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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
Contemporary portrait "In the Kitchen with Cat"
Located in Zofingen, AG
In this painting, I aimed to capture the serene, almost timeless ambience of domestic life, juxtaposed with a subtle nod to companionship and the unspoken grace. The contrast between...
Category

2010s Romantic Art

Materials

Lacquer, Cotton Canvas, Acrylic

Pothos Sculpture Lost Wax Bronze Method Florence Cesello 18 x 6 x 6
Located in Houston, TX
"Pothos is one of the Ancient Greek Erotes dedicated to yearning and desire. He is the son of the West Wind "Zephryos" and "Iris," the rainbow. This is the artist proof of an edit...
Category

2010s Romantic Art

Materials

Bronze

Lovers at the Fountain - Italian 19th Century Figurative Oil on Canvas Painting
Located in Rome, IT
Amanti alla Fontana - Lovers by a fountain, painting oil on canvas, Signed left sight. Measures: cm 70 x 100 frame 118 x 145 Faustini Modesto. Brescia, 27 maggio 1839 - Roma, 23 m...
Category

Mid-19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Oil

#4423
Located in Phoenix, AZ
oil and wax on canvas 62 x 50 inches framed Neo-romantic painter Hiro Yokose fuses multiple layers of wax and oil paint to create mysterious, veiled landscapes illuminated with fl...
Category

Early 2000s Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Cotton Canvas, Wax, Oil

Feeding Horses
Located in Naples, Florida
Wright Barker (British School 1864-1931) Barker was a well-known painter of equestrian and highland scenes, though landscape and genre subjects are known. ...
Category

Early 20th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Oil

Italian Peasant Girl with Coral Necklace and Man with Ciocie Shoes, 19th Cent
Located in Firenze, IT
Italian Peasant Girl with Coral Necklace and Man with Ciocie Shoes, 19th Century Dimensions: H 65 cm x W 51 cm Period: 19th century Technique: Oil on canvas This rural scene depic...
Category

Mid-19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Eutrope Bouret "Sans Famille" Patinated Bronze
By Eutrope Bouret
Located in Astoria, NY
Eutrope Bouret (French, 1833-1906) "Sans Famille" [Without Family] Patinated Bronze Sculpture, late 19th century, the standing musician carrying a harp, on a rockwork base, signed, a...
Category

Late 19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Bronze

Statue of Liberty kissing a duck in a movie theater, purple lighting
Located in Carballo, ES
Ventura A. Pérez (1992) is one of the most seductive artists on the contemporary Spanish scene. After earning a doctorate in contemporary art from the University of Vigo, he moved to...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Romantic Art

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Louis Gallait (1810-1887) Portrait of a Gentleman, watercolor and gouache
By Louis Gallait
Located in Paris, FR
Louis Gallait (1810-1887) Portrait of a Gentleman, Watercolor and gouache on paper, square white lines, 24 x 16 cm Stamp of the Louis Gallait Estate on the mount on the lower righ...
Category

1850s Romantic Art

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache

The Flowers Bed. 1998. Oil on linen, 50x60.5 cm
Located in Riga, LV
The Flowers Bed. 1998. Oil on linen, 50x60.5 cm
Category

1990s Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Linen, Oil

Jules-Eugène Lenepveu (1819-1898) Portrait of a man in profile, signed drawing
Located in Paris, FR
Jules-Eugène Lenepveu (1819-1898) Portrait of a man in profile signed on the lower right Pencil and heightenings of white gouache on paper 19.5 x 13 cm Framed : 29 x 22.7 cm Jules-Eugène Lenepveu is of course particularly well known for his large-scale paintings, such as the one on the ceiling of the Paris Opera, but his work here is much more delicate and intimate. We recognise the artist's mastery of talent, but the play of textures, with its highlights of white that enliven and illuminate the model's face, is also very subtle. There's a particularly charming sense of life and impression of light. Jules-Eugène Lenepveu was born in Angers on 12 December 1819, on the site of the street that now bears his name, into a family of small shopkeepers. The painter showed a deep attachment to his family throughout his life through his correspondence and the many portraits of his relatives. He entered the drawing school in Angers in 1833, where he was a pupil of Jean-Michel Mercier. There he rubbed shoulders with the sculptor Ferdinand Taluet. He arrived in Paris in 1837 and entered the Beaux-Arts, where he was officially admitted to François-Édouard Picot's studio in 1838. He exhibited his work "L'Idylle" at the Salon of 1843 and, that same year, left for his first visit to Italy. He was awarded the Second Prix de Rome in 1843 for "Cincinnatus recevant les députés du Sénat" (Cincinnatus receiving the deputies of the Senate), then the First Prize in 1847 for "La Mort de Vitellius" (The Death of Vitellius). A resident at the Villa Médicis from 1848, he was surrounded by painters Alexandre Cabanel, Léon Benouville, Gustave Boulanger, Félix Barrias...
Category

1860s Romantic Art

Materials

Gouache, Pencil

Shakespeare's Midsummer-Night's Dream- Etching-J.P. Simon After J.H. Fussli-1796
Located in Roma, IT
Midsummer-Night's Dream is an original etching engraved by Jean Pierre Simon after the iconic romantic painting by Heinrich Füssli in 1790. Titled on plate: Midsummer-Night's Dream, Act IV, Scene I: A wood - Titania, Queen of the fairies, Bottom, fairies attending Mint conditions with little tears along the margin, and a glued tear in the center. Some light little foxings. The original oil painting is displayed at Tate Britain in London. It was commissioned for the Boydell Shakespeare...
Category

1790s Romantic Art

Materials

Etching

French Romantic School, 19th Century, Manly head of bearded man, oil on canvas
Located in Paris, FR
French Romantic School 19th Century Manly head of bearded man oil on canvas 46 x 37.8 cm In fairly good condition, some inpaintings visible under UV light, mainly in the backgrounds ...
Category

1850s Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Attributed to Eugène Devéria (1805-1865) La famille heureuse, watercolor
Located in Paris, FR
Attribuetd to Eugène Devéria (1805-1865) La Famille heureuse (The Happy Family) Watercolor on paper 23 x 18 cm In quite good condition : a small tear i...
Category

1840s Romantic Art

Materials

Watercolor

La Femme au Chapeau Bleu, Large French Fauvist Figurative Oil on Canvas.
By Jean-Louis Dubuc
Located in Cotignac, FR
Large scale colourful figurative portrait of a fashionable lady in a blue hat by French artist Jean-Louis Dubuc. The painting is signed bottom right and titled to the rear cross stre...
Category

Late 20th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Acrylic

Demure Young Woman (Contemporary Bronze Sculpture)
Located in New Orleans, LA
A gorgeous solid bronze on marble pedestal depicting a demure young woman observing something that appears to be just in front of her. Is she a bit timid, perhaps? A lovely patina ha...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Romantic Art

Materials

Bronze

Ballet dancer
Located in Palm Beach, FL
Beautiful drawing by Jean-Baptiste Valadie, hand-signed, museum frame
Category

2010s Romantic Art

Materials

Engraving, Drypoint, Lithograph

Southern Landscape, Ships, Old Master Drawing, 19th Century, by Von Stengel
Located in Greven, DE
Southern Landscape with View of a Castle and Ships passing by Pen and brush in brown and black over pencil, brown and grey wash, 17,5 x 22,7cm Plain black moulding with golden pearl ...
Category

19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Paper, Gouache

An Apples. 1998-2015. Oil on linen, 64, 5 x 75 cm
Located in Riga, LV
An Apples. ( To Steve Jobs Memory) 1998-2015. Oil on linen, 64,5 x 75 cm
Category

2010s Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Linen, Oil

Alexandre Bida (1813-1895) A Young Woman in profile, Signed drawing
Located in Paris, FR
Alexandre Bida (1813-1895) A Young Woman in Profile Signed with the monogram lower right Pencil on grey-blue paper 17.7 x 11.5 cm Framed : 36.5 x 27 cm This drawing shows Bida's tec...
Category

1880s Romantic Art

Materials

Pencil

Denis Auguste Raffet (1804-1860) Studies of a Tiroler Kaiserjäger, drawing
Located in Paris, FR
Denis Auguste Raffet (1804-1860) Studies of a Tiroler Kaiserjäger, Signed and dated 1849 lower right Ink on paper 16.5 x 25.5 cm In a nice period frame : 33 x 42 cm Raffet had the occasion to draw studies of austrian soldiers as he took part as observer to the first Italian Independance War (1848-1849). It was the the first of many conflicts between the Kingdom of Sardinia , which later became the Kingdom of Italy , and the Austrian Empire. The Kaiserjäger (imperial hunters) were founded in 1815 by Emperor Franz I. It was a great honor to enter the Kaiserjäger as they were the only ones to be honored with the term "imperial". However, only Tyrolese, Voralbergers and Welschtirolers were allowed. They wore this characteristic hat as a parade headdress, it was made of matte black, waterproof felt. It consisted of a crown and brim adorned with a circular, green cord, the Jäger emblem and a plume of black rooster feathers. The hat cord was made of sheep's wool, and had a button and an acorn covered with a green wool. These two studies clearly evoke the interest of the artist for this part of their uniform. Denis Auguste Marie Raffet (2 March 1804 – 16 February 1860) was a French illustrator and lithographer. He was a student of Nicolas Toussaint Charlet, and was a retrospective painter of the Empire. At an early age he was apprenticed to a wood turner, but took up the study of art at evening classes. At the age of 18 he entered the workshop of Cabanel, where he applied his skill to the decoration of china, and where he met Rudor, from whom he received instruction in lithography, in the practice of which he was to rise to fame. He then entered the École des Beaux-Arts, but returned to lithography in 1830 when he produced on stone his famous designs of Lützen, Waterloo, Le bal, La revue, and Les adieux de la garrison, by which his reputation became immediately established. Raffet's chief works were his lithographs of the Napoleonic campaigns, from Egypt to Waterloo, vigorous designs inspired by ardent patriotic enthusiasm. In this endeavor he was a contemporary of other French artist-lithographers of Napoleon and the French army including Hippolyte Bellangé, Horace Vernet, and Nicolas Toussaint Charlet. As an illustrator his activity was prodigious, the list of works illustrated by his crayon amounting to about forty-five, among which are Béranger's poems, the History of the Revolution by Adolphe Thiers, the History of Napoleon by de Norvins, the great Walter Scott by Auguste Defauconpret, the French Plutarch and Frédéric Bérat's Songs. He went to Rome in 1849, and was present at the siege of Rome, which he made the subject of some lithographs, and followed the Italian campaign of 1859, of which he left a record in his Episodes de la campagne d'Italie de 1859. His portraits in pencil...
Category

1840s Romantic Art

Materials

Ink

1852 oval Portrait of Marie Potonie (Sievers), Oil Painting
Located in Berlin, DE
Ornate, decorative oil painting. Illustration of Marie Potonie (born Sievers). Marie was the daughter of the royal Prussian court painter Johannes Sievers. Extremely fine painting....
Category

Mid-19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

P Deltour (?), An artist and his models in the workshop, 1879, oil on canvas
Located in Paris, FR
P Deltour (?) French school of the 19th century The artist with his model and friend in his workshop Oil on canvas Signed "P Deltour" (?) and dated 1879 on the lower, an indistinct i...
Category

1870s Romantic Art

Materials

Oil

The Runaways, or Swiss boy on Donkey. Attributed to Joseph Hornung.
Located in Firenze, IT
A couple of young boy and girl, dressed in ethnographic costumes, probably Savoyard, ride a donkey. The scene takes place in the middle of the countryside with mountains in the back...
Category

Mid-19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Stainless Steel

Dutch Family in the Forest
Located in Soquel, CA
Charming figurative genre painting of Dutch family in the forest. Signed illegibly lower left. Presented in a period giltwood frame. Image size, 27.25"H ...
Category

1930s Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"BLUE HANDLE HORSE", stoneware clay sculpture, blue clay inlay, storybook equine
Located in Toronto, Ontario
BLUE HANDLE HORSE is a stoneware clay sculpture with blue clay inlay by Brooklyn, New York artist Rene Murray. It measures 24"H x 18"W x 7"D. It's an encha...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Romantic Art

Materials

Clay, Stoneware

Charles Emile Jacque (Paris 1813 - 1894) Dog in a doghouse, signed drawing
Located in Paris, FR
Charles Emile Jacque (1813-1894) Dog in a doghouse Monogrammed "C. J. "lower right Pencil on paper 17 x 13 cm Mark of the Collection of Doctor Albert Finot "AF" (Lugt 3627) lower lef...
Category

1860s Romantic Art

Materials

Carbon Pencil

An English Terrier Puppy with a Kitten playing with a Christmas decorations
Located in Woodbury, CT
A wonderful English watercolor painting depicting a terrier puppy with a kitten playing with a Christmas decoration under the Christmas tree This piece was drawn as an illustration f...
Category

1990s Romantic Art

Materials

Watercolor

Honey, I cry to, 2017, (Série I CRY TO)
Located in Palm Desert, CA
Matheus is greatly influenced by the city he now calls home -- New York has long been the epicenter of fashion, hip hop, and street art, where he feels his interest in contemporary a...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Romantic Art

Materials

India Ink

Cattle with Windmills (Large Framed 20th Century Antique Watercolor Landscape)
Located in New Orleans, LA
I apologize for the reflections in the glass of this watercolor. At any rate, it's a large scene of cattle grazing in a field, presumably in Holland, with windmills in the distance. ...
Category

Early 20th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Watercolor

Antique Swedish Oil Canvas Painting Romantic Interior Family Scene Monkey 1883
Located in Portland, OR
A fine & large antique oil on canvas painting by Bengt Nordenberg (1822-1902), Sweden, dated 1883. Nordenberg is recognized as one of Sweden's most celebrated 19th century artists, his work epitomizes Swedish Romanticism and this painting is a wonderful representation of that style. The painting depicts an interior scene of a mother holding an infant in front of an open heath, with a fire burning in the grate, above the fire there are racks of meat hanging and above that are hams hanging. The infant has evidently just woken from a nap and his cradle sits next to his mother's chair, his brother sitting on the floor with his monkey & the carrying case he transports the animal to beg for money, the monkey humorously sits with his begging plate outstretched to the boy's mother, much to her consternation! The painting is signed and dated lower left, it is in very good condition and is housed in the original gilded composition and limewood frame, Nordenberg's record for a painting at auction is over $91,500, this is a fine example of the artist's work and is ready to hang on your wall. Bloomsbury Fine Art & Antiques ship globally, very well packed & insured to ensure safe delivery. Bengt Nordenberg (1822-1902) was a master of Swedish Romanticism. He belonged to the Düsseldorf school of painting & is best known for his genre paintings with everyday life scenes from the Dalarna, Skåne and Blekinge areas of Sweden. He moved to Düsseldorf in the 1850s. Nordenberg was born at Jämshög in Blekinge County, Sweden, he was one of nine siblings born to Per Jönsson Nord (1785-1854) and his wife Sissa Bengtsdotter (b. 1792). He grew up in poverty and became an apprentice to a painter in Sölvesborg. In 1843 he studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm, In the autumn of 1851 he went to the Düsseldorf Academy, where first Theodor Hildebrandt and then later, Adolph Tidemand...
Category

1880s Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Pompeian Scene 19th century Painting Oil on Canvas Signed Egisto Sarri
Located in Rome, IT
Egisto Sarri "Pompeian scene" Oil on canvas, measure: cm 30 x 48 with a filly carved gilt - wood frame cm 46 x 64 Signature in the lower left-hand corner: "E. Sarri Egisto Sarri (Figline val d'Arno 1837 - Florence 1901) Sarri studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence under Giuseppe Bezzuoli and Enrico Pollastrini, and was one of Antonio Ciseri...
Category

19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Oil

Antique Horse "Heads, Hooves, Rump 1838" Wouterus Verschuur (Dutch, 1812-1874)
Located in SANTA FE, NM
Antique Horse Study "Heads, Hooves and Rump, 1838" Wouterus Verschuur (Dutch, 1812-1874) Pencil on paper Signed and Dated "W Verschuuur 1838" 10 x 6 1/2 (17 1/2 x 14 frame) inches In his time Wouterus Verschuur was an acclaimed and celebrated painter of horses. Through careful observation he learned to capture their physique and movement to perfection. As a true-born romanticist he was also interested in their character, thereby painting powerful carthorses in their stable, thoroughbred saddled horses during an afternoon ride or harnessed horses in action. He was born to an Amsterdam jeweler and received his training from the landscape and cattle painters Pieter Gerardus van Os and Cornelis Steffelaar. As part of this education Verschuur had to copy works by the 17th century painter Philips Wouwerman. Like Wouwerman, Verschuur's subjects consist mostly of stable scenes, landscapes with horses and coastal landscape. These works reflect the enduring influence of the northern Baroque masters on nineteenth century art, revealing the artist's close study of his Dutch and Flemish predecessors harking back to Peter Paul Rubens. Showing talent from a very early age, at 15 Verschuur had a painting exhibited at the "Exhibition of Living Masters" at Amsterdam in 1828. In 1832 and 1833 he won the gold medal at the annual exhibition at Felix Meritis. In 1833 he was appointed a member of the Royal Academy in Amsterdam. In 1839 he joined the artists' society, Arti et Amicitiae. His reputation was also considerable abroad. He was often featured in the annual exhibitions which travelled the large European cities at that time. In 1855 Napoleon III purchased one of his paintings at the Exposition Universelle* in Paris. The Verschuur horse revels in its physicality, like a quintessential Baroque horse...
Category

1830s Romantic Art

Materials

Paper, Pencil

French school 19th century, An italian bandit, 1864, watercolor
Located in Paris, FR
French school 19th century, An italian bandit, 1864, watercolor on paper On the reverse of the sheet (now under the back of the frame) an annotation, "Rome 1864" 25,5 x 21.5 cm (v...
Category

1860s Romantic Art

Materials

Watercolor

Auguste Mayer (1805-1890) A seascape with a boat, signed drawing
Located in Paris, FR
Auguste Mayer (1803-1890 A seascape with a boat signed with the initials on the lower left Pencil and heightenings of white gouache on paper 17.5 x 26 cm...
Category

1860s Romantic Art

Materials

Gouache, Carbon Pencil

Gustave de Jonghe, "An Afternoon Visit, " original oil painting
Located in Chatsworth, CA
Gustave de Jonghe An Afternoon Visit Oil on panel Image Size: 32.8 x 25 inches Framed Dimensions: 41.7 x 33.5 Hand signed in lower left corner
Category

1860s Romantic Art

Materials

Oil

Teal Rustic Flowers Mixed Media Canvas 60W X 40H" IN love with spring 3.
Located in Sherman Oaks, CA
Teal Rustic Flowers One of a kind Mixed Medium on Canvas Artwork: Original abstract mixed media work on canvas, which combines new media - digital original hand painting, printed ...
Category

2010s Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Archival Ink, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Landscape with Men and Horses - Original China Ink and Watercolor - Early 1800
Located in Roma, IT
Landscape with men and horses is a beautiful ink and pencil drawing. Due to the concerned subject matter and the typology of the image, it is assumed th...
Category

Early 19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Ink

Untitled (Musician with clarinet)
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Musician with clarinet) Watercolor on paper, c. 1844 Created on J Whatman Turkey Mill Watermarked paper Signed lower left: Gavarni (see photo) Condition: very fresh colors ...
Category

1840s Romantic Art

Materials

Watercolor

"ROMAN OPERA HOUSE", stoneware clay sculpture, copper green glaze Italy hilltown
Located in Toronto, Ontario
ROMAN OPERA HOUSE is a stoneware clay sculpture with Copper Green glaze by Brooklyn, New York artist Rene Murray. It measures 19"H x 23"W x 11"D. The sculp...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Romantic Art

Materials

Clay, Stoneware, Glaze

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. Image, 20"H x 44"W.
Category

Early 20th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Inscription Rock, New Mexico – Southwest Light in Gouache by Carl Oscar Borg
Located in Stockholm, SE
Carl Oscar Borg (1879-1947) Swedish/American Inscription Rock, New Mexico gouache on card signed CARL OSCAR BORG. unframed: 12 x 17.5 cm (4 3/4 x 6 7/8 in) framed: 22 x 27 cm (8 5/...
Category

Early 20th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Gouache

Historical figurative drawing of 19th century Italian Romanticism
Located in Florence, IT
The subject illustrated here is one of the moments that mark the centuries-long history of Genoa's glorious Maritime Republic, when the ashes of St. John the Baptist, one of the city...
Category

1860s Romantic Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Pen, Pencil

French romantic school Drawing black chalk and goiache HORTIN steam boat 19th
Located in PARIS, FR
Charles HORTIN (Attributed to) (XIX) Black chalk and white gouache Signed lower right 12 x 16 cm
Category

Mid-19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Paper, Chalk

Pharaohs hunting. 2001. Oil on linen, 70x100 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Pharaohs hunting. 2001. Oil on linen, 70x100 cm
Category

Early 2000s Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Linen, Oil

THOMASSIN Attributed Austrian landscapes romantic pair painting Brazil 19th
By Desiré Thomassin
Located in PARIS, FR
Désiré THOMASSIN (Attributed to) Vienna, 1858 – Munich, 1933 Oil on panel 32 x 50 cm (42 x 60 cm with frame) Inscription on the back “Thomassin / Braz...
Category

Mid-19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Oil

The River Barge
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The River Barge Pen and ink on paper on laid paper, mounted in English drum mount , c. 1810 Unsigned Condition: Slight sun staining to sheet and mount in the window (see photo) Image/sheet size: 5 1/4 x 6 11/16 inches Sight: : 5-3/4 x 7-1/4" Frame: 13-3/8 x 14-3/8" Provenance: Colnaghi, London (see photo of label) David Cox (29 April 1783 – 7 June 1859) was an English landscape painter, one of the most important members of the Birmingham School of landscape artists and an early precursor of Impressionism. He is considered one of the greatest English landscape painters, and a major figure of the Golden age of English watercolour. Although most popularly known for his works in watercolour, he also painted over 300 works in oil towards the end of his career, now considered "one of the greatest, but least recognised, achievements of any British painter. His son, known as David Cox the Younger (1809-1885), was also a successful artist. Early life in Birmingham, 1783–1804 Cox's birthplace in Deritend, Birmingham, illustrated by Samuel Lines Cox was born on 29 April 1783 on Heath Mill Lane in Deritend, then an industrial suburb of Birmingham. His father was a blacksmith and whitesmith about whom little is known, except that he supplied components such as bayonets and barrels to the Birmingham gun trade. Cox's mother was the daughter of a farmer and miller from Small Heath to the east of Birmingham. Early biographers record that "she had had a better education than his father, and was a woman of superior intelligence and force of character." Cox was initially expected to follow his father into the metal trade and take over his forge, but his lack of physical strength led his family to seek opportunities for him to develop his interest in art, which is said to have first become apparent when the young Cox started painting paper kites while recovering from a broken leg. By the late 18th century Birmingham had developed a network of private academies teaching drawing and painting, established to support the needs of the town's manufacturers of luxury metal goods, but also encouraging education in fine art, and nurturing the distinctive tradition of landscape art of the Birmingham School. Cox initially enrolled in the academy of Joseph Barber in Great Charles Street, where fellow students included the artist Charles Barber and the engraver William Radclyffe, both of whom would become important lifelong friends. At the age of about 15 Cox was apprenticed to the Birmingham painter Albert Fielder, who produced portrait miniatures and paintings for the tops of snuffboxes from his workshop at 10 Parade in the northwest of the town. Early biographers of Cox record that he left his apprenticeship after Fielder's suicide, with one reporting that Cox himself discovered his master's hanging body, but this is probably a myth as Fielder is recorded at his address in Parade as late as 1825. At some time during mid-1800 Cox was given work by William Macready the elder at the Birmingham Theatre, initially as an assistant grinding colours and preparing canvases for the scene painters, but from 1801 painting scenery himself and by 1802 leading his own team of assistants and being credited in plays' publicity. London, 1804–1814 In 1804 Cox was promised work by the theatre impresario Philip Astley and moved to London, taking lodgings in 16 Bridge Row, Lambeth. Although he was unable to get employment at Astley's Amphitheatre it is likely that he had already decided to try to establish himself as a professional artist, and apart from a few private commissions for painting scenery his focus over the next few years was to be on painting and exhibiting watercolours. While living in London, Cox married his landlord's daughter, Mary Agg and the couple moved to Dulwich in 1808. David Cox Travellers on a Path, pencil and brown wash. In 1805 he made his first of many trips to Wales, with Charles Barber, his earliest dated watercolours are from this year. Throughout his lifetime he made numerous sketching tours to the Home Counties, North Wales, Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Devon. Cox exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1805. His paintings never reached high prices, so he earned his living mainly as a drawing master. His first pupil, Colonel the Hon.H. Windsor (the future Earl of Plymouth) engaged him in 1808, Cox went on to acquire several other aristocratic and titled pupils. He also went on to write several books, including: Ackermanns' New Drawing Book (1809); A Series of Progressive Lessons (1811); Treatise on Landscape Painting (1813); and Progressive Lessons on Landscape (1816). The ninth and last edition of his series Progressive Lessons, was published in 1845. By 1810 he was elected President of the Associated Artists in Water Colour. In 1812, following the demise of the Associated Artists, he was elected as associate of the Society of Painters in Water Colour (the old Water Colour Society). He was elected a Member of the Society in 1813, and exhibited there every year (except 1815 and 1817) until his death. Hereford, 1814–1827 In the summer of 1813 Cox was appointed as the drawing master of the Royal Military College in Farnham, Surrey, but he resigned shortly afterwards, finding little sympathy with the atmosphere of a military institution. Soon after that he applied to a newspaper advertisement for a position as drawing master for Miss Crouchers' School for Young Ladies in Hereford and in Autumn 1814 moved to the town with his family. Cox taught at the school in Widemarsh Street until 1819, his substantial salary of £100 per year requiring only two-day's work per week, allowing time for painting and the taking of private pupils. Cox's reputation as both a painter and a teacher had been building over previous years, as indicated by his election as a member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours and his inclusion in John Hassell's 1813 book Aqua Pictura, which claimed to present works by "all of the most approved water coloured draftsmen". The depression that accompanied the end of the Napoleonic Wars had caused a contraction in the art market, however, and by 1814 Cox had been very short of money, requiring a loan from one of his pupils to pay even for the move to Hereford. Despite its financial advantages and its proximity to the scenery of North Wales and the Wye Valley, the move to Hereford marked a retreat in terms of his career as a painter: he sent few works to the annual exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water Colours during his first years away from London and not until 1823 would he again contribute more than 20 pictures. Between 1823 and 1826 he had Joseph Murray Ince as a pupil. London, 1827–1841 He made his first trip to the Continent, to Belgium and the Netherlands in 1826 and subsequently moved to London the following year. He exhibited for the first time with the Birmingham Society of Artists in 1829, and with the Liverpool Academy in 1831. In 1839, two of Cox's watercolours were bought from the Old Water Colour Society exhibition by the Marquis of Conynha for Queen Victoria. Birmingham, 1841–1859 Greenfield House in Harborne, Birmingham – where Cox lived from 1841 until his death in 1859 . In May 1840 Cox wrote to one of his Birmingham friends: "I am making preparations to sketch in oil, and also to paint, and it is my intention to spend most of my time in Birmingham for the purpose of practice". Cox had been considering a return to painting in oils since 1836 and in 1839 had taken lessons in oil painting from William James Müller, to whom he had been introduced by mutual friend George Arthur Fripp. Hostility between the Society of Painters in Water Colours and the Royal Academy made it difficult for an artist to be recognised for work in both watercolour and oil in London, however, and it is likely that Cox would have preferred to explore this new medium in the more supportive environment of his home town. By the early 1840s his income from sales of his watercolours was sufficient to allow him to abandon his work as a drawing master, and in June 1841 he moved with his wife to Greenfield House in Harborne, then a village on Birmingham's south western outskirts. It was this move that would enable the higher levels of freedom and experimentation that were to characterise his later work. The elderly Cox pictured by Samuel Bellin in 1855. In Harborne, Cox established a steady routine – working in watercolour in the morning and oils in the afternoon. He would visit London every spring to attend the major exhibitions, followed by one or more sketching excursions, continuing the pattern that he had established in the 1830s. From 1844 these tours evolved into a yearly trip to Betws-y-Coed in North Wales to work outdoors in both oil and watercolour, gradually becoming the focus for an annual summer artists colony that continued until 1856 with Cox as its "presiding genius". Cox's experience of trying to exhibit his oils in London was short and unsuccessful: in 1842 he made his only submission to the Society of British Artists; one oil painting was exhibited at each of the British Institution and the Royal Academy in 1843; and two oil paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844 – the last that would be exhibited in London during his lifetime. Cox showed regularly at the Birmingham Society of Arts and its successor, the Birmingham Society of Artists, becoming a member in 1842. Cox suffered a stroke on 12 June 1853 that temporarily paralysed him, and permanently affected his eyesight, memory and coordination. By 1857 however, his eyesight had deteriorated. An exhibition of his work was arranged in 1858 by the Conversazione Society Hampstead, and in 1859 a retrospective exhibition was held at the German Gallery Bond Street, London. Cox died several months later. He was buried in the churchyard of St Peters, Harborne, Birmingham, under a chestnut tree, alongside his wife Mary. Work Early work In the spring of 1811 Cox made a small number of notable works in oils during a visit to Hastings with his family. It is not known why he didn't continue working in this medium at the time, but the five known surviving examples were described in 1969 as "surely some of the most brilliant examples of the genre in England". Mature work Cox reached artistic maturity after his move to Hereford in 1814. Although only two major watercolours can confidently be traced to the period between Cox's arrival in the town and the end of the decade, both of these – Butcher's Row, Hereford of 1815 and Lugg Meadows, near Hereford of 1817 – mark advances on his earlier work. Later work Cox's later work produced after his move to Birmingham in 1841 was marked by simplification, abstraction and a stripping down of detail. His art of the period combined the breadth and weight characteristic of the earlier English watercolour school, together with a boldness and freedom of expression comparable to later impressionism. His concern with capturing the fleeting nature of weather, atmosphere and light was similar to that of John Constable, but Cox stood apart from the older painter's focus on capturing material detail, instead employing a high degree of generalisation and a focus on overall effect. The quest for character over precision in representing nature was an established characteristic of the Birmingham School of landscape artists with which Cox had been associated early in his life, and as early as 1810 Cox's work had been criticised for its "sketchiness of finish" and "cloudy confusion of objects", which were held to betray "the coarseness of scene-painting". During the 1840s and 1850s Cox took this "peculiar manner" to new extremes, incorporating the techniques of the sketch into his finished works to a far greater degree. Cox's watercolour technique of the 1840s was sufficiently different from his earlier methods to need explanation to his son in 1842, despite the fact that his son had been helping him teach and paint since 1827. The materials used for his later works in watercolour also differed from his earlier periods: he used black chalk instead of graphite pencil as his primary drawing medium, and the rough and absorbent "Scotch" wrapping paper for which he became well-known – both of these were related to his development of a rougher and freer style. Influence and legacy By the 1840s Cox, alongside Peter De Wint and Copley Fielding, had become recognised as one of the leading figures of the English landscape watercolour style of the first half of the 19th century. This judgement was complicated by reaction to the rougher and bolder style of Cox's later Birmingham work, which was widely ignored or condemned. While by this time De Wint and Fielding were essentially continuing in a long-established tradition, Cox was creating a new one. A group of young artists working in Cox's watercolour style emerged well before his death, including William Bennett, David Hall McKewan and Cox's son David Cox Jr. By 1850 Bennett in particular had become recognised as "perhaps the most distinguished among the landscape painters" for his Cox-like vigorous and decisive style. Such early followers concentrated on the example of Cox's more moderate earlier work and steered clear of what were then seen as the excesses of Cox's later years. During a period dominated by sleek and detailed picturesque landscape, however, they were still condemned by publications such as The Spectator as "the 'blottesque' school", and failed to establish themselves as a cohesive movement. John Ruskin in 1857 condemned the work of the Society of Painters in Water-colours as "a kind of potted art, of an agreeable flavour, suppliable and taxable as a patented commodity", excluding only the late work of Cox, about which he wrote "there is not any other landscape which comes near these works of David Cox in simplicity or seriousness". An 1881 book, A Biography of David Cox: With Remarks on His Works and Genius, was based on a manuscript by Cox's friend William Hall, edited and expanded by John Thackray Bunce, editor of the Birmingham Daily Post. There are two Blue Plaque memorials commemorating him at 116 Greenfield Road, Harborne, Birmingham, and at 34 Foxley Road, Kennington, London, SW9, where he lived from 1827. It can also be seen at the David Cox exhibition in Birmingham. His pupils included Birmingham architectural artist, Allen Edward...
Category

1810s Romantic Art

Materials

Ink

Old Master Drawing, View of Naples, 18th Century, Italian School
Located in Greven, DE
Italian Artist; Detailled and impressive old master drawing with the view Naples. Very fine Drawing with white heighting.
Category

19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Paper

Antique Exceptional Bronze Draft Horse by Pierre Jules Mêne (French, 1810-1879)
Located in SANTA FE, NM
Antique Horse Bronze Exceptional Bronze of a Draft Horse Pierre Jules Mêne (French, 1810-1879) Circa 1860s 4 3/4 (W) x 3.25 (H) As Mêne personally ov...
Category

Mid-19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Bronze

French school 19th century, Court scene in front of a palace, watercolor
Located in Paris, FR
French school 19th century, Court scene in front of a palace watercolor on paper 16.4 x 13.3 cm In good condition, some foxings Framed : 30 x 26.5 cm This enigmatic yet charming s...
Category

1850s Romantic Art

Materials

Watercolor

French romantic school PETIT Paris view architecture Saint Denis 19th
Located in PARIS, FR
Antoine-Baptiste PETIT Paris, 1800 – Versailles, 1864 Watercolor 18 x 27 cm Antoine-Baptiste Petit was a decorative painter and teacher of perspective. He produced views of Paris in...
Category

1830s Romantic Art

Materials

Watercolor

An English scene of a Donkey and Rabbits in a field, with wild flowers
Located in Woodbury, CT
A wonderful English watercolor painting depicting A Donkey, Lambs and a Robin in a stable the night before Christmas.. This piece was drawn ...
Category

1990s Romantic Art

Materials

Watercolor

At the Shore, Victor Huguet, 19th Century Orientalist Landscape , Oil on Canvas
Located in Jacksonville, FL
With an expert command of light and movement, Victor Huguet’s At the Shore transports the viewer to a coastal expanse where a group of Arab horsemen and figures gather against a stun...
Category

Mid-19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Oil

Old Master Drawing, View of Naples, 18th Century, Italian School
Located in Greven, DE
Italian Artist; Detailled and impressive old master drawing with the view Naples. Very fine Drawing with white heighting.
Category

19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Paper

Portrait of a Lady (by leader of "Southern Art Renaissance") - 20th Century
Located in New Orleans, LA
Many of you clicking on this watercolor are probably doing so because you know of Ellsworth Woodward, who with his brother William Woodward around the turn of the 20th century sparke...
Category

Early 1900s Romantic Art

Materials

Watercolor

Demure Young Woman (Contemporary Bronze Sculpture)
Located in New Orleans, LA
A gorgeous solid bronze on marble pedestal depicting a demure young woman observing something that appears to be just in front of her. Is she a bit timid, perhaps? A lovely patina ha...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Romantic Art

Materials

Bronze

"Full Cry" - Mid Century Horse Hunt Figurative Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
A dynamic mid 20th century copy of a lithograph that depicts Englishmen on horseback giving chase with a pack of beagle-type dogs running in the background. by John Frederick Herring...
Category

1960s Romantic Art

Materials

Offset, Paper

French Romantic Painting 19th Circle of Horace VERNET The Hussars Horses
Located in PARIS, FR
French school of the 19th century (Entourage of Horace VERNET) The hussars Oil on canvas Unsigned 41 x 33.5 cm (58 x 50 cm with the frame) Beautiful frame Regence style Good conditio...
Category

Mid-19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Oil

Woman in the garden. Romantic Oil Blue Landscape with beautiful female figure.
Located in Segovia, ES
Woman in the garden. Romantic and full of light landscape with beautiful female figure by the Spanish artist Manuel García Blázquez. Oil on canvas. Dimensions: Unframed: (H) 89 x (W) 116 (D) 2 cm. / 35.04 x 45.67 x 0.79 in. Framed: (H) 109 x (W) 136 (D) 4 cm. / 42.91 x 53.54 x 1.57 in. Light is the protagonist in this landscape with female figure by Manuel García Blázquez; an intense and soft light that interacts with color, and the impressionist technique that defines the work of this painter. The beautiful silhouette of a woman dressed in white and the reflections of the water in the pond at the back of the garden give the scene a certain luminous dreaminess, which contrasts with the strength of the color of the flowers in the foreground. The background landscape, so timeless and lyrical, serves as the setting for a female portrait with classical reminiscences. The work is executed along the lines...
Category

2010s Romantic Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Nina's very secret garden
Located in Kingston, WA
this is a fantasy painting based on a photo of my husband's niece when she was little, a little photo of a charming child that I imagined had a good imagination. In creating this pa...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Romantic Art

Materials

Cotton Canvas, Oil

The Lake - Wiehler Handmade Gobelin Tapestry Green Red Beige White Pink
Located in Sofia, BG
The lake - Landscape 1942 Wiehler Handmade Gobelin Tapestry by Maestro Vera Petrova - Sapundjieva, Bulgarian artist 1912 - 1985 About the artwork TECH...
Category

1940s Romantic Art

Materials

Tapestry

Mountainous Riverlandscape with resting Wanderers, German, Aquatint, old master
Located in Greven, DE
German or Swiss School, probably Circle of Christoph Nathe (1753-1808)), around 1800; beautiful old master drawing/ aquatint, inscribed "P 50/ 1871 gekauf...
Category

19th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Handmade Paper

Antique Dog Lithograph Taste of Alfred De Dreux, France ca. 1870 Newfoundland
By Alfred de Dreux
Located in SANTA FE, NM
Antique Dog Portrait Lithograph in the Taste of Alfred De Dreux Newfoundland France, circa 1870 Lithography 25 5/8 x 19 5/8 (28 x 20 frame) inches Six lithographs of dog portraits...
Category

1870s Romantic Art

Materials

Lithograph

A Scandinavian Landscape View by Swedish Artist Oscar Lycke, Large Size Painting
Located in Stockholm, SE
Oscar Lycke was a Swedish artist from Sundsvall. He is best known for his impressive colourful landscape paintings in a national romantic and realism styl...
Category

1920s Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

French school of the nineteenth century, LW (?) Harbor scene, drawing signed
Located in Paris, FR
French school of the nineteenth century, LW (?) Harbor scene, animation around a skiff Pencil on paper Signed LW (?) Bottom right 15 x 21 cm Framed : 27 x 34.5 cm This very fine ...
Category

1840s Romantic Art

Materials

Carbon Pencil

L'Hiver, Winter, Bronze Sculpture, Lost Wax Method , Romantic, Florence, Italy
Located in Houston, TX
L'Hiver, which is French for winter. An evocative title which pretty much explains the piece. Number 1 out of a production of Seven. Artist Statement: I am very happy to announce that two of my bronze works are now available in a limited edition of 7. The first one, shown above, is my vision of Eros. He is more popularly known in the Roman interpretation of a chubby baby or young boy with an bow and arrow. I have always been more intrigued with the original Greek embodiment of the this deity as a young man. More than the god of love, Eros was a personification of the power of creation. He was balanced by his antithesis was Thanatos, that of destruction. In fact, Thanatos is currently in the design process. This work will exist in an edition of 7 and 2 artist's proofs. Each piece is hand chased by myself and I apply the patina as well. The sculpture was created using the Lost Wax...
Category

2010s Romantic Art

Materials

Bronze

Romantic Couple In Wartime Paris on Rainy Parisian Night
Located in Miami, FL
The technique and subject matter work well together in this loosely but masterfully rendered World War 1 romantic illustration of a Soldier and a Parisian woman. Even though this wo...
Category

1930s Romantic Art

Materials

Ink, Watercolor, Pencil

Romantic Portraits, Herman Richir, Brussels 1866 – 1942, Belgian Painter
Located in Knokke, BE
Romantic Portraits Richir Herman Brussels 1866 – 1942 Belgian Painter Signature: Attributed to Richir Herman Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: Image size 67,50 x 62,50 cm, frame size 69,50 x 64,50 cm Biography: Richir Herman Jean Joseph was born in Ixelles (Brussels), on November 4, 1866. He was a Belgian painter of portraits, still lifes, genre paintings, nudes and landscapes. He made decorative paintings to fit into private homes. Richir mainly painted portraits. His clients usually belonged to the higher circles. He portrayed amongst others King Albert and Queen Elisabeth, Cardinal Mercier and Countess d’Oultremont. Less known are the landscape paintings he made Limburg and Kempen, where he regularly stayed with befriended artist Emile Van Doren (1865 – 1949). Herman Richir first studied at the Sint-Joost-ten-Node Academy with Gustave Biot and Charles Hermans, continued his education at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels (1884-1889) with the master teacher and artist Jean-Francois Portaels (1818 – 1895). In 1886, during his studies, he won second Prize of Rome for Painting. Richir lived in Schaarbeek. In 1900 he became a teacher of drawing and in 1905 first teacher of painting after nature at the Brussels Academy. He was director there several times 1906-1907, 1910, 1911, 1915-1919, 1925-1927. He was retired in 1927. His pupils included Albert Alleman (1892 – 1933), Éliane de Meuse (1899 – 1993), Paul Hagemans (1884 – 1959), Maurice Mareels (1893 – 1976), Guy Onkelinx (1879 – 1935), Georges Rogy (1897 – 1981), José Storie (1899 – 1961), Charles Swyncop (1895 – 1970), Maurice Schelck...
Category

20th Century Romantic Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

German School 19th Century, Portrait of a boy, drawing
Located in Paris, FR
German School 19th Century, Portrait of a boy, pencil on paper 25.7 x 16 cm (view) Framed : 41.8 x 31.5 cm The style and execution are v...
Category

1850s Romantic Art

Materials

Pencil

19th Century french school, Villefranche-sur Mer, the harbour, watercolor
Located in Paris, FR
French School circa 1850 Villefranche sur mer, the Harbour Watercolor on paper 16 x 24 cm In good condition Framed 29 x 38 cm This very fine wat...
Category

1850s Romantic Art

Materials

Watercolor

Piano Lesson Wiehler Handmade Gobelin Tapestry Brown White Pink Blue Black Grey
Located in Sofia, BG
Piano Lesson Wiehler Handmade Gobelin Tapestry by Maestro Vera Petrova - Sapundjieva, Bulgarian artist 1912 - 1985 About the artwork TECHNIQUE: Wiehle...
Category

1940s Romantic Art

Materials

Tapestry

Orpheus - Late 20th Century British watercolour by Robert O'Rorke
Located in London, GB
ROBERT O’RORKE (Born 1945) Orpheus Signed and dated l.r.: Rbt O’Rorke ’93; signed, dated 1993 and inscribed The Dance No.3 on a label attached to the backboard Watercolour on grey ...
Category

1990s Romantic Art

Materials

Watercolor

Vive le Vin
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Medium: Lithograph with tint stone Dimensions: Sheet: 13 3/4 x 10 1/2" (34.80 x 26.70 cm); Mat: 20 x 16" Publisher: G. Engelmann References And Exhibitions: Published by G. Engelmann Reference: Beraldi p. 17Medium: Lithograph with tint stone Dimensions: Sheet: 13 3/4 x 10 1/2" (34.80 x 26.70 cm); Mat: 20 x 16" Publisher: G. Engelmann References And Exhibitions: Published by G. Engelmann Reference: Beraldi p. 17 Medium: Lithograph with tint stone Dimensions: Sheet: 13 3/4 x 10 1/2" (34.80 x 26.70 cm); Mat: 20 x 16" Publisher: G. Engelmann References And Exhibitions: Published by G. Engelmann Reference: Beraldi p. 17 Joseph Louis Hippolyte Bellangé (17 January 1800 – 10 April 1866) was a French battle painter and printmaker. His art was influenced by the wars of the first Napoleon, and while a youth, he produced several military drawings...
Category

1820s Romantic Art

Materials

Lithograph

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.

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