ROMANTICISM 1800-1860

PRE-WRITE“All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Romantic

Writer)

Read the above quote and, in the space provided in your notes, take five minutes to respond to the following prompt:

What does von Goethe mean by the above quote? Do you agree? Why or why not?

DECLINE OF RATIONALISM▪At its most extreme, Rationalism grew into an elitist following – The Rationalists looked down upon people with little education who refused to “better themselves”

▪Things that were not provable by science were believed by Rationalists to not matter, or not exist. This included things like religion and emotions.

▪This caused a divide – The Rationalists were seen as egotistical by the everyday American

HISTORICAL CONTEXT▪Industrial Revolution: Independence from Britain and the Age of Enlightenment’s emphasis on science and technology caused an economic boom – this lead to the Industrial Revolution. Skyscrapers, big cities, and automobiles became commonplace

▪Westward Expansion: In 1803, the U.S. sealed the Louisiana Purchase, buying all the land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.

▪California Gold Rush: The discovery of Gold in uncharted California pushed hundreds of thousands of Americans westward.

RISE OF ROMANTICISM▪Amongst the chaos of the Industrial Revolution and the hope of Westward Expansion, a new movementemerged: Romanticism!

▪(Note: Romanticism does NOT mean love stories –keep listening… ☺)

▪Romanticism first began as a reaction against the alienating Rationalist philosophies. They thought that by putting so much emphasis on logic and science, the Rationalists were missing out on emotional truths. In other words, not just highly educated scientists and politicians have important things to say – the artistsand the poets do, too!

ROMANTIC POETRY▪Romantics thought poetry was the highest embodiment of imagination, the most creative thing one could do.

▪Romantics often contrasted poetry with science. They saw science as stripping things of their emotional truths.

▪Romantic Edgar Allen Poe once called science a “vulture” with wings of “dull realities” which preyed upon the hearts of poets.

ROMANTIC ESCAPISM▪Escapism – Romantic thinkers wanted to escape!

▪They wanted to flee the dull realities of science and logic that had dominated the way of thinking for so long

▪They also wanted to escape the cities, which they saw as places filled with disease, corruption, shifting morals, and death, and flee to the “Wild West,” which was open, free, and full of possibilities

▪This positive way of thinking is reflected in “Westward Expansion.”

AMERICAN ROMANTICISM▪The Romantic period started in Europe, but it was the first period in which American writers and artists truly developed their own style.

▪American Romantics had a sense of limitless frontier that inspired them in different ways than the European writers.

▪Europeans saw Americans as uncivilized and uneducated, but Americans played this stereotype to their advantage….

AMERICAN ROMANTICISM

AMERICANRATIONALIST HERO

AMERICAN ROMANTIC HERO

• Worldly, experienced

• Sophisticated

• Educated

• Bent on making a

place for himself in

civilization

• Follows and creates

laws, believes they’re

moral

• Youthful

• Intuitive

• May or may not

be educated –

not important

• Follows his

principals, not

the laws

• At odds with

society

CHARACTERISTICS OF ROMANTICISM

The importance of nature/rejection of urban life

The natural world = source of beauty and truth

Artists sought to capture the drama of natural forms—whether serene and peaceful or twisted and grotesque.

Emphasis on the individual or the self

An individual human is an entire universe.

The idea that art should be a form of self-expression first took shape in this era.

The way to find universal truths is to express what is within, rather than conform to the outside world of society (Romantic heroes!)

CHARACTERISTICS OF ROMANTICISM

The importance of intuition, imagination, and emotion

Rather than using knowledge, facts, and reason like the Rationalists, Romantics thought emotion, intuition, and imagination were the keys to a deeper understanding of the world.

An interest in the exotic and the fantastic

Romantics loved to hear about faraway lands and times, the supernatural, the mysterious.

This could take the form of frontier adventure tales (cowboys and explorers!), or could be creepy horror stories.

Whether heroic or horrifying, Romantics thought fantastic tales suggested universal truths about the human heart.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ROMANTICISM

Celebration of the common people, rural life, children

Romantics also showed a new interest in the common people, rural life, and children.

The genuine voice of ordinary people was held to be more authentic than the sophisticated tone of writing and art from the Age of Enlightenment.

Children were prized for their innocence and their freedom from the corrupting influence of society.

Reform, rebellion, revolution

Romantic’s goal was to question society!

Writers and artists sought to influence the issues of slavery, women's rights, and labor.

Romantics were also reformers in their art, seeking new forms of poetry and storytelling, and rejecting the need to follow the examples of earlier masters

RATIONALISM VS ROMANTICISMTwo portraits of

Italian violinist

Paganini

Left by Delacroix

(Enlightenment artist)

Right by Ingres

(Romantic painter)

See the

difference?

ROMANTICISM: PAINTING ANALYSIS

Today, we’re going to learn how to analyze a new media –paintings!

On the handout, there are three paintings from the Romantic period. Your job is to analyze the painting and connect it in some way to Romanticism.

But don’t worry – before I let you fend for yourselves, I’m going to walk you through the example I made for you. ☺

STEP 1: DESCRIBE

1. Woman – white clothing, made to seem innocent, lying in a position that makes it seem like she might be sleeping, might be dead. She looks vulnerable. Very dramatic/exaggerated

2. Monster Thing – Creepy looking, inhuman. Maybe a goblin? Looks intimidating, sitting on the woman’s abdomen, which would make it hard for her to breathe. Looking directly at the “camera,” or the viewer – possibly supposed to be intimidating to the audience?

What do you see? What’s in the

painting? How would you describe

them? What are they doing?

3. Horse – White eyes, looks evil/super scary.

Coming out of the shadows, looks like another

monster coming to get the woman

STEP 2: ANALYZE

1. Color – Woman stands out – she’s wearing white against a dark background. The red blanket pooling around her reminds me of blood.

2. Lighting- the light is shining on the girl’s face- makes her the focus of the painting, but it also illuminates the monsters around her, makes them stand out as well

What artistic choices did the artist make?

Look at use of color, the use of lines and

texture, what is in the foreground/background,

what the artist seems to focus on, possibly

symbolism, ect.

3. Symbolism – Because of the piece’s title, the monsters on the woman’s chest and

coming out of the shadows are obviously supposed to symbolize nightmares. One

monster is suffocating her, and another is coming right behind it

STEP 3: INTERPRET

I think this piece is an attempt to represent the emotions nightmares give us. Though we cannot be physically harmed by them, the pain and fear we feel while asleep is still, in a sense, real. This piece attempts to capture that trapped, panicking feeling of nightmares by showing a woman pinned (and likely suffocating) from the “nightmare” on her chest, another looming just around the corner. The way she is positioned and the red blanket pooling around her like blood also emphasizes the emotional injuries she feels.

What is the artist trying to say? What

do you think this piece is about? How

does the title fit? What is the mood of

the piece?

STEP 4: CONNECT

This piece connects to the Romantic’s emphasis on emotions and their obsession with the supernatural or unexplainable. The entire piece is an attempt to visually capture the terror and sense of entrapment we feel during nightmares, and the creepy horse and goblin thing are clearly influenced by supernatural horror stories.

How does/doesn’t this piece connect to

the Romantic movement?