This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery. Please follow the links below for related online resources or visit our current exhibitions schedule.
This exhibition, drawing from the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art, highlights many fine British prints and drawings from the late-18th through the early 20th centuries. Trends in British romantic art of the time include a fascination with the individual and the visionary, a revival of interest in medieval art and subject matter, and a revolt against conventional ideas and styles. The romantic artist's passionate identification with nature led to new developments in landscape, an area particularly well represented in the Gallery's collection by artists as varied as David Cox, Cornelius Varley, and John Ruskin. The romantic fascination with extremes of human behavior found artistic expression in the works of Henry Fuseli and his circle and William Blake. Romanticism in its purest form peaked before the middle of the 19th century, but many of its major trends lingered in the work of pre-Raphaelite artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones, or reappeared in the 20th century with followers of William Blake and Palmer such as F. L. Griggs and the early Graham Sutherland. Rossetti's drawing of Desdemona's Death-Song (1875/1880), a major new acquisition for the Gallery, will be exhibited for the first time.
Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Sponsor: The exhibition is supported by a generous grant from the Thaw Charitable Trust.