Romanticism in visual arts began in the 1760s and showed a change in how artists painted landscapes and scenes. Instead of following classical styles, artists focused on wild nature, powerful emotions, and the past, often linking these themes to national identity and history.

This movement spread throughout Europe and later influenced American artists, who used these ideas to show the special beauty of the American landscape. Over time, Romanticism affected art worldwide, encouraging artists to explore deep emotions and how people felt about nature and society. It also highlighted the importance of personal views and shared human experiences, leaving a lasting influence on art across cultures.

Beginnings

In the visual arts, Romanticism first appeared in landscape painting. As early as the 1760s, British artists began painting wilder landscapes, storms, and Gothic architecture, even if they used 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 ideas of Romanticism. However, their artistic styles were shaped by Romanticism, which was already strong in art during their youth. John Constable, born in 1776, stayed closer to the traditional English landscape style. In his large paintings, called "six-footers," he showed a working part of the countryside where he grew up, giving it a heroic importance. This challenged the traditional belief that landscape painting was less important than other types of art. Turner also painted large landscapes, especially seascapes. Some of his paintings showed modern scenes with small figures, while others had tiny people that made them look like historical paintings, similar to the style of artists like Claude Lorrain and Salvator Rosa, a late Baroque painter whose landscapes Romantic artists often used. Friedrich often included single figures or symbols like crosses placed alone in vast landscapes, creating images that showed the shortness of human life and the idea of death.

Other artists expressed feelings that were almost mystical, often moving away from classical drawing and proportions. These artists included William Blake, Samuel Palmer, and others in England called the Ancients, as well as Philipp Otto Runge in Germany. Like Friedrich, none of these artists had a major influence on art during the rest of the 19th century. They were rediscovered in the 20th century after being forgotten. Blake was always known as a poet, and Norway’s leading painter, Johan Christian Dahl, was strongly influenced by Friedrich. The Nazarene movement, a group of German artists based in Rome and active from 1810, took a different approach. They focused on creating history paintings with religious and nationalist themes that looked medieval in style.

By country

German Romantic art developed mainly during the late 1700s and early 1800s. It was a response to the focus on reason during the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. This art style highlighted emotions, imagination, and the awe-inspiring, often showing nature, people, and things beyond the natural world.

In painting, artists like Caspar David Friedrich and Karl Friedrich Schinkel looked at ideas about spirituality and the vastness of the universe in large landscapes. Friedrich’s famous painting, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, shows the search for meaning in nature’s powerful beauty and the loneliness of human life. Nature was often shown as both grand and mysterious, reflecting the time’s interest in the awe-inspiring.

The movement also included themes from the Middle Ages and folk tales. Artists like Philipp Otto Runge and Joseph Anton Koch used German myths, national identity, and traditions from their homeland, mixing history with dreamlike and magical scenes.

In literature, Romantics, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Novalis, aimed to go beyond just thinking and explore deep human feelings and spirituality, which greatly influenced visual art.

Examples of artworks include:
– Philipp Otto Runge, Birth of the Human Soul (1806)
– Caspar David Friedrich, Cross in the Mountains (Tetschen Altar) (1808), Friedrich’s first major work, showing the crucifixion as part of a landscape instead of a traditional religious image
– Friedrich, Chalk Cliffs on Rügen (1818), painted after he married Christiane Caroline Bommer in 1818, celebrating their union
– Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, Mignon (1828)

Romanticism arrived later in French art because Neoclassicism was popular. It became popular during the Napoleonic period, starting with history paintings supporting the new government. One early example was Girodet’s Ossian receiving the Ghosts of the French Heroes for Napoleon’s Château de Malmaison. Girodet’s old teacher, David, was confused and disappointed by his work. A new generation of French artists created their own Romantic styles, focusing on history scenes

Sculpture

Sculpture was not greatly influenced by Romanticism. This may be partly because marble, the most important material at the time, is not easy to use for large movements. The most famous sculptors in Europe, Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen, lived in Rome and followed the Neoclassical style. They did not take inspiration from 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, best 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 terrible effects of war with strong emotion, caused a lot of controversy at the Salon of 1834. Because of this, Préault was not allowed to exhibit at this official event 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 significant location linked to the English Industrial Revolution

• Théodore Géricault, The Charging Chasseur, c. 1812
• Ingres, The Death of Leonardo da Vinci, 1818, a work in his Troubadour style
• 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, described by art historians as a "classical" landscape
• James Ward, 1814–1815, Gordale Scar
• John Constable, 1821, The Hay Wain, one of Constable's large "six footers"
• 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