Faces of Terror

Event Description

The Romantic movement emerged in France in the late 18th century,towards the end of Neoclassicism, and was rooted in an unease that reflected the troubles of the time on a political and economic level, as much as on a social and cultural one.

During this time, terror, political upheaval and Napoleonic war transformed horror from a subject of historical paintings to an everyday reality.

Emile Signol (1804-1892), Folie de la fiancée de Lammermoor, 1850 (c) Musée des Beaux- Arts, Tours

Bringing together French works by David, Delacroix, Géricault and Ingres, some of which have never before been seen, the exhibition “Visages de l’Effroi” shows the progression from dramatic, controlled violence at the end of the 18th century towards a French form of fantastical and black Romanticism, inspired as much by the trauma of the Revolution as by historical and contemporary literature.