Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller - The morning of the Feast of Corpus Christi

• Title: The morning of the Feast of Corpus Christi (Am Fronleichnamsmorgen)
• Artist: Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1793-1865)
• Date: 1857
• Medium: Oil on panel
• Dimensions: 65 x 82 cm

Biedermeier was a reactionary period in Central Europe between 1815 and 1850s- 1) a growing urban middle class, which was a new audience for the arts; 2) political stability lead artists and society in general to be content and non-political. Biedermeier themes catered to bourgeoisie tastes- nostalgia of village life, idealization of family life and traditional pieties. The Revolutions of 1848 across Europe where people stood up requesting more democracy changed the focus for most artists, but those conservative themes will come back in force with Nazism in the 1930s.

The painting “The morning of the Feast of Corpus Christi” depicts boys and girls playing after Church with mothers and an older man around them. The men are not around, probably at work. It is an example of the conservative themes of social harmony and respect of traditions. Interestingly, counter-revolutionary Waldmüller was original in painting outdoors and a precursor of Impressionism.