Reflections on European Romanticism(s) in the Visual Arts: State of Research and Future Perspectives
Organisation: Elisabeth Ansel, Johannes Grave, Christin Neubauer, Mira Claire Zadrozny

Almost 100 years ago, in 1924, Arthur O. Lovejoy raised the fundamental question of whether Romanticism could be characterised as a movement that transcended national borders. More recent comprehensive monographs on Romanticism demonstrate that the issue is still controversial today. The European dimension of Romanticism and, thus, the commonalities between its different national manifestations are elaborated once again.

In relation to Romantic art, the situation is by no means simpler or clearer. Here, the question of whether to talk about several independently considered Romanticisms or one European Romanticism has seldom been asked. Possible overarching similarities hardly come into the focus of research, not least because too little is known about the latest work and discussions on Romanticisms in other languages.

The conference aims to take a close look on this problem and explore current tendencies in Romantic studies. We focus on significant questions, theoretical and methodological conjunctures as well as blind spots in recent research. By concentrating on painting, drawing and printmaking, we address those art forms in which Romantic impulses are probably most evident.

Conference Programme:

Wednesday, September 14
9:00 Registration
9:30 Welcome and Introduction

PANEL 1
Chair: Lars Zieke

10:00 Adria Daraban (Cottbus-Senftenberg): Figures of the Fragmentary: Romanticism in Architectural Discourses of the Modern

11:00 Coffee

11:20 Cora Gilroy-Ware (Oxford): “The dim borderland of ideal beauty”: Thomas Stothard and the Romantic Body

12:20 Julie Ramos (Strasbourg): “Je est un autre”: On the Plasticity of India in European Romanticism

13:20 Lunch

PANEL 2
Chair: Britta Hochkirchen

14:20 Ralph Ubl (Basel): Liberalism and Romanticism

15:20 Christine Tauber (Munich): Romantic Classicism or Classicist Romanticism? New Perspectives on French Romantisme

16:20 Coffee

16:40 Barthélémy Jobert (Paris): French and British Romanticisms: Print Matters

18:00 Tim Barringer (New Haven): Anglo-Romantic Art: Current Perspectives

20:00 Conference Dinner

Thursday, September 15
9:15 Welcome

PANEL 3
Chair: Elisabeth Ansel

9:30 Antoon Erftemeijer (Haarlem): Nature – Art – God: The Role of Religion in the Experience and Depiction of Nature by Dutch Landscape Painters, c. 1780–1870

10:30 Coffee

10:50 Carl-Johan Olsson (Stockholm): Topography & Constitutive Blanks: On the Interactive Narrativity of Landscape Painting

11:50 Christian Scholl (Hildesheim): “Something more than imitations of nature”: Thomas Cole’s Late Landscapes and Romanticism

12:50 Lunch

PANEL 4
Chair: Mira Claire Zadrozny

13:50 Kurt W. Forster (Princeton): Romanticism: National and Regional in Its Manifestations, European in Its Shared Scientific Interests

14:50 Cordula Grewe (Bloomington): Style Versus Concept: Some Methodological Reflections on Romanticism’s Gestalt

15:50 Coffee

16:10 Michael Thimann (Göttingen): The Art of Romanticism in Germany and Its Narratives

18:30 Uhr Reception at “Schillers Gartenhaus”

Friday, September 16
9:15 Welcome

PANEL 5
Chair: Christin Neubauer

9:30 Miguel Angel Gaete (York): Projection and Occupation: Romanticism and the German National Discourse in Carl Alexander Simon

10:30 Holger Birkholz (Dresden): Raden Saleh in Dresden: Transcultural Romanticism

11:30 Coffee

12:00 Final Discussion: Mechthild Fend and Johannes Grave
13:00 End of Conference

Please register at europaeischeromantikuni-jena.de by 15 August 2022. The conference will be held in a hybrid format. Please let us know if you would like to attend in person or via Zoom.

Abstracts and conference programme on www.kuk.uni-jena.de/conference-romanticism
Funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG – German Research Foundation)