ABSTRACT
Like the Disasters of War etchings and the paintings associated with them, it transcends the merely topical, poignantly focusing on deeper, more generally experienced ordeals, dilemmas, perplexities and burdens of the human condition, especially that conflict between two concepts of liberty which had been brought to a head by the French Revolution and has vexed the Western world ever since. Constant, was one of the first writers to distinguish clearly between 'negative' liberty, or freedom from oppression, and 'positive' liberty, or freedom to lead one prescribed way of life. The Battle of Leipzig in 1813, when the Prussians routed the French, was the first victory for the new German nationalism, which began as a quest for negative liberty but was soon converted into a 'positive' demand. Artistic and political liberty was, however, very commonly associated with one another in the years around 1830.
