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Romantic Art

ROMANTIC STYLE

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.

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Style: Romantic
Norwegian Fjord
Norwegian Fjord

Norwegian Fjord

Located in Sheffield, MA

Adelsteen Normann Norway, 1848–1918 Norwegian Fjord Oil on canvas 31 ¼ by 41 ½ in, w/ frame 37 ⅛ by 47 ⅜ in Signed lower right Inventory Number: 01...

Category

Late 19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Still Life with Flowers" 19th Century Dutch oil on panel
"Still Life with Flowers" 19th Century Dutch oil on panel

"Still Life with Flowers" 19th Century Dutch oil on panel

Located in New York, NY

Dutch School 19th Century Flower Still Life Oil on panel Framed: 13 ½ inches x 11 ½ inches (34 x 29 cm) This charming miniature floral still life—possibly a preparatory study for...

Category

Early 19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Oil, Panel

Enfants à la plage (“Children at the Beach”)
Enfants à la plage (“Children at the Beach”)

Enfants à la plage (“Children at the Beach”)

Located in Stockholm, SE

Albert Roosenboom was a Belgian genre painter celebrated for his elegant depictions of everyday life in the mid to late 19th century. A pupil of the renowned Constantin Meunier, Roos...

Category

1870s Romantic Art

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Jean Carzou drawing, couple.
Jean Carzou drawing, couple.

Jean Carzou drawing, couple.

By Jean Carzou

Located in La Canada Flintridge, CA

The artwork size is 9"x11.5", ink on paper and Carzou signed lower right. This expressive drawing captures two elongated figures standing closely together in a sparse landscape, ren...

Category

2010s Romantic Art

Materials

Ink

Portrait of a Young Officer, Thomas Lawrence, Irish Volunteers
Portrait of a Young Officer, Thomas Lawrence, Irish Volunteers

Portrait of a Young Officer, Thomas Lawrence, Irish Volunteers

By Sir Thomas Lawrence

Located in London, GB

Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA 1769-1830 Portrait of a Young Officer Pastel with touches of black chalk on paper Signed and inscribed on an old label verso: "Be pleased to keep away / from the Damp & from dust / T Lawrence AE 13. / 1783." Wash mount and gilt frame Provenance W.E. Spooner; Anonymous sale, Phillips London, 17 April 2000 lot 196 Sothebys, Old Master & Early British Paintings, 14 April 2011 • London Lot 246 Old label verso describes how this was drawn in 1783 at the age of 14! This is a portrait of an officer from the Irish Volunteers. The Irish Volunteers was a part-time military force raised by local initiative in Ireland in 1778. Their original purpose was to guard against invasion and to preserve law and order at a time when British soldiers were withdrawn from Ireland to fight abroad during the American Revolutionary War. As a young boy Thomas Lawrence lived with his parents who ran a coaching inn near Bath. Clearly talented from this young age, he drew the passing travellers who stopped at the inn and this soldier may have been one such sitter. Lawrence was only 13 years old when he drew this work. To capitalise upon their son's talents, the family later moved to Bath and sent Lawrence to London in 1787 where he entered the Royal Academy schools at the earliest possible age. Works from such an early period of Lawrence's creativity are rarely to be found today. This rare early portrait drawn in Bath shows the level of technical skill that Lawrence had reached at 14 years old. His use of colour and tone to depict flesh and all the subtle variations in the texture and pigmentation of his sitter’s face, powdered hair and clothes show how Lawrence conceived pastel as a form of painting and partly explains how he could have made the smooth transition to oil painting so soon afterwards. When he arrived in Bath from Devizes in 1780, eleven-year-old Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830) was promoted as a natural-born genius like his Renaissance predecessor Raphael. The local press announced the arrival of the boy wonder and his ‘Striking Sketches’, inviting the ‘Nobility and Gentry’ to sit for their portraits. Thomas Lawrence was a prodigious portraitist from the age of just eight, when he began to draw his first portraits in pencil...

Category

1780s Romantic Art

Materials

Oil Pastel

French Mid 19th Century Portrait of an Italian Brigand. Oil on Canvas.
French Mid 19th Century Portrait of an Italian Brigand. Oil on Canvas.

French Mid 19th Century Portrait of an Italian Brigand. Oil on Canvas.

Located in Cotignac, FR

Mid 19th Century oil on canvas portrait of an Italian brigand, unsigned, in painted wood and gilt frame. The painting is a fine and fascinating rendition with plenty of wonderful character and detail to the costume, accessories, landscape and seascape. Very atmospheric and imposing much like the character it portrays. There is a trade stamp to the back of the canvas for the Paris firm of Susse Freres. The canvas is on a fine quality stretcher with 'keys'. There is an artist's name or title written on the top of the rear stretcher (see photo). Bands of brigands who populated the hills of southern Italy were steady fodder for the Romantic imagination, and their exploits were reported both factually, fancifully and artistically The painting dates from a period when France, under its then leader Napoleon III, was involved in the conflicts in the Italian states and the unification and eventual creation of the nation of Italy. An earlier and similar portrait exists of the infamous brigand Mazzocchi by Achille-Etna Michallony . Léon Cogniet...

Category

1860s Romantic Art

Materials

Cotton Canvas, Oil

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Located in Cotignac, FR

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in a landscape, Mid century oil on wood panel. This vibrant and charming painting vividly portrays a whimsical forest scene featuring Snow White and ...

Category

Mid-20th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Lost in Her Thoughts, 1890-1892, by Pinckney Marcius-Simons, French Romanticism
Lost in Her Thoughts, 1890-1892, by Pinckney Marcius-Simons, French Romanticism

Lost in Her Thoughts, 1890-1892, by Pinckney Marcius-Simons, French Romanticism

Located in Grand Rapids, MI

Pinckney Marcius-Simons, (American, French, 1867-1909) Signed: Marcius-Simons, (lower, right) " Lost in Her Thoughts ", circa 1890-1892 Oil on mahogany panel bearing the stamp on verso of " H. Vieille e. Troisgros Sueei, 55 Rue de Laval...

Category

19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Oil, Board

Country Lane with Trees & Birds in English Countryside by 20th Century Artist
Country Lane with Trees & Birds in English Countryside by 20th Century Artist

Country Lane with Trees & Birds in English Countryside by 20th Century Artist

By James Wright

Located in Preston, GB

Country Lane with Trees & Birds in English Countryside by 20th Century British Landscape Artist, James Wright Signed, Original, Oil on Canvas, housed in a beautiful ornate gold frame. Provenance: Part of the English Heritage...

Category

1990s Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Rare neoclassical historical figurative painting Roman antiquity of the 19th century
Rare neoclassical historical figurative painting Roman antiquity of the 19th century

Rare neoclassical historical figurative painting Roman antiquity of the 19th century

By Luigi Ademollo

Located in Florence, IT

Oil painting on canvas ( 43 x 53.5 cm; with 59 x 70 cm with gilt wood frame), Title: King Amulius, in the presence of Rea Silvia, orders to kill Romulus and Remus as children Ancien...

Category

Early 19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Artist Brother Staffan Kronberg Dressed as a Prince, 1911
The Artist Brother Staffan Kronberg Dressed as a Prince, 1911

The Artist Brother Staffan Kronberg Dressed as a Prince, 1911

Located in Stockholm, SE

Executed in 1911, just three years after Margherita Kronberg graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, this early drawing portrays the artist’s younger brother, Staffan, dressed...

Category

1910s Romantic Art

Materials

Mixed Media, Board, Laid Paper

Woman with Birds
Woman with Birds

Woman with Birds

By Sunol Alvar

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist: Alvar Title: Woman with Birds Year: c.1980 Medium: Color lithograph Paper: Wove Image size: 18.5 x 24.5 inches Framed size: 26.5 x 32.65 inc...

Category

Late 20th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Lithograph

“Orientalist Portrait of an Arab Man” Jean-Horace Vernet (French 1789-1863)
“Orientalist Portrait of an Arab Man” Jean-Horace Vernet (French 1789-1863)

“Orientalist Portrait of an Arab Man” Jean-Horace Vernet (French 1789-1863)

By Émile Jean-Horace Vernet

Located in SANTA FE, NM

“Orientalist Portrait of an Arab Man” Half-length, turned to the left, oval Jean-Horace Vernet (French 1789-1863) Circa 1830s Watercolor heightened with touches of white on paper Sig...

Category

1830s Romantic Art

Materials

Watercolor

Venus with Putti Oil on Canvas with Gilt-wood Frame
Venus with Putti Oil on Canvas with Gilt-wood Frame

Venus with Putti Oil on Canvas with Gilt-wood Frame

Located in Rome, IT

French 19' century painting oil on canvas . Young Venus nude figure surrounded by delicious playing putti . Finely carved and gilt-wood frame of the same period . Measurements w...

Category

Mid-19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Oil

Golden Sunrise on the Maas – Arthur J. Meadows’ Tranquil Masterpiece (1884)
Golden Sunrise on the Maas – Arthur J. Meadows’ Tranquil Masterpiece (1884)

Golden Sunrise on the Maas – Arthur J. Meadows’ Tranquil Masterpiece (1884)

By Arthur Joseph Meadows

Located in Stockholm, SE

A Golden Dawn on the Maas In this refined marine painting, Arthur Joseph Meadows captures a tranquil sunrise on the river Maas just below the historic city of Dordrecht (“Dort”). The...

Category

1880s Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Still Life of Peonies, Roses, Honeysuckle, Poppies, and other Flowers
Still Life of Peonies, Roses, Honeysuckle, Poppies, and other Flowers

Still Life of Peonies, Roses, Honeysuckle, Poppies, and other Flowers

Located in New York, NY

This painting demonstrates the source of Arnoldus Bloemers’ enduring popularity. A profusion of peonies, honeysuckle, and poppies share the confines of a terracotta urn sitting on a ...

Category

19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Oil

Jules Boilly (1796-1874) Portrait of a young man, drawing signed and dated
Jules Boilly (1796-1874) Portrait of a young man, drawing signed and dated

Jules Boilly (1796-1874) Portrait of a young man, drawing signed and dated

Located in Paris, FR

Jules Boilly (1796-1874) Portrait of a young man, in uniform, signed and dated 1837 on the lower left charcoal and heightenings of blue, red and white chalk on paper 27.5 x 21.5 cm Framed : 41.8 x 36 cm This drawing is a good illustration of Jules Boilly's own style, obviously very different from his father's realistic acuity. There is something softer, more velvety, lighter, and we can see it clearly in the way he renders the features of this young man. Julien-Léopold Boilly (30 August 1796 – 14 June 1874), also known as Jules Boilly, was a French artist noted for his album of lithographs Iconographie de l'Institut Royal de France (1820–1821) and his booklet Album de 73 portraits-charge aquarellés des membres de l'Institut (1820) containing watercolor caricatures...

Category

1830s Romantic Art

Materials

Charcoal

UNCONSCIOUS RIVALS- Angelo Granati -  Italy Oil on canvas painting
UNCONSCIOUS RIVALS- Angelo Granati -  Italy Oil on canvas painting

UNCONSCIOUS RIVALS- Angelo Granati - Italy Oil on canvas painting

By Angelo Granati

Located in Napoli, IT

Unconscious Rivals- Angelo Granati Italia 2004 - This is his reinterpretation of a greatest old master painting by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Oil on canvas cm.80x60. The painting is a true form of the romantic style of Alma-Tadema. It is an image of two women; one sitting, the other standing and apparently waiting for someone...

Category

Early 2000s Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Winter Light on a Frozen Lake
Winter Light on a Frozen Lake

Winter Light on a Frozen Lake

Located in Stockholm, SE

In this evocative winter landscape, painted in 1941, Swedish artist Olof Walfrid Nilsson captures the serenity and quiet grandeur of a frozen lake bathed in gentle afternoon light. E...

Category

1940s Romantic Art

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Whitworth - A little horse in the distance - Black + White Landscape Small Print
Whitworth - A little horse in the distance - Black + White Landscape Small Print

Whitworth - A little horse in the distance - Black + White Landscape Small Print

Located in London, GB

"Although looking like the mid-west, this horse is grazing in front of an industrial spoil tip." - David George A solitary horse stands against a vast, barren backdrop, embodying loneliness and introspection... This minimalistic scene capturing the endless spoil tip horizon with a lone horse grazing quietly... Print info:Photogravure; Charbonnel Ink on Archival Somerset Satin Paper Photogravure; 14.85 x 21 cm (image size) on 28.5 x 37.5 cm / 11.22 x 14.76 inches paper From Edition of 5 only Signed and numbered "When all the words are put to one side I hope the project will instigate a new curiosity for the people who live and work around the River Tees and rekindle a pride in this remarkable asset that has served them so well over hundreds, even thousands, of years." - David George David George's interest in British landscape began under the tutelage of John Blakemore at Derby University and continues to be a major part of his practice, now mainly concerned with ideas of classical and romantic visual semantics in the contemporary British landscape. His work looks at the decline of traditional industries, incorporating his interest in 19th century European landscape painting. David George (b.1957, Cheltenham and brought up in County Durham) lives and works in east London and in 2009 he co- founded the Uncertain States project which championed contemporary thinking and practice in UK photography...

Category

2010s Romantic Art

Materials

Archival Ink, Black and White, Photogravure

Confrontation, Charles Van Den Eycken, Brussels 1859 – 1923, Belgian Painter
Confrontation, Charles Van Den Eycken, Brussels 1859 – 1923, Belgian Painter

Confrontation, Charles Van Den Eycken, Brussels 1859 – 1923, Belgian Painter

By Charles Van Den Eycken

Located in Knokke, BE

Confrontation Van Den Eycken Charles Brussels 1859 – 1923 Belgian Painter Signature: Signed bottom right Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: Image size 28 x 21,50 cm, frame size 36 x 30 cm Biography: Van Den Eycken Charles (alias Charles Duchene) was born in Brussels in 1859. He was an animal painter, mainly dogs and cats and interiors. He was the son of Charles Van Den Eycken...

Category

19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1920's Boats on the Nile Landscape
1920's Boats on the Nile Landscape

1920's Boats on the Nile Landscape

Located in Soquel, CA

Beautiful seascape oil painting of boats sailing on the Nile, showing the city in the background by an unknown artist, c.1920. Unsigned. Rustic frame. Board size: 18.5"H x 42.25"W.

Category

Early 20th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

La Sortie du Bain
La Sortie du Bain

La Sortie du Bain

Located in Fairlawn, OH

Eugene Leroux (1807-1863) La Sortie Du Bain Lithograph, c. 1840 Signed in the lower left corner of the image (see photo) Inscribed "Imp Bertauts Paris" in bottom margin Inscribed "55...

Category

1840s Romantic Art

Materials

Lithograph

Landscape
Landscape

Landscape

By Giovanni (Nino) Costa

Located in Roma, IT

Drawing on paper, XIX century. Provenance: Nino Costa’s successors. Liberio Merolli, Rome. Private Collection. This fascinating drawing was realized by Nino Costa, an Italian landsca...

Category

19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Paper

Pool of Bethesda, Jerusalem: A Hand-colored Aquatint & Engraving by L. Mayer
Pool of Bethesda, Jerusalem: A Hand-colored Aquatint & Engraving by L. Mayer

Pool of Bethesda, Jerusalem: A Hand-colored Aquatint & Engraving by L. Mayer

By Luigi Mayer

Located in Alamo, CA

This is a hand-colored aquatint and engraving entitled "Pool of Bethesda, Jerusalem", published in London by R. Bowyer in 1804. The print was created by Thomas Milton (1743-1827) from drawings by Luigi Mayer. This beautiful, detailed, original engraving is printed on deluxe J. Whatman paper with very wide left and right margins. There is a watermark "1801" indicating the year the paper was made. The sheet measures 11.25" high and 16" wide. There is a small faint spot in the upper margin on the left and a tiny faint spot in the right upper corner and another in the left lower corner. The engraving is otherwise in excellent condition with vibrant colors throughout the image. "The Pool of Bethesda...

Category

Early 19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Engraving, Aquatint

Scandinavian Sunset Watercolor from 1897
Scandinavian Sunset Watercolor from 1897

Scandinavian Sunset Watercolor from 1897

Located in Stockholm, SE

Hilding Werner (1880–1944) Sweden Solnedgång (Sunset), 1897 watercolour on paper signed and dated lower left H. Werner 1897 Inscribed Solnedgång (“Sunset”) on the reverse. the shee...

Category

1890s Romantic Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Apelles with Palette and Brushes, Romantic Drawing, Circa 1860
Apelles with Palette and Brushes, Romantic Drawing, Circa 1860

Apelles with Palette and Brushes, Romantic Drawing, Circa 1860

By Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Located in Paris, Île-de-France

Jean Auguste Dominique INGRES (Montauban 1780 – 1867 Paris) Apelles holding his palette and brushes Stumped pencil and white heightening on light brown laid paper, laid down on thin card 11 3/4 x 7 1/8 in 30 x 18 cm Signed lower left: “à Mr Visconti / Ingres” This drawing relates to Ingres’s painting The Apotheosis of Homer, completed in 1827 for the decoration of the Musée Charles X in the Louvre (Paintings Department, inv. 5417)—a composition which the artist later revisited in a drawing he worked on for over twenty years (the number of assembled historical figures nearly doubled in the meantime, increasing from forty-two to eighty-two), and which he only completed in 1865: Homer Deified (Louvre Museum, Department of Drawings, inv. RF 5273). It specifically depicts the figure of Apelles, placed on the left in both works, holding Raphael’s hand and presenting the epic Greek poet with a palette and brushes. In the Louvre painting...

Category

1860s Romantic Art

Materials

Pencil

Romantic art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Romantic art available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add art created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, purple, orange, pink and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Hiro Yokose, Francisco Goya, Leo Primavesi, and Dipen Bose. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Oil Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Romantic art, so small editions measuring 3 inches across are also available. Prices for art made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $119 and tops out at $1,300,000, while the average work sells for $2,213.