Family Portrait

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.