Romanticism

Storms, dramatic gestures and quiet encounters with nature can all carry Romantic feeling. Artists across Europe made imagination and personal experience central to painting, whether the subject came from literature, current events or a familiar landscape. Their varied methods overlap older classical traditions rather than replacing them with one new formula. Compare a small figure surrounded by landscape with a crowded scene of conflict: both can make feeling central through very different compositions. The boundary with Neoclassicism remained porous, and landscape painters also studied particular places closely. A Romantic picture need not contain a storm to convey an intensely personal experience of nature. Connected places: Britain · France · Dresden.

• Fishing BoatsJ. M. W. Turner, 1837–38
• Valley of AostaJ. M. W. Turner, 1836–37
• Stoke-by-NaylandJohn Constable, 1836
• The Combat of the Giaour and HassanEugène Delacroix, 1826
• Arab Horseman Attacked by a LionEugène Delacroix, 1849–50
• Lion HuntEugène Delacroix, 1860–61
• Statue of the Madonna in the MountainsCaspar David Friedrich, 1804
• The Return from RussiaThéodore Géricault, 1818
• Crouching WomanEugène Delacroix, 1827
• A View of Lake Sortedam from Dosseringen Looking towards the Suburb Nørrebro outside CopenhagenChristen Købke, (1838)
• The NatchezEugène Delacroix, 1823–24 and 1835
• The Abduction of RebeccaEugène Delacroix, 1846
• Marie-Yolande de Fitz-JamesHenri Fantin-Latour, 1867
• The Gulf of Naples. MoonlightJohan Christian Dahl, (1820–1821)
• Eruption of the Volcano VesuviusJohan Christian Dahl, 1821
• Hampstead Heath, Looking Toward HarrowJohn Constable, c. 1821
• Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's GroundsJohn Constable, ca. 1825
• Branch Hill Pond, HampsteadJohn Constable, 1828
• View from the Artist's WindowMartinus Rørbye, c. 1825
• Fighting HorsesThéodore Géricault, c. 1820
• Evening: Landscape with an AqueductThéodore Géricault, 1818
• Alfred Dedreux (1810–1860) as a ChildThéodore Géricault, ca. 1819–20