page_title: Interior portrait
section_title: Apogee in the 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Interior portrait / Apogee in the 19th century
context_page_description: The interior portrait or, in German, Zimmerbild, is a pictorial genre that appeared in Europe near the end of the 17th century and enjoyed a great vogue in the second half of the 19th century. It involves a careful, detailed representation of a living space, without any people. These paintings were generally rendered as watercolors and required great technical mastery, if little creativity. By the mid-20th century, although such scenes were still being created, photography had changed this style of painting into a form of intentional archaism.
context_section_description: The first historically important example of the interior portrait represents a small art gallery set up by the Empress Josephine at Malmaison in 1812. In this watercolor by Auguste-Siméon Garneray, we can see her harp, art collection and her shawl, left on an armchair. Thus a new element appears: the psychological elements of the décor and a palpable human presence. One can feel the owner's emotions and thoughts. In this sense, the paintings have truly become "portraits".
  The immense popularity of these paintings in the 19th century can be explained by many factors. Among the nouveau-riche and the bourgeoisie, great importance was given to the home as a place of comfort, intimacy and family. This period also saw a specialization (e.g. separate dining rooms) that were once known only to the very wealthy. These new "middle-classes" were also eager to copy aristocratic tastes and industrialization made a much wider variety of furniture easily affordable. Finally, decorative styles were constantly being changed and resurrected, so interior portraits were a way of preserving one's memories and bequeathing them to the next generation.
  Queen Victoria was very fond of these portraits as they allowed her to give the public a look at her loving family life and the comforts of home in a tasteful manner. The craze was thereby spread throughout the Royal Families of Europe. Due to the number of lavishly decorated palaces they possessed (The Winter Palace,  Tsarskoye Selo, Gatchina Palace, Peterhof Palace, Pavlovsk Palace...), the Tsars were among the most enthusiastic commissioners of interior portraits. Virtually all of their rooms (except the most private ones) were rendered at least once; some several times. These watercolors are considered to be among the best of their genre.
caption: The psychological dimensions of décor: interior portrait by Leopold Zielcke (1791–1861). Berlin, 1825
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