Figures in the Romantic Landscape: Two Early Paintings by Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner was at the forefront of a new approach to life that gave us radical new art:
The Romantics were seeking various ways of attaining the ‘peak experience’. This peak experience was something that would be different for everyone: for some it may be writing a verse of stirring poetry, for others it might be found in excess of alcohol and other substances, for many it may be found through challenging experiences and travel.
The Romantics that could afford to, travelled to far off exotic destinations in the East. Many remained in the British Isles but journeyed into the wilder and more desolate places where they could become aware of the awesome beauty of nature, what they termed ‘the sublime’.
The sublime was something that had a terrible beauty, stirred the senses to a level of ecstasy, yet retained an ‘edge’ of danger and unpredictability. The sublime, whilst making us aware of our insignificance in the whole of creation, also stimulates the senses and causes us to revel in the wonders of the world around and, most importantly, within us.
This is an example of a landscape painter attempting to express ‘the sublime’. Until the Romantics, the countryside was seen as…
