1. ROMANTICISM IN ART &
LITERATURE
1790 - 1860

2. Factors leading to the rise of
Romanticism
 Proliferation of Protestant
denominations
 Independence in religion and politics
 Egalitarianism
 Rise of representative government
 Expansion in the ―new world‖
 ―Evil‖ of industrialism and urbanization
 Significant rise in literacy

3. Factors leading to the rise of
romanticism
 Confusion generated
by science
• Darwin’s Origin of
Species stated
humanity’s mean
origins
• Marx’s Das Kapital
predicted capitalism’s
decay and a
triumphant working
class

4. The Spirit of the age
(1790 – 1860)
 A sense of a shared vision among the
Romantics.
 Early support of the French Revolution.
 Rise of the individual = alienation.
 Dehumanization of industrialization.
 Radical poetics / politics = an obsession
with violent change.

5. A growing distrust of reason
Enlightenment Early
19c
Romanticism
Society is good, curbing Civilization corrupts!
violent impulses!
 The essence of human experience is
subjective and emotional.
 Human knowledge is a puny thing
compared to other great historical forces.
 ―Individual rights‖ are dangerous efforts
at selfishness = the community is more
important.

6. The romanticism Movement
 Began in the 1790s and peaked in the 1820s.
 Mostly in Northern Europe, especially in
Britain and Germany.
 A reaction against classicism and rationalism
of the Enlightenment
 The ―Romantic Hero:‖
• Greatest example was Lord
Byron
• Tremendously popular among
the European reading public.
• Youth imitated his haughtiness
and rebelliousness.

7. Characteristics of romanticism
 Individualism
• Emphasis moved from:
• the stability of the community to the fulfillment
of the individual.
• the universal to the particular, for humankind to
nations and ethnic groups
• ―Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness‖
was a new ideal in the world.
• During this time period, Women’s Rights
and Abolitionism were taking root as major
movements.

8. Characteristics of romanticism
 Individualism: The ―Rugged‖ Hero
• American literature created this unique
person. He was:
• Youthful, innocent, intuitive
• One with nature
• Loner, and uneasy around women
• Handsome, brave, moral and honorable
• In James Fenimore Cooper’s
Leatherstocking Tales, Nattie Bumpo is an
example of this new American hero

9. Characteristics of romanticism
 Individualism: The ―Engaged &
Enraged Artist‖
• Self-realization comes
through art
• The artist as:
• apart from society
• social critic/revolutionary
• genius
• the true philosopher
• Individuals have unique,
endless potential
Wandering Above the Sea of Fog
Caspar David Friedrich, 1818

10. Characteristics of romanticism
 Emotionalism:
• Imagination, intuition and inspiration
• Feeling, not reason, became the test of
authenticity.
• Romantic love became a subject of poetry and
drama.
• Poetry is a form of emotional
communication.
• Painful and pleasurable emotions are equally valid
to Romantic poets.

11. Characteristics of romanticism
 Emotionalism:
• Backlash against the rationalism
characterized by the Neoclassical period or
―Age of Reason‖
• Imagination was considered necessary for
creating all art
• The Romantic artist, musician, or writer, is
an ―inspired creator‖ rather than a ―technical
master.‖
• Romanticism emphasized going with the
moment, or being spontaneous, rather than
being precise, controlled, or realistic.

12. The Raft of Medusa
Theodore Gericault

13. The Nightmare
John Henry Fuseli, 1781

14. Ride of the Valkyries
William T. Maud

15. Characteristics of romanticism
 Rejection of Traditional Authority
• Influenced by the American & French
Revolutions
• Government hierarchies, notions of
sovereignty and aristocracy, and systems of
distinction all fell.
• Romantics believed that authority derives
from the self, not from authority.
• Newness itself was a value.
• Political statements were popular in art

16. Liberty Leading the People
Eugene Delacroix

17. The Return of the (Jewish) Volunteer From War
Moritz Oppenheim

18. Ossian Receiving the Ghosts of French Heroes
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson

19. Characteristics of romanticism
 Nature: Mysticism
• Romantics loved, and were spiritually
involved, with nature
• Romantic writing looked for comforting or
exotic settings from the past
• This was found in the supernatural, in
nature, and/or in folk legends
• Romantics glorified the
awesome, horrifying, overwhelming power of
nature

20. Characteristics of romanticism
 Primitivism: The Noble Savage
• Romanticism: ―civilization corrupts;
institutions have rippling effects‖
• The child raised with the greatest possible
freedom will develop in more admirable
ways.
• Youth and infancy are valued above wisdom
of old age; holy wisdom is lost as we age.
• Innocence is more valued than experience.
• Humans are born into innocence, not
innately depraved.

21. Characteristics of romanticism
 Nature: Romantic Escapism
• Urban vs. Rural Settings
• The Romantic journey is to the countryside
• The Industrial Revolution caused Romantics
to associate cities with
corruption, greed, poverty, slums and
dehumanization
• Nature = escape from the abuses of industry
• The Romantics associated the country with
independence, moral clarity, and purity
• The Gothic Romantic, Edgar Allan Poe, saw the
country as a place of phantasm
• Washington Irving saw the country as idyllic and
as an escape

22. Nature
The Power & the Glory

23. An Avalanche in the Alps
Philip James de Loutherbourg, 1803

24. Sunset After a Storm on the Coast of Italy
Andreas Achenbach

25. The Deluge
Francis Danby, 1840

26. Tree of Crows
Caspar David Friedrich, 1822

27. The Wreck of the Hope (aka the sea ice)
Caspar David Friedrich, 1821

28. Shipwreck
Joseph Turner, 1805

29. The Eruption of Vesuvius
John Martin

30. Nature
Romantic Country Life

31. Flatford Mill
john constable m1817

32. The Corn Field
John Constable
1826

33. The Hay Wain
John Constable, 1821

34. Nature
Interesting & Exotic Lands

35. Grand Canal, Venice
Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1835

36. Massacre of Chios
Eugene Delacroix
1824

37. The Fanatics of Tangiers
Eugene Delacroix, 1838

38. The Sultan of
Morocco and His
Entourage
Eugene Delacroix, 1845

39. The Women of Algiers in Their Apartment
Eugene Delacroix, 1834

40. The Turkish
Bath
Jean Auguste
Ingres, 1852-1863

41. The Bullfight
Francisco Goya

42. Charge of the Mamelukes, May 2nd, 1808
Francisco Goya, 1814

43. The Royal Pavillion at Brighton
Designed by John Nash, 1815-1823

44. Characteristics of romanticism
 Nature: Revival of Things Past
• Gothic & Romanesque revival.
• ―Neo-Gothic‖ architectural style.
• Medieval ruins were a favorite theme for art
and poetry.
• Romanticism fed the development of the
Gothic novel

45. Characteristics of romanticism
 Nature: The Gothic Novel
• The Gothic novel had wild, haunted
landscapes
• It had supernatural events in the plot
• It was often mysterious
• The Gothic concept had roots in
France, Germany, and England
• Edgar Allan Poe was America’s greatest
Romantic Gothic writer

46. Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Ground
John Constable, 1825

47. Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows
John Constable, 1831

48. Hadleigh Castle
John Constable, 1829

49. Eldena Ruin
Gaspar David Friedrich, 1825

50. Winter Landscape with Church
Gaspar David Friedrich, 1811

51. British Houses of Parliament
1840 - 1865

52. Characteristics of romanticism
 Gothic Mysticism in Art & Literature:
The Exotic, Occult & Macabre
• In keeping with gothic themes, Romanticism
was obsessed with the supernatural
• Ghosts, fairies, witches, demons.
• The shadows of the mind—dreams &
madness.
• The romantics rejected materialism in
pursuit of spiritual self-awareness.
• They yearned for the unknown and the
unknowable.

53. Cloister Cemetary in the Snow
Caspar David Friedrich, 1817 - 1819

54. Abbey in an Oak Forest
Caspar David Friedrich, 1810

55. Mad Woman with a
Mania of Envy
Theodore Gericault, 1823

56. Pity
William Blake, 1795

57. The Great Red Dragon
and the Woman
Clothes with the Sun
William Blake,
1808 - 1810

58. Stonehenge
John Constable, 1836

59. Manfred and the Witch of the Alps
John Martin - 1837

60. Witches Sabbath
Francisco Goya, 1798

61. Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon
Friedrich David Caspar, 1824

62. The Cemetery Entrance
Freidrich David Caspar, 1825

63. Witches in the Air
Francisco de Goya
1798

64. Colosses
Francisco de Goya
or
his apprentice
Asensio Juliá
1808 - 1812

65. Saturn Devours his
son
Francisco Goya,
1819 - 1823

66. Romantic Mysticism
The Return to the
Great Christian Mysteries

67. God as the Architect
William Blake, 1794

68. Elohim Creating Abraham
William Blake, 1805

69. The Body of Abel Found by Adam & Eve
William Blake, 1825

70. The Seventh Plague of Egypt
John Martin, 1823

71. The Catherdral
Gaspar David Friedrich
1818

72. The Age of the Great Novel
 Gothic Novel:
• Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (1847)
• Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (1847)
 Historical Novel:
• Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott (1819)
• Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (1862)
• The Three Musketeers – Alexander
Dumas(1844)

73. The Age of the Great Novel
 Science Fiction Novel:
• Frankenstein - Mary Shelley (1817)
• Dracula – Bramm Stoker (1897)
 Novel of Purpose:
• Hugh Trevar - Thomas Holcroft (1794)
 Folklore
• Grimm’s Fairy Tales - Jacob and Wilhelm
Grimm (1814)

74. The Age of the Great Novel
 The American Novel
• Most American Romantic writers imitated
the European writing style
• American Romantic novelists broke away
from the European tradition and
discovered uniquely American topics and
settings
• American novelists explored the vast
unknown lands – something the
Europeans could not do

75. The Romantic Poets
 The Great English Romantic Poets
• Percy Byssche Shelley
• Lord Byron (George Gordon)
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• William Wordsworth
• John Keats
• William Blake

76. George Gordon’s
(Lord Byron)
Poem
The
Prisoner
of Chillon

77. William
Wordsworth’s
Poem,
Tintern Abbey

78. Samuel Taylor
Coleridge’s
Poem,
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

79. The Romantic Poets
 The American Romantic Poets
• Most Romantic poets worked within
conventional European literary
structures
• They proved that American poetry
could reflect American subject
matter, yet still hold to conventional
poetic style
• Most American Romantic poets wrote
about the past

80. The Romantic Poets
 The American Romantic Poets
• The Fireside Poets, a Boston group of
Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, and
Lowell, were widely read and loved in
America
• They were the television of the
American Romantic period and
families gathered around the fireside to
be entertained by their poetry
• Their subject matter was comfortable
and instructional

81. Consequences of Romanticism
• Violent outcomes of Romantic ideals
• American Revolution (1775 – 1783)
• French Revolution--storming of the Bastille
in 1789
• The French Revolution derived from and
generated Romantic ideas.
• Both revolutions developed from strong
convictions about the innate rights of
individuals.

82. Consequences of Romanticism
• Movement from rural to urban settings
• There was a move to city for industry and a
corresponding romanticizing of the country.
• Cities were often filled with
congestion, poverty, and misery.
• Educated men and women expressed a
nostalgia for rural landscapes.

83. Consequences of Romanticism
 Political Implications
• Romanticism could reinforce the greatest
themes of political liberalism or political
conservatism
• Contributed to growing nationalist
movements
• The concepts of the ―Volk‖ and the ―Volkgeist‖
• The uniqueness of cultures was emphasized

84. Bibliography
 CGFA: A Virtual Art Museum.
http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/fineart.htm
  ―Romanticism‖ on Archive.
http://artchive.com/artchive/romanticism.html
 Susan M. Pojer’s presentation:
 ―Romanticism: The Artisitic Expression of Liberalism‖ for
Horace Greeley HS, NY
 www.huffenglish.com/powerpoints/Romanticism.ppt