What is Romanticism?

Romanticism was an artistic and literary movement that emerged in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, celebrating emotion, imagination and individual expression. Reacting against the reason and restraint of the Enlightenment and Neoclassicism, Romantic artists found inspiration in nature, history, folklore and the depth of the human condition.

They embraced subjective experience over classical ideals of order and rationality, creating dramatic compositions charged with emotion. The movement reflected a world in flux, shaped by industrialisation, political revolution and social upheaval. Eugène Delacroix captured the energy of historical events through bold colour and dynamic movement in Liberty Leading the People (1830), while Francisco de Goya confronted the horrors of war in The Third of May 1808 (1814).

In contrast to this rapidly changing world, artists turned to nature. Though John Constable celebrated the beauty of the English countryside in The Hay Wain (1821), J. M. W. Turner instead explored its immense power in works such as Calais Pier (1803), showing nature as something both awe-inspiring and unpredictable.

The movement also marked a shift away from biblical narratives as the dominant subject of art. Instead, artists explored personal spirituality and inner reflection. William Blake examined mythology in The Ancient of Days (1794), while Caspar David Friedrich conveyed contemplation and solitude in landscapes such as Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818).

Romanticism also flourished in literature through writers such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and John Keats, whose works shared the movement’s fascination with individual experience, alongside the natural world.

What are the characteristics of Romanticism?