The Romantic Period: 1789-1848

As a response to neoclassicism, romantic artists responded to a climate of revolution and rebirth. Thy longed to cast off restraints and create a new subjective, more imaginative world. Romanticism affected the literary, artistic, and musical realms during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 

 

Artists created work with a new focus: one on the individual, imagination, nature, emotion, and democracy. 

The Raft of the Medusa, Théodore Géricault (1818–1819) 

The oil painting shows Medusa, a government boat that broke down off the coast of West Africa. The captain gave the six lifeboats to government officials and officers. The remaining 150 passengers were relegated to a raft. Only a handful survived. The painting symbolizes French Romanticism by criticizing the corruption of the administration of Louis XVIII.

Romantic Literature

Romantics challenged the complacency, rigidity, and objectivity of neoclassical artists and philosophers. The new focus in literature captured freedom from tyranny, freedom of thoughts, belief, and speech, and freedom for each individual to pursue his dreams.

William Blake, 1757-1827

Blake rejected traditional assumptions about human beings, politics, religion, and art. Rather than restraint and imitation, Blake called for freedom and imaginative vision. Known for his imaginative intensity, Blake wrote Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794) to display two contrary conditions of the human soul. 

I have no name.
I am but two days old -
What shall I call thee?
I happy am
Joy is my name-
Sweet joy befall thee!
- “Infant Joy,” Songs of Innocence, lines 1-6

My mother groand! My father wept.
Into the dangerous world I leapt:
Helpless naked piping loud:
Like a fiend hid in a cloud
- “Infant Sorrow,” Songs of Experience, lines 1-4

 William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

Wordsworth believed that natural objects could strengthen, enliven, and stimulate the imagination. One could achieve a vision by using senses, memory, imagination, and heart along with the spiritually charge natural universe.

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings:
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things-
We murder to dissect.
- “The Tables Turned,” lines 25-29 (1798)

Mary Shelley (1797-1851)

Best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein, Shelley touched on such topics as dangerous knowledge, secrecy, frightening memories, abortion, loneliness, nature, and monstrosity. Her novel was first published anonymously to hide the fact that the book was written by a female author.

So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein—more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.
- Frankenstein, chapter 3 (1818)

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Credited as the first American short story writer, Poe often chose themes that could be firmly rooted in realities of life; his narrators frequently explored the feelings of guilt and grappled with the mysteries of death.

If, still, you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence. First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs.
- “The Tell Tale Heart” (1843)

Romantic Paintings

Compared to neo-classicism paintings, romantic art focuses on emotion, passion, contrast of color, struggle, terror, and morbidity

 

A Monument Belonging to the Capulets, James Northcote (1789)

The oil painting depicts the last scene of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. Juliet awakens to find her suitor Paris dead, and her lover and husband Romeo also dead. Friar Lawrence tries to get her to leave the tomb with him. The painting mimics the emotion audiences see on stage.

Abbey in an Oak Forest, Casper David Friedrich (1800-1810)

Representing an image of death, this barren snow-covered cemetery shows a somber funeral procession. The unknown exists on the other side of the horizon.

Large Odalisque, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres(1814)

The oil painting shows a Turkish odalisque or concubine whose sensual, exotic nature clearly depicts a new daring attitude in art.

The Third of May, 1808, Francisco Goya (1814) 

The oil painting is a response to the French occupation of Spain and depicts the mass execution of Spanish rebels that occurred on May 3, 1808, near Madrid.

Untitled (Saturn Devouring One of His Children), Francisco Goya (ca. 1819-1823) 

The painting represents Greek Mythology Titan Cronus eating one of his children, in fear of them overthrowing him. It truly depicts the blood and gore theme of the period.

Stormy Coast Scene after a Shipwreck, Horace Vernet (ca. 1825) 

The painting celebrates the awe-inspiring power of nature. The image touches on two familiar romantic themes: violence and being shipwrecked.

Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows,  John Constable (1829-1834) 

The painting represents hope after the death of a young woman in the arms of her lover. Its bold strokes signifies conflict, emotion, life, and death.

The Natchez, Eugène Delacroix (1835) 

The oil painting depicts a young couple escaping the massacre of their tribe, only stopping to deliver their baby. It also represents rebirth and tender love.

The Slave Ship or Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying - Typhoon Coming On, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1840) 

The painting shows dead bodies being thrown in the sea during a typhoon, while exemplifing suffering, tragedy, and horrible inhumanity.

Romantic Architecture

Neo-classic architecture focuses on structure, symmetry, proportion and power. Buildings often feature columns, porticos, and geometric structures. Romantic architecture, on the other hand, highlight detail, curves, and asymmetry. Buildings incorporate multi-colored bricks and metal. 

The Royal Pavilion, Brighton, England (1815-1823)

Designed by architect John Nash, the pavilion features domes, towers, and minarets to create a romantic exterior. 

Houses of Parliament, London, England (1840-1870)

Charles Barry designed the "Palace of Westminster" after a fire burned the old Houses of Parliament in 1834.

Paris Opera House, France (1857-1874)

Architect Charles Garnier designed the structure and included a rich facade of colored marbles.