For the Romantics, the rules of art had to be tested, challenged, or even discarded. Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) declared that the artist’s only law should be his feelings. Similarly, American painter Washington Allston wrote, “Trust your own genius, listen to the voice within you, and sooner or later she will make herself understood not only to you, but she will enable you to translate her language to the world, and this it is which forms the only real merit of any work of art.” This emphasis on personal emotion and inner vision marked a turning point in how artists approached their craft. 

In his painting,  Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog , Friedrich shows a solitary man standing on a rocky ledge, facing away from the viewer, gazing out over a vast, fog-covered landscape with distant ridges and peaks breaking through. It’s been considered one of the masterpieces of Romanticism. The image suggests deep self-reflection and the contemplation of life’s path, while the awe-inspiring natural setting evokes the sublime—a sense of beauty mixed with power and mystery, placing man before nature’s immensity.

The word “academic” began to take on negative connotations—suggesting something stiff, lifeless, or overly controlled. Romantic artists rejected this rigidity in favor of spontaneity and emotional intensity. Brushstrokes became quicker, more expressive, and works deliberately avoided impersonal qualities. The artist’s feelings were no longer concealed but boldly foregrounded in the art itself.

Francisco Goya (1746–1828) was a groundbreaking Spanish painter whose work was influenced by Velázquez and Rembrandt, but not by antiquity or the idealized traditions of the Renaissance. Unique even among the highly individualistic artists of his time, Goya forged a powerful and deeply personal style that often challenged authority and tradition.

The Third of May, 1808 (1814) - This iconic painting reflects a moment of national trauma during the Napoleonic occupation of Spain. In 1808, Napoleon's army invaded and conquered Spain. Initially, Goya and other citizens, disillusioned by the corrupt Spanish monarchy, hoped Napoleon would introduce much-needed liberal reforms. Instead, they were met with the brutality of foreign rule.

The Third of May commemorates the Spanish resistance and the tragic execution of Madrid citizens by French troops — a brutal crackdown following a failed uprising.

Commissioned by a liberal group, the painting is widely recognized as the first major work of art to protest war and political oppression. It marks a turning point in the role of art as a tool of social protest.

Key Features of the Painting:

• The firing squad is rendered as a faceless, mechanical force of violence — emotionless and dehumanized.

• The victims, in contrast, are individualized and expressive, especially the central figure.

• The man about to be shot is flooded in light, his arms outstretched in a pose reminiscent of Christ on the cross — reinforcing his innocence and martyrdom.

• The light source, a stark lantern in the center of the scene, replaces the traditional divine light of Baroque religious paintings. Here, it's artificial—perhaps suggesting the absence of divine intervention in modern violence.

• Goya uses dramatic lighting, asymmetry, intense color, and loose brushwork to heighten emotional impact.

• The stark contrast between light and dark creates an oppressive atmosphere of fear and futility.

• In the distant background of the painting, a church sits in silence, its facade dimly lit but emotionally and physically detached from the central action. In traditional Baroque religious art, the church or divine presence offers salvation or witness to holiness. In Goya’s modern reinterpretation, the church becomes a silent backdrop, irrelevant or unwilling to confront the brutality of the present.

Goya shifts the traditional focus from heroic victors to suffering victims, making this one of the earliest and most powerful examples of modern propaganda art. His raw portrayal of violence and injustice influenced later artists like Manet, Picasso, and countless others confronting war and oppression in their time.

Théodore Géricault (1791–1824) - was one of the most gifted French painters of the early Romantic movement. Like Goya, he was drawn to contemporary social and political injustices and used art to respond to real events.

The Raft of the Medusa  is Géricault’s most ambitious painting. It is based on a modern tragedy that shocked the nation. In 1816, the French government ship Medusa ran aground off the coast of West Africa due to the incompetence of a politically appointed captain. While the officers escaped in lifeboats, 150 passengers were abandoned on a makeshift raft. After 14 days at sea, only 15 survived, resorting to cannibalism to stay alive.

• Géricault chose this subject as a direct critique of the monarchy, which had appointed the unqualified captain.

• He approached the painting like an investigative journalist—interviewing survivors, studying corpses in the morgue, and constructing a scale model of the raft in his studio.

• Much like David’s Death of Marat, it combines political purpose with meticulous realism, but here, the grandeur of scale is used to elevate ordinary people, not heroic martyrs or saints.

The Composition:

• The moment captured is one of desperate hope: survivors, piled onto a rotting raft, frantically signal to a distant ship—the Argus—which ironically did not rescue them until the next day.

• The dynamic diagonal composition sweeps from the dead and dying in the foreground up to the waving figure, mimicking the surge of the ocean and intensifying the emotional drama.

• Géricault intentionally gave the men idealized, muscular bodies, though they were in truth emaciated, to create a timeless image of human struggle—not mere reportage.

• The chiaroscuro and emotional pathos elevate the scene into a universal cry of anguish—about survival, injustice, and the failure of leadership.

Despite the harsh truth behind the story—including cannibalism—Géricault withheld shock for shock’s sake. Instead, he created a composition that invites viewers to reflect on suffering, survival, and moral failure on a broader, existential level.

Géricault died young in 1824 after a riding accident. His early death left a legacy that was carried forward by Eugène Delacroix, who would become the central figure of French Romantic painting.