Georg Friedrich Kersting (1785-1847) was a German painter associated with Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. His Biedermeier-style paintings usually captured people performing solitary activities in the interior, such as reading, sewing, or painting.

Man Reading by Lamplight

Kersting was known to portray upper or middle-class people going about their leisurely pursuits, and the painting to the right is an example of the uncanny sense of cosiness that the artist created within his art. A person here is reading a book, but it is not so much the man who seems to be the main subject here, but rather his focus, attention. The subject is reading itself. We can almost see the engrossed reader’s imaginative world being created. The fantastical shapes swirling in his mind are symbolically reflected by the fanciful play of light and shadow cast by the lamp. Though Kersting often showed solitary people, there is never a feeling of them being “alone” or lonely in his artworks. They seem at home, at peace and in the company of what they treasure and enjoy. In this case, a book.

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