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| Auguste Bernard (called Bernard d'Agesci) Lady Reading the Letters of Heloise and Abelard ca. 1780 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Théodore Géricault Prancing Horse ca. 1808-1812 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Théodore Géricault Sheet of Studies ca. 1813-14 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Anne-Louis Girodet Sketch for The Revolt of Cairo ca. 1810 oil on paper, mounted on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Anne-Louis Girodet Portrait of the Katchef Dahouth, Christian Mameluke 1804 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Eugène Delacroix The Death of Sardanapalus 1827 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Eugène Delacroix The Death of Sardanapalus (smaller replica painted by the artist) 1844 oil on canvas Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Eugène Delacroix Figure Study for The Death of Sardanapalus ca. 1827 drawing (pastel) Art Institute of Chicago |
ROMANTICISM – It was recognized at the time and has been agreed since that there was a shift of priorities, a loss of shared certainties and a corresponding emphasis on individual experience of the world which showed its first signs in, and at the time of, the French Revolution and climaxed in the 1830s, after the French monarchy had been restored and the first revolution (1830) against it had reminded society that all systems were under scrutiny. These were international portents. Romanticism was a European movement, significant contributions coming from all sides. The word 'romantic' referred in the first place to verbal and visual attempts to echo the pre-Renaissance simplicities of medieval chivalric romances; it came to imply a valuing of the imagination over reason and a preference for irregularities over conventional order. German writers, among them Goethe, claimed that the best creative impulses originated in dark regions of the mind untouched by reason and questioned the need for consequentiality and harmony. Everywhere the concepts of an organic universe and of creativity as an organic process gained ground, becoming the tacit premise for innovation in art. . . . Originality and authenticity were offered as yardsticks, on occasion also moral virtue though it was at once countered with the claim that the satisfactions art offered were self-justifying and need not reflect ethical systems. A more general, and essentially Romantic, moral principle was invoked: The artist should paint not only what he sees before him but also what he sees within himself. But if he sees nothing within himself he should also forego painting what he sees before him – (Caspar David Friedrich).
– The Yale Dictionary of Art and Artists by Erika Langmuir and Norbert Lynton (Yale University Press, 2000)
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| Eugène Delacroix Sketches of Tigers and of Men in 16th-century Costume 1828-29 drawing, with watercolor Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Eugène Delacroix Lion Hunt 1860-61 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Eugène Delacroix The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan 1826 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| attributed to Theodor von Holst Descent to Hell before 1844 wash drawing, with gouache Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Theodor von Holst Scene from Goethe's Faust - Auerbach's Cellar before 1844 watercolor and gouache Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Giuseppe Bernardino Bison Study of a Lion before 1844 drawing Minneapolis Institute of Art |