A woman reading, a family enjoying a convivial dinner, the sun streaming into an empty room... Ever since the seventeenth century, artists have strived to capture the special atmosphere of the home, culminating in the paintings of the late nineteenth century, the heyday for the interior in art. Nonetheless, as Frances Borzello reveals in this groundbreaking book, although the domestic interior has always had a hidden life in the history of art, it has never been recognized as a category in its own right. Illustrating her text with a wonderful array of evocative and engaging pictures, Borzello convincingly argues for a reassessment of the domestic interior and for proper consideration of it as a subject for art. Borzello concludes with a fresh discussion of developments in the twentieth century and challenges the conventional wisdom that domesticity was the enemy of the avant-garde. The result is a book to enjoy but one which also provides new insight into some of the most appealing paintings ever produced.
