Romanticism: The art of emotion, nature, and revolution.

Romanticism, also known as the Romantic era, was a literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850. Romanticism was characterised by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical.

At the end of the 18th century and well into the 19th century, Romanticism quickly spread throughout Europe and the United States with its purpose to challenge the rational ideal held so tightly during the Enlightenment. The artists emphasised 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. Additionally, to stem the tide of increasing industrialisation, many of the Romanticists emphasised the individual’s connection to nature and an idealised past.

Before the Romantic art movement existed, the Neoclassical Art Movement (1750-1850) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was born in Rome largely thanks to the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, at the time of the rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Neoclassical architecture was based on the principles of simplicity, symmetry, and mathematics, which were seen as virtues of the arts in Ancient Greece and Rome. It also evolved from the more recent influences of the equally antiquity-informed 16th-century Renaissance Classicism. And followed by post post-Romanticism art movement was the Realism Art Movement (1848-1900) in the arts, the accurate, detailed, unembellished depiction of nature or of contemporary life. Realism rejects imaginative idealisation in favour of a close observation of outward appearances. As such, realism in its broad sense has comprised many artistic currents in different civilisations. Realism is recognised as the first modern movement in art, which rejected traditional forms of art, literature, and social organisation as outmoded in the wake of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.

During the Romanticism art movement, historical events such as the American Revolution (1775-1783), the French Revolution (1789-1799) and Napoleon's coronation as emperor of France (1803) took place. Romanticism was closely bound up with the emergence of newly found nationalism that swept many countries after the American Revolution. Romanticism is the 19th-century movement that developed in Europe in response to the Industrial Revolution and the disillusionment with the Enlightenment values of reason. Romanticism emerged after 1789, the year of the French Revolution, which caused a significant social change in Europe. Based on the same ideals of liberty, fraternity and legality, this new movement was born, aiming to highlight the emotions and the irrational world of the artist and of nature.

In England, Romanticism was introduced by the first generation of British artists, active in Europe between 1760 and 1780, including James Barry, Henry Fuseli and John Hamilton Mortimer, who liked to paint subjects that departed from the rigid decorum and the historical or classical mythology of those years. The influence of some English poets, such as William Blake, and their visionary images led romantic artists to favour bizarre, pathetic or extravagant themes. A few years later, the Romantics were represented by the English painters J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, who excelled in picturesque landscapes and portraying the dynamic the sublime natural world evoked in the artist. In France, the main early Romantic painters were Eugène Delacroix and Théodore Géricault, who inaugurated the movement in the country around 1820 with their paintings of the individual heroism and suffering of the French Revolution. In Germany, the romantic painters sought more symbolic and allegorical meanings. The greatest German Romantic artist was Caspar David Friedrich.

Romanticism spread throughout Europe in the 19th century and developed as an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that embraced various arts such as literature, painting, music and history. 

Romanticism was also expressed in architecture through the imitation of older architectural styles. Emphasising local folklore, traditions, and landscapes, Romanticists provided the visual imagery that further spurred national identity and pride. Romantic painters combined the ideal with the particular, imbuing their paintings with a call to spiritual renewal that would usher in an age of freedom and liberties not yet seen. In many countries, Romantic painters turned their attention to nature and plein air painting, or painting out of doors. Works based on close observation of the landscape, as well as the sky and atmosphere, elevate landscape painting to a new, more respectful level. While some artists emphasised humans at one with and a part of nature, others portrayed nature’s power and unpredictability, evoking a feeling of the sublime – awe mixed with terror – in the viewer. Romanticism embraced the struggles for freedom and equality and the promotion of justice. Painters began using current events and atrocities to shed light on injustices in dramatic compositions.

Constable's paintings were so detailed, rich, and expressive that it’s almost like the landscape itself was exalted, even deified. Other Romantic painters used emotion in their work to rally political awareness, like Eugene Delacroix did in his painting entitled Liberty Leading the People.

Romanticism was a cultural movement that started in Europe. It was somewhat of a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, which occurred during the same period. The movement affected philosophical thinking, literature, music, and art etc. It focused on emotions, feelings, and moods of all kinds, including spirituality, imagination, mystery, and fervour. The subject matter varied widely, including landscapes, religion, revolution, and peaceful beauty. The brushwork for romantic art became looser and less precise. The great Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich summed up Romanticism, saying, “the artist’s feeling is his law”. The artwork during this art movement does inspire me and makes me feel warm especially the artwork “The Wanderer Above the Sea and Fog” by Caspar David Friedrich, which portrays a man who stands at the peak of a rocky steef cliff, his back facing towards the viewer/audience as he looks out over the clouds and the world. We, as the audience, experience the awe of nature and, at the same time, feel the insignificance of man. The painting does an excellent job of conveying the emotion of a moment and the drama of nature.

Some of the most popular and famous artworks from the Romanticism art movement include -

THE NIGHTMARE by Henry Fuseli (1781)

WANDERER ABOVE THE SEA OF FOG by Caspar David Friedrich (1818)

LIBERTY LEADING THE PEOPLE by Eugène Delacroix (1830)

THE THIRD OF MAY 1808 by Francisco Goya (1814)

THE RAFT OF THE MEDUSA by Théodore Géricault (1819)