Biedermeier style in the interior.

It originated in 1815 and existed until 1848, mostly in Austria and Germany, but spreading its influence throughout Europe. It was named after Gottlieb Biedermeier.


The modern interior style received an unusual name from the German surname "Biedermeier", in literal translation it sounded like "brave Mr. Meyer". This word has become the personification of philistinism, the main goal of which was a calm and measured life.


Biedermeier is the heir to the Empire, sometimes it is called a simplified Empire. The style of the middle class, the style of simple German burghers, arose in opposition to the ceremonial expensive Empire style of Napoleon and the top of the nobility. Having replaced the pretentious and "non-residential" Empire style, the Biedermeier began to sing of comfort, simple human values, the world of things that express the worldview of the middle class, the layman and the tradesman. The interior again turned into a residential one, the coldness, clarity of symmetrical shapes and proportions are gone. All attention is on comfort, convenience, functionality of items, classic forms, slightly simplified, modified to suit practicality and human needs.


Features of the Biedermeier style.

To recreate the Biedermeier style, use:

- bright colors. Favorite motif - naturalistically interpreted flowers

- floral ornament and stripes, they are everywhere - on wallpaper, carpets, fabrics, upholstery

- inexpensive fabrics: striped rep and colorful chintz instead of chic silk upholstery

- birch and maple wood instead of mahogany and ebony

- veneer, gilding, black lacquer, glass, embroidery, wallpaper, carpets, fringe

- windows were decorated with light muslin curtains and heavy curtains with fringe and tassels along the edges

- draws means of artistic expression in antiquity, but abolishes the columns and pilasters inherent in the style, giving preference to rounded shapes

- soft bending of the backs of sofas, armchairs and chairs. Sofas and sofas, functional furniture, furniture with mechanisms, sliding tables, tables with retractable or folding tops, chairs that transform into a library staircase, secretaries and trellises with drawers, a showcase glazed on one or three sides, a bureau are popular.

- decoration on furniture: cornucopia, swans, lyres, griffins, laurel and oak branches and garlands. The reliefs were covered with gilding and black lacquer, processing was used, such as turning, bending, carving

- passion for oriental furnishings: smoking and Turkish rooms, Chinese and Japanese interior items. A “clean room” appears in the house for receiving guests, decorated with decorative objects, watercolors, embroidery miniatures and souvenirs, often made by the owners of the house.


In the middle of the 19th century, the Biedermeier as an artistic style ended. Ideas of impressionism and realism were in the air, and therefore young artists left the cozy Biedermeier niche with almost no regrets. And for the layman, an ordinary person, this style was a way of life and therefore existed in everyday life and interiors for a long time, gradually giving way to German Art Nouveau, Jugendstil.



Today's Germany deeply honors its Biedermeier, not allowing it to be called "philistinism and philistinism." German family and everyday culture is based on the values ​​of the Biedermeier, it was also the source of its origin. The phenomenon itself turned out to be much wider than initially thought, and in the culture of every European country in the middle of the 19th century we will find echoes of the German Biedermeier.


Convenience, functionality of objects, classical forms, slightly simplified and modified for the sake of practicality, brightness, cheerfulness of fabrics - this artistic style is more than all others devoid of ideology and close to human needs.



Continuation of the review of interior styles follows ...