Definition of Romanticism
Romanticism was first recognized as a style in literary criticism around 1800, but it really took off as an artistic movement in France and Britain during the early 1800s and continued to thrive until about the middle of the century. This movement focused on imagination and feelings, arising as a reaction to the disappointment with Enlightenment ideals of reason and structure that followed the French Revolution in 1789.
Romanticism examples
Fact file about romanticism
- Romanticism is difficult to define in words.
- Romanticism introduced the Idea of drama.
- Romanticism was pro-nature.
- Romanticism is not the same as romance.
- Romanticism gave rise to the importance of plain air painting.
- Romanticism focused on capturing emotion rather than a realistic portrayal of the model.
How did the industrial revolution have an impact on Romanticism
The Industrial Revolution greatly influenced the Romantic movement, affecting its themes, worries, and artistic styles. The disconnection from nature, the isolating effects of city life, and the criticism of industrial capitalism all played a significant role in the creations of Romantic poets and artists.
The Sublime
The term sublime refers to art/photography that has the capability to terrify or overwhelm the viewer. Edmund Burke asserts that the feelings of the sublime are triggered by extremes – vastness, extreme height, difficulty, darkness or excessive light.
“Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, 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; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.”
The Sublime examples
JMW Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 1775 – 19 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings. He left behind more than 550 oil paintings, 2,000 watercolours, and 30,000 works on paper. He was championed by the leading English art critic John Ruskin from 1840, and is today regarded as having elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting.
John Constable
John Constable (11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home – now known as “Constable Country” – which he invested with an intensity of affection. “I should paint my own places best”, he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, “painting is but another word for feeling”.
Constable’s most famous paintings include Wivenhoe Park (1816), Dedham Vale (1828) and The Hay Wain (1821). Although his paintings are now among the most popular and valuable in British art, he was never financially successful. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts at the age of 52. His work was embraced in France, where he sold more than in his native England and inspired the Barbizon school.
