Family Portrait 1827
emilditlevbaerentzen
statensmuseumforkunst
canvas
oil painting
canvas
coffee painting
underpainting
painting painterly
portrait drawing
watercolour illustration
portrait art
watercolor
fine art portrait
warm toned green
"Family Portrait" (1827) by Danish painter Emil Ditlev Bærentzen depicts a family gathered in their home. The scene is set in an interior space, with the family members seated around a window that overlooks the city. The artist captures the intimacy of family life in the 19th century through realistic details and warm color palette. Bærentzen's attention to domesticity and everyday life is evident in the portrayal of the family's activities, which range from reading to sewing to spinning yarn. The artwork is housed at the SMK - Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Comments
Family was a cornerstone of Danish society during the first decades of the 19th century. The Danish people made a virtue of necessity and found much to recommend a quiet life at home with the family. Thus, family portraits became a very popular genre in the late 1820s. The painter Emilius Bærentzen seems to have been the artist who defined how the subject would be depicted. He shows a family - possibly his parents and sisters - gathered during a quiet moment of the day in their Copenhagen flat. The artist has used the open window to create an excellent depiction of light falling into the living room. His rendition is made particularly sophisticated by the inclusion of the semi-transparent red curtain. The painting clearly reflects the gender roles prevalent at the time. Only the head of the family is comfortably seated as he reads his newspaper. By contrast, the women are all engaged in various useful pursuits.
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