The Evolution of Art: Romanticism, Realism, and Photographic Influence

This essay provides a comparative analysis of Romanticism and Realism, two significant artistic movements of the 19th century, and examines the impact of photography on the art world. Romanticism, characterized by individualism, emotion, and a focus on nature and the past, is contrasted with Realism, which rejected romantic idealization and aimed to depict contemporary life with accuracy and detail. The essay highlights how the invention of photography influenced painting, with some artists initially rejecting it while others embraced it as a tool for documentation and inspiration. The essay explores how photography changed the discourse of art, providing artists with more access and freedom. It references key figures, including Charles Baudelaire and Jean Auguste Dominique, and discusses the movements' responses to the French Revolution, industrialization, and the rise of scientific rationalization. References from authors like Becker, Dreyfus & Taylor, Furst, and Honour are cited to support the analysis.

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Romanticism and its Aims
Romanticism was a movement in art, literature, music, intellect and painting which took
place during the latter half of the 19th century. Romanticism is characterized with individualism
and emotions in which focus and emphasis are laid on elevation of nature and past, The medieval
period of artistic manifestations were preferred over the classical, which was symbolic and more
of a reaction to industrial revolution, modernity, Age of Enlightenment and scientific
rationalization of the nature.
The artists highlighted that understanding emotions were equally important like paying
attention to order and reason. Thus, the Romantics engaged in celebrating intuition and
imagination in their art, literature, music and paintings as they searched for individual liberty and
rights (Honour, 2018). Romanticism was powerful as a movement and laid foundations to
several other movements which came into prominence throughout the twentieth century which
had its basis on the subjective and creative powers of the artists. The voices of the Romantic
practitioners can be found to be reverberating through all genres which include music, art,
literature, poetry as well as architecture as romantics manifested their artistic fervor.
The romantics, after the French revolution, promoted justice as they embraced freedom
through their art forms. The romantic painters chose to depict social and current events in order
to project injustices of the society. Thus, the artists laid emphasis on exploring the psychological
and emotional moods. In the words of Charles Baudelaire, Romanticism is rooted in the subject
and not the absolute truth. It concerns what is felt about the subject and the way it is rather
perceived by the artists. While some Romantic artists paid attention to nature and landscapes to
depict them in a far respectful manner, others tended to focus on human nature and the sublime,
which awakened terror in the minds of the readers and audiences. Romantic artists thus, created

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spiritual renewal by embracing liberty and freedom through their artistic creations and unified
humanities.
The realists
Realism is the artistic movement which took place during the 1840. Realism is the
movement which marks a deviance from romanticism by choosing to reject it. Romanticism
dominated art and literature since the first half of the nineteenth century. Whereas, realism was a
revolt against the depiction of the subject matter to be exotic in art forms, which the romantics
choose to be their way of expression. Exaggerated emotionalism in the art forms are strictly not
adhered t, by the realists and they choose to depict their subjects in the very naked reality of their
being. The realists portrayed contemporary situations and people by preserving the truth and
reality.
The realist movement necessitated accuracy and details and depiction of nature and
contemporary life rather than exalting the subject of the matter (Becker 2015). The imaginative
idealization, as was done by the romantics are rejected by the realists in their art forms, as they
choose to observe closely. The movement was not developed as a conscious approach but
emerged as a trend. The French artists objected romanticism as well as classicism and projected
life, problems and appearances in the most unadorned manner (Dreyfus & Taylor, 2015). All the
aspects of reality which were left unnoticed and celebrated were enlivened by the romantics in
their respective art forms, which include material conditions, mental attitudes, life and society.
Heroic representation of human sentiments were equally avoided by the realists. The movement
was essentially led by Gustave Flaubert in France which later spread to Europe and beyond. It
has been influential for the development of several movements which followed later in the
century, such as photorealism.

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Photography and its interaction with Painting
When photography came into prominence as a practice and was popularized, the
reactions of the artists varied. Some condescended and rejected it while some chose to make use
of it in their paintings. The most prominent and successful painters like Jean Auguste Dominique
started making use of the invention to the fullest, for his own benefits, in order to document his
own works, outputs and using it for source material (Peareylalbhawan.com., 2020). He embraced
the photographic representations for his artworks yet denied of its influence in his paintings. It is
often said that photography changed the discourse of photography as photography helped artists
by enabling them with more access and freedom to produce art without limitations.
It was pointed out by Lacan and Francis Wey that photography could be useful for the
details it can provide. Wey was a literary and art critic who established that images could be
inspirational as well as formative for the artists to offer greater naturalness to the artworks. If
artists studied photographs, in his opinion, they could pay more attention to the details and
engage themselves in spiritual aspects of the work. Photography was one the key innovations to
have happened in the nineteenth century which could establish its prime importance through
time, both to science as well as art (Straub, 2015). Photography could freeze moments which
enabled artists to establish relationships with their art forms and their subjects. John Hannavy, in
1850, established photography as an ingenious skill which could add detail to life. The early
influence of photographs are often denied by artists when it came into prominence as a threat to
their art forms, but later on, it was identified as a great influence on painting. Photography
helped in the creation of paintings in much easier process rather than imagining the subject
entirely.

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References
Becker, G. J. (Ed.). (2015). Documents of modern literary realism. Princeton University Press.
Dreyfus, H., & Taylor, C. (2015). Retrieving realism. Harvard University Press.
Furst, L. R. (2017). Romanticism (Vol. 2). Taylor & Francis.
Honour, H. (2018). Romanticism. Routledge.
Straub, J. (2015). Nineteenth-century Literature and Photography. Handbook of Intermediality,
156-172
Bibliography
Brecht, B. (2018). Popularity and realism. In Modern Art And Modernism (pp. 227-232).
Routledge.
Peareylalbhawan.com. (2020). How the Invention of Photography Changed Art – Pearey Lal
Bhawan. Retrieved 31 March 2020, from
http://www.peareylalbhawan.com/blog/2017/04/12/how-the-invention-of-photography-
changed-art/
Theartstory.org. (2020). Realism Movement Overview. Retrieved 31 March 2020, from
https://www.theartstory.org/movement/realism/
Theartstory.org. (2020). Romanticism Movement Overview. Retrieved 31 March 2020, from
https://www.theartstory.org/movement/romanticism/