A major characteristic of Romanticism is its focus on the individual. Its artistic expression was bound to individual impressions, moods,feelings,...

Romanticism was in part a reaction to the Enlightenment and its focus on reason. The style of Classicism that prevailed during the Enlightenment focused on order, calm, and balance. Romanticism, on the other hand, made personal experience and sensation the most important mean of expression. In addition, Romanticism was a reaction against industrialization and its emphasis on progress instead of on the beauties of nature and on groups rather than the individual. In Europe and the U.S., many intellectuals and artists believed that industrialization threatened the individual and nature, and Romanticism was their attempt to recover the experience of the individual. Romanticism prioritized turning back the clock to recover experiences that were characteristic of life before industrialization, including individual experience; feeling and emotion over progress and reason; and the importance of childhood and innocence.