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Romanticism 1800-1860

Romanticism 1800-1860. Leading up to the Romanticism Period:. Deism Belief that God made it possible for all people at all times to discover natural laws through their God-given power to reason Different religious backgrounds Belief that universe is orderly and good

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Romanticism 1800-1860

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  1. Romanticism 1800-1860

  2. Leading up to the Romanticism Period: • Deism • Belief that God made it possible for all people at all times to discover natural laws through their God-given power to reason • Different religious backgrounds • Belief that universe is orderly and good • Best form of worship is to do good for others

  3. Romanticism: • Reaction against rationalism • Value feeling and intuition over reason • “A journey away from the corruption of civilization and the limits of rational thought and toward the integrity of nature and the freedom of the imagination” • Art = intuitive, “felt” experience • Poetry = highest and most sublime embodiment of the imagination • Attacked science

  4. Characteristics of American Romanticism • Values feeling & intuition over reason • Places faith in inner experiences & the power of the imagination • Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature • Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication • Champions individual freedom & the worth of the individual • Contemplates nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development

  5. Characteristics of American Romanticism (continued) • Looks backward to the wisdom of the past & distrusts progress • Finds beauty & truth in exotic locales, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of the imagination • Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination • Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folk culture

  6. Romanticism – Inspiration • Westward expansion / development of the frontier

  7. Characteristics of the American Romantic Hero • Young, or possesses youthful qualities • Is innocent & pure of purpose • Has a sense of honor based not on society’s rules but on some higher principle • Has a knowledge of people & of life based on deep, intuitive understanding, not on formal learning • Loves nature & avoids town life • Quests for some higher truth in the natural world

  8. “Fireside Poets” • Poets: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • John Greenleaf Whittier • Oliver Wendell Holmes • James Russell Lowell • William Cullen Bryant • Subject matter: Love, patriotism, nature, family, God, & religion • Celebrations of American people, places, & events • Structured, standard meter, “pretty” style

  9. Classical (eighteenth century; “Enlightenment,” scientific revolution, “Age of Reason”) stylistic tendencies: hard edges, clear colors, focused light subject tendencies: historical figures, social and historical settings, human figures in foreground Audubon, Gyrfalcon Romantic painting stylistic tendencies: softer edges and colors, diffuse light subject tendencies: nature, human figures in background, human figures diminished, human figures not historical but fictional or “types” Heade, Hummingbirds & Orchids

  10. Indian Pass by Thomas Cole

  11. Kindred Spirits by Asher Brown Durand

  12. Landscape scene from the Last of the Mohicans by Thomas Cole

  13. Niagara Falls by Frederic Edwin Church

  14. Romanticism • The true beginnings of American Literature, true American style

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