The works of this period, also called modern style, were created in the time between 1890 and 1910 (“Fin de siecle“), they are characterized among other elements by decorative curves and floral ornaments. The Art nouveau answers the industrialization and its machine-made mass products by recalling the arts and craft tradition that is supposed to bring beauty and joy into people's everyday lives.
Genre paintings in the closer sense depict everyday scenes of rural, bourgeois or courtly life. Here the term Genre is extended to all areas of human life. The early Genre paintings represent their motifs realistically, however oftentimes the image contents are to be understood as allegories, sometimes even as moralising artworks either praising idylls or denouncing human misconduct. Later in the 19th century the realistic component was brought again to the fore.