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ROMANTICISM

Nature of the period

Romanticism, unlike the other "isms", isn't directly political. It is more intellectual. The term itself was coined in the 1840s, in England, but the movement had been around since the late 18th century, primarily in Literature and Arts.

English Romanticism started in the 1740s.The word Romanticism derives from the French word "Romance", which referred to the vernacular languages derived from Latin and to the works written in those languages.

[…] attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western civilization over a period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century. Romanticism can be seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality that typified Classicism. It was also to some extent a reaction against the Enlightenment and against 18th-century rationalism and physical materialism in general. Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental.

Among the characteristic attitudes of Romanticism were the following: a deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature; a general exaltation of emotion over reason and of the senses over intellect; a preoccupation with the genius, the hero, and a focus on his passions; a new view of the artist as a supremely individual creator, an obsessive interest in folk culture, national and ethnic cultural origins, and the medieval era; and a predilection for the exotic, the remote, the mysterious, the weird, the occult, the monstrous, the diseased, and even the satanic.

The general romantic's dissatisfaction with the organization of society was often channeled into specific criticism of the Bougeois society and the feeling of oppression was frequently expressed in poetry. Political and social causes became dominant themes in romantic poetry and prose throughout France and other parts of Europe, producing many vital human documents that are still pertinent.

To be extreme and flamboyant and unusual and violent even at the risk of becoming grotesque was the desire of every young Romantic. The Romantics were, in fact, bourgeois origins, who were trying hard to escape from their own shadows.

ENGLAND’S HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

George III led England against Napoleon to save the independence of various states in Europe. Napoleon tried to ruin the English Navy by a naval blockade. England obtained two famous victories against Napoleon at Trafalgar in 1805 and at the battle of Waterloo by the Duke of Wellington. The four victorious powers (England, Austria, Prussia and Russia, met at the Congress of Vienna (1814 – 1815) to redefine the territorial map of

Europe. After this long period of war England was hit by heavy taxation, price rises, unemployment and social unrest in town and in the country.

George IV reigned in a period of reforms:

- Catholics obtained the same rights as the protestants except in a few cases.

- The civilian metropolitan police was created by Sir Robert Peel.

Other important events of this period were:

- the abolition of slavery in the British colonies

- the introduction of system of national education

- the Factory Acts by which the employment of children under nine was

forbidden by the law

SOCIAL CONTEXT

The main social changes were among the working classes.

The principal social events were:

- an enormous increase in production

- the increase of wealth

- more work and better social situation in the north

- periods of overproduction and periods of depression

- revolts of the Luddities

- Robert Owen had established a textile factory where he reduced working

hours, improved housing, limited child labour and created an insurance for old

or sick workers and their families

- when Napoleonic wars ended inhabitants of England were forced to emigrate

to America or Australia

- when foreign trade increased, the unemployment slowly decreased

- women began to compete in work with men and ended by gaining more and

more independence.

- slavery was definitely abolished in 1833.

British Romantic Art in Society

Styles and Techniques

British Romantic Art typically uses nature and sympathetic real life experiences to emphasize emotion, in similar manners as the poets from Romanticism Poetry and the musicians from Romantic Music. Nature can be portrayed as a serene landscape. In other paintings, nature’s uncontrollable power and danger is portrayed in shipwrecks and man’s struggle with nature. Romantic artists used their art to portray their love and connection with nature. Accurate studies of birds, animals and insects reflected man's interest in the mysterious and hidden secrets of nature. This return to nature, this emphasis on the power of the individual, must be seen as a reaction to the mechanisation and depersonalisation brought about by the Industrial Revolution in England. This had brought with it a rift between capital and labour, between employer and employee, thus establishing a new hierarchical social order.

This renewed interest in nature was further stimulated by archaeological and scientific discoveries, expeditions and narratives in which the romantic aspect of strange and distant places was described or dramatised, as may be seen in the works of Wordsworth or Byron.

The philosophical writings of Rousseau and Burke were further encouragement to man to seek hidden meaning behind the surface of physical reality.

Their painting techniques generally bright, vibrant colors, or paler and darker tones that do not provide contrast within the painting, but are rather blended and create a softer image. Many times the painter’s brush strokes do not create precise lines, but are vague and provide a “blurred” perception.

Although nature was an important concept of the Romantic era, there were other themes and emotions that many of the Romantic artists focused on. Emotions were expressed over reason and senses were expressed over intellect. This philosophy of portraying emotions and senses was primarily developed out of a disgust of the focus on reason during the Enlightenment, and wanted to bring art back to feelings and sentiments. They were intigued by moods, heroes, the inner struggles, the genius, the passion, the mysterious and unknown, the medieval, the exotic and even the "satanic".

In the pre-Romantic period, landscape

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