Museo Nacional del Romanticismo

Romanticism was a cultural movement that developed in Europe during the first half of the nineteenth century. It championed individual freedom and subjectivity, heightened feelings, and a new conception of nature. It reached Spain relatively late, following the death of Ferdinand VII in 1833, when intellectuals who had been in exile returned, bringing these new ideas with them. This coincided chronologically with the reign of Isabella II (1833–68).
Romanticism had a significant impact on literature, through which it was primarily introduced. Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino [Don Álvaro or the Force of Destiny], written by the Duke of Rivas (1791–1865) and premiered in 1835, is considered the first fully Romantic play. The texts published in the magazine El Artista, together with their carefully crafted lithographic illustrations, also served as a vehicle for spreading Romantic ideals. This short-lived publication was founded by the writer Eugenio de Ochoa (1815–1872) and the painter Federico de Madrazo (1815–1894), who had lived in Paris, where they came into contact with the new artistic movements and the magazine L’Artiste, which inspired them to create their own. It featured biographical sketches of illustrious Spaniards, descriptions of monuments, the discourses on the fine arts and tales of dark and mysterious settings with accompanying illustrations by renowned artists such as Carlos Luis de Ribera (1815–1891), Pharamond Blanchard (1805–1873) and Federico de Madrazo himself.
Far from being confined to literature and painting, Romanticism influenced all the arts – music, theatre and dance – and permeated all aspects of social life, both public and private. Similarly, Romantic ideals were reflected in fashion and physical appearance. Pale youths with dreamy gazes and tragic destinies came to considered desirable.

During the Romantic period, a new conception of the artist emerged. Based on values such as individualism, originality and creativity, it gave rise to the notion of the ‘genius’.
This period also saw a shift in the social status and perception of artists, who became independent creators serving a new clientele: the wealthy bourgeoisie, who were eager to assert their way of life and values. As a result of this new sensibility, portraiture, which had always occupied a lower position in the academic hierarchy of genres, came to play an indisputable leading role. At the same time, artists engaged in self-portraiture to enhance their own prestige – an act not lacking in vanity that enabled them to delve into the deepest recesses of their own psychology.
In this cultural milieu, gatherings and friendships between artists of various genres were commonplace, in keeping with the Romantic ideal of artistic brotherhood and the breaking down of barriers between literature, thinking and the visual arts. A testament to this friendship between painters and poets is the portrait that Antonio María Esquivel (1806–1857) painted of José de Espronceda (1808–1842), a writer who embodied the Romantic ideal of freedom, as expressed in his famous Canción del pirata [The Pirate’s Song]. The two men shared a similar liberal ideology and moved in the same cultural and academic circles in Madrid. The painting conveys the affection and admiration they held for one another.
There was also an interest in recording the deaths of artists – many of whom died prematurely – in the form of tribute paintings. Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836–1870), for instance, was portrayed on his deathbed by Vicente Palmaroli (1834–1896). Palmaroli depicts the genius without affectation, almost as if he were asleep, in an extraordinary sketch from life that reflects the friendship and affection that bound the painter to the celebrated poet.   

The consideration of artists as creative geniuses led to the cult of the individual, with people treasuring mementoes and examples of their talent. This gave rise to what were known as ‘álbumes de señoritas’ – literally ‘ladies’ albums’, although they were in fact used by both men and women. Owners might send them to musicians, painters or writers, asking for a small sample of their work. Alternatively, they might request contributions during soirées held at their homes and attended by intellectuals and representatives of all disciplines. The album that belonged to Tomasa Andrés (1837–1883), the wife of the playwright Manuel Bretón de los Herreros (1796–1873), appears to fall into the first category, as none of the literary contributions show any signs of improvisation.
Objects were also treasured as mementoes of artists. An example is the funeral ribbon worn by the editor of the newspaper La Época as the press representative at the burial of the writer José Zorrilla (1817–1893). The funeral of the author of Don Juan Tenorio, a masterpiece of Spanish Romantic theatre, drew more than 50,000 mourners in a procession of over three hundred carriages, making it a significant social occasion. However, one of the most distinctive ways in which Romanticism preserved memories of loved ones was through personal keepsakes, specifically a lock of their hair. They were stored in special pieces of jewellery called lockets or in luxurious caskets, as with the lock of hair belonging to Mariano José de Larra (1809–1837). Larra’s lock of hair is accompanied by a note certifying its provenance, which highlights the intention to honour both the loved one (as it belonged to his widow) and the artist.

The Romantics were eventually typecast and condemned above all for their fashionable and dapper appearance and their lofty passions. Moreover, these passions led some followers of the movement to commit reprehensible excesses. The tragic fate of the protagonist of The Sorrows of Young Werther, a novel by Goethe (1749–1832), was blamed for a phenomenon that was unfortunately occurring, imitation suicides. The Romantics were thus criticised in literature and the press, particularly from 1836 onwards when their ideas became better known thanks to the premiere of Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino and the publication of the magazine El Artista. One of the most notable satires came from Ramón Mesonero Romanos (1803–1882), who used a supposed nephew of his to exemplify the most exaggerated Romantic characteristics in terms of both physical appearance and passionate, idealistic nature in his piece ‘El Romanticismo y los Románticos’ [Romanticism and the Romantics]. Art also joined in the criticism; a paradigmatic example is the pair of canvases in the Museo del Romanticismo, collectively known as Satires of the Romantic Suicide. In these works, the artist Leonardo Alenza (1807–1845), a Romantic painter whose works were markedly satirical, mocks the abovementioned ‘fashion’ for committing suicide and the lofty sentiments of the movement’s followers, who aspired to achieve fame and glory. In his day, these works were referred to as The Romantics!, the exclamation mark indicating a somewhat paternalistic and condescending tone. According to the Marquis of Cerralbo, who owned the works until 1921, when he gifted them to the Museo Romántico: ‘I believe there is no greater exaggeration of Romanticism than these two paintings’.