THE EARLY ROMANTICS: GROS AND GIRODET
Although the French Revolution caused an upheaval in French art, there was an attempt to use Neo-Classicism to return to the pure and historical origins of art. However, compelling contemporary events and a new regime interested in using art as propaganda worked against the dominance of Neo-Classicism in the Academy. Even before the term was applied, “Romantic” art began to appear. The earliest of the French Romantic artists were the Napoléonic painters, Gros and Girodet. Both students of David, the young artists uneasily made the transition from the Neo-Classicism of their master to the demands of the new century. In their early works, Gros and Girodet represented the poles of Romanticism: contemporary subjects and escapist subjects.
Part Two will examine the artists’ later works.
Tags: " "Napoléon at Eylau, " "Napoléon at the Pesthouse of Jaffa, "The Battle of Arcole", "The Sleep of Endymion, Anne Louis Giordet de Rousy-Trison, Girodet, Jacques Louis David, James Smalls, Jean-Antoine Gros, Napoléon, Napoleonic Art, Prix de Rome, Romanticism