The World Beyond: Romantic Art and the Supernatural

The Romantic era was shaped by the rationalism of Enlightenment and the chaos of revolution, and it was built on the art, literature, and philosophy of the eras before it. Though the history of Romantic art is fascinating, equally fascinating is its fantasy. This gallery studies the various depictions and suggestions of the supernatural in Romantic visual culture: images portraying scenes from Milton, those exploring allegories, and images that cast political figures as wizards and demons. Their strangeness is inescapable, and their sublimity conveys a sense of the irrational. Consequently, each image implies or glimpses the specter of an invisible world.

Date Published

September 2023

Exhibit Items

John Skippe

John Skippe was better known as a collector than as an artist, and he is generally considered an amateur with regard to both his woodcuts and his later paintings (Burch 78).

Abraham and the Angels

Angelica Kauffmann

Angelica Kauffman was commissioned to paint four allegorical figures representing the four components of painting: design, composition, invention, and color.

Colour

John Flaxman

This image is an illustration for paragraph 1271 of Emanuel Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia. This paragraph describes demons who

Evil Spirits Cast Out

Henry Fuseli

Henry Fuseli is known for his grotesque, eerie images, especially The Nightmare, which he painted in 1781 (Fuseli 64).

Midnight

Peter and Children Surrounded by Flying Figures

Thomas Stothard, Robert Paltock

This image is an illustration for Robert Paltock’s book, The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, a Cornish Man. The scene is not taken directly from the text, but portrays Peter, his children, and three of the flying men he encounters on his journey (Paltock 8).

Peter and his Children Visited by Three Flying Figures

Unknown

George III is portrayed as Prospero the wizard in his long black cloak, holding a book bearing the words “justice” and “integrity” and a long, whip-like wand. He stands on a landmass labeled “Albion,” a tattered French flag under his feet.

Prospero on the Enchanted Island

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Robert Wallis

Stonehenge has existed for thousands of years, making it a symbol of permanence and an indication of eras past difficult for humans to comprehend in their extensive entirety.

Stonehenge

John Milton, John Martin

John Martin was one of the most popular artists of his day. The artist Thomas Cole, the author Victor Hugo, and the composer Hector Berlioz all drew inspiration from Martin’s work. He was one of the few painters who did his own engravings.

The Fall of the Rebel Angels

Unknown

This political caricature satirizes Fuseli's The Nightmare, utilizing the latter's Gothic theme to combine a fear of the unknown with a critique of government exploitation.John Bull (indicated by the name on the chamber pot under his bed) sleeps under a grey blanket, su

The Night Mare

James Gillray

This satirical commentary on the Regency Crisis and the madness of George III portrays the leading government officials of the time—Pitt the Younger, Edward Thurlow, and Henry Dundas—as the the three witches from Shakespeare's Macbeth, parodying Fuseli's own depiction o