In the nineteenth century, proud householders commissioned
painters to record their dwellings, much as today's owners might take a photograph. These charming watercolors portrayed with faithful accuracy the shape of rooms, the organization of the
furniture, the patterns of
carpets, or the drape of window hangings. People of all kinds had their homes immortalized, from humble vicars and artists to the grandest families of Europe. Published to accompany an extraordinary exhibition of watercolor views at The Frick Collection in New York, this handsome volume includes illustrations of more than sixty nineteenth-century interiors: from cottages to palaces, from an emperor's chambers in Portugal to the
bedroom of a Russian dacha.