Art

Literature

&In the early 19th century, the Romantic Movement was in full swing, and it's influences were highly visible in both art and literature. It was part of a revolt against the social consequences of aristocracy and the political consequences of the Enlightenment. In art, the central themes of Romanticism were criticisms of the past, and an emphasis on heroics. The French Revolution was regarded as the heroic struggle of the lower classes against aristocrats and an unfair government. The central theme of Romanticism is the idea that the human race is perfectible.

1800-1860

Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Wrote The American Scholar, Self-Reliance

• Part of the Transcendentalist movement

• His philosophies helped to shape the mid-19th century New Thought Movement

• Was an abolitionist• Famously asked Henry

David Thoreau, "Do you keep a journal?"

Literature

Henry David Thoreau

• Wrote Civil Disobedience, Walden

• Famously spent a night in jail for refusing to pay his taxes

• Is sometimes cited as an inspiration for anarchists

• Conducted experiments in simple living

• Part of the Transcendentalist movement

Literature

Edgar Allan Poe• Wrote The Raven• Best known for intense, dark

stories• Linked to Horror fiction, and

Romanticism• Was partially inspired in his

later writings after the death of his15-year-old wife

• Once claimed of the Transcendentalists that "only the pretenders and sophists among them"

Literature

Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Wrote The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables

• Part of the (Dark) Romantic Movement

• Wrote mainly short stories• Many of his stories were set

in New England Puritan society

• Though married to a Transcendentalist, later writings revealed criticisms of the movement

Literature

Thomas Cole• “Romantic Landscape with

Ruined Tower”• Also tried his hand at

architecture• Primarily painted

landscapes, as well as allegorical works

• Lived in the Catskill Mountains for one summer, drawing Fort Putnam’s ruins

• Often painted melancholy scenes

Art

Albert Bierstadt• Part of the Hudson River

School• Completed over 500

paintings in his lifetime, but some estimate that number could be as high as 4,000

• Used very large canvases• Used vivid, exaggerated

colors• Inspired by the American

West

Art

Frederic Edwin Church

• Landscape Painter• Traveled to South America

between 1853 and 1857• A pupil of Thomas Cole• Part of the Romantic

Movement• His painting, The Heart of the

Andes sold for $10,000 in 1859, then the highest price paid for an American artist’s work

Art

The Hudson River School

• An American art movement• Created by a group of

landscape painters• Heavily influenced by

Romantic style• Was not an actual school, but

a group of people with a common creative vision meant to inspire each other

• Venerated in America’s natural beauty, along with contemporary American Writers

Art

BY:Tori