The art movement, Romanticism, was a large movement that developed as a reaction to Neo-Classicism. In art, ‘Romantic’, refers to any works that dominates states of mind such as moods, feelings, and intuitions compared to ‘Classical’ art, in which rules of composition, structure, and form have greater importance.

Artist, Casper David Freidrich, painted the tree to appear dead, yet it is placed against a setting sun intended to remind the viewer that life is short and death is inevitable.

The Romanticist believed that the human experience could best be expressed intuitively or emotionally through art.

Landscape paintings flourished because of the Romanticists’ fixation upon nature.  However, no matter what their subject, they often portrayed rebellion; freedom; symbolism; emotion; and the individual.