ABSTRACT
The term ‘Romantic’ is vague, having a number of uses. But its primary reference to the arts is historical. In painting, artists began to take their subjects from ordinary life rather than from the Bible or from classical mythology. In the eighteenth century the artist had a role not significantly different from that of the craftsman. The arts could no longer have the place they had in the old society, for that society no longer existed. New forms were needed and, in developing those forms, the artist would be in the forefront in creating a new kind of society. The French Revolution did not fulfil the hopes of its supporters. It was commerce rather than art which proved the dominant force during the nineteenth century, this being one of the high-points of the Industrial Revolution. In the earlier part of the nineteenth century there was no sharp distinction between popular and sophisticated art.
