Final answer:
Romanticism and Realism are both art movements that evoke emotion but differ in their representation of life and nature. Romanticism idealizes and seeks the awe in nature while Realism focuses on truthful portrayals of the everyday and the working class.
Step-by-step explanation:
Similarities and Differences Between Romanticism and Realism
Although Romanticism and Realism are distinct movements in the history of art, they share some common ground in their later historical timeline and a reaction to preceding art traditions. Romanticism, which began in the late 18th century, primarily in France and England, emphasized the emotional experience, the natural world, and often the heroic individual set against a dramatic backdrop.
This movement sought to capture the awe-inspiring forces of nature and profound human emotions, as seen in works such as 'Wanderer above the Sea of Fog' (1818) by Caspar David Friedrich.
In contrast, Realism emerged in the mid-19th century as a reaction against the exotic and emotional excesses of Romanticism. It focused on portraying everyday life and ordinary people with sincerity, often highlighting the struggles of the working class. Artists like Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet aimed to represent reality without embellishment, a distinct shift from Romanticism's idealization of subjects.
While both movements strove to evoke strong emotional responses from their audiences, their approaches were different: Romanticism did so through idealization and grandeur, whereas Realism did so through truthful, unvarnished representations of contemporary life.