BIEDERMEIER PAINTING Geraldine Norman Reality Observed In Genre, Portrait and Landscape HCDJ 1987 1st Edition
Author: Geraldine Norman
Illustrations: Colour plates
ISBN: 0-500-23493-0
Category: Art History
Format: Large hardcover, dustjacket
Publication Date: 1987, First Edition
Size: 29.5cm x 25cm x 2.5cm
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Country of origin: UK
Pages: 192
Weight: 1.5kg
Description:
BIEDERMEIER PAINTING Geraldine Norman Reality Observed In Genre, Portrait and Landscape
Comprehensive art history volume written by journalist and art historian Geraldine Norman. Published by Thames & Hudson in 1987, the book explores the cultural and artistic boom that occurred in Northern and Central Europe during the relatively peaceful 30-year period between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the revolutions of 1848.
The Rise of Middle-Class Art: Norman highlights how Biedermeier art shifted away from grand, aristocratic themes to mirror the comfortable, domestic, and pragmatic lives of the emerging middle class.
Observation of Reality: The subtitle emphasizes a focus on "reality observed". The book illustrates how artists favored precision, realism, and a quiet emotional depth over the highly dramatised, volatile Romanticism seen elsewhere in Europe
Core Mediums: The book explores how this unique cultural mindset manifested across three primary artistic expressions:
Genre scenes: Everyday domestic life, quiet rooms, and working people.
Portraits: Honest, unpretentious captures of family members and citizens.
Landscapes: Serene, local regional vistas captured with technical clarity
Rather than treating Biedermeier as a monolithic movement, Norman structures the history geographically. The text maps out how different art centres developed their own distinct flavors of the style across several key European hubs:
Vienna & Berlin: The primary epicentres where the style heavily influenced bourgeois lifestyle.
Copenhagen & Munich: Showcasing Scandinavian clarity and Bavarian narrative style.
Düsseldorf & Dresden: Exploring the famous regional art academies of the era.
The Italian Experience: How northern Biedermeier painters adapted their style when traveling to work under the Mediterranean sun
Over 110 illustrations (including 80 full-page color plates) that serve as a visual archive of prominent and lesser-known Germanic and Central European masters of the era
Condition:
Near New Order