Art History Post: Amber Perdigon

Era; The Romanticism Era 

• The Drama
• The Emotion
• The Imagination

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (c. 1818) by Caspar David Friedrich

 The Ninth Wave – Ivan Aivazovsky

The Romanticism Era arose in the late 18th century and peaked between 1800 and 1850 in Europe. Its arrival was prompted in reaction to the rigid and rational nature of the Industrial Revolution and Enlightenment. During the Industrial revolution, the priorities in the art world focused on accessibility between the classes, appreciation for urban landscaping and all things mechanization. It was from this movement that Romanticism blossomed. The movement emphasized emotion, nature and the sublime, meaning to evoke feelings of awe, inspiration and sometimes fear. It was meant to be an escape from the urban and industrial realities that people resided. 

Like the two paintings I've chosen above, these works beautifully illustrate the wilds or the vast unknown. Frontiers that have yet to be explored and may hold adventure before one's wildest dreams, far removed from the industrial reality one lived in. I find this time period to be similar, sprinting full send into a quickly growing technological era with several negative and arguably positive outcomes. Escapism, prioritizing emotions, exploring folklore and the fantastical, it's something that I enjoy pouring into my own works. While I don't traditionally paint single narrative pieces like the examples above, the idea is the same in the narratives I seek to tell through my novels and comics. 

"Akademi Station" of Atlas, Original Work

"Fuyune's Song" Art Trade, Original Work