Romanticism in visual arts began in the 1760s and introduced a new way of showing wild landscapes and exciting or intense scenes. This style moved away from earlier artistic traditions that focused on balance and order. Romantic art highlighted the beauty of nature that inspires awe, the strong emotions people feel, and the celebration of the past, often linked to a nation's history and identity.

This movement spread throughout Europe and later influenced American artists, who used these themes to depict the special features of the American landscape. Over time, Romantic art reached other parts of the world, shaping many types of art and encouraging artists to show deeper emotional connections to nature and changes in society. Romantic art focused on the importance of personal viewpoints and shared human experiences, creating lasting effects on art across different cultures globally.

Beginnings

In the visual arts, Romanticism first appeared in landscape painting. As early as the 1760s, British artists began painting wilder landscapes and storms, and Gothic architecture, even when they had to use Wales as a setting. Caspar David Friedrich and J. M. W. Turner were born less than a year apart in 1774 and 1775, respectively. Both artists pushed German and English landscape painting toward the extreme styles of Romanticism. However, their artistic ideas were shaped when Romanticism was already a strong influence in art. John Constable, born in 1776, stayed closer to the English landscape tradition. In his large paintings, called "six-footers," he showed a small piece of working countryside from his childhood as heroic, challenging the traditional ranking of art types, which considered landscape painting of low importance. Turner also painted large landscapes, especially seascapes. Some of these paintings had modern settings with small figures or people, while others had tiny figures that made the works resemble history paintings, like those by Claude Lorrain, a Baroque artist whose landscapes Romantic painters often used. Friedrich frequently included single figures or symbols like crosses placed alone in vast landscapes, creating images that showed the shortness of human life and the warning of death.

Other artists expressed feelings that had mystical qualities, often moving away from classical drawing and proportions. These artists included William Blake, Samuel Palmer, and other members of the Ancients in England, as well as Philipp Otto Runge in Germany. Like Friedrich, these artists did not have major influence during the rest of the 19th century and were rediscovered in the 20th century. However, Blake was always known as a poet, and Norway’s leading painter, Johan Christian Dahl, was greatly influenced by Friedrich. The Nazarene movement, a group of German artists based in Rome, was active from 1810. They took a different approach, focusing on medieval-style history paintings with religious and national themes.

By country

German Romantic art began in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It developed as a response to the focus on reason during the Enlightenment and the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution. This art style focused on emotions, imagination, and the idea of the sublime, often showing nature, individuals, and the supernatural.

In painting, artists like Caspar David Friedrich and Karl Friedrich Schinkel created works that explored spiritual themes and the vastness of nature. Friedrich’s famous painting, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, shows a person searching for meaning in nature’s beauty and the loneliness of human life. Nature was often shown as both powerful and mysterious, reflecting the Romantic interest in the sublime.

The movement also included themes from medieval times and folklore. Artists such as Philipp Otto Runge and Joseph Anton Koch used German myths, national identity, and folk traditions in their work, mixing historical subjects with dreamlike and imaginative elements.

In literature, Romantic writers like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Novalis explored deep emotions and spirituality, which influenced visual artists.

• Philipp Otto Runge, Birth of the Human Soul, ca. 1806
• Caspar David Friedrich, Cross in the Mountains (Tetschen Altar), 1808. This was Friedrich’s first major work, showing the crucifixion as part of a landscape instead of a traditional altarpiece.
• Friedrich, Chalk Cliffs on Rügen, 1818. This painting celebrates the marriage of Friedrich and Christiane Caroline Bommer, whom he married in 1818.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, Mignon, 1828

Romanticism in French art started later because Neoclassicism was popular in art schools. However, during the Napoleonic period, Romantic themes became more common, especially in history paintings that supported the new government. One early example was Girodet’s Ossian receiving the Ghosts of the French Heroes, painted for Napoleon’s Château de Malmaison. Girodet’s former teacher, David, was confused by his student’s new style, saying, “Either Girodet is mad or I no longer know anything of the art of painting.” A new generation of French artists developed personal Romantic styles, focusing on history paintings with political messages. Théodore Géricault’s The Charging Chasseur (1812) was his first success, but his most famous work, The Raft of the Medusa (1818–19), became a major Romantic painting with a strong anti-government message.

Eugène Delacroix’s early works, such as The Barque of Dante (1822), The Massacre at Chios (1824), and Death of Sardanapalus (1827), gained attention at art exhibitions. The Massacre at Chios depicted a scene from the Greek War of Independence, completed the year Lord Byron died there. Delacroix also painted scenes from Byron’s plays and Shakespeare’s works. He spent time in North Africa, creating colorful paintings of Arab warriors. His Liberty Leading the People (1830) is one of the most famous French Romantic paintings. Both Liberty Leading the People and The Raft of the Medusa showed real events, and history painting—once focused on religious or mythological scenes—became about real historical moments.

Francisco Goya was described as a painter who balanced thought and observation in his work. While he shared some Romantic ideas, such as expressing personal emotions, he also stayed connected to classical and realistic styles. His paintings, like The Third of May 1808 (1814), showed strong feelings and used bold brushstrokes, a technique later used by Romantic artists.

• George Stubbs, A Lion Attacking a Horse (1770), oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art
• John Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare (1781), oil on canvas, Detroit Institute of Arts
• Francisco Goya, The Third of May 1808, 1814
• Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1819
• J. M. W. Turner, The Fighting Téméraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1839

In American art, Romantic themes appeared in the Hudson River School, which celebrated untamed landscapes. Painters like Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, and Frederic Edwin Church created works that showed nature’s power and the idea that nature would eventually outlast human creations. Some paintings, like Fredric Edwin Church’s Sunrise in Syria, depicted old world ruins, reflecting Gothic themes of decay. Others focused on American scenes to show a unique national identity. W. C. Bryant’s poem To Cole, the Painter, Departing for Europe encouraged Cole to remember the special American landscapes he would leave behind.

Some American paintings, such as Albert Bierstadt’s The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak, showed idealized Native Americans living in harmony with nature, promoting the idea of the “noble savage.” Thomas Cole’s The Voyage of Life series (1840s) used nature to symbolize life’s stages.

• Thomas Cole, Childhood (1842), part of The Voyage of Life
• Thomas Cole, The Voyage of Life: Old Age (1842)
• William Blake, Albion Rose, 1794–95
• Louis Janmot, The Poem of the Soul, before 1854

In other parts of Europe, Romantic styles were used by artists like Orest Kiprensky and Vasily Tropinin in Russia, Ivan Aivazovsky in marine painting, Hans Gude in Norway, and Piotr Michałowski in Poland. In Italy, Francesco Hayez became a leading Romantic artist in Milan, creating large-scale historical paintings influenced by Baroque artists.

Sculpture

Sculpture was not greatly influenced by Romanticism, likely because of technical challenges. Marble, the most respected material at the time, was difficult to use for large, dramatic movements. Leading European sculptors, Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen, lived in Rome and were strong supporters of Neoclassicism, not influenced by medieval sculpture, which could have been a way to create Romantic art. When Romantic sculpture did develop, it was rare in Germany but more common in France. Important French sculptors included François Rude, known for his work on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, David d'Angers, and Auguste Préault. Préault’s plaster relief called Slaughter, which showed the intense emotions of war, caused a major controversy at the Salon of 1834. Because of this, Préault was not allowed to participate in the official exhibition for almost 20 years. In Italy, the most important Romantic sculptor was Lorenzo Bartolini.

Gallery

• Joseph Vernet, 1759, Shipwreck; an example of the 18th-century "sublime" concept
• Joseph Wright, 1774, Cave at Evening, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts
• Philip James de Loutherbourg, Coalbrookdale by Night, 1801, a key location during the English Industrial Revolution

• Théodore Géricault, The Charging Chasseur, c. 1812
• Ingres, The Death of Leonardo da Vinci, 1818, one of his Troubadour style works
• Eugène Delacroix, Collision of Moorish Horsemen, 1843–44
• Eugène Delacroix, The Bride of Abydos, 1857, based on a poem by Byron

• Joseph Anton Koch, Waterfalls at Subiaco, 1812–1813, a "classical" landscape described by art historians
• James Ward, 1814–1815, Gordale Scar
• John Constable, 1821, The Hay Wain, one of Constable's large "six footers" paintings
• J. C. Dahl, 1826, Eruption of Vesuvius, created by Friedrich's closest follower
• William Blake, c. 1824–27, The Wood of the Self-Murderers: The Harpies and the Suicides, Tate
• Karl Bryullov, The Last Day of Pompeii, 1833, The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
• Isaac Levitan, Pacific, 1898, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
• J. M. W. Turner, The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons (1835), Philadelphia Museum of Art
• Hans Gude, Winter Afternoon, 1847, National Gallery of Norway, Oslo
• Hans Gude, Fra Hardanger, 1847, an example of Norwegian romantic nationalism
• Ivan Aivazovsky, 1850, The Ninth Wave, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
• John Martin, 1852, The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Laing Art Gallery
• Frederic Edwin Church, 1860, Twilight in the Wilderness, Cleveland Museum of Art
• Albert Bierstadt, 1863, The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak
• Francesco Hayez, Crusaders Thirsting near Jerusalem (1836–50), Palazzo Reale, Turin