Romanticism in Art
Romantic Painting & Sculpture in Europe.
Visual Arts Guide

Romantic Art Style

The heroic element in Neo-Classicism was given a central role in a new style known as Romanticism, which emerged in the run-up to the French Revolution as a reaction against the restrained academic art style of the 'establishment'. Romantic art did not displace the Neoclassical style, but rather functioned as a counterbalance to the latter's severity and rigidity. Indeed, some artists notably Goya and Jacques-Louis David were affected by both styles - see for example, the latter's Death of Marat. Although Romanticism declined about 1830, its influence continued long after.

Triggered in part by the ideals of the French Revolution, the tenets of romanticism were quite diverse, encompassing a return to nature - exemplified by their emphasis on spontaneous plein-air painting - a belief in the goodness of humanity, the promotion of justice for all, and a strong belief in the senses and emotions rather than reason and intellect. Romantic painters and sculptors tended to express an emotional personal response to life, in contradistinction to the restraint and universal values promoted by Neo-Classicism. In a word, Romanticism is anti-classicism. It also symbolized a break with previous ideas of man's role in the Universe, as exemplified by the works of William Blake (1757-1827).

All Genres

The Romantic style pervaded all genres of painting, including: the landscape art of John Constable (1776-1837), JMW Turner (1775-1851), and Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840); the narrative painting of Francisco Goya (1746-1828) Henry Fuseli, born Johann Heinrich Fussli (1741-1825) and James Barry (1741-1806), and the portraits of Theodore Gericault (1791-1824). A late exponent of Romanticism, who eventually came to personify the movement in France, was Eugene Delacroix (1798-63).

Famous 19th Century Examples of Romanticism

These include works by famous artists like: John Constable, such as The Hay Wain (1821), National Gallery, London; JMW Turner, such as The Fighting Temeraire (1838), National Gallery, London; Caspar David Friedrich, such as Winter Landscape (c.1811), National Gallery, London; and Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon (1824), Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Francisco Goya, such as The Third of May, 1808 (1814), Museo del Prado, Madrid; William Blake, such as Satan Arousing the Rebellious Angels (1800), Victoria and Albert Museum; Theodore Gericault, Heads Severed (1818), Nationalmuseum, Stockholm; Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware River (1848), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Eugene Delacroix, such as The Death of Sardanapalus (1827), Musee du Louvre; and Liberty Leading the People (1830), Musee du Louvre; Jean-Baptiste Corot, such as Ville d'Avray (1867), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; Arnold Bocklin, such as Mary Magdalene Grieving over the Body of Christ (1867), Kunstmuseum, Basel.

Other Romantic Art

The Romantic style of fine art painting stimulated the emergence of numerous schools, such as: the Barbizon school of plein-air landscapes (which also incorporated Neo-Classical, and Realist styles), the Norwich school of British landscape artists; the Nazarenes, a group of Catholic German and Austrian painters; the Pre-Raphaelite movement (eg. Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1828-82) and the Symbolists (eg. Arnold Bocklin 1827-1901) and the Aestheticism movement.

Another important group of Romantic painters was the The Hudson River school working during the period 1825-1875. Begun by Thomas Doughty whose peaceful compositions greatly influenced later artists of the school, other members included Thomas Cole (dramatic and vivid landscapes) Asher B Durand, JF Kensett, SFB Morse, Henry Inman, Jasper Cropsey and Frederick E Church. A sub-group of Hudson River artists introduced the style of Luminism. Luminist landscapes were characterized by intense, often dramatic light effects, a style visible also in James McNeil Whistler's hauntingly beautiful works, such as Crepuscule in Flesh Colour and Green, Valparaiso (1866) and Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea (1871).

Neo-Romanticism

In Paris during the early 1920s, a group of figurative painters appeared whose brooding paintings quickly became labelled Neo-Romantic. Among them were the Russian born trio of Eugene Berman and his brother Leonid, and Pavel Tchelitchew. However, in British fine art at least, the term Neo-Romantic denotes the imaginative quasi-abstract style of landscape created by Paul Nash, Graham Sutherland and others during the late 1930s and 1940s. Inspired in part by the visionary landscapes of Samuel Palmer, Neo-Romantic pictures often included figures, was typically sombre in mood, but sometimes displayed a striking intensity. Other important Neo-Romantics included Michael Ayrton, John Craxton, Ivon Hitchens, John Minton, John Piper, Keith Vaughan.

• For other art movements and periods, see: History of Art.
• For styles of painting and sculpture in Ireland, see: Irish Art

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