The Family Dining Room
The Family Dining Room is used for smaller official dinners and lunches, such as the annual dinners for the Supreme Court and Norway's bishops. New ambassadors are invited to lunch in this room.
The name “Family Dining Room” is misleading today, but in the past the room was in regular use. King Olav V used to have lunch here with his staff, and before that the room served as the family’s everyday dining room.
Today it is set for lunch or dinner for up to thirty guests.
Decoration
Palace Architect Linstow wanted the dining room to have a calm yet festive interior and décor. He chose to have the walls painted in the Pompeian style. This was very fashionable at the time, while the costs remained relatively low.
On Pompeian style
Pompeian style
At the time when Linstow was planning the decoration of the Family Dining Room, frescos inspired by the finds at Pompeii and Herculaneum were the height of fashion in Europe. The Danish king’s official dining room in Christiansborg Palace and the Tsar family’s private dining room in the Winter Palace were decorated in this style. Arcitect Linstow wrote:
“The Pompeian style, which imitates the patterns found in the excavated ruins of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiæ, gives a splendid impression at the lowest possible cost, since the distemper can be applied directly to a smooth wall.”
The walls and ceiling of the Family Dining Room were painted by Peder Wergmann in 1841. He and his helpers spent seven months decorating the room, including three months devoted to the ceiling. The men and women depicted in the blue panels were painted by August Thomsen.
Wergmann and Thomsen also decorated the wass in the Great Dining Hall.