Literature & Art

I used to not be a big fan of art. I don’t know what it was, but in the past I would never give a painting two thoughts. I even saw paintings in person by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Picasso (to name just a few) IN PERSON at the Met in NYC, and still could not wrap my head around the cult-like following these painters have.

But, that all changed when I took an art appreciation class last semester that focused on, you guessed it, understanding and appreciating art. It really opened up my eyes about what is happening “behind the scenes” of a piece of art. Now, I am so fascinated by the meaning behind it, particularly paintings. It is quite the experience now when I can actually understand a painting by what time period it was from, what the artist was going through at the time, what movement was popular at that time, etc.

As previously stated, I have found my favorite period in American literature to be Romanticism. Romanticism is not the lovey-dovey subject you probably think of when you first hear it. Instead, Romantic artists honored individualism, emotion, and irrationalism, while their reasonable intellect took a back seat. Some of my favorite Romantic authors include Poe, Dickinson, Hawthorne, and Melville, to name a few. But, the Romanticism does not only apply to authors. Listed below are three of my favorite Romantic paintings, which I encourage you to check out more.

"Steamer in a Snowstorm" by Joseph Turner

"Steamer in a Snowstorm" is the epitome of Romanticism. It is a far cry from a classical piece, which was the style before Romanticism. Instead, this painting shows off the individual expression of the artist and emotional feeling you get from the fury of the storm. I feel like it is comparable to a lot of Poe's work, like "The Raven" or "The Tell-Tale Heart", which tend to send you on an emotional, whirling roller coaster ride where you don't know up from down.

"Abbey in an Oak Forest" by Caspar David Friedrich

Nature is a frequent regular subject for Romanticism artist, but it would not be a Romantic piece without a twist like this painting provides. "Abbey in an Oak Forest" depicts a sense of dramatic mystery that is often frequented by Romantic artist. When first viewing this piece, I immediately thought of Emily Dickinson's work. Common themes of hers include haunted nature and death, which I think this painting depicts perfectly.

"The Voyage of Life Manhood" by Thomas Cole

"The Voyage of Life" includes a series of paintings by Thomas Cole portraying the journey by man through four life stages, childhood, youth, manhood, and old age. During the first two stages (childhood and youth), the scenery starts out bright and colorful in a peaceful and naive way. Once manhood is reached, life takes a turn for the worst as the once naive way of life has lifted and the sudden reality begins to portray itself. I think this painting relates to "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, as sudden realizations of reality sets in.

What painting of its time relates to your favorite piece of literature?