Glossary Term: American Romantic
American Romanticism grew out of the broader Romantic style of the early 1800s. Romanticism was a reaction to the Neoclassical ideal of order and civilization. Romantics created individualistic art that seeks truth and deep emotion in the beauty of nature. They sought out nature for its own sake, not as a setting for human endeavor. And instead of portraying wild nature from an objective distance, American Romantics created paintings that involved the viewer as a participant in nature. American Romantics looked to the American wilderness as the roots of a unique American character. This perspective helped artists like Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, and Thomas Moran free themselves of conventional European art styles and experiment with new subject matter and brush techniques to capture the glorious American landscape.

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