Stonehenge 1836

The huge structure near Salisbury (unrestored in Constable's time) was built about five thousand years ago : it was a temple of the sun and the moon. The designers were excellent astronomers and ingenious organisers and builders.


Comment on the skyscape, and on the composition of the painting. Compare it with the picture of Salisbury Cathedral.


John Constable

The Glebe Farm 1835

John Constable

Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows 1831

John Constable

Parham Mill at Gillingham 1826

By 1826, water mills were giving way to the sort of 'mill' painted by de Loutherburg in Coalbrookdale at Night, to the factories with their steam-driven machinery.


Comment on the impression created of English rural life.


John Constable (1776-1837)

Oberon and Titania with their Train (Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream V)

  Fuseli's subjects - folk mythology and the Shakespearian world - are  Blake's subjects, too.  But Blake was also a poet inspired by biblical narratives and by a mythological world of his own creation.

Titania Embracing Bottom (Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream IV,1) 1792-93

    This play is a comedy. Titania, queen of the fairies, has had magic ointment put on her eyelids while she sleeps; this makes her fall in love with the first person she sees on awakening. That person happens to be a human being, Bottom. He is a weaver who has gone into the wood with his friends to rehearse a play in which he wears an ass's head.

The Nightmare 1781

John Henry Fuseli (1741 - 1825)

Birth Of Venus -by Botticelli (1482- 1486)

   Painting the natural beauty of human's male and female body was not a taboo in the ancient time. But with the rising spread of religions like Judaism and Christianity, and other orthodox groups, the artists were not encouraged to do that job. they were also discouraged for painting the bodies of females without clothes. We can categorically say that the painting of natural beauty of woman was doomed to virtual anonymity. Such a period lasted for one thousand and five hundred years. The flow of artistic depiction through the paintings of natural beauty of female body was dammed. But this dam was burst by one Italian painter: Sandro Botticelli.

The Birth of Venus (La Naissance de Venus)

The Birth of Venus

In this painting, The Birth of Venus, Bouguereau had shown his natural instinct and the technical knowledge of the contours of the nude female body. A human body, especially a female nude, attracts the viewers’ eyes by the balanced proportions. And this regard Bouguereau had acquired artistic inspiration from the artists of sixteenth century.

This period of anonymity for painting clothe-less females and males lasted almost for one thousand years. During this period, the flow of artistic depiction through the paintings of beauty of female and male body was dammed. But the painting done by The Birth of Venus, by Botticelli in the year 1482 started a new era in figurative painting. After this incident, the trend was set. Artists were no longer shy about choosing the subject of cloth-less women. (All the images courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Jack Vettriano

     It's by Jack Vettriano and he does all these wonderful paintings, my personal favorite are of intimate, romantic scenes. I really adore this artist. 

Two Sisters (On the Terrace), Pierre-Auguste Renoir

   Two Sisters (On the Terrace), Pierre-Auguste Renoir – This masterpiece by Renoir is a celebration of the beauty of spring and the promise of youth. Interestingly, the two girls depicted in the painting were not sisters, as indicated by the work’s original title, but unrelatedmodels.

FAMOUS RENAISSANCE PAINTING

Frederick Leighton, Flaming June.

Frederick Leighton, Flaming June.

Romantic Stroll by Brent Heighton

Romantic Stroll by Brent Heighton

Death of Sardanapalus by Delacroix

Death of Sardanapalus by Delacroix


Romantic artists were fascinated by the nature, the genius, their passions and inner struggles, their moods, mental potentials, the heroes

A Dream in the Appenine. Samuel Palmer. 1864

A Dream in the Appenine. Samuel Palmer. 1864

"Waterhouse" by John William

This painting, "Waterhouse" by John William, is a Romanticism painting from this period. Like the characteristic of Romanticism painting which focuses on the expression of the characters, William focuses on the facial expression and the emotion of the woman in this painting. Other Romanticism artists also focused on expressing the expression.

Eugene Delacroix. "Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable"

Eugene Delacroix. "Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable"