Skip to main content

Romantic Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

ROMANTIC STYLE

In emphasizing emotion and imagination, romantic art shifted away from the restraint of classicism and neoclassicism that had dominated art in Europe since the Renaissance. Romanticism achieved its greatest popularity in art, literature, music and philosophy between 1780 and 1830, although its expression of individual experiences ranging from awe to passion informed culture in the decades after.

Landscape painting was especially popular during the romantic period, as were nature studies of wild animals and fantasies of exotic lands. Romanticism varied across Europe as it reacted to the rise of industrialization, a more personal relationship with faith that was distanced from the church and the rationalist thinking of the Enlightenment.

British painters such as John Constable and J.M.W. Turner responded dramatically to the light and atmosphere of the natural world, while William Blake conveyed humanity’s connection to the divine in his visionary art. In Germany, the late-18th-century Sturm und Drang, or Storm and Drive, movement, with its probing of the unconscious, inspired a sense of mystery in work by romantic artists such as Caspar David Friedrich and Philipp Otto Runge. In France, where the French Revolution had turned tradition upside down, Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix used lush brushwork to paint monumental canvases with tumultuous scenes of nature and history.

The romantic movement and its subject matter were a significant influence on the Pre-Raphaelites, Symbolists and the American painters of the Hudson River School, as well as on other cultural movements in the 19th and 20th centuries that saw artists build on this perspective in which art was guided by emotion rather than reason.

Find a collection of romantic paintings, sculptures, prints and multiples and more art on 1stDibs.

to
1
1
1
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
284
205
145
81
52
29
19
18
17
16
7
3
2
1
1
1
1
7
134
48
21
3
1
2
1
1
10
5
7
1
1
1
1
Style: Romantic
Period: 1980s
Artists and their muses
Located in London, GB
Playboy School, 20th Century Artists and their muses: Titian and Violante; Sir Peter Lely and Nell Gwyn; Francois Boucher and Louise O’Murphy; Hogarth, Nell...
Category

1980s Romantic Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Ink, Watercolor, Pencil

Related Items
Napoleon at the Head of His Grande Armée, His Generals and the Prussian Hussars
Located in Cotignac, FR
Pencil, chalk and watercolour depiction of Napoleon at the head of his generals by French artist Jean Ducel. The work is signed bottom right. A bold and graphic depiction of Napoleo...
Category

Late 20th Century Romantic Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Chalk, Crayon, Cardboard, Pencil

French School 19th century, Le Lavoir (The washing place), watercolor on paper,
Located in Paris, FR
French School, first half of the 19th century Le Lavoir (The washing place) Watercolor and pencil heightened with white gouache Bears a monogramm R P B on the lower left 21.5 x 33.5 ...
Category

1820s Romantic Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache

Young Italian Woman Spinning Thread /// Antique Watercolor Rome Lady Landscape
By Luigi Olivetti
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Luigi Olivetti (Italian, 1856-1941) Title: "Young Italian Woman Spinning Thread" *Signed and dated by Olivetti lower center right Year: 1904 Medium: Original Watercolor Painting on paper Framing: Framed in a gold gilt wood frame Framed size: 30" x 23" Image size: 21" x 14" Condition: Minor wear to frame. In excellent condition Notes: Provenance: private collection - Cleveland, Ohio. The work is dated in Roman Numerals. Brass plate with artist's name attached lower center. Biography: Luigi Olivetti (Revere, Lombardy, November 11...
Category

Early 1900s Romantic Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Follower of Richard Parkes Bonington, A beached vessel on the coast
By Richard Parkes Bonington
Located in Harkstead, GB
A delicately painted view of figures by a beached fishing vessel on the coast Follower of Richard Parkes Bonington, 19th Century Figures on the shore by a beached vessel Watercolour...
Category

19th Century Romantic Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

English School, circa 1800 Georgian watercolor, The Sailor's return
Located in Harkstead, GB
A delightful rustic scene dating to circa 1800 with the sailor returning to his thankful wife and the domestic idyll of his country cottage. The harbour with sailing ships ferrying c...
Category

Early 19th Century Romantic Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Laid Paper

Sir David Muirhead Bone, A Mediterranean evening on a P & O cruise liner
Located in Harkstead, GB
A wonderfully evocative scene of a passenger looking out to sea on the deck of an ocean liner - from the golden age of cruising. Sir David Muirhead Bone On a P & O, Mediterranean ev...
Category

Mid-20th Century Romantic Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Gentlemen at the Races, Point to Pointing
Located in Cotignac, FR
Early 20th century watercolour of a gentleman on horseback with other riders in the background apparently signed or titled 'Count A de Monthaus'. Signed or titled bottom left. Presented in fine period gilt frame under glass. The artist has captured a moment of pause, the gentlemen rider in his fine clothes and bowler hat regarding his surroundings as his fellow riders continue the chase behind him, possibly a 'point to point'. Monthaus has captured the stance of the standing horse as well as the movement of the other horses. He has used white to give light and definition to the costume of the rider and the background. A lovely atmospheric and dynamic watercolour very much of its period and in the spirit of equine portraiture made famous by the likes of Sir Alfred Munnings. Sir Alfred James Munnings, KCVO PRA RI (8 October 1878 – 17 July 1959) was known as one of England's finest painters of horses, and as an outspoken critic of Modernism. Engaged by Lord Beaverbrook's Canadian War...
Category

Early 20th Century Romantic Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Pencil, Paper, Watercolor

Auguste Mayer (1805-1890) A seascape with a boat, signed drawing
Located in Paris, FR
Auguste Mayer (1803-1890 A seascape with a boat signed with the initials on the lower left Pencil and heightenings of white gouache on paper 17.5 x 26 cm In fairly good condition, ma...
Category

1860s Romantic Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Carbon Pencil, Gouache

An English scene of a Donkey and Rabbits in a field, with wild flowers
Located in Woodbury, CT
A wonderful English watercolor painting depicting A Donkey, Lambs and a Robin in a stable the night before Christmas.. This piece was drawn ...
Category

1990s Romantic Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Christmas night with Donkeys, a Robin and Lambs in a stable by a crib
Located in Woodbury, CT
A wonderful English watercolor painting depicting A Donkey, Lambs and a Robin in a stable the night before Christmas.. This piece was drawn ...
Category

1990s Romantic Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Jules-Eugène Lenepveu (1819-1898) Portrait of a man in profile, signed drawing
Located in Paris, FR
Jules-Eugène Lenepveu (1819-1898) Portrait of a man in profile signed on the lower right Pencil and heightenings of white gouache on paper 19.5 x 13 cm Framed : 29 x 22.7 cm Jules...
Category

1860s Romantic Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Pencil

Follower of Francis Wheatley, 19th century portrait of young maiden with flowers
Located in Harkstead, GB
A really charming, early 19th century portrait of a young maiden carrying a basket of flowers. The face is beautifully painted with a slight blush to her cheeks and striking touches ...
Category

Early 19th Century Romantic Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Paper, Pencil

Romantic drawings and watercolor paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Romantic drawings and watercolor paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add drawings and watercolor paintings created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Leo Primavesi, Dipen Bose, Ellsworth Woodward, and George Augustus Wallis. Frequently made by artists working with Paper, and Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Romantic drawings and watercolor paintings, so small editions measuring 3.59 inches across are also available. Prices for drawings and watercolor paintings made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $178 and tops out at $68,131, while the average work sells for $1,025.

Recently Viewed

View All