‘Biedermeier: The Invention of Simplicity’ At The Milwaukee Art Museum

Milwaukee, Wis.

:Rarely does a museum have the opportunity to introduce a subject that is both new to most of its audience and, at the same time, hauntingly familiar. But that is precisely the territory staked in the Milwaukee Art Museum's epochal show "Biedermeier: The Invention of Simplicity."

Organized by an international trio of curators — Laurie Winters, curator of earlier European art at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Hans Ottomeyer of the Albertina in Vienna and Klaus Albrechht Schröder of the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin — the exhibition is on view until January 1.

To fully understand the Biedermeier "gestalt" as it existed at the height of the aesthetic, circa 1820, you must first visualize the quintessential Biedermeier room. Within a neoclassical building, sunlight washes walls of green or gray. Paintings that evoke Jean Jacques Rousseau's "cult of nature" maintain a hint of German Romanticism while proffering a new-found realism. Sleek furniture with clean lines is grouped discretely. Bohemia glass collections and porcelain what-nots are displayed on étagères. A woman in the room wears a light-colored dress with leg-o-mutton sleeves and a delicate necklace fashioned of cast iron. As she appraises the setting, there is nothing to remind her of the ravages of the Napoleonic Wars so recently ended.

With the Congress of Vienna, 1815, and the restructuring of old empires came a desire, much of it imposed by finances, to look locally for objects of beauty. The postwar years saw a reordering of priorities in central and northern Europe, which, according to Winters, was similar to that of post-World War II America. "There was new emphasis on family. Populations increased. Cities expanded. There were new homes and new designs emerged to go with those new homes."

In Vienna, Berlin, Copenhagen, Prague, Munich and Dresden "neoclassically designed apartment buildings with courtyards and gardens emerged," Winters said. "These new buildings allowed for light in the interior. They were somewhat more spacious but for the most part activities took place in a single room or a group of rooms. So furniture had to be designed for smaller scale settings. It had to be moveable and flexible."

Functionality became an important issue. People turned inward, putting family and personal accomplishments first, taking their cues from royalty, philosophers and scientists. Winters added, "It was a time much like America was in 1950. There are direct parallels. You could argue that there's even a similarity of style. In the 50s there was a sort of sleekness. Design embraced the element of simplicity. Even the component of colors was similar, with bright new colors emerging in the 1950s and 60s."

Underscoring the statement, Winters added, "People come into our museum and see, for example, that wonderful orange-covered Vienna sofa, circa 1825–30 and think it's 1960." Perhaps it was invention and use of coil springs as well as the attention to design and color that gives the impression.