English, Irish and Swiss Eccentrics: British Romantic Painting

The Impact of the Industrial Revolution

Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, Coalbrookedale by Night, 1801, oil on canvas, 67.9 x 106.7 cm.  Science Museum, London

Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, The Shipwreck, 1793, oil on canvas, 109.8 x 160.5 cm.  Southhampton City Art Gallery

Joseph Wright of Derby, The Experiment with the Airpump, 1768, oil on canvas, 183 x 244 cm.  National Gallery, London

Religious vs. Scientific Illumination

Gerard van Honthorst, The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1622, oil on canvas, 164 x 190 cm.  Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne




George Stubbs: An Early Romantic

George Stubbs, Horse Frightened by a Lion, 1770, oil on canvas, 100 x 126 cm.  Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

George Stubbs, Horse Frightened by a Lion, c.1762, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm.  Yale Center for British Art

George Stubbs, A Lion Attacking a Horse, c.1762, oil on canvas, 243.8 x 332.7 cm.  Yale Center for British Art




Fuseli: The Nightmare

Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781, oil on canvas, 101.6 x 127 cm.  Institute of Fine Arts, Detroit

The tranquilizing chair invented c. 1810 by the American physician Benjamin Rush.  Engraving by Benjamin Tanner

                The director of the Detroit Institute of Arts discusses The Nightmare

 
Henry Fuseli, Portrait of a Lady (verso of The Nightmare, exhibited 1782), oil on canvas, 101.6 x 127 cm.  Detroit Institute of Arts

  Steve Bell on the Eurozone crisis for The Guardian, Monday 7 November 2011

 Henry Fuseli, Courtesan with an elaborate headdress, c.1800 – 10, pencil, ink and brush in grey, black and brown, grey and black wash and watercolour on paper, 28.3 x 20 cm.  Kunsthaus, Zurich

  Henry Fuseli, Titania and Bottom with the Ass’s Head, 1788 – 9, oil on canvas, 216 x 274 cm.  Tate, London

 Detail of Titania and Bottom with the Ass’s Head, 1788 – 9, oil on canvas, 216 x 274 cm.  Tate, London

  Henry Fuseli, Thor Battering the Midgard Serpent, 1790, oil on canvas, 131 x 91 cm.  Royal Academy of Arts, London

William Blake

  William Blake, Angels Hovering over the Body of Christ in the Sepulcher, pen, ink, watercolour on white vellum, 42.2 x 31.4 cm.  Victoria and Albert Museum, London

  William Blake, Pestilence: The Death of the First Born, c.1805, pen and watercolour over pencil on paper, 30.4 x 34.2 cm.  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

  William Blake, Ancient of Days (frontispiece to Europe, a Prophecy), c.1821, relief etching with watercolour, 30.4 x 23.6 cm.  Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

  Buonarroti Michelangelo, Creation of Adam: Sistine Chapel Ceiling, 1510, fresco.  The Vatican, Rome

 

God as Architect/ Builder/ Geometer/ Craftsman (used as frontispiece of Bible Moralisee), mid 13^th Century, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.

  William Blake, Elohim Creating Adam, 1795, colour print with watercolour and ink, 42.1 x 53.6 cm.  Tate, London

  William Blake, Nebuchadnezzar, 1795, colour print finished in pen and watercolour, 44.6 x 62 cm.  Tate, London

  William Blake, Isaac Newton, 1795, colour print finished in watercolour, 46 x 60 cm.  Tate, London

                                       Excerpts from a William Blake documentary 

Samuel Palmer and 'The Ancients'

Samuel Palmer, Self-Portrait, c.1825, black chalk heightened with white on buff paper, 29.1 x 22.9 cm.  Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Samuel Palmer, Early Morning, 1825, pen and brown ink and wash, mixed with gum Arabic, varnished, 18.8 x 23.2 cm.  Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Samuel Palmer, Pear Tree in a Walled Garden, c.1829, watercolour and gouache, 21.5 x 27.9 cm.  Collection Eugene Victor Thaw, New York

  Samuel Palmer, In a Shoreham Garden, c.1829, watercolour and gouache, 29.2 x 21.5 cm.  Victoria and Albert Museum, London

  Samuel Palmer, The Harvest Moon, 1833 or before, oil on paper laid on panel, 22.2 x 27.6 cm.  Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut  

  Samuel Palmer, The Artist as Christ, c.1833, oil on wood 34.3 x 24.1 cm.  Collection D. C. Preston 

Edward Calvert ('The Ancients')

  Edward Calvert, A Primitive City, 1822, watercolour on paper, 7 x 10.1 cm.  The British Museum, London

Apocalyptic Images

  John Martin, Pandemonium, 1841, oil on canvas, 123.2 x 184.1 cm.  FORBES Magazine Collection, New York

 

John Martin, The Bard, c.1817, oil on canvas, 127 x 101.5 cm.  Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut

  John Martin, Great Day of His Wrath, 1851 – 3, oil on canvas, 196.5 x 303.2 cm.  Tate, London

  Francis Danby, Scene from the Apocalypse, c.1829, oil on canvas, 61 x 77 cm.  Collection Mr and Mrs Robert Rosenblum, New York

  Francis Danby, The Opening of the Sixth Seal, 1828, The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

Richard Dadd: Unnerving Fairy Tale Scenes

Richard Dadd, The Fairy-Feller’s Master-Stroke, 1855 – 64, oil on canvas, 53.9 x 39.3 cm.  Tate, London

  Richard Dadd, Contradiction: Oberon and Titania, 1854 – 8, oil on canvas, oval: 61 x 75 cm.  Collection of Lord Lloyd-Webber

James Ward

James Ward, Marengo, 1824, oil on panel, 81.9 x 109.9 cm.  Duke of Northumberland, Alnwick Castle

James Ward, Study for ‘The Boa Serpent, Liboya, Seizing His Prey, c.1804, oil in canvas, 83.8 x 119.4 cm.  Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut

 

James Ward, Gordale Scar, 1811 -13, oil on canvas, 332 x 421 cm.  Tate, London