Romanticism in Art: 8 Notable Romantic Artists and Their Art

Romanticism is an artistic movement that flourished between 1780 and 1850, although it prevailed for much of the nineteenth century. Romantic art emphasizes individualism, emotion, natural beauty, and even political ideologies.

By the end of the eighteenth century, the world of visual art began transitioning away from the neoclassicism that had dominated the Age of Enlightenment and toward the Romantic movement, which touched nearly all means of artistic expression. Romantic composers included Ludwig van Beethoven and Frédéric Chopin. Romantic authors and poets included Charles Baudelaire, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. Yet it was Romantic painters and sculptors who helped define the era in the eyes of future generations.

The Romantic art movement evolved from Baroque art and classicism during the late eighteenth century. A few elements that played key roles in the dawn of Romanticism include:

• Contrast with classicism: In Europe, classicism, which was closely tied to the intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment, emphasized rationalism and sublime aesthetics. Early Romantic artists drew inspiration from classical values, but the Romantic style added levels of emotion and drama rarely seen in paintings of the classical era. Some neoclassicists, such as Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, managed to thrive in the Romantic period, but they dwindled in number with time.
• Landscape art: Many early Romantic artists embraced landscape painting, using oil on canvas as their principal medium. Famous among these landscape painters was the British artist J.M.W. Turner, whose expressive brushstrokes foretold the Impressionists who would dominate the late nineteenth century. Other landscape painters like John Constable and the German Romantic Caspar David Friedrich brought majesty and spectacle to their canvases in the early nineteenth century.
• National identities: As the Romantic era evolved, paintings began to evoke specific national identities. In Napoleonic France, artists like Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson and Théodore Géricault depicted heroes of French culture in bold and dramatic settings. In Norway, Hans Gude painted landscapes of the country's signature fjords. In the United States, the Hudson River School emphasized massive landscapes that showcased the continent.
• Embrace of portraiture: Portraiture also evolved in the Romantic era, increasingly showing both human triumph and human frailty. Eugène Delacroix's 1838 portrayal of Polish-French composer Frédéric Chopin abandoned realist colors for pale whites and deep umbers to depict the fragile genius of the maestro. Joseph Karl Stieler's portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven shows an intense man with a tousled mess of long hair, cementing the composer's dramatic reputation in the centuries that would follow.
• Waning popularity in the late nineteenth century: The Romantic era of painting would eventually give way to movements like Impressionism, where the artist's perspective and emotions would take precedence over the exact truth of the subject matter.

Eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century Romantic painting and sculpture are largely unified by several characteristics, including:

• Celebration of nature: Romantic art—whether in paintings, sculpture, novels, or music—tends to emphasize the natural world. Humans are often subservient to that nature, as in Caspar David Friedrich's Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog.
• Embrace of landscape painting: The classical era emphasized portraiture and human forms, but the Romantic era saw a return of landscape art.
• Heroism and drama: When humans are depicted in Romantic art, they often appear in the throes of adventure. From the early Romantic Shipwreck by Claude-Joseph Vernet to The Massacre at Chios by Eugène Delacroix, drama often reigns supreme in these works.
• Humanity on display: As the Romantic philosopher and critic August Wilhelm Schlegel posited in his Lectures on Dramatic Arts and Letters, the very essence of human nature is its profound dichotomy. This dichotomy is reflected in both the portraiture and the landscapes of the era.
• Nationalist subjects: Many Romantic artists incorporated their national identity into their work, including the Spaniard Francisco Goya, the French Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, and the American Thomas Cole exemplify this nationalist choice of subject.

Some of the more famous Romantic artists include:

1. 1. Thomas Cole: A prominent member of the Hudson River School who documented US nationalism in his Course of Empire series.
2. 2. John Constable: A famed Romantic landscape painter who captured the countryside of England in works like The Hay Wain.
3. 3. Eugène Delacroix: A French painter who adapted scenes from antiquity into the dramatic Romantic aesthetic. He also documented the French Revolution in works like Liberty Leading the People, which Napoleon III placed on display in the Louvre.
4. 4. Caspar David Friedrich: A German painter whose works, like Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, emphasized the raw majesty of nature and its dominion over humankind.
5. 5. Henry Fuseli: A Swiss painter who helped bridge the gap between classicism and Romanticism with works like The Nightmare.
6. 6. Théodore Géricault: A French painter whose works The Charging Chasseur and The Raft of the Medusa enthralled viewers at the Paris Salon.
7. 7. Francisco Goya: A Spanish Romantic painter who was both a master of realism and of drama. His late-life works, called the Black Paintings, made a sudden lurch toward surrealism and despair yet remain among his most famous works.
8. 8. J.M.W. Turner: Joseph Mallord William Turner was an English painter who pivoted from neoclassical art to bold, stylized landscapes like Wreckers, Coast of Northumberland.

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