Romantic Landscape Painting

1. Period and Location: Romantic Landscape Painting

Landscape painting became a significant element of Romanticism, serving as a metaphor for the unification of the soul with the natural world. This concept aligns closely with transcendentalist belief—a belief in the inherent goodness of people and nature.

The artwork that you will be looking at today dates from 1799 to 1836 and focuses geographically on three locations: Dresden, Germany; London, England; and New York, the United States.

term to know

Transcendentalism

A 19th-century philosophical and spiritual movement that stresses the intuitive over the empirical.

2. Romantic Landscape Painting: Characteristics and Influences

Romantic landscape painting is a genre that embodies the ideals of the Romantic movement, applying them specifically to the depiction of natural scenes. Romanticism—a cultural and artistic movement that emerged in the late 18th century—emphasizes emotion, individualism, and the beauty and power of nature. When these ideas are translated into landscape painting, several distinct characteristics and themes emerge:

• The Picturesque
  • Romantic landscapes often focus on scenes that are both visually pleasing and carefully composed to evoke a sense of peace and natural beauty.
• The Sublime
  • Romantic landscapes frequently aim to evoke a sense of the sublime, a concept that involves feelings of awe and wonder intertwined with fear and respect for nature’s power, evoking strong emotional responses.
• Incorporation of Ruins
  • Romantic landscapes often include ancient ruins, castles, or remnants of past civilizations. These elements symbolize the passage of time, the rise and fall of human endeavors, and the enduring power of nature.
• Images of the Pastoral
  • Romantic landscapes frequently depict pastoral scenes, idealizing rural life and the harmony between humans and nature. Pastoral imagery celebrates simplicity, peace, and a connection to the land.

terms to know

Picturesque

In landscape painting, it refers to the charm of viewing nature in an undisturbed state.

Pastoral

A scene that shows man’s dominion over nature.

3. The Sublime in Romantic Landscape Painting: Examples

What makes a Romantic landscape painting different from other types of landscapes? Well, remember that Romanticism and Dark Romanticism are genres of art that embody the concept of the sublime—this is a key theme in Romantic artwork. Also, in the case of Dark Romanticism, the notion of decay and death permeates throughout the artwork.

This first painting is a great example of the importance of the incorporation of ruins into a picturesque landscape painting. This entire German landscape is evocative of death: humans, nature, and even the seemingly eternal construction of a church—in this case, from the medieval Gothic period. None of these things last forever. It’s a sober reminder of the inevitability of death, but it also shows the interconnectedness of all things. The setting is stark but beautiful, pitting the age of the ruins, the old and gnarled trees, and the wilting gravestones against the freshness of the snow surrounding them. Ruins were thought to be especially picturesque, and Friedrich painted several similar scenes in his career.

John Constable’s painting The Hay Wain is a visual ode to the pastoral and idyllic English countryside. Constable believed that paintings that depicted landscapes were as important as history paintings, and this work was a carefully constructed nostalgic view of a small family farm.

The scene is ominous, depending on your perspective. The cultural impact of the Industrial Revolution was evident; Constable felt uneasy about the transformation of the English countryside, with more and more small farms vanishing from the landscape.

did you know

John Constable was an amateur meteorologist. Constable’s commitment to accurately depicting clouds and the effects of weather in his paintings reflects his deep understanding of and fascination with meteorological phenomena.

think about it

How might you interpret this image’s portrayal of the sky and the dark clouds looming overhead? Perhaps it was Constable’s way of foreshadowing his concerns about the economic future of Great Britain in the wake of the Industrial Revolution

4. The Hudson River School

The Hudson River School wasn’t an official school or institution in the traditional sense. Rather, it refers to a group of artists who shared a similar vision and method of painting—with the emphasis still on the sublime but in a different manner than the examples you’ve seen so far. This group of artists is known particularly for their dramatic scenes of the American wilderness, such as this painting, called The Oxbow, by Thomas Cole.

did you know

An oxbow is created when a river bends into a U shape. The one in this painting is in the Connecticut River.

American landscapes lacked the ancient ruins of the landscapes of Europe, so Cole argued that the breathtaking features of the American wilderness should be considered its natural ruins. He further enhanced the sublime beauty of the scene by his composition and through the quick retreat of the foreground off a steep cliff, which forces your attention back to the landscape. The recession of a passing storm into the background also contributes to this feeling of awe.

hint

Hudson River School artists such as Cole were consistent in their subject matter choices: distinctive landscapes of the northeastern region of the United States, including places such as the Hudson Valley (the namesake for the school), the Catskill Mountains, and the Adirondack Mountains.

did you know

Cole included a miniscule self-portrait in this painting. Though he is very small and difficult to discern, the artist is near the center-bottom portion of the painting, standing at his easel and looking back at the viewer. Can you find him? Look just to the right of the broken tree stump, which is one of the Hudson River School’s most famous symbols.

Nineteenth-century American Romanticism and its subject matter correlated with the westward movement into a new frontier and the growth of a young nation. The justification for territorial expansion as a means of promoting and defending democracy can be summarized in the widely held belief or doctrine known as Manifest Destiny, which is essentially man’s (specifically, European man’s) divine right to expand his possession of land.

Though he actually painted the work below in his studio in Rome, Albert Bierstadt’s painting of the Sierra Nevada Mountains is an expression of Manifest Destiny. Bierstadt was part of the Hudson River School and traveled west as part of several expansion journeys. His beautiful paintings exhibit the Hudson River School’s quality of luminism, in which they almost glow in the way they depict light. It’s a rather amazing characteristic of these works of art, creating an almost divine presence within the painting that enhances the sheer awe of such an impressive landscape.

did you know

Bierstadt capitalized on the American public’s fascination with the West by organizing exhibitions of his large-scale paintings where he would charge an admission fee. These exhibitions often included dramatic presentations, such as special lighting and elaborate frames, to enhance the viewing experience. Charging admission allowed him to profit from the public’s interest and supported his artistic endeavors.

Paintings such as this would have been the only visual examples for many people of what awaited them in the American West and would have served as inspiration, as well as motivation, to obtain the heavenly rewards that were awaiting those that took part in the divine expansion westward.

terms to know

Hudson River School

American 19th-century movement characterized by landscape painters; Romanticism; and themes illustrating places such as the Hudson River Valley, the Catskill Mountains, the Adirondack Mountains, and the White Mountain area.

Manifest Destiny

A doctrine held by some Americans, beginning in the 19th century, that illustrates a belief in a divinely granted right of expansion.