Friedrich Amerling 1851

Friedrich von Amerling painted this portrait of a child in Austria, sometime in the first half of the 19th century. The image speaks to the growing importance of the bourgeois family in this period, and the rising status of children within it. Consider the way the child is presented: his clean clothes, neatly cropped hair and softly lit features suggesting innocence. Amerling was one of the leading portraitists of the Austrian Biedermeier era, a time defined by its focus on domesticity, security and political conservatism. As you can see, this image embodies those values perfectly. It’s interesting to note that while the French revolution had caused great upheaval, in Austria there was an effort to insulate society from radical change, with art playing its part in promoting stability. To understand the painting fully, we might research Austrian social history, studying family portraits of the time, and considering the role of the artist as a promoter of conservative values.