German Romantic prints and drawings2011

"This book covers the dominant themes of German Romanticism, a vibrant period of early ninteenth-century German art. It shows prints and drawings from a formative period of history, when French revolutionary forces swept across Europe and Napoleon forced the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation in 1806. During this period of economic ruin, artists sought to establish a new market and a new cultural identity. The establishment of art unions in all major German towns changed the nature of of patronage by transferring many commissions away from royal and private hands into the control of an expanding bourgeoisie. A group of young artists who met each other at the Vienna Academy sought to establish a revival of the values and techniques of medieval and Renaissance art. In 1809, they formed an artistic fraternity, the Brotherhood of St Luke, and moved to Rome, where they became known as the Nazarenes after their style of dress, based on that of Jesus of Nazareth. Other artists turned for inspiration to northern mythology and folk tales, and there was a surge of interest in Germanic landscape. The period is characterized by strikingly beautiful prints, such as the etchings by the philologist Carl Wilhelm Kolbe, who made idiosyncratic scenes of over-sized plant life and idyllic views of lovers in verdant woodland glades. The new technique of lithography introduced an array of delicate tonal values to printmaking, seen especially in the work of Ferdinand Olivier. Other artists discussed here are Wilhelm Tischbein, best known for his close albeit brief friendship with Goethe, and Philipp Otto Runge whose symbolic Times of Day sum up much of the ideology of German Romanticism. All works in the catalogue come from the collection of Charles Booth-Clibborn, founder of Paragon Press"--Book jacket.