52nd Annual Delaware Show

century America, with suites of matching furniture, Biedermeier interiors were designed for relaxed and comfortable living. As one historian noted: “In the same [Biedermeier] room, one could just as easily eat as read, practice a handcraft, talk or make music; the occupants could also rearrange the lightweight chairs and create groupings. The Biedermeier interior was . . . an inhabited space and said a great deal about the personal interests of the inhabitants.” It is this type of living space that is depicted in János Boros Nepomuk’s painting Kastélyszoba, which is believed to illustrate a room in the bishop’s residence in Pecs, Hungary (fig. 3) . Here chairs of various forms surround a table adjacent to a large L-shape sofa, suggesting that the furniture has been assembled for a small gathering. Biedermeier interiors frequently mixed chairs and sofas of assorted styles and forms in the same space, all united through their upholstery. In America, such eclecticism in furniture was rare. 3 Some Biedermeier designs harken back to the French taste and goût grec of the Napoleonic era, but others are fanciful and more playful. Winterthur’s chairs appear to be related to several found in European collections, including one constructed of walnut by Josef Nepomuk Geyer of Innsbruck, Austria, now in the collection of the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna (Museum of Applied Arts). Like the Winterthur chairs, the Geyer example features elegantly shaped stiles that flare into a double-balloon back, which, in this case, is open rather than solid, giving a light and delicate appearance to the chair. Layered veneers frame the outer edges of the back, drawing attention to the dramatic curves, not unlike the Winterthur examples. Conspicuously absent on Geyer’s chair, however, are knees on the front legs and an apron beneath the seat. Both are common features on American chairs, and their presence on the Winterthur examples suggests a domestic origin for the pair. The Winterthur chairs are so unusual, however, that at least one scholar has questioned their Fig. 2. Detail of side chair in Fig. 1. Fig. 3. János Boros Nepomuk, Kastélyszoba (Castle Room), Hungary, 1842. Oil on panel. Courtesy of Art Net — 104 —