Narrative Tendencies (1808-1843)

Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard
Fury of Oedipus
(scene from Sophocles)
ca. 1808
gouache on paper
Princeton University Art Museum

Théodore Géricault
Study for The Revolt in Cairo
ca. 1809
drawing, with added watercolor
Musée Bonnat-Helleu, Bayonne

Pietro Benvenuti
Ghost of the philosopher Athenodorus Cananites
appearing to Pliny the Younger
ca. 1810
drawing
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Charles Meynier
Death of Atys
ca. 1810-20
drawing
Musée Magnin, Dijon

Wolfgang Adam Töpffer
Wedding Party Embarking
1814
oil on canvas
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Genève

Pierre-Henri Révoil
Joan of Arc imprisoned in Rouen
1819
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen

Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld
Marriage at Cana
1819
oil on canvas
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Joseph-Désiré Court
The Deluge
1827
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Anton Dräger
Moses at the Well defending the Daughters of Jethro
ca. 1827-28
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Ary Scheffer
Women of Souli
1827-28
oil on canvas
Dordrechts Museum

Carlo Arienti
Scene of Roman Dissipation
ca. 1830
oil on canvas
Accademia Carrara, Bergamo

Félix Auvray
Last Days of Pompeii
ca. 1831
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Valenciennes

Marie Adelaïde Kindt
The Fortune Teller
ca. 1835
oil on canvas
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Wilhelm Lindenschmit the Elder
Cimbrian Women resisting the Romans
ca. 1836-37
oil on canvas
Lenbachhaus Munich

Jean Béraud
Altercation at the Paris Opéra
1889
oil on panel
Musée Carnavalet, Paris

Eugène Delacroix
The Bride of Abydos
(poem of Byron)
ca. 1843-49
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Being ready, she went into the Garden Woods, where shee saw Antissia sadly walking, her eyes on the earth, her sighes breathing like a sweet gale claiming pitie from above, for the earth she said would yeeld her none, yet she besought that too, and at last passion procured alteration from mourning, she began to sing a Song, or rather part of one, which was thus.

Stay mine eyes, these floods of teares

     Seeme but follies weakely growing,

Babes at nurse such wayling beares,

     Frowardnesse such drops bestowing:
But Niobe must shew my fate,

She wept and griev'd herselfe a state.

My sorrowes like her Babes appeare

     Daily added by increasing;
She lost them, I loose my Deare,

     Nor one spar'd from woes ne're ceasing:
She made a rock, heaven drops downe teares,

Which pitie shewes, and on her weares.

Assuredly more there was of this Song, or else she had with her unframed and unfashioned thoughts, as unfashionably framed these lines.

– from The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania, by the right honourable the Lady Mary Wroath, daughter to the right noble Robert, Earle of Leicester, and neece to the ever famous and renowned Sʳ Phillips Sidney knight, and to ye most excellant Lady Mary Countess of Pembroke, late deceased (London: John Marriott and John Grismand, 1621)