Room pictures

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Eduard Gaertner , Berlin 1849

The term room pictures denotes a genre of painting that dealt with the representation of - mostly private - interiors and was almost exclusively widespread in the cultural epoch of the Biedermeier period .

requirements

A characteristic of Biedermeier was the development towards simplicity and modesty - not as an ethical attitude, but as a question of style . Instead of exuberant forms and the abundant use of gold, simple, formally reduced objects and simple, but masterfully processed materials were now considered to be evidence of aesthetic quality. That particular kind of genteel humility was costly. The nobility and, increasingly, the wealthy bourgeoisie could afford them - and they had what they had achieved captured in pictures.

Form, content and use

Ferdinand Rothbart , Coburg 1848

Room pictures were available as drawings, watercolors and gouaches as well as in various mixed techniques. They were relatively small, an average landscape format measured about 32.5 × 22.5 cm, larger deviations up or down occurred, but were rare. In most cases, the presentations followed the principle of the peep box stage . The focus was often shifted slightly from the center to the left. These works were not the work of amateurs but of professional artists, some of whom were specialized "carpenters". Clear evidence of the appreciation that the genre enjoyed at times is a series of nine watercolors that the famous architectural painter Eduard Gaertner made of the interiors of the Berlin City Palace on behalf of the royal family .

The state of a certain interior space at a certain time was described with great accuracy - the appearance and placement of furniture, the colors and patterns of wallpaper, curtains and carpets, the decoration of the rooms with works of art, everyday objects or decorative objects. This detailed reproduction of the interior fittings shows how intensively the contemporaries dealt with the objects in their private environment and at the same time makes it clear that this was also wanted to be documented. People were seldom shown in these pictures, and if so, then hardly with their individual features, but in small form and engaged in an activity that corresponded to the purpose of the respective room. The individual was primarily indirectly present through the precise description of his private environment.

Room pictures were usually commissioned as personal gifts on certain occasions. The Prussian Princess Elizabeth gave her parents a picture of her Berlin nursery when she married young to Darmstadt went. And a watercolor of the study of Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hessen-Darmstadt was made as a copy after his death and was given away posthumously. The leaves were at most passed on, at least not publicly exhibited and not sold. They were put together into albums - a popular occupation at the time among society women - and viewed in a domestic setting. In addition to their emotional significance, these anthologies also became images of the understanding of art, the level of education and the social status of their owners.

Beginning and end

The earliest surviving room pictures come from Vienna (1815) and Munich (1820); There have been examples from Berlin since 1828. You can certainly find older, halfway comparable depictions - such as still lifes and the rendering of interiors in Dutch painting, as well as isolated interior descriptions and architectural designs. But only in the Biedermeier period, i.e. in the first half of the 19th century, and in a limited geographical area - in the German states and Austria - were room pictures an established, autonomous genre of painting.

In the historical sections that followed immediately, the pictures retained their private memory value for a while, but lost their importance due to the change in aesthetic views and individual habits. The desire to document one's own four walls in this special way was no longer as widespread as it was before. Those who nevertheless wanted this, made use of the “modern” medium of photography . With a greater distance to their creation, however, the room pictures of the Biedermeier became important again as sources of special information on cultural history . They hand down hardly any original details of room furnishings such as textiles (curtains, curtains, carpets, etc.) or completely ephemeral ones such as plant decorations. The actual installation and use of the contemporary furniture or smaller utensils and decorative objects can also be read from room pictures. If a picture is provided with a location, you can use it to study the individual characteristics of the respective regional furniture style, as the exact origin of furniture in museum ownership has often not been documented. In this way, statements can be made about certain regional or even local characteristics and preserved furniture whose origin is unknown can be classified accordingly.

gallery

  • Johann Erdmann Hummel, Berlin approx. 1820 (study sheet)

  • anonymous (EW), Vienna approx. 1820

  • Leopold Zielcke, Berlin around 1825

  • Ferdinand Rothbart, balcony room Winter Palace Gotha 1848

literature

  • Interiors of the Biedermeier period. Room watercolors from princely castles owned by the House of Hesse. Inventory catalog and catalog for the special exhibition . Imhof, Petersberg 2004, ISBN 3-937251-69-3 (including 96 full-page, color illustrations of detailed room pictures; 272 pages)
  • Katharina Küster-Heise: Time witness and memory . In: Schlösser Baden-Württemberg , ISSN 0943-5298, issue 4/2017, pp. 36-40 (in particular about the "Massenbach album" in the holdings of the State Museum Württemberg)
  • Laurie A. Stein: Room Pictures . Section IV in Biedermeier: The Invention of Simplicity . Exhibition catalog. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2006, ISBN 978-3-7757-1795-3 .

Web links

Commons : Room  Pictures - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files