Manfred Invoking the Spirit of the Alps 

Charles Gleyre painted this scene of ‘Manfred Invoking the Spirit of the Alps’ sometime in the mid-19th century, but it is hard to pin down exactly when. It’s a Romantic scene, and while the figure’s dress suggests some kind of historical past, the figure of Manfred comes from Lord Byron’s 1817 dramatic poem. Byron's work was very influential in its time, and it became part of a wider cult of the individual, where the heroic man could challenge social norms. Gleyre was Swiss, but he spent much of his career in France. He took over Paul Delaroche’s teaching studio where he taught painters such as Monet, Renoir, and Sisley. The art world in France was controlled by the Academy, but Gleyre’s studio was significant for allowing his students to develop new approaches to painting. Understanding the scene requires historical analysis of both the literary sources, the social context of Romanticism, and the institutional history of art training in France.