Romanticism (the Romantic era or Romantic period) is a movement, or style of art, literature and music in the late 18th and early 19th century in Europe.
The movement said that feelings, imagination, nature, human life, freedom of expression, individualism and old folk traditions, such as legends and fairy tales, were important. 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.
The movement showed most strongly in arts like music, and literature. However, it also had an important influence on historiography, education, and natural history.
Examples
United Kingdom
Romanticism in Britain was notable as the country was an early adopter of industrialization and science, and included such figures as:
- William Wordsworth
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Lord Byron
- Shelley
- William Blake
- Robert Burns
- Walter Scott
- J. M. W. Turner
Germany
During the same period as Britain, there was a notable romantistic movement in Germany. Important motifs in German Romanticism are traveling, nature, and Germanic myths. Involved were such figures as:
- Goethe as a younger man.
- Hegel
- Schiller
- Beethoven
- The Brothers Grimm
Related pages
Images for kids
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William Blake, The Little Girl Found, from Songs of Innocence and Experience, 1794
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John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shalott, 1888, after a poem by Tennyson; like many Victorian paintings, romantic but not Romantic.
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William Wordsworth (pictured) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature in 1798 with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads
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Robert Burns in Alexander Nasmyth's portrait of 1787
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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.
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Ludwig van Beethoven, painted by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820
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Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Portrait of Niccolò Paganini, 1819
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Akseli Gallen-Kallela, The Forging of the Sampo, 1893. An artist from Finland deriving inspiration from the Finnish "national epic", the Kalevala
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Egide Charles Gustave Wappers, Episode of the Belgian Revolution of 1830, 1834, Musée d'Art Ancien, Brussels. A romantic vision by a Belgian painter.
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The November Uprising (1830–31), in the Kingdom of Poland, against the Russian Empire
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Hameau de la Reine, Palace of Versailles (1783–1785)
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Royal Pavilion in Brighton by John Nash (1815–1823)
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Cologne Cathedral (1840–80)
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Grand Staircase of the Paris Opera by Charles Garnier (1861–75)
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Francisco Goya, The Third of May 1808, 1814
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Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1819
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Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People 1830
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J. M. W. Turner, The Fighting Téméraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1839
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Felix Mendelssohn, 1839
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Robert Schumann, 1839
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Franz Liszt, 1847
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Hector Berlioz by Gustave Courbet, 1850
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Giovanni Boldini, Portrait of Giuseppe Verdi, 1886
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Richard Wagner, c. 1870s
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Giacomo Meyerbeer, 1847
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Joseph Wright, 1774, Cave at evening, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts
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Philip James de Loutherbourg, Coalbrookdale by Night, 1801, a key location of the English Industrial Revolution
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Théodore Géricault, The Charging Chasseur, c. 1812
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Eugène Delacroix, Collision of Moorish Horsemen, 1843–44
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Eugène Delacroix, The Bride of Abydos, 1857, after the poem by Byron
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John Constable, 1821, The Hay Wain, one of Constable's large "six footers"
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J. C. Dahl, 1826, Eruption of Vesuvius, by Friedrich's closest follower
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Karl Bryullov, The Last Day of Pompeii, 1833, The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
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Isaac Levitan, Pacific, 1898, State Russian Museum, St.Petersburg
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J. M. W. Turner, The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons (1835), Philadelphia Museum of Art
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Hans Gude, Winter Afternoon, 1847, National Gallery of Norway, Oslo
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Ivan Aivazovsky, 1850, The Ninth Wave, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
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John Martin, 1852, The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Laing Art Gallery
