Bedroom picture

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Giovanni: Pigeon Madonna, after 1914, in the classic towel format

The term bedroom picture was common in art publishing in the early 20th century. He referred to an oil print in the long, wide format, the so-called "towel format", which was intended to be hung over the double beds. Due to its format, the picture fit well into the often cramped, low apartments of its buyers. Today the exaggeratedly kitschy pictures are again appreciated with a wink and ironic and enjoy cult status, so to speak

Formats and motifs

Giovanni: Christ in the field of wheat, after Johannes Raphael Wehle and going back to a motif created in 1835 by the Nazarene Franz Ittenbach

The towel format measured 52 × 120 cm. Variations were 33/36 × 76/78 or 19 × 38, later 60 × 108 and 50 × 100 cm. The pictures were also laid out so that they could be framed and cropped in various ways. In the early 1920s, the oval frame enjoyed great popularity, later the framing with blunt corners. The industry-typical term "towel format" was used as early as 1905, before the invention of the bedroom image, and mostly referred to narrow portrait formats, only rarely a wide format.

The term “bedroom picture” first appeared in the advertisements of the art publisher J. Baruch from 1916. However, the picture format was invented and popularized by Adolf May junior. in Dresden. He commissioned Hans Zatzka for numerous bedroom pictures, including the Elfenreigen , which was sold from 1914 and is often viewed as a prototype for this genre. Since the mid-1920s a broader range of picture themes appeared, for example the Munich art publisher R. Wagner recommended the “Creation of Adam after Michelangelo” as an “artistically perfect bedroom picture for educated circles”. Furthermore, mother-child scenes were increasingly offered. Often the elf-like, festively dressed female figures in the secular bedroom pictures are surrounded by angelic children's figures. These pictures show overcrowded rooms or fantastic parks that have been deliberately exaggerated into the unrealistic.

The religious motifs, apart from the Madonna images, were very popular with both denominations. Here the “Mount of Olives Christ” by Giovanni ( Josef Untersberger ) was a pioneer.

Sale and criticism

Advertisement for bedroom pictures in the art trade , 1926

Dealers often sold the bedroom pictures from house to house; the clientele consisted mainly of workers and minor officials. In 1925 the trade journal Der Kunsthandel reported that the pictures would be sold for 60 marks with a down payment of 5 marks and weekly payments. The companies would make 200% earnings, of which the traveler would get 15%.

Bedroom pictures became immensely popular in the 1920s and soon thereafter were considered unart. In 1928 the art trade referred to them as "Schmarren" and "sweet kitsch". The Munich poet and collector of graphics Eugen Roth called bedroom pictures “deliberate poisoning” because of their colors and design, a “profit-addicted deception of the well-meaning but unfortunately unsuspecting buyer”. He welcomed the anti-kitsch policy of the Nazi government.

literature

  • Wolfgang Brückner: Elfenreigen - wedding dream. The oil pressure production 1880–1940. DuMont Schauberg, Cologne 1974, ISBN 3-7701-0762-4
  • Bruno Langner: Evangelical world of images. Prints between 1850 and 1950 (= publications and catalogs of the Franconian Open Air Museum 16; catalogs of the Hohenloher Open Air Museum 9). Pp. 108-112. Verlag Fränkisches Freilandmuseum, Bad Windsheim 1992, ISBN 3-926834-22-6

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Review of: Günter mentioning: bedroom pictures roaring deer, dancing elves, and Jesus knocking on the door, Vienna 2000, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung July 10, 2001.
  2. ^ Brückner: Elfenreigen - Hochzeitstraum , p. 21
  3. ↑ a b Christa Pieske : Pictures for everyone. Mural prints 1840–1940 (= writings of the Museum für Deutsche Volkskunde Berlin 15), p. 42. Keyser, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-87405-188-9
  4. ^ Brückner: Elfenreigen - Hochzeitstraum , p. 96
  5. ↑ Otto Friemann: The epidemic of the picture trade on the street and from house to house. Der Kunsthandel 17 (1925): 283–285. Quoted in Langner: Evangelische Bilderwelt , p. 109
  6. ↑ Quoted in Brückner: Elfenreigen - Hochzeitstraum , p. 23
  7. ^ Eugen Roth: Art, Kitsch and Trash. More beautiful home. Erbe und Gegenwart 33 (1938): 129-138. Quoted in Langner: Evangelische Bilderwelt , p. 110