Romanticism

I am inspired by the Romanticism Movement…

Romanticism Movement was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the 18th century in Europe and strengthened in reaction to the Industrial Revolution. The term “Romanticism” has been used to refer to certain artists, poets, writers, musicians, as well as political, philosophical and social thinkers. The movement rejected precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealisation, and rationality that were used previously in other eras like Classicism and Neoclassicism. Instead Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental.

Although I love all aspects of the Romanticism movement, the aspect that really inspires me the most from this movement, is The English Landscape and the impact the movement had on it. The designers of William Kent, Charles Bridgeman and Capability Brown were the main Romanticism designers and they enriched our lives with the influence of their style of naturalism to English Landscapes. They changed how English Landscapes were designed by creating a style of smooth undulating grass, which would run straight to the house, clumps, belts and scattering of trees, classical temples, gothic ruins, bridges, and other picturesque architecture and serpentine lakes formed by invisibly damming small rivers. Before hand English Landscapes were more formal, symmetrical, with the principle of imposing order over nature instead of working with it, an example of this is the English Knot Gardens.

Landscape paintings by Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin were often the inspiration of the style that was created by Kent, Bridgeman and Brown, contributing to the visionary of a naturalistic landscape. Many of their Landscapes that were designed and built when the designers were alive, are still around these days and influential to the English Landscape.

Heres a few pictures of The English Landscape that were designed from the Romanticism Movement.

Understand it more by Checking Out these websites and get inspired by Visiting some of the Gardens!

Visit: 

- Chiswick House in Chiswick. This was the first Garden from William Kent that was idealised by nature rather Architecture.

- Rousham in Oxfordshire. This Garden is considered to most accomplished and significant of William Kent’s work.

- Stowe House in Buckinghamshire. This Garden shows a radical departure from the formal French Garden.

- Stourhead in Wiltshire. This Garden is the first of ‘Picturesque‘ Gardens, inspired to resemble the paintings of Claude Lorrain.

- Kew Gardens in Surrey. This Garden is a well-known botanical Gardens in England.