Romantic Art
In emphasizing emotion and imagination, romantic art shifted away from the restraint of classicism and neoclassicism that had dominated art in Europe since the Renaissance. Romanticism achieved its greatest popularity in art, literature, music and philosophy between 1780 and 1830, although its expression of individual experiences ranging from awe to passion informed culture in the decades after.
Landscape painting was especially popular during the romantic period, as were nature studies of wild animals and fantasies of exotic lands. Romanticism varied across Europe as it reacted to the rise of industrialization, a more personal relationship with faith that was distanced from the church and the rationalist thinking of the Enlightenment.
British painters such as John Constable and J.M.W. Turner responded dramatically to the light and atmosphere of the natural world, while William Blake conveyed humanity’s connection to the divine in his visionary art. In Germany, the late-18th-century Sturm und Drang, or Storm and Drive, movement, with its probing of the unconscious, inspired a sense of mystery in work by romantic artists such as Caspar David Friedrich and Philipp Otto Runge. In France, where the French Revolution had turned tradition upside down, Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix used lush brushwork to paint monumental canvases with tumultuous scenes of nature and history.
The romantic movement and its subject matter were a significant influence on the Pre-Raphaelites, Symbolists and the American painters of the Hudson River School, as well as on other cultural movements in the 19th and 20th centuries that saw artists build on this perspective in which art was guided by emotion rather than reason.
Find a collection of romantic paintings, sculptures, prints and multiples and more art on 1stDibs.
Early 19th Century Romantic Art
Paper, Pencil
19th Century Romantic Art
Handmade Paper
2010s Romantic Art
Engraving, Drypoint, Lithograph
Mid-19th Century Romantic Art
Oil
19th Century Romantic Art
Lithograph
19th Century Romantic Art
Paper, Watercolor, Pencil
1840s Romantic Art
Charcoal
1860s Romantic Art
Pencil
1860s Romantic Art
Pencil
2010s Romantic Art
Canvas, Oil
Late 19th Century Romantic Art
Oil
Mid-20th Century Romantic Art
Oil, Board
Mid-20th Century Romantic Art
Oil, Board
Mid-19th Century Romantic Art
Oil
Late 20th Century Romantic Art
Canvas, Oil
Late 20th Century Romantic Art
Paper, Watercolor, Gouache
Late 19th Century Romantic Art
Paper, Charcoal, Pencil
1820s Romantic Art
Lithograph
Late 19th Century Romantic Art
Paper, Ink
Early 20th Century Romantic Art
Canvas, Oil
1820s Romantic Art
Pencil
1820s Romantic Art
Watercolor
1860s Romantic Art
Carbon Pencil, Gouache
1990s Romantic Art
Canvas, Oil
1890s Romantic Art
Graphite
20th Century Romantic Art
Ink, Pen
2010s Romantic Art
Acrylic
19th Century Romantic Art
Watercolor
Early 19th Century Romantic Art
Watercolor, Laid Paper
19th Century Romantic Art
Paper, Watercolor
1820s Romantic Art
Lithograph
20th Century Romantic Art
Ink, Pen
1890s Romantic Art
Canvas, Oil
19th Century Romantic Art
Watercolor
Late 19th Century Romantic Art
Lithograph
1820s Romantic Art
Lithograph
20th Century Romantic Art
Paper, Ink
1860s Romantic Art
Etching
Early 1900s Romantic Art
Watercolor
2010s Romantic Art
Canvas, Linen, Oil
20th Century Romantic Art
Paper, Pen
17th Century Romantic Art
Oil
20th Century Romantic Art
Conté
Early 19th Century Romantic Art
Watercolor
19th Century Romantic Art
Handmade Paper, Watercolor
Late 19th Century Romantic Art
Mixed Media, Oil Pastel
1840s Romantic Art
Carbon Pencil
2010s Romantic Art
Acrylic Polymer, Acrylic
2010s Romantic Art
Canvas, Linen, Oil
Mid-19th Century Romantic Art
Handmade Paper
1870s Romantic Art
Carbon Pencil
18th Century Romantic Art
Crayon, Handmade Paper
19th Century Romantic Art
Handmade Paper, Crayon
Mid-20th Century Romantic Art
Oil
1790s Romantic Art
Engraving
2010s Romantic Art
Canvas, Linen, Oil
Early 19th Century Romantic Art
Watercolor
1890s Romantic Art
Oil