At the end of the 18th century, a cultural movement emerged in Europe: Romanticism. Romanticism emerged as a reaction to industrialization and rapid urbanization at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, but especially as a reaction to classicism. The cool detachment of classicism was strongly criticized by various artists, these artists wanted to emphasize the feeling in their works without having to adhere to all kinds of rules.
Feeling over Ratio
There are a number of characteristics that characterize Romanticism. The focus on feelings instead of rationality is perhaps the most important characteristic of this movement. Romantics believed that the rational approach should make way for individual imagination. The individual should not be snowed under in a society in which industrialization and urbanization were the order of the day. The fact that Romanticism emphasizes feelings can also be seen in the name of the movement, the word comes from the French ‘romance’, a sensitive story or song. The feeling could be activated by very different things. A frequently used source for evoking feelings in painting was nature. In the paintings, nature has been made into an ideal image in which the grandeur of nature is especially emphasized. We see this, for example, in the works of the Dutch painter BC Koekkoek. In romantic literature, the great challenge was to convey feelings and moods as clearly as possible on paper. Here too we sometimes see nature come to the fore, romantic matters such as the setting of the sun and a clear starry sky often appeared in poems by romantic poets. One of the most important of these was the English poet Lord Byron.
Imagination
The imagination, imagination in French, also played an important role in Romantic art. The artists wanted to escape from everyday life and they did this with the help of their own imagination. With this, the Romantics tried to represent the invisible and the infinite in the real in order to make contact with the Higher. We see this, for example, in the famous romantic poem La belle dame sans merci by the English poet John Keats. This poem focuses on the contrast between dream and imagination on the one hand and reality on the other. The dream is a favorite subject among romantics, it is an example of the imagination and the invisible.
Romanticism was not just an art movement, it was also a lifestyle. You also see this among the artists who supported Romanticism. They were often really involved in society, which they were somewhat opposed to, so to speak. Many romantics came into conflict with the average citizen because of their way of thinking. We see this commitment, for example, in Lord Byron and, closer to home, the writer Multatuli. This commitment arose from the so-called feeling of Weltschmerz. This is the feeling of dissatisfaction with one’s own time and existence in general. This feeling of dissatisfaction arises from the realization of the incompatibility of reality and ideal. The aforementioned topics such as nature, but also religion and the past could then provide comfort. This led to new trends in art such as the aforementioned landscapes in painting and the interest in the historical novel in literature, an example of such a historical novel is Treatise on the importance of Dutch soil and antiquities for feeling and imagination by David Jacob van Lennep. Another way to deal with harsh reality is to use humor, for example, this was often used by the Dutch writer Piet Paaltjens. He fought against the Weltschmerz by increasing or ironizing the sadness and misery.
Worldview
The romantic created his own worldview. As far as the Romantics were concerned, the supremacy of reason and the constant pursuit of objectivity was over. They reject reason and instead praise the subjective and the resulting creativity. According to the Romantics, empty abstract reasoning should end and, with the help of imagination, for example, one should try to look beyond superficial reality. At the time of Romanticism, another cultural movement was also emerging, namely Realism. This movement had a completely different way of thinking. While Romanticism heavily idealizes reality, Realism does not make things more beautiful than they really are. The central theme in Romanticism is the desire for the unattainable, while Realism strives to portray reality as accurately as possible. Realism and Romanticism are actually like fire and water, a certain form of objectivity versus the glorification of subjectivity.