Intimate Interiors: Sex, Politics, and Material Culture in the Eighteenth-Century Bedroom and Boudoir

A desire for intimacy in domestic spaces—motivated by a growing sense of individualistic expression, an incentive to camouflage the labor or enslavement taking place, and an appetite for solace and comfort—led to interiors taking on more specific roles in the eighteenth century and individuals demarcating rooms that were semi-public from those that were private. Intimate Interiors foregrounds interrelated concepts of intimacy, privacy, and sociability in the eighteenth-century bedroom, examining the material culture of the boudoir within a global context.
The innovative chapters in this book look at issues of gender, politics, travel, exoticism, imperialism, sensorial experiences, and modernity in order to show how ideas of privacy and sociability played an increasingly integral role in eighteenth-century architectural and material design. While public pageantry continued in eighteenth-century royal interiors and ecclesiastical buildings, conceptions of domesticity took on augmented importance as elites increasingly crafted spaces that granted escape from court protocols and ceremonies. The political nature of many of these spaces is also uncovered, as chapters highlight the contradictions and complexities of highly performative “private” interiors.
By focusing on a variety of intimate spaces, from distinct methodological perspectives and geographical sites, Intimate Interiors is the first book of its kind. It not only emphasizes the visual and material culture surrounding eighteenth-century intimate spaces and objects but unpacks this rich topic from a truly global perspective.S