From the Age of Reason to the

Rise of Romanticism

Watch out Enlightenment, here
comes a spontaneous overflow of
powerful emotion!!! And its
headed right your way!!
From Reason to Romanticism
approx. 1820 (another shift in values, styles)
Independent nationcheck. Independent
governmentcheck. Cultural independence? Artistic
independence? Ummweve gotta get on that
What does this new nation need in order to establish
itself culturally?
its own art
its own history
its own mythology/folklore
Well, what do we have that separates us from
Europe? And can we base our distinctly American
art on that? Whats distinctly American?
In Your Notebook
Compare and contrast the following paintings,
one Neoclassical and the other Romantic:
What do they have in common?
How are they different?
Look at each painting as a window into a
whole world. What kind of world does
each painting reveal?

John Singleton Copley, Portrait of Mr. and
Mrs. Thomas Mifflin, 1773
Asher B. Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849

Thomas Cole
Falls of
Kaaterskill
(1826)

Thomas Cole
The Oxbow (1836)

Looking Down on Yosemite Valley. Albert
Bierstadt, 1865
Landscape Scene from Thanatopsis. Durand, 1850
Frederic Church
Twilight in the Wilderness (1860)


Thomas Doughty
In Natures Wonderland (1835)