Biedermeier
19th-century art movement from Central Europe
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Key Takeaways
- The Biedermeier period was an era in the art and culture of the German Confederation between 1815 and 1848 during which the middle classes grew in number and artists began producing works appealing to their sensibilities.
- The term originated in popular literature, before spreading to architecture, interior design, and visual arts.
- It is used mostly to denote the unchallenging artistic styles that flourished in the fields of literature, music, the visual arts and interior design.
- Political background The Biedermeier period does not refer to the era as a whole, but to a particular mood and set of trends that grew out of the unique underpinnings of the time in Central Europe.
- One was the growing urbanization and industrialization leading to a new urban middle class, which created a new kind of audience for the arts.
The Biedermeier period was an era in the art and culture of the German Confederation between 1815 and 1848 during which the middle classes grew in number and artists began producing works appealing to their sensibilities. The period began with the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and ended with the onset of the Revolutions of 1848. The term originated in popular literature, before spreading to architecture, interior design, and visual arts.
"Biedermeier" derives from the fictional mediocre poet Gottlieb Biedermaier [sic], who featured in the Munich magazine Fliegende Blätter (Flying Leaves). It is used mostly to denote the unchallenging artistic styles that flourished in the fields of literature, music, the visual arts and interior design. As is natural in cultural creative movements, Biedermeier has influenced later styles.
Political background
The Biedermeier period does not refer to the era as a whole, but to a particular mood and set of trends that grew out of the unique underpinnings of the time in Central Europe. There were two driving forces for the development of the period. One was the growing urbanization and industrialization leading to a new urban middle class, which created a new kind of audience for the arts. The other was the political stability prevalent under Klemens von Metternich following the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna.
The effect was for artists and society in general to concentrate on the domestic and, at least in public, the non-political. Writers, painters, and musicians began to stay in safer territory, and the emphasis on home life for the growing middle class meant a blossoming of furniture design and interior decorating.
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