Romanticism: Rejecting the

Enlightenment

By Susan PojerHorace Greeley High SchoolChappaqua, NY

How Was Romanticism a Rejection of the Enlightenment?

1) Emotions, passion, and irrationality2) The “rugged” individual3) The power and fury of nature4) The Gothic 5) The exotic, the occult, and the macabre6) Nationalism7) Exotic foreign lands

EnlightenmentSociety is good, curbing

violent impulses!Civilization corrupts!

Romanticism

Early19th Century

A Growing Distrust of Reason

1) The essence of human experience is subjective and emotional.

2) Human knowledge is a puny thing compared to other great historical forces.

3) “Individual rights” are dangerous efforts at selfishness & the community is more important.

Wandering Above the Sea of Fog

Caspar David Friedrich,

1818

Lady Macbeth - Henry Fuseli, 1794

The Dreamer Gaspar David Friedrich, 1835

Solitary Tree Caspar David Friedrich, 1823

The DelugeFrancis Danby, 1840

The Eruption of Vesuvius – John Martin

Eldena RuinGaspar David Friedrich, 1825

British Houses of Parliament1840-1865

Cloister Cemetery in the SnowCaspar David Friedrich, 1817-1819

Saturn DevoursHis Son

Francisco Goya,

1819-1823

Liberty Leading the People Eugène Delacroix, 1830

Detail of the Musket Bearer

Delacoix, himself

Napoleonat the

St. BernardPass

David,1803

The Shooting of May 3, 1808Francisco Goya, 1815

The Bullfight - Francisco Goya

The Royal Pavillion at BrightonJohn Nash, 1815-1823