References to 19th century Romanticist Paintings in the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall.


Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich (1818)
The screenshot here may not assemble Friedrich's famous painting much. But the scene from the film does give a powerful, existentialist sensation in the face of an overwhelming, moving (flags in the wind ~ sea of fog) scenery.

 Baron Rene Hyacinthe Holstein by Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse (1818)
Q's hairstyle is very typical in the Regency Era: medium at the sides and back, long on top where the hair was brushed to look curly and messy. This hairstyle is found in many portraits of men in the period

Riesengebirge by Caspar David Friedrich (1810)


 Monarch Of The Glen by Edwin Henry (1851)


Landscape Solitary Tree by Casper Friedrich (1822)


Burial of Atala by Anne Louis Girodet (1808)



 Snow Storm by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1842)


Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by John Martin (1852)


Burning of the Houses of Parliament by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1834)
Numerous shots of the burning Skyfall mansion resemble closely with Turner's paintings of skies - characterized by radiant and yet blurry fires consuming and blending into the surroundings in the form of clouds and fog  



 Joseph Mallord William Turner's The Fighting Temeraire (1838)
When James Bond 007 meets Q, the two discuss one of Turner's famous paintings. It depicts the gunship H.M.S. Temeraire, which played a distinguished role in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, being towed towards London to be broken up for scrap. The ship was meant for fighting, but now its time was up. The conversation between 007 and Q is somewhat symbolic (of 007 himself, or of Britain):
Q: It always makes me feel a little melancholy. Grand old war ship, being ignominiously hauled away to scrap...What do you see?
007: A bloody big ship.
Thomas Buttersworth’s H.M.S. “Victory” (the Battle of Trafalgar) (1825)
At the final scene of Skyfall, as James Bond meets the new M, the painting in the center of the the scene also depicts the Battle of Trafalgar. This time it is the H.M.S. Victory leading Britain to victory (but at the price of Britain's greatest admiral Horatio Nelson, or M?)