Romanticism facts for kids

Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 38.58 × 29.13 inches, 1818, Oil on canvas, Kunsthalle Hamburg

Romanticism (also called the Romantic era or the Romantic period) is a style of art, literature and music in the late 18th and early 19th century in Europe. This movement said that feelings, imagination, nature, and old folk traditions such as legends and fairy tales were important. In part, it was a reaction to the aristocratic social and political ideas of the Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. It was also a reaction against turning nature into a mere science. It showed itself most strongly in arts like music, and literature. However, it also had an important influence on historiography, education and natural history.

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Images for kids

William Blake, The Little Girl Found, from Songs of Innocence and Experience, 1794
John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shalott, 1888, after a poem by Tennyson; like many Victorian paintings, romantic but not Romantic
Title page of Volume III of Des Knaben Wunderhorn, 1808
George Henry Harlow, Byron c. 1816
Girodet, Chateaubriand in Rome, 1808
Robert Burns in Alexander Nasmyth's portrait of 1787
The "battle of Hernani" was fought nightly at the theatre in 1830
Adam Mickiewicz on the Ayu-Dag, by Walenty Wańkowicz
Juliusz Słowacki, a Polish poet considered one of the "Three National Bards" of Polish literature — a major figure in the Polish Romantic period, and the father of modern Polish drama.
Spanish poet José de Espronceda
A print exemplifying the contrast between neoclassical vs. romantic styles of landscape and architecture (or the "Grecian" and the "Gothic" as they are termed here), 1816
Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire: The Savage State (1 of 5), 1836
Thomas Jones, The Bard, 1774, a prophetic combination of Romanticism and nationalism by the Welsh artist
Cavalier gaulois by Antoine-Augustin Préault, Pont d'Iéna, Paris
Ludwig van Beethoven, painted by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Portrait of Niccolò Paganini, 1819
Frederic Chopin in 1838 by Eugène Delacroix
Akseli Gallen-Kallela, The Forging of the Sampo, 1893. An artist from Finland deriving inspiration from the Finnish "national epic", the Kalevala
Egide Charles Gustave Wappers, Episode of the Belgian Revolution of 1830, 1834, Musée d'Art Ancien, Brussels. A romantic vision by a Belgian painter.
Hans Gude, Fra Hardanger, 1847. Example of Norwegian romantic nationalism.
The November Uprising (1830–31) in Kingdom of Poland against the Russian Empire
Isaac Levitan, Pacific, 1898, State Russian Museum, St.Petersburg
Francisco Goya, The Third of May 1808, 1814
Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1819
Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People 1830
J.M.W. Turner, The Fighting Téméraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1839
Franz Liszt, 1847
Daniel Auber, c.1868
Giovanni Boldini, Portrait of Giuseppe Verdi, 1886
Robert Schumann, 1839
Hector Berlioz, 1850
Richard Wagner, c. 1870s
Giacomo Meyerbeer, 1847
Felix Mendelssohn, 1839
Joseph Vernet, 1759, Shipwreck; the 18th century "sublime"
Joseph Wright, 1774, Cave at evening, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts
Henry Fuseli, 1781, The Nightmare, a classical artist whose themes often anticipate the Romantic
Philip James de Loutherbourg, Coalbrookdale by Night, 1801, a key location of the English Industrial Revolution
Théodore Géricault, The Charging Chasseur, c. 1812
Eugène Delacroix, Collision of Moorish Horsemen, 1843–44
Eugène Delacroix, The Bride of Abydos, 1857, after the poem by Byron
Joseph Anton Koch, Waterfalls at Subiaco 1812–1813, a "classical" landscape to art historians
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, by Friedrich's closest follower
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
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