Turner And Romanticism

Romanticism was highly emotional and subjective. It’s all about what the artist feels and thinks. They expressed their feelings, passions and irrationalities. Romanticism rejects harmony, rationalityand objectivity. The most usual way of expressing their feelings was through nature in its wildest and most violent state. Their favourite was the sea and its tempests. They also painted about thesupernatural and they enjoyed the mystery behind it.

Romantic artists where usually troubled, may be by their childhood or because they failed in love or life in general. They had a lot ofexistential doubts. All this just made their art deeper and darker.

As to their techniques, they don’t give as much importance to the drawing as previous art movements. They focus on playing with colours andlight.

Sculpture was less important than painting but was characterized by the importance of its perfection but shared romantic themes of violence and the supernatural.

Turner was born inCovent Garden, London, in 1775. His father was a barber and his mother suffered from mental problems owing mainly to the death of Turner’s little sister and died in 1804. Turner was sent to live with hisuncle to a small town west of London where he first showed an interest in painting. He entered the Royal Academy of Art School and after only one year, his oil painting “Fishermen at Sea” wasexhibited in the Summer Exhibition. Although he is very well known for his oils, Turner was also brilliant with watercolours and British landscapes. With time, Turner became more eccentric. He had few closefriends. His father’s death in 1829 had a profound effect on him causing him periods of depression. He never married but did have two daughters. He died on the 19th of December 1851.

During hisearly years, Turner’s paintings were dramatic and he paid much more attention to details. Like for example in his painting of the Castle of San Angelo in Rome.

In his middle years, his paintings...