Neo-Romanticism: Origins & Evolution

Neo-Romanticism was a mid-20th-century British art movement that redefined landscape and the human figure through emotion and spirituality. Rejecting strict realism, its artists created “mind landscapes” rather than topographical ones, transforming nature through memory, feeling, and personal symbolism. Nature became an expressive and psychological force, shaped by the cultural and emotional realities of the period.

Neo-Romanticism: Origins and Evolution traces the development of the movement through works by Keith Vaughan, John Piper, Graham Sutherland, John Minton, Michael Ayrton, Robert Colquhoun, Prunella Clough, and John Craxton. Together, these artists demonstrate the breadth of Neo-Romanticism, from introspective figurative studies to powerful reimaginings of landscape and place. Highlights include John Piper’s Stonesfield Oxen (1943), originally exhibited in Artists of Fame and Promise at the Leicester Galleries, situating the movement firmly within the context of wartime Britain and its emerging artistic voices.

Michael Ayrton

William Blake

Prunella Clough

John Craxton

Paul Drury

F. L. Griggs

John Minton

Samuel Palmer

John Piper

Graham Sutherland

Robin Tanner

Keith Vaughan