Romanticism
Started: c.1780
Ended: 1830
Quotes
KEY ARTISTS
 | Francisco Goya Quick View  Artist Page |
| Francisco Goya |  |
| Francisco Goya was an eighteenth-century Spanish painter, and is considered by many to be "the father of modern painting." Informed by the Baroque style and the Classicists, Goya's art was part of the Romanticism movement, but also contained provocative elements such as social critiques, nudes, war, and allegories of death. He is considered a major influence on the works of Manet, Picasso, and Dali. Art Story: Francisco Goya Artist Page | ||
 | Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Quick View Artist Page |
| Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres | |
| Ingres was one of the last painters of the French Neoclassist tradition, whose charismatic portraits opened the path to the more passionate and modern Romantic movement. Art Story: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Artist Page | ||
 | Caspar David Friedrich Quick View Artist Page |
| Caspar David Friedrich | |
| Friedrich was a German Romantic landscape painter, and considered by many academics to be the finest German painter of his time. Like his contemporaries JMW Turner and John Constable, Friedrich's paintings portrayed the awesome power of nature with sublime, divine presence. Art Story: Caspar David Friedrich Artist Page | ||
 | Theodore Gericault Quick View Artist Page |
| Theodore Gericault | |
| Gericault was a French painter and lithographer during the early nineteenth century. Heavily influenced by the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens and the Baroque paintings of Velasquez, Gericault became a pioneer in the Romantic period of French painting - as highlighted in his master work: Raft of the Medusa. Art Story: Theodore Gericault Artist Page | ||
 | J.M.W. Turner Quick View Artist Page |
| J.M.W. Turner | |
| J.M.W. Turner (Joseph Mallord William Turner) was a mid-nineteenth-century British painter and watercolorist. Considered a key forerunner to the French Impressionists and the American Hudson River School of painters, Turner is known in history as "the painter of light." His trademark land- and sea-scapes are categorized as Romantic and Naturalist, given the artist's expressive and poetic application of natural light. Turner was among the last great pre-modern painters. Art Story: J.M.W. Turner Artist Page | ||
 | Henry Fuseli Quick View Further External Info  |
| Henry Fuseli | |
| Fascinated by the the supernatural, Henry Fuseli's paintings were dramatic illustrations of otherworldly creatures. Fuseli was also known for his masterful manipulation of light and shadow, masterfully adding emotions to his scenes. Further External Info | ||
"If by romanticism one means the free manifestation of my personal impulses, distancing myself from the rules set in schools, and my distaste for the recipes of the academy, I must confess that not only am I a romantic, I was from the age of 15."
Synopsis
At the end of the 18th century and well into the 19th, Romanticism quickly spread throughout Europe and the United States to challenge the rational ideal held so tightly during the Enlightenment. The artists emphasized that sense and emotions - not simply reason and order - were equally important means of understanding and experiencing the world. Romanticism celebrated the individual imagination and intuition in the enduring search for individual rights and liberty. Its ideals of the creative, subjective powers of the artist fueled avant-garde movements well into the 20th century.
Romanticist practitioners found their voices across all genres, including literature, music, art, and architecture. Reacting against the sober style of Neoclassicism preferred by most countries' academies, the far reaching international movement valued originality, inspiration, and imagination, thus promoting a variety of styles within the movement. Additionally, in an effort to stem the tide of increasing industrialization, many of the Romanticists emphasized the individual's connection to nature and an idealized past.
Key Ideas
Beginnings
The term Romanticism was first used in Germany in the late 1700s when the critics August and Friedrich Schlegal wrote of romantische Poesie ("romantic poetry"). Madame de Staël, an influential leader of French intellectual life, following the publication of her account of her German travels in 1813, popularized the term in France. In 1815 the English poet William Wordsworth, who became a major voice of the Romantic movement and who felt that poetry should be "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings," contrasted the "romantic harp" with the "classic lyre." The artists that considered themselves part of the movement saw themselves as sharing a state of mind or an attitude toward art, nature, and humanity but did not rely on strict definitions or tenets. Bucking established social order, religion, and values, Romanticism became a dominant art movement throughout Europe by the 1820s.
Content compiled and written by Rebecca Seiferle
Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors
" Movement Overview and Analysis". [Internet]. . TheArtStory.org
Content compiled and written by Rebecca Seiferle
Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors
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