Neoclassicism Exhibitions

Enlightenment & Romanticism · c. 1750–1850

Reason, civic virtue, antiquity

A return to the sobriety and civic ideals of ancient Greece and Rome, inspired by the Enlightenment's faith in reason. Painters such as Jacques-Louis David used sharp lines, austere compositions, and heroic subjects to call for moral duty over pleasure. It was the art of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era.