Romanticism in Art and Literature

Copyright ©2012 Pearson Inc.
Eugène Delacroix. Liberty Leading the People. 1830.
8’ 6" × 10’ 7”.

J. M. W. Turner. Interior of Tintern Abbery. 1794.
12-5/8" × 9-7/8”.

Map: Romantic England.

The Early Romantic Imagination
What is Romanticism?
• The Ideal of the Romantic: William Wordsworth’s “Tintern
Abbey” — This poem can be taken as one of the fullest
statements of the Romantic imagination and argues that in
experiencing the beauty of nature, the imagination dissolves all
opposition.
• A Romantic Experiment: Lyrical Ballads — Although
published anonymously, this work was co-written by
Wordsworth and Coleridge and included “Tintern Abbey.”
• Romanticism as a Voyage of Discovery: Samuel Taylor
Coleridge — Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” was
also included in Lyrical Ballads. The supernatural and mystical
character of his imagination helped to define Romantic art as a
voyage of discovery.

• Classical versus Romantic: The Odes of John Keats — An
ode is a poem of exaltation, exhibiting deep feeling and Keats
represents the essence of Romantic poetry. “Ode to a
Nightingale” and Ode on a Grecian Urn” typify this form.
What are the “classical” components in the verse and thought of
Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn (Reading 27.7)?

John Constable. Landscape and Double Rainbow. 1812.
13-1/4" × 15”.

 Closer Look: William Wordsworth, The Rainbow.
MyArtsLabChapter 27 – The Romantic World View

John Constable. The Stour Valley and Dedham Village. 1814.
21-3/4" × 30-3/4”.

The Romantic Landscape
How does landscape painting reflect a Romantic worldview?
• John Constable: Painter of the English Countryside —
Tension between the timeless and the more fleeting aspects of
nature deeply informs the paintings of Constable.
• Joseph Mallord William Turner: Colorist of the Imagination
— Turner freely explored what he called “the colors of the
imagination.” Earth and vegetation seem to dissolve into light
and water.
• The Romantic in Germany: Friedrich and Kant — Friedrich
represents the imaginative capacities of the Romantic mind by
placing figures, often solitary ones, before sublime landscapes.
Some Romantic sentiments were expressed by Kant in Critique
of Pure Reason.

• The American Romantic Landscape — In America, the
Romantic landscape was literally shaped by the presence of
vast tracts of wilderness. Thomas Cole’s works The Oxbow and
Twilight in the Wilderness exemplify the power of the landscape
genre.
What is specifically “American” about the landscapes of Cole?

John Constable. Willy Lott’s House, East Bergholt. ca. 1820.
9-7/8" × 11-1/8”.

John Constable. The Hay Wain. 1821.
51-3/8" × 73”.

J. M. W. Turner. The Upper Falls of the Reichenbach. ca. 1810-15.
10-7/8" × 15-7/16”.

J. M. W. Turner. The Fall of an Avalanche in the Grisons. 1810.
35-5/8" × 47-1/4”.

J. M. W. Turner. Snow Storm—Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth. 1842.
36" × 48”.

Caspar David Friedrich. Monk by the Sea. 1810.
47-1/2" × 67”.

Closer Look: The Sublime, the Beautiful, and the Picturesque: Tintern
Abbey. Wye Valley, Monmouthshire, Wales.

Hubert Robert. Closer Look: The Sublime, the Beautiful, and the
Picturesque: Pyramids. ca. 1750.
24" × 28-1/2”.

Caspar David Friedrich. The Wanderer above the Mists. 1817-18.
37-1/4" × 29-1/2”.

Thomas Cole. The Oxbow (View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton,
Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm). 1836.
4’ 3-1/2" × 6’ 4”.

 Closer Look: Thomas Cole, The Oxbow (View from Mount Holyoke, Northam

Frederic Edwin Church. Twilight in the Wilderness. 1860.
40" × 60”.

Transcendentalism and the American Romantics
What is Transcendentalism?
• The Philosophy of Romantic Idealism: Emerson and
Thoreau — Emerson wrote Nature which became a beacon for
the “Transcendental Club” who took their name from Schelling
who argued that scientific observation and artistic intuition were
complementary, not opposed.
Is a specific “American” character reflected in Transcendentalism?

Title page of Henry David Thoreau's Walden, or Life in the Woods, 1854
(first edition). 1854.

Romanticism’s Darker Realities
What are the characteristics of the Romantic hero?
• The Romantic Hero — Ultimately, Napoleon was the
personification of the Romantic hero: a man of common origin
who had risen to dominate the world stage. Hegel and Carlyle
introduced the notion of the dialectic and the “Great Man”
theory, respectively. Lord Byron and the poet Shelley
championed free will, goodness, and idealism in the face of
oppression. All these figures related to the story of Prometheus.
Goethe created two Romantic characters, Werther and Faust

Baron Antoine-Jean Gros. Napoleon in the Pesthouse at Jaffa. 1804.
17’ 5" × 23’ 7”.

Thomas Phillips. Lord Byron, Sixth Baron, in Albanian Costume. 1835.
29-1/2" × 24-1/2”.

Theodor M. von Hulst. Illustration from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
1831.

J. H. W. Tischbein. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in the Roman Campana.
1787.
64-1/2" × 81”.

Eugène Delacroix. Mephistopheles appearing to Faust in his Study.
Illustration for Goethe’s Faust. 1828.
10-3/4" × 9”.

Goya’s Tragic Vision
What experiences shaped Goya’s worldview?
• Goya before Napoleon: Social Satire — Goya was angered at the
abandonment of reform by Charles III and produced a series of
prints called the Caprichos depicting the follies of Spanish society.
• The Third of May, 1808: Napoleon’s Spanish Legacy — The
Spanish population rose against Napoleon and on this date
hundreds of Spaniards were executed outside of Madrid. This work
is one of the greatest testaments to the horrors of war.
• The Black Paintings — as an old man Goya retreated to a house
outside of Madrid where he executed a series of 14 oil paintings
directly on the plaster walls. Saturn Devouring One of His Children
is one work depicting a sense of despair, isolation, and loneliness.
Discuss Goya’s progression from social satire to his later “Black
Paintings.”

Francisco Goya. The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, from the series
Los Caprichos. 1796-98.
8-1/2" × 6”.

 Closer Look: Francisco Goya, The Sleep of
Reason Produces Monsters.

Francisco Goya. The Third of May, 1808. 1814-15.
8’ 9-1/2" × 13’ 4-1/2”.

Francisco Goya. Grande hazara! Con muertos! (Great courage! Against
corpses!), from the series The Disasters of War, no. 39. 1810-14.

Francisco Goya. Saturn Devouring One of His Children. 1820-23.
57-7/8" × 32-5/8”.

Herman Melville: The Uncertain World of Moby Dick
What insight lies at the heart of Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick?
• Melville also found a dark expression of the Promethean hero in this
novel. The white whale symbolizes both good and evil, as well as
elements of the natural world that cannot be controlled by humans–
that are truly wild.

J. M. W. Turner. The Whale Ship. ca. 1845.
36-1/8" × 48-1/4”.

Beethoven and the Rise of Romantic Music
What is Romantic music?
• Early Years in Vienna: From Classicism to Romanticism — The
Promethean hero was also reflect in the music of Beethoven, the
key figure in the transition from the classical to the Romantic era.
• The Heroic Decade: 1802-1812 — Beethoven became
increasingly deaf which spurred him to greater creativity. His sense
of self-sufficiency, of an imagination turned inward, guided by an
almost pure state of subjective feeling, lies at the very heart of
Romanticism. His Third Symphony, the Eroica, expresses this new
style.

• The Late Period: The Romantic in Music — Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony is a statement of faith in humanity, a utopian vision. His
final piano sonatas present a form of theme and variations.
• Romantic Music after Beethoven — The symphonies composed
by Berlioz are notable for their inventiveness and novelty and
emphasize overwhelming emotion, passions, and otherworldly
scenes. Mendelssohn felt that the meaning of music lies in the
music itself. Schubert and the Schumanns did not concentrate on
the symphonic form. They chose to set poetry to music called
lieder. Chopin performed at salon concerts. The Fantasie
impromptu showcases the expressive range of Chopin which
combined impulsive creativity and imaginary and fantastical effects.

Carl Schütz. Neuer Markt (“New Market”), Vienna.

Musical Notation: Beethoven's First Symphony: opening four-note motif.

 Active Listening Guide: Schumann: Widmung

Joseph Carl Stieler. Portrait of Beethoven. 1820.
24-3/8" × 19-3/8”.

 Active Listening Guide: Berlioz: Symphonie
Fantastique, I

Andrew Geiger. A Concert of Hector Berlioz in 1846. 1846.

 Active Listening Guide: Mendelssohn: Concerto for
Violin and Orchestra in E Minor, I

Eugène Delacroix. Portrait of Frédéric Chopin. 1838.
18-3/4" × 14-3/4”.

Théodore Géricault. Continuity & Change: Portrait of an Insane Man. 1822-
23.
24" × 19-3/4”.

Romanticism in Art and Literature

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