Romani Theme in Landscape Painting (on the Example of Realistic Painting Works of the Second Half of the 19th Century)

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyse the Roma theme in the landscape painting in the works of artists-realists of the second half of the XIXth century. The research highlights the motives, related to the traditions of the Roma, which attracted the realistic direction artists’ attention. It is reviewed that the majority of Roma images and their traditional life style of the second half of the 19th century were presented in the painting works with the introduction of the landscape storylines. The research methodology includes the following methods: historical-cultural method and analytical one, a method of the historical-artistic typology and logical-generalizing method. These methods made it possible to follow the development of Romani subjects in the landscape art of the studied period. The scientific novelty of the article is an attempt to fill up the lack of research on the chosen topic and the need to introduce it into the scientific circulation as such, which will make the Roma topic in the context of realistic landscape painting in the world fine art of the XIXth century interesting for the researchers, historians etc. Conclusions. The research consists of the several stages. The first one is the analysis of the historiographical base, which has allowed to emphasize the relevance of studying the dialogue of the landscape and Roma images in the works of realist artists. During the second research stage, the peculiarities of the landscape genre in the realism direction works are characterized. In addition, the canvases of August von Pettenkofen (1854), Kharyton Platonov (1877), David Bates' (1886) and Franciszek Streitt (1885–1886) were singled out from the array of the artistic works and described in the context of the interdependence of the landscape and Roma images and (or) scenes from Roma life. Finally, it is shown that the landscape does not contrast with the Roma theme in these works, moreover it is a tool for its highlighting. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that the landscape line was used by realist artists as a logical component of the romance of nomadism in the XIXth century.