Not only were landscape paintings
being produced in America, the world's frontier land, but the country's stable
political system was realized by many (Americans, mostly) to have risen to such
exemplary standards as to become a model for other countries to follow. During the 1848 revolutions in Europe, German
American painter Emanuel Leutze thought to hearken back to the nation's
"founding fathers" for inspiration and ideological clarity. He needed look no further than the nation's
first president, George Washington, who had, during his presidency, almost
instantly become a public hero and national icon. This well-known painting of Washington
Crossing the Delaware, painted in 1851, demonstrated the epitome of the
Romantic art style.
The nationalism of Delacroix's
Liberty Leading the People is visible here.
(The American flag is placed almost directly in the center of the
painting). And Washington himself is
given quite a noble image. Clad
patriotically in red, white, blue, and gold, he looks onward fearlessly to the
awaiting battle ahead. This painting is
notoriously inaccurate historically, but what did we say about propaganda? This is not about the truth; this is about
emotional reaction; this is about an idea.
Here Washington is seen as a hero.
There is perhaps much in this painting to compare to Jacques-Louis
David's painting of Napoleon Crossing the Alps, but I would not necessarily
call this propaganda (after Washington's political campaign had already ended
half a century ago). The heroes which are
made through propaganda are made as such in order to promote a cause, but
Romanticism famously creates heroes merely for the sake of heroism (but I
suppose you could argue that that's still a cause). And paintings like this were meant to inspire
and remind us that, no matter under what banner or in what place, land or sea,
heroes still exist, modeled after great men like this, who uphold those ideals
that are universally and always right.
No comments:
Post a Comment