Art Guide · Art movements

Romanticism

Late 18th – mid 19th century

Romanticism was the movement that shaped Europe from the late 18th to the mid-19th century, putting emotion before reason, the grandeur of nature before order, and the inner life of the individual first. Friedrich, Turner, Delacroix and Goya are its leading painters.

Shop Romanticism posters Poster prints of these works are in the collection.

Last updated: 3 October 2026 · Iconica Society editors

Characteristics

Reacting against the rationalism of the Enlightenment and against industrialisation, the Romantics painted the wild and sublime side of nature, dramatic moments of history and faraway lands. Storms, misty mountains, shipwrecks and revolutions were frequent subjects, and colour and movement took precedence over classical line.

Romanticism across Europe

In Germany Caspar David Friedrich painted nature with spiritual stillness; in England Turner rendered light and storm in an almost abstract language. In France Delacroix painted history and exotic scenes, and in Spain Goya the horrors of war, showing Romanticism’s different faces.