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Biedermeier - The Comfortable Style

© Barbara Nicholson Bell

Biedermeier, as a style, is as antithetical to Bauhaus as it is possible to get, yet it is a clear steppingstone on the path between 18th century and 20th century taste. Late eighteenth century and very early 19th century style was heavily dominated by the French Empire and Directoire periods in architecture, painting, sculpture and furniture. These are characterised by a Classicism drawn from Greek and Roman original works, newly discovered or re-discovered in the late 18th century, and spread by Napoleon's victorious sweep of Europe in the early 19th century.

In matters of style and taste, France had reigned supreme through most of the 18th century. However, the rather rigid Neo-Classicism that was so prevalent in France under Louis XVI changed in the latter part of the 18th century after the French Revolution.

The Revolution brought with it a reaction to Louis XVI taste and a growing fashion for the so-called "Archaeological" styles. With contemporary discoveries and the resulting publications of archaeological "finds" (such as Greek vases, Roman and Pompeii frescoes, Greek and Roman furniture) new designs taken directly from models from the ancient world began to influence the decorative arts throughout Europe. The Napoleonic campaigns brought further influences of Egyptian motifs into the decorative arts and added to the heady mix of fashionable styles at the beginning of the 19th century.

After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, following Napoleon's defeat, several factors came together: a rebellion against the Classical formalism of the Empire period, the rise of the middle-class and decline of the aristocracy, and the beginnings of the industrialisation of Europe.

A simpler version of the French Empire and Directoire styles, Biedermeier got its name from a newspaper cartoon character known as "Papa Biedermeier," who was a symbol of the unsophisticated middle class. He expounded his conventional political views and was the essence of the happy, solid, ordinary citizen.

As a style it was excellently suited to the new middle class culture of living beginning its ascendency. The security of the home should be unostentatious, comfortable and intimate (everything "simple and smooth" as Goethe would say). Biedermeier art is true to reality, and the middle class created it as their own style. It developed its own formal stylistic characteristics in the music of Beethoven and Schubert, the literature of Goethe, in traditional crafts and in more natural and nationalistic clothing.

Where the aristocracy in an earlier period had spent lavishly on exotic woods, expensive metals and costly fabrics, the new middle-class looked for elegance that was cost-effective, used local materials, and reflected their conservative tastes. The formal vocabulary of the style may be read most clearly in furniture: weighty forms, reliable materials, smoothly polished surfaces, restrained decoration, the use of materials with characteristic patterns and great durability. In Biedermeier furniture, the choice of wood was of primary importance. Smooth, flat surfaces with little or no carving were typical, so that the grain of the wood became the most important element of decoration. The choice of fruitwood was partly a reaction to the Empire period's emphasis on dark mahogany wood and ormolu mounts.

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