Romanticism is a movement which was created in mid 18th century, it was used as a way to glorify nature and to protest the industrial revolution. The art of romanticism sparks feelings of beauty and wisdom into the audience. Romanticism inspired, literature, art and philosophy of the time.

There were many poets that focused on Romanticism and the sublime. This is a poem by a very famous poet who lives in the Lake District called William Wordsworth:

Here are art some examples:

5 Element of Romanticism

-Interest in the common man and childhood.

-Strong senses, emotions and feelings.

-Awe of nature.

-Celebration of the induvidual.

-Importance of imagination.

The Romantic Sublime

In 1757, Edmund Burke wrote a book called A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. His idea was that the sublime experience is nice for a very strange reason and it makes us feel insignificant for example storms, mountains and the ocean. Sublime restores perspective when we get caught up in an immediate situation. It has links with religion, for example in Christianity God loved the world so much he sacrificed his son Jesus.

Here are some examples of sublime paintings:

Romanticism is the attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, and photography in Europe. over a period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century. romanticism goes against the industrial revaluation, to escape modern reality and to go against the political norms and policies.

Caspar David Fredrich is a painter and draughtsman, Friedrich is best known for his later allegorical landscapes, which feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning mists, barren trees, and Gothic ruins. he painted the painting above this text.

what is sublime. Sublime has long been understood to mean a quality of greatness or grandeur that inspires awe and wonder. From the seventeenth century onwards the concept and the emotions it inspires have been a source of inspiration for artists and writers, particularly in relation to the natural landscape. but what does it mean to photographers maybe its making something look great like god and to make the person looking at the photo feel small.

this photo shows a ship in a storm and how the storm makes the ship look small compared to the storm, it shows how nature can makes us feel small and helpless that whats what sublime art is suppose to be.

What is romanticism in photography?

According to the article titled “Romanticism and Its Relation to Landscape Photography & Painting”, romanticism was an art form that rejected classicalism and focused on nature, imagination and emotion. Therefore, this started a new way of thinking and created a new type of art.

History of romanticism:

Romanticism, first defined as an aesthetic in literary criticism around 1800, gained momentum as an artistic movement in France and Britain in the early decades of the nineteenth century and flourished until mid-century. With its emphasis on the imagination and emotion, Romanticism emerged as a response to the disillusionment with the Enlightenment values of reason and order in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789.

 In French and British painting of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the recurrence of images of shipwrecks and other representations of man’s struggle against the awesome power of nature manifest this sensibility. For example:

Artist references for romanticism:

Roger Fenton, despite him working in a number of genres, Fenton remained consistent in his love of the British landscape and the history it enfolded. Each summer he photographed in locations revered for their ruined abbeys, cathedrals, castles, romantic associations and literary connotations. These are now considered to be among the finest architectural and topographical studies of the 19th century. Examples of his photography:

JMW Turner, throughout the first half of the 19th century, Turner was unstoppable. He dominated British landscape painting in a thoroughly Romantic style which was driven by the immediacy of personal experience, emotion, and the boundless power of imagination. Examples of is art:

The five elements of romanticism:

• Interest in the common man and childhood.
• Strong senses, emotions, and feelings.
• Awe of nature.
• Celebration of the individual.
• Importance of imagination.

The sublime:

The Sublime is a western aesthetic concept of ‘the exalted’ of ‘beauty that is grand and dangerous’. The Sublime refers to the wild, unbounded grandeur of nature. The Sublime is related to threat and agony, to spaces where calamities happen or things run beyond human control.

Romanticism

The age of romanticism was around 1800-1900 ish. Romanticism is attitudes, ideals, and feelings which are romantic rather than realistic. It was an 19th century artistic movement which evolved in Europe in response to the industrial revolution and the disillusionment of the Enlightenment values of reason. The Romantic movement was heavily influences by revolutionary events; French and American revolutions.

‘To be romantic is to have sympathy for madness’

The artists in the romanticism era appreciated and accentuated nature’s beauty. Nature was viewed as a pure and spiritual source of renewal.

Romanticism is associated with the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution was the transition of producing goods by hand into using machines. It is basically just the invention of machines to do the work of hand tools. Romanticism is associated with the industrial revolution as romantic artists thought that the industrial world was cruel and was deadening to the senses and spirit. Therefore causing the period of the emphasis of the glory and beauty of nature. Romantics viewed nature as a pure and spiritual source of renewal. This makes sense due to the creation of the industrial revolution. When the industrial revolution began, the people must’ve noticed the pollution the machines produced. It would damage the environment, thus harming their beloved nature. This would cause the romantics to have a spike in interest and concern for nature as the introduction of machines has caused this harm.

The sublime

The sublime is the quality of greatness. It emerged at first in connection with nature and the arts. The theory of sublime in an art aspect was developed by an artist named Edmund Burke in the mid-18th century. According to https://www.tate.org.uk/ Burke defined the sublime as an artistic effect productive of the strongest emotion the mind is capable of feeling.

‘whatever is in any sort terrible or is conversant about terrible objects or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime’.

Edmund Burke

Burke said that the sublime sounds usually involve these elements:

The Sublime in Romanticism is a combination of the subjective and the objective.

Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke was an Irish-British philosopher who created the idea of The Sublime. He wrote a book called ‘A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful’ which defines The Sublime ‘an artistic effect productive of the strongest emotion the mind is capable of feeling’.

The modern definition of The Sublime is something that is very very nice. Burke said that a sublime experience is one that is very nice but nice for a specific reason, it makes us feel insignificant.

He argued that it is the most powerful aesthetic experience.

Edmund Burke liked fast and momentous stories, like paradise lost. Paradise lost is a poem by John Milton written in the 17th century about the biblical tale of the Fall of Mankind.

Edmund Burke believes that the sublime restores our perspective and that is why we like it.