Big Brother Playing (1890)

Harriet Backer is the artist behind "Big Brother Playing", dated 1890. Historical background, 1890: Japanese prints reached Europe in large numbers and influenced many artists, while photography changed what painting needed to do. In the 1890s, colour lithography and Art Nouveau made the illustrated poster a celebrated art form. Figurative in brief: Portraits, group scenes, studies of the nude, and pictures of daily life all belong to figurative art. Figurative art depicts people and recognisable scenes, and it has been central to European painting since antiquity. The catalogue places it in Figurative. The format is landscape.

Buying "Big Brother Playing" means getting a digital file, not a physical print: Digital JPEG + PDF files, 300 DPI, delivered by email once payment is confirmed. A 300 DPI file is intended for printing at home or at a local print shop, where you can choose a matte, satin, or fine-art paper to suit the room. A landscape format suits wide, low wall spaces such as the stretch above a bed, mantel, or sideboard. Figurative works draw attention to the human presence, the gesture, and the emotional tone, so they work particularly well as a standalone focal point in living rooms, studies, and bedrooms. A simple frame with a mat often helps an image settle comfortably into a room. Screens and printers render colour differently, so a small test print is a sensible way to check tones before committing to a large size. Hang the print away from direct sunlight, which over the years can fade any printed colour. Choosing a standard frame size and printing to fit it often saves the cost of custom framing.

Norwegian, 1845–1932

If you like the visual language of Harriet Backer, explore more works by the same artist in our collection.