Dutch Romantic School

The first half of the 19th century was the heyday of romance. The romantic painters were inspired by the subjects that were loved in the 17th century, such as interior, landscape, cityscape, seascape and genre piece. The romantic attitude to life was a reaction to the rationalistic thinking of the 18th-century Enlightenment. The romantic feeling and thinking focused on nature. The landscape painter was struck by its greatness, by its serene beauty, but also by its whimsy and sometimes devastating power.