Audio tour Hall 10 – The artistic life in Lviv during the first half of the 19th century

The artistic life of Lviv during the first half of the 19th century was characterized by the coexistence of several artistic traditions, which were followed by both local and foreign artists. The influence of new European trends grew, which were brought into the Lviv cultural environment by visiting artists: Austrians, Czechs, Germans, and Poles. The influence of the Vienna Art School expanded. Its representatives were exponents of Viennese classicism with its appeal to the antique heritage. On the other hand, from the second third of the 19th century, the ideas of Romanticism, which rejected the imitations of antiquity, spread in Lviv. At the same time, the rise of the burgher culture contributed to the spread of the Biedermeier creative trend, which developed in parallel with Romanticism and whose roots extended to the Baroque and Rococo periods.

The human being remained the main object of interest for the artists in the first half of the 19th century, as in the previous century, and the portrait continued to dominate as the leading artistic genre. However, artists tried not simply to reproduce the characteristics of their contemporaries accurately but also to reflect changes in the social consciousness and the new ideals. The portrait of this time represented man as an educated and physically and mentally gifted individual, a conscious citizen of society.