Romanticism (Room 13)

Romanticism was an artistic current from the late 18th century to the mid 19th century. The romantics challenged the widespread belief in reason, in order to explore dreams, fantasies, myths and the unconscious. They not only wanted to heighten the drama of art and its emotional effect, they also revolted against the antique ideal of classicism in an attempt to find a new idiom in which to express religious experiences. Here, landscape came to occupy a central place. In this gallery, the romantics are displayed side by side with Nordic artists, who, from the 1960s and onwards, were linked with the rhetoric of romantic landscape painting.