Romanticism was 'a way of feeling' rather than a style in art. In the period c.1775-1830, against the background of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, European artists, together with poets and composers, initiated their own rebellion against the dominant political, religious and social ethos of the day. Their quest was for personal expression and individual liberation, and in the process, the Romantics transformed the idea of art, seeing it as an instrument of social and psychological change.In this comprehensive volume, David Blayney Brown takes a thematic approach to Romanticism, relating it to the concurrent, more stylistic movements of Neoclassicism and the Gothic Revival, and discussing its relationship with the political and social developments of the era. He not only looks at how artists as diverse as Goya, Delacroix, Friedrich and Turner responded to landscapes or depicted historical events, but also examines artists such as David and Ingres who are not usually consideredRomantics. As a result, the reader is given a clear understanding of a complex movement that produced some of the greatest European art, literature and music.

[英]大卫·布莱尼·布朗（David Blayney Brown），泰特不列颠美术馆高级策展人，负责透纳遗赠作品的管理工作。他为塞缪尔·帕尔默、大卫·威尔基、透纳等浪漫主义艺术家写过专著。此外，他也经常给《伯林顿杂志》（Burlington Magazine）和《大师素描》（Master Drawings）供稿。