1

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Animal Nature The Battle of Waterloo and its consequences © The National Gallery,National London The © in mind. in clientele this with Heath Charles by commissioned were 1820s the of Seine Turner’sand and Loire visit the might of tourists views places of images for Pilgrimage and stories travel in pleasure renewed found English the again, Channel the across journey to able were they Once own. his to close so be to felt he sentiments whose poet the with kinship Turnera felt who with Byron’s of poetry love a destiny.shared and He nature human explore to him allowed they as long so Delacroix to value equal of were matter subject of sources All provided. had history French recent which dramas of kind the of examples for literature to looked they Instead painters. French for hero real-life the of death the Napoleon’smarked downfall painting French in literature English fromHeroes • Look for paintings of horses by Géricault and Delacroix. What Delacroix. and Géricault by horses of paintings for Look • Gilpin. Sawrey and Stubbs as such painters animal English admired artists French accident. riding a following 33 of age early the at died riding, and horses loved who representing.Géricault, at skilled so was he tigers the of Delacroix’sthat to appearance compared even SylvestreThéodorebehaviour. critic animal The and human in parallels finding Delacroix and Géricault theory,both with evolutionary and naturalist in interestedwere time this at Artists Géricault Théodore animals they painted? they animals the in admired/envied they think you do qualities (super)human 1812–18 owed its popularity to this trend. A market developed market A trend. this to popularity its owed 1812–18 Horse frightened by Lightning by frightened Horse c1813–14 Childe Harold’sChilde The Battle of Waterloo and its consequences its and Waterloo of Battle The 2

Nature as hero in nineteenth-century English While wealthy Englishmen occupied the entire space of a large canvas in the portraits they commissioned, humans in British landscape paintings tended to be depicted as small, insignificant in comparison with the vastness of lakes and mountains, and powerless against the elements. When you look at subjects like A L Girodet’s Deluge 1806 in the Louvre, where nature and the elements are the source of the drama, it is surprising how little space is given over to wind and sea. The entire focus of the artist is on human struggle. That relationship between man and nature is reversed in English dramas at sea by , and JMW Turner. Their awe of nature gave it prime importance in their work. As the French became aware of their work as well as of that of the many English watercolourists, they began to accord more attention and more weight to the landscape element in their work. Byron’s influence on French painting French Byron’son influence 1 Find Delacroix’s Combat between the Giaour and Hassan 1826. • Can you work out what is going on?

The subject comes from Byron’s Oriental Tales. It tells of a battle in the 17th-century between a Christian warrior (or Giaour) and a Turkish adversary who has killed the Giaour’s mistress. The Giaour wins the battle but not the return to life of his mistress. Delacroix felt that the colour, composition and brushwork of a painting should alert you to its mood from afar. • Has he succeeded here? Could you sense the bloodthirstiness of the subject from afar? • Compare the painting with another of the same subject by A-M Colin. Which tells the story more clearly?

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Look at the copy of The Raft of the Medusa The Death of the Hero even if that means eating the flesh of another person. another of flesh the eating means that if even survive to need desperate the and cruelty cowardice, include which nature human of aspects agreeable least the on attention forces which work a is It man’. of barbarism incorrigible eternal, the to witness bears ‘everything Raft: the for made seem Delacroix of art the describe to Baudelaire by used Medusa the The street. the into out pounding, heart ran, he artist’sthat studio older the of space confined the in it saw first he when Delacroix shocked much admired by Delacroix. Théodore Géricault’sThéodore Delacroix. by admired much artist older an by made been had roots its at heroism of concept the off kill to move boldest the literature, in heroes found he show.While paintings Delacroix’sas work their from disappear instantly not did figures heroic but nature in matter subject new discover to painters French allowed art British Hero the of Death The • How does the artist suggest the mounting excitement aboard excitement mounting the suggest artist the does How • away.sailed and them see not did ship The rescued. be would they that raft the on stranded people the to hope offering distance the in appeared ship a that moment the illustrates painting This Géricault Théodore after Ronjat, Etienne-Antoine-Eugène and Guillemet Pierre-Désiré The Raft of the Medusa the of Raft The the raft? the struck the last nail in the coffin of the ideal of heroism. Words heroism. of ideal the of coffin the in nail last the struck 1859–1860. Musée de Picardie, Picardie, de Musée 1859–1860. Raft of the Medusa the of Raft Raft of Raft so The Death of the Hero the of Death The 3

The Story of the Raft of the Medusa At the end of the Napoleonic wars France had very little left of its empire. The ship Medusa had been sent to at the head of a convoy carrying soldiers and official settlers to re-establish that country as a French colony. But the ship ran aground off the West Coast of Africa on 2 July 1816 and was abandoned while its captain, de Chaumereys, with his crew and well over 200 passengers, boarded lifeboats. There were not sufficient of these for 149 soldiers, sailors and passengers. They had to climb on to a makeshift raft which was attached to the lifeboats by ropes. The ropes became untied, leaving those aboard the raft stranded for thirteen days with neither food nor water. By the fourth day those who were still alive had begun to eat their dead comrades. P A de Praviel’s Le Radeau de la Méduse, published in 1818 to discredit the survivors’ account of their ordeal, described them ‘lying on the boards, hands and mouths still dripping with the blood of their unhappy victims, shreds of flesh hanging from the raft’s mast.’ By the eighth day there were only fifteen people left alive and of these five more soon died. Among the eventual survivors, Henri Savigny, the ship’s surgeon, and Alexandre Corréard, an engineer and geographer, were incensed by the official cover-up which had exculpated the captain simply because he had royal connections. In 1817, they published their own version of events, a dramatic account of their experiences which turned the story of the Medusa into a national scandal, and that only a year after Waterloo. Critic Auguste Jal expressed feelings of national guilt when he wrote ‘It is our entire society that is embarked on Medusa’s raft.’ Look at the copy of copy the at Look 1 Working in pairs, describe to one another the people on the raft. • How many are dead, how many are dying? Can you spot any cannibalism? Can you guess who is likely to survive? • Make a sketch of just one of the figures. What is his condition? What made you choose him?

• Imagine you are the captain of the Medusa. How would you feel Medusa the of Raft The when you saw the painting?

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Look at the copy of The Raft of the Medusa The Death of the Hero • draw one of the bodies of the people on the raft as it might really might it as raft the on people the of bodies the of one draw • government the of view of point the from Raft the of story the report • the as feel you how write/tell • raft the on figure a Choose survivors. the against up squashed there were we if as feel us makes and canvas the of edge the to close comes raft the of edge the because figures the of despair then and hope the in spectators involves Géricault hope. of death the as interpreted be could which sky sunset the by and raft the of sides the off hanging bodies dead the by counteracted is bodies of sweep upward the in contained board on those of attention the attract to flag a like cloth of piece a aloft waving companions, his by supported chest a on standing man a is figures the by formed triangle the of apex the At boat. distant the of sight caught have who those of bodies outstretched eager the to raft the on lying hopeless and dead the from spectator the of eye the leading bodies of swell upward an created Géricault painting, his In later.days some victims the rescue to returned only and raft the notice not aboard Those raft. the approach to failed but horizon the on called ship a as despair to turned hope when moment the illustrate to chose He portraits. their sketch to and story their hear to read, had he account whose men, two the met had Géricault 1818, early By image of severed head) severed of image cover (see days several for drinking or eating without looked have survivors the of view of point the scandal/from the up cover to trying Argus The Argus The approaches . The mounting optimism mounting The . The Argus The The Argus The was seen was did A subject with no heroes no with subject A 4 A subject with no heroes

The painting of the Raft accords well with the heroic canvases of the Grande Galerie where it hangs because of its massive scale (24ft long by 18ft high) and because the whole focus of the work is one of human struggle. The people look heroic because of the way their bodies are painted; inspired by the of ’s Last Judgement which Géricault had admired when he saw it in 1816/17. This is an instance where the artist enhances the gruelling nature of his subject matter by disappointing our expectations of heroism. There are no heroes in this exposure of human negligence and callousness. A closer look at the Michelangelesque bodies reveals the greenish pallor of their skin – a result of Géricault’s inspection of the dead in morgues.

Although shipwreck was a popular subject for nineteenth century art, the cause of disaster usually lay outside human control in the overwhelming might of the elements. Here the disaster could have been avoided if the captain had made sure that everyone was rescued.

In 1820 the Raft of the Medusa was exhibited in the Egyptian Hall in London by an entrepreneur called William Bullock and 40,000 people went to see it, paying a one shilling entrance fee and sixpence for a description of the work. Géricault followed his painting to England where he received a percentage of the takings from the exhibition.

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Compare two paintings of the sea French influence on British art the described and seen had who Bristolian fellow a of testimony the – hearsay from version his painted Danby because painting Géricault’s of fame the Storm a after Sea at Sunset Danby’s Francis Boulogne. off aground ran ship the when Wales South New the of captain the Géricault’s: as shocking as just is disaster His London. in exhibited was Sea Turner’sof composition pyramidal the that believe Curators painters English on Raft the of impact the art: British on influence French • Turner illustrated an instance of British inhumanity to show that all that show to inhumanity British of instance Turneran illustrated • order in Havre Le at waves the of movement the studied Géricault • elements? raging sea/the the to space most gives image Which • Why? most? you involves picture Which • Géricault’sRaft. Danby’sCompare Tate Turner W M J one-sided. not was influence cultural that demonstrate they Nonetheless triumphs. that people the than rather waves the of strength the is It format. heroic Frenchman’s the adopts Neither French. the from character in different totally are paintings English two The seen.’ ever have I picture historical grandest and finest ‘the as it later,described he matters even if the curators are right? are curators the if even matters really this think you do much How art. French in movement famous most the influenced have to claim British a forward puts exhibition This crimes. such of guilty areFrench, the only not nationalities, life-like? Tatethey at are display and on Britain painting his of copy the in waves the notice you Do raft. the around sea the paint to nature? by or people by moved more you Are work? the to response your affect focus artist's the does How Raft c1835 shows that he must have seen have must he that shows c1835 to him. When Danby saw the actual painting in the Louvre five years five Louvre the in painting actual the saw Danby When him. to A Disaster at Sea at Disaster A Amphitrite Sunset at Sea at Sunset c1835 abandoned his cargo of female convicts bound for bound convicts female of cargo his abandoned 1824 is an even more interesting testimony to testimony interesting more even an is 1824 and Turner’sand The Raft of the Medusa the of Raft The Fire at Sea at Fire A Disaster at Disaster A with when it when

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