Romanticism was an artistic and philosophical movement that began in Germany and England in the late 18th century and spread to America by the mid-19th century. It valued emotion, imagination, nature, the exotic, and the individual over reason and society. Romantic artists and thinkers sought to embrace inner feelings, the supernatural, creativity, and a simpler rural life rather than the corruption of cities.

2. Romanticism
 An artistic (literature, visual arts, music)
and philosophical movement
 Began in Germany and England
Europe
America
 End of 1700s to mid-1800s

3. Romanticism
 Not necessarily what we think of when
we hear the word ‘romantic’
Romance = Adventure
British Romantic Painter
William Turner (noted for
shipwreck paintings)

4. Sources of Inspiration
 Inner feelings and emotions
 Imagination
 Literature of
the Middle Ages and
the Orient (Eastern culture)

5. Romantic Attitudes (Interests)
 Idealistic
-oriented toward the model, the perfect
 Mysterious and supernatural
-reaction against logic, science, the mind
 Individual
-concerned with the particular/specific
rather than the general
 Imagination/creativity
-sought to develop new forms of
expression

6. Romantic Attitudes (Preferences)
 Exotic > Normal
-Longed for the past and the exotic
(the foreign, the weird, the different)
 Emotion > Reason
-Tended toward excess and
spontaneity (esp. of emotion) rather
than controlled, cool reason
 Country > City
-Appreciated the rural and simple life
 Innocence > Societal Corruption
-Valued the primitive (innocent) over
the corrupting influences of society;
value of the child (unspoiled by
society)

7. Romantic Social Concerns
 Desired radical change
 Favored democracy over
monarchy
 Concerned with the common
people, the good of the
individual
 Felt that nature
should be untamed,
wild (the first
environmentalists)