A large part of our personal and social life takes place indoors, protected from the often wet Dutch climate. As varied and changeable as life itself, the interior has so many facets, which change over time with society. We all like to take a look at another home. It is not without reason that Heritage Day is a great success every year. Everything is opened up: churches, steam pumping stations, castles, country houses and monumental houses. Not only to visit but all year round for the most diverse meetings; meetings, retreats, wedding ceremonies and parties. Everyone has the opportunity to taste the atmosphere of the past and imagine themselves to be the resident of a monumental house.
The preservation of houses and buildings has for decades paid more attention to the exterior than the interior. Many houses have been broken out or stripped in the past one and a half centuries. The facades were restored to their former glory, while interiors were broken away and transported in parts to antique hardware stores. Old curtains and wallpaper have been replaced by comparable new products – the restoration world still too often strives for the image of eternal youth – and with it the history of the residents ‘pasted behind the wallpaper’. Only in the 1970s did people realize that restoration of the historic interior was as important as that of the building itself. They thought carefully about what they wanted to keep and how they wanted to show it. The test of time may be visible, but it should be in good proportion to slowing down the aging process. In England it was even decided to show country houses in a far-reaching state of decay; in addition to the glory, the material decline is also visible as a phenomenon of social developments.
In the 17th century the interior piece became an independent genre in painting and in the first half of the 19th century it was used. Artists created a romanticized Old Dutch mood image; interior scenes showed 17th-century paneling, with figures in ditto clothing, strict wooden furniture, black-and-white tile floors and stained-glass windows like those of David van der Kellen, Hendricus Johannes Scheeres and Herman ten Kate.
The church interior also became popular, especially by Johannes Bosboom, who was influenced by 17th-century predecessors such as Pieter Jansz. Saenredam and Emanuel de Witte developed into absolute masters in this genre.
The interiors in the 19th century show living styles, rococo, neoclassical or Biedermeier, with stylishly dressed residents, such as Henricus Engelbertus Reijntjens and Johan Hendrik Weissenbruch. Well-known are the works of Alexander Hugo Bakker Korff – always with a humorous slant – and David Bles. It is often paintings that are midway between an indoor house scene and a group portrait, which par excellence reflect the bourgeois style.
Later in the century, with the Impressionists, the interior becomes more intimate and more homely scenes are displayed. Then it is not only urban inner houses that are depicted, but the artists have now (re) discovered the countryside. The Laren and Hague School painters showed farmers and fishermen and their simple living conditions on location, as well as in reconstructed workshops at or near the home: Evert Pieters, Bernard Pothast.
Also in the 20th century, this mainly concerns private scenes from the circle of the artist, but more attention is paid to the mood of the artist or the figures depicted. Sometimes the studio is the main subject, abandoned, full of attributes and a half-finished canvas on the easel. Or we see the painter himself, at work, in a room where a loved one or acquaintance is present. Never posed, but one is always busy with his / her own things. And … the viewer can make up the story himself (see Henri Schoonbrood, Carlos Nadal). Even abstract working artists like Horst Antes appear to be inspired by the interior.
Then, in contrast to the privacy of the interior, there are of course the public interiors that inspired painters. Cafés, theaters, concert halls, markets and shops, places where people gather to meet, but where they can also be anonymous. Where in romantic painting public life takes place in bars or churches, the impressionists in the 20th century in public places: Marcel Cosson (below and above) Piet Volckaert.
An important aid in restoration and conservation of interiors is painted interior scenes that were popular in the Netherlands over the centuries. The painted interior has a long tradition and tells about the life and personality of the people who lived in it. It reports on their place in society, on what each person keeps and collects, whether they have a taste, what style is fashionable. And… aren’t we all curious about what it looks like for someone else and are we only too happy to take a look? In a different way than photos, the painted interiors give a beautifully subjective, but also faithful image of how people lived indoors. Contrary to static photos, they often contain an added value in the extras that the artist added to his painting under the influence of the atmosphere of the moment.