The Romantics

The Romantics

11 August, 2010
by: Loredana

A spellbinding exhibition makes its way to Tate Britain.

As the usual Londoner walks around with their cool, indifferent exterior, why not pay a little attention to the the possible inner turmoil raging inside of them, begging to come out? When the steely exterior harbours look out for the grappling, tortured soul moving among you.... Pay attention to the affected removing their outer countenance without caution. Yes – The Romantics have come to town, and they're waiting for you at Tate Britain.

This art is over-dramatic and dysfunctional, and Tate Britain have reined it in so you can view it simmering, bubbling up and steaming together into something astonishing. The Romantics blast wholeheartedly raging, writhing, clawing for your attention – it makes you feel like you're on the edge of something, a precipice maybe, slightly nudging at your emotional temperament as you struggle to keep balance. And the best thing to do when viewing this exhibition is to launch head first.

The first room has you gaping at the magnitude of work thrust upon you, and there are rooms upon rooms all dedicated to the same cause. But as you become accustomed to the exhibition, it becomes apparent that, even though all the work is undeniably beautiful, it's the ugliness beneath them that captures your attention. It is this, in certain measures, that brings forward the most visually astounding.

So working towards this means, the first work that really captures my eye is John Martin's 'Belshazzar's Feast'. It's small and insignificant, but as you pass by you cannot ignore its wonderful, menacing and troublesome nature. The scene is incredibly dark, in tone and in subject. A scene from the Bible, diners at the feast coil in fear as a greater force overcomes them, as though everyone is bowled over by a great wind. An oversized vicious snake gapes at the mouth towards the violent lightning filled sky.

Moving on through the rooms, it's the Late Turner room that fights for, and wins, my attention. Clearly stating that Turner was a misunderstood artist, who followed impulses rather than the expectations of society, makes his work even more exciting. Take a moment to stand in the middle of the room – it'll lead you to notice the aura that every painting takes on. The yellow centres of each are only disturbed by the ethereal gloom of a London scene in 'The Thames above Waterloo Bridge'.

In the Blake and the Romantic Imagination room it's the lost pages from Blake's illuminated books that take over. Here Blake depicts scenes such as a skeleton burning next to a man looking on in horror, with the caption, “Every thing is an attempt. To be human.” There's another of a man with a screaming face, pulling at his hair in distress as he screams, “I sought pleasure and found pain. Unutterable.” In every one the script is delicate, though the words are pained and distressing. This work has a life of its own and it's easy to think of each one bound in a book, straining to come out as you turn every page encountering their utter despair.

In the main room at the back of the exhibition, Henry Wallis' work 'Chatterton' beams in its surroundings. The light coming from it is magnificent, which comes entirely from the figure of Chatterton, lying dead, and standing out against the room he's in, as if held apart from it. The boy depicted is Thomas Chatterton, a Gothic poet who committed suicide at the age of seventeen. Owing to this, his face is as youthful and serene as you'd expect. His shocking red hair is striking, along with the green tinge to his skin that makes it seem that through death he has taken on an inhuman form.

Amongst delicate engravings, scenes from Shakespeare, stories from antiquity and almighty compositions at sea you too can pick out your own favourites. What remains clear, however you're affected by this exhibition, is that this is the kind of work that stays with you: passionate, all encompassing and lavishly dark.

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Image Credits:
Henry Wallis, Chatterton, 1835, Photo copyright Tate.

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Sun Setting over a Lake c.1840, Photo copyright Tate.

John Martin, Plate from 'Illustrations to the Bible': Belshazzar's Feast, Published 1835,Photo copyright Tate.

William Blake, The First Book of Urizen, Plate 7 Small Book of Designs, Copy B, 1796/c.1818, Colour printed relief-etching finished in pen and ink and watercolour on wove paper, Image 114x104mm on paper 250x185mm.

Loredana