Art Nouveau

The term Art Nouveau is French for ‘new art’ yet the style and movement it has come to represent was distinctly international and represented itself in varied fashions and incarnations. As its name implies, Art Nouveau was a movement created by artists who were rejecting the “pastiche” style of the 19th century, and wished to create something original that the world had never seen before. The expression “Art Nouveau” was used for the first time by the art critic Edmond Picard in 1894 in the Belgian art magazine “The Modern” to describe the artistic production of Henry van de Velde. In the general sense, Art Nouveau style was applied to all aspects of art and design, from the academic art of sculpture, to the decorative arts and furniture, from the design of buildings and subway entrances to intricate jewels and glass vases. The intellectual beginnings of the movement sprang from a desire to unite all of the arts, without hierarchy or academic restrictions, to create a Gesamtkunstwerk or “total work of art.” As curator Paul Greenhalgh has stated “this was a multi-faceted, complex phenomenon that defied-then and now- any attempt to reduce it to singular meanings and moments.”

In the beginning, the style was known by many different names and was claimed by various artists and locations. Hector Guimard, the famous Parisian architect who created the winged subway entrances, popularized the style and his work so epitomized the new aesthetic that when word of it spread to America it was called “Style Guimard.” Similarly, with the explosive success of Czech artist Alphonse Mucha’s 1895 lithograph advertisement for the play Gismonda starring Sarah Berndhardt the new style was dubbed “Style Mucha.” In Germany the style was called “Jugendstil” or youth-style named after the magazine Jugend which was an early and influential promoter of the style. The prolific work of Louis Comfort Tiffany in the States and his design innovations based on natural forms, became known as “Tiffany Style” which was recognized as similar to, but not of the same movement as the European aesthetic.

Nearly every European country had its own nomenclature for this movement, beginning with England and its “Arts and Crafts” movement. William Morris and John Ruskin posited theories based on an artistic renewal, advocating a return to forms found in nature. Ruskin’s call for a revival of handicrafts in harmony with nature was taken up by his student William Morris, who eventually became the head of the Arts and Crafts movement. However the beginning of this movement was a reaction to what Ruskin saw at the first Universal Exhibition that took place in London, in 1871. The building made for the occasion, built entirely of glass, was called the Crystal Palace. The exhibition sought to show the prowess of the technical and mechanical industries, thus many of the objects were machine made, a relatively recent phenomenon. Ruskin found these examples so unattractive and poorly executed that he promoted a return to handcrafted production based not on mechanical forms but on forms found in nature. His utopic point of view was the beginning of the Art Nouveau movement.

The first Art Nouveau building in Europe was the Hôtel Tassel, built in Brussels by the architect/decorator Victor Horta in 1893. This private home was a radical departure from accepted architectural aesthetics. Floral forms were used everywhere; in the mosaics, frescoes and stained glass, even in structural elements such the ironwork staircase. Victor Horta also designed the furniture to harmonize with the rhythm of the walls and architecture. With the Hôtel Tassel, Horta gave birth to “gesamtkunstwerk” in Art Nouveau, a German term for “a complete work of art.” Horta did everything from selecting the sight location and designing the external architectural façade, to the smallest details such as door handles and light switches. Henry Van de Velde, a Flemish painter, architect and interior designer, expanded on Horta’s efforts, it was his work which was first described as “Art Nouveau” by critics.

According to Cybele Gontar at the department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art the term art nouveau first appeared in the Belgian Jounrnal L’Art Moderne in the 1880’s to describe the work of Les Vingt, an artistic community of twenty painters and sculptors seeking reform through art. Additionally, the name Art Nouveau as a descriptor for the new movement in general was popularized by art dealer Samuel Bing and his Parisian gallery Maison de l’Art Nouveau which opened in 1896 and gained international fame at the 1900 Exposition Universelle. Bing’s gallery was at the forefront of the Art Nouveau movement in Paris. His store was the first to show Gaillard’s furniture, Tiffany’s ceramics and Colonna’s work. The artists and style sold by Bing became the quintessential expression of the movement, just as the name became the overarching term used to describe the disparate movements as they manifested internationally.

Despite the outsized influence of Bing and his Paris gallery, Art Nouveau is most commonly tied to the small city of Nancy in north-eastern France. Nancy was home to the largest concentration of artists and designers producing Art Nouveau works. French artists flocked to this city on the new border of the Alsace-Lorraine, where they developed a mythic pride in French regionalism. The area’s artists, among them Émile Gallé, Daum Frères, Victor Prouvé, Jacques Gruber, and Louis Majorelle, created the Ecole de Nancy to promote cohesion among practioners of the new movement. Their primary purpose was to glorify the Lorraine, its many industries and its artisanal tradition in furniture, ceramics, glass and metal. The Ecole de Nancy was meant to be a collaboration of arts, architects, furniture and decorative arts, without the classical hierarchy of the Fine Arts promoted by the Paris Salons and establishment.
Fauna and flora were the main sources of artistic inspiration in Art Nouveau. For example, the extremely refined “Japonism" cabinet of Emile Gallé is remarkable for more than the ombelle flowers that appear as ornament on the crown. The ombelle also constitute shelves, drawn from nature and gently made of carved and molded wood. The front of the cabinet has a remarkable marquetry scene composed of different woods, representing a small bird perched on a tree in bloom at the edge of the water. Louis Majorelle tables are often in a sleeker style then those of his contemporary Emile Gallé. Majorelle’s furniture is not dominated by nature, the designs conform to the tenets of classical furniture, lending his pieces a more masculine aesthetic. Majorelle also collaborated with fellow Ecole de Nancy members Daum on lighting and glass work. Majorelle designed the pieces and fabricated the metal, Daum created the glass necessary to create extraordinary pieces like the Magnolia lamp.

Even more so than furniture, members of the Ecole de Nancy were noted for their glass objects. Art Glass produced by Daum Frères and Emile Gallé consisted of layers glass which were acid etched or engraved to create an effect called “cameo.” Designs were often executed in the soft pastel palette common in Art Nouveau. The signature of the nancéens glass is very often inlaid in glass rather than stamped under the piece, most signatures also bear a mark indicating origin in Nancy, in keeping with the regional pride common among artist. Another technique of Art Nouveau glass makers was termed pate-de-verre. A paste was made from glass and placed in a mold before firing. An advantage of this technique was the ability to place specific colors of glass more exactly, resulting in highly decorated and colorful finished pieces.

Outside of France and the Ecole de Nancy, Art Nouveau could be found across Europe and America under different names. Austrian Art Nouveau was characterized by the “Wien Sezession” created by artist Gustav Klimt in 1897. The Secession Palace built in 1898 to house the exhibits of the Sezession group was intended as a place to show art freely without censorship or discouragement. The motto of the group, written on the palace façade, “To each time its art; to art, its liberty” underlined their belief that the art created was a new phenomenon and a reaction to the rapid changes brought on by industrialization.
In Italy the forms and spirit of Art Nouveau was best exemplified by the artist Carlo Bugati. Widely celebrated for his innovative “Snail Room” in the 1902 Turin exhibition, Bugatti’s furniture employed the asymmetrical curves of Art Nouveau furniture, but implemented elements of Islamic and Japanese designs to create furniture that broke with European traditions. “Stile Liberty” was the name given to the movement in Italy. “Jugendstil” was German for ‘Youth Style’ and was the phrase coined for the movement by the magazine Jugend which promoted the style. Art Nouveau also shares certain aspects related to the Arts and Crafts movements in England and America.

In the United States Art Nouveau was best encompassed in the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany and Tiffany Studios. In 1894 Tiffany received a patent for a new form of glass he called “Favrile” which was unique for its iridescent coloring. The Studio also created elaborate leaded glass lamps with organic themes. Tiffany lamps can be extremely complex, ranging from simple lamps with a round favrile glass shade to those with different hues of glass depicting complex shade designs of dragon flies, wisteria, and pond lilies with irregular borders. Bases also came in a wide variety, from simple bronze stands, to intricately blown glass bases, or those inlaid with mosaic tiles. Patrons of Tiffany Studios were primarily American, though his work was represented by Bing in Paris, and he received stained glass window commissions from England, France, Cuba, and Australia.

The Art Nouveau Movement in its many regional forms lasted for approximately twenty years, lasting the longest in the Lorraine. By the end of World War I Art Nouveau had come to an end, replaced by modernist movements, most significantly the “Art Deco” style. In past decades Art Nouveau has been recognized by historians as an important bridge between the progression of Neoclassical aesthetics and Modernism. UNESCO has included several Art Nouveau monuments on the World Heritage List. Sadly after years of being passed over for more classical or modern designs, many Art Nouveau masterpieces have been torn down or left to decay. Victor Horta’s extensive townhouse is preserved today as a museum and many of Guimard’s buildings remain private residences in Paris, along with two recreated metro entrances. Art and Decorative objects from the period are housed in many of the world’s top museums including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the MET, Museum of Modern Art, Musee d’Orsay, and the National Museum of Art.

Related items:

French Art Nouveau Lithograph "The Four Seasons" by Alphonse Mucha
Mucha — ML-12069
French Art Nouveau Lithographs "Les Fleurs" by Mucha
Mucha — ML-18253
Mucha — ML-18442
Mucha — ML-16859



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