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Art Nouveau

January 18, 2023

Art Nouveau (/ˌɑːrt nuːˈvoʊ, ˌɑːr/; French: [aʁ nuvo]) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: Jugendstil in German, Stile Liberty in Italian, Modernisme in Catalan, and also known as the Modern Style in English. It was popular between 1890 and 1910 during the Belle Époque period,[1] and was a reaction against the academic art, eclecticism and historicism of 19th century architecture and decoration. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and flowers.[2] Other characteristics of Art Nouveau were a sense of dynamism and movement, often given by asymmetry or whiplash lines, and the use of modern materials, particularly iron, glass, ceramics and later concrete, to create unusual forms and larger open spaces.[3]

Art Nouveau
Clockwise from top left: Paris Métro station Abbesses, by Hector Guimard (1900); Lithograph by Alphonse Mucha (1898); Wall cabinet by Louis Majorelle; Interior of the Hôtel Tassel in Brussels, by Victor Horta (1892–1893); Lamp by Louis Comfort Tiffany (1900–1910).
Years activec. 1883–1914
CountryWestern world

One major objective of Art Nouveau was to break down the traditional distinction between fine arts (especially painting and sculpture) and applied arts. It was most widely used in interior design, graphic arts, furniture, glass art, textiles, ceramics, jewellery and metal work. The style responded to leading 19-century theoreticians, such as French architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879) and British art critic John Ruskin (1819–1900). In Britain, it was influenced by William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. German architects and designers sought a spiritually uplifting Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art") that would unify the architecture, furnishings, and art in the interior in a common style, to uplift and inspire the residents.[3]

The first Art Nouveau houses and interior decoration appeared in Brussels in the 1890s, in the architecture and interior design of houses designed by Paul Hankar, Henry van de Velde, and especially Victor Horta, whose Hôtel Tassel was completed in 1893.[4][5][6] It moved quickly to Paris, where it was adapted by Hector Guimard, who saw Horta's work in Brussels and applied the style for the entrances of the new Paris Métro. It reached its peak at the 1900 Paris International Exposition, which introduced the Art Nouveau work of artists such as Louis Tiffany. It appeared in graphic arts in the posters of Alphonse Mucha, and the glassware of René Lalique and Émile Gallé.

From Belgium and France, Art Nouveau spread to the rest of Europe,[citation needed] taking on different names and characteristics in each country (see Naming section below). It often appeared not only in capitals, but also in rapidly growing cities that wanted to establish artistic identities (Turin and Palermo in Italy; Glasgow in Scotland; Munich and Darmstadt in Germany), as well as in centres of independence movements (Helsinki in Finland, then part of the Russian Empire; Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain).

By 1914, and with the beginning of the First World War, Art Nouveau was largely exhausted. In the 1920s, it was replaced as the dominant architectural and decorative art style by Art Deco and then Modernism.[7] The Art Nouveau style began to receive more positive attention from critics in the late 1960s, with a major exhibition of the work of Hector Guimard at the Museum of Modern Art in 1970.[8]

Naming

The term Art Nouveau was first used in the 1880s in the Belgian journal L'Art Moderne to describe the work of Les Vingt, twenty painters and sculptors seeking reform through art. The name was popularized by the Maison de l'Art Nouveau ("House of the New Art"), an art gallery opened in Paris in 1895 by the Franco-German art dealer Siegfried Bing. In Britain, the French term Art Nouveau was commonly used, while in France, it was often called by the term Style moderne (akin to the British term Modern Style), or Style 1900.[9] In France, it was also sometimes called Style Jules Verne (after the novelist Jules Verne), Style Métro (after Hector Guimard's iron and glass subway entrances), Art Belle Époque, or Art fin de siècle.[10]

Art Nouveau is related to, but not identical with, styles that emerged in many countries in Europe at about the same time. Their local names were often used in their respective countries to describe the whole movement.

  • In Belgium, it was sometimes termed Style coup de fouet ("Whiplash style"), Paling Stijl ("Eel style"), or Style nouille ("Noodle style") by its detractors.[10]
  • In Britain, besides Art Nouveau, it was known as the Modern Style, or, because of works of Glasgow School, as the Glasgow style.
  • The term Modern is also used in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine, and Modernas in Lithuania. For painting, the name of the Mir Iskusstva ("World of Art") movement was also used.
  • In Germany and Scandinavia, it was called Reformstil ("Reform style"), or Jugendstil ("Youth style"), after the popular German art magazine of that name,[10] as well as Wellenstil ("Wave style"), or Lilienstil ("Lily style").[9] It is now called Jugend in Finland, Sweden and Norway, Juugend in Estonia, and Jūgendstils in Latvia. In Finland, it was also called Kalevala Style.
  • In Denmark, it is known as Skønvirke ("Work of beauty").
  • In Austria and the neighbouring countries then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Wiener Jugendstil, or Secessionsstil ("Secession style"), after the artists of the Vienna Secession (Hungarian: szecesszió, Czech: secese, Slovak: secesia, Polish: secesja).
  • In Italy, it was often called Liberty style, after Arthur Lasenby Liberty, the founder of London's Liberty & Co, whose textile designs were popular. It was also sometimes called Stile floreale ("Floral style"), or Arte nuova ("New Art").[10]
  • In the United States, due to its association with Louis Comfort Tiffany, it was sometimes called the "Tiffany style".[3][11][9][12]
  • In the Netherlands, it was called Nieuwe Kunst ("New Art"), or Nieuwe Stijl ("New style").[11][9]
  • In Portugal, Arte nova.
  • In Spain, Modernismo, Modernisme (in Catalan) and Arte joven ("Young Art").
  • In Switzerland, Style Sapin ("Fir tree style").[9]
  • In Japan, Shiro-Uma.[13]
  • In Romania, Arta 1900 ("1900 Art"), Arta Nouă ("New Art") or Noul Stil ("New Style").[14]

History

For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Art Nouveau.

Origins

The new art movement had its roots in Britain, in the floral designs of William Morris, and in the Arts and Crafts movement founded by the pupils of Morris. Early prototypes of the style include the Red House with interiors by Morris and architecture by Philip Webb (1859), and the lavish Peacock Room by James Abbott McNeill Whistler. The new movement was also strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite painters, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones, and especially by British graphic artists of the 1880s, including Selwyn Image, Heywood Sumner, Walter Crane, Alfred Gilbert, and especially Aubrey Beardsley.[15] The chair designed by Arthur Mackmurdo has been recognized as a precursor of Art Nouveau design.[16]

In France, it was influenced by the architectural theorist and historian Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, a declared enemy of the historical Beaux-Arts architectural style, whose theories on rationalism were derived from his study of medieval art:

  • Function should define form.[17]
  • Unity of the arts and the abolition of any distinction between major art (architecture) and minor arts (decorative arts).[18]
  • Nature's logic is the model to be used for architecture.[19]
  • Architecture should adapt itself to man's environment and needs.
  • Use of modern technologies and materials.[20]

Viollet-le-Duc was himself a precursor of Art Nouveau: in 1851, at Notre-Dame de Paris, he created a series of mural paintings typical of the style.[21] These paintings were removed in 1945 as deemed non academic. At the Château de Roquetaillade in the Bordeaux region, his interior decorations dating from 1865 also anticipate Art Nouveau. In his 1872 book Entretiens sur l'architecture, he wrote, "Use the means and knowledge given to us by our times, without the intervening traditions which are no longer viable today, and in that way we can inaugurate a new architecture. For each function its material; for each material its form and its ornament."[22] This book influenced a generation of architects, including Louis Sullivan, Victor Horta, Hector Guimard, and Antoni Gaudí.[23]

The French painters Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard played an important part in integrating fine arts painting with decoration. "I believe that before everything a painting must decorate", Denis wrote in 1891. "The choice of subjects or scenes is nothing. It is by the value of tones, the coloured surface and the harmony of lines that I can reach the spirit and wake up the emotions."[24] These painters all did both traditional painting and decorative painting on screens, in glass, and in other media.[25]

Another important influence on the new style was Japonism. This was a wave of enthusiasm for Japanese woodblock printing, particularly the works of Hiroshige, Hokusai, and Utagawa Kunisada, which were imported into Europe beginning in the 1870s. The enterprising Siegfried Bing founded a monthly journal, Le Japon artistique in 1888, and published thirty-six issues before it ended in 1891. It influenced both collectors and artists, including Gustav Klimt. The stylized features of Japanese prints appeared in Art Nouveau graphics, porcelain, jewellery, and furniture. Since the beginning of 1860, a Far Eastern influence suddenly manifested. In 1862, art lovers from London or Paris, could buy Japanese artworks, because in that year, Japan appeared for the first time as an exhibitor at the International Exhibition in London. Also in 1862, in Paris, La Porte Chinoise store, on Rue de Rivoli, was open, where Japanese ukiyo-e and other objects from the Far East were sold. In 1867, Examples of Chinese Ornaments by Owen Jones appeared, and in 1870 Art and Industries in Japan by R. Alcock, and two years later, O. H. Moser and T. W. Cutler published books about Japanese art. Some Art Nouveau artists, like Victor Horta, owned a collection of Far Eastern art, especially Japanese.[13]

New technologies in printing and publishing allowed Art Nouveau to quickly reach a global audience. Art magazines, illustrated with photographs and colour lithographs, played an essential role in popularizing the new style. The Studio in England, Arts et idèes and Art et décoration in France, and Jugend in Germany allowed the style to spread rapidly to all corners of Europe. Aubrey Beardsley in England, and Eugène Grasset, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Félix Vallotton achieved international recognition as illustrators.[26] With the posters by Jules Chéret for dancer Loie Fuller in 1893, and by Alphonse Mucha for actress Sarah Bernhardt in 1895, the poster became not just advertising, but an art form. Sarah Bernhardt set aside large numbers of her posters for sale to collectors.[27]

Development – Brussels (1893–1898)

The first Art Nouveau town houses, the Hankar House by Paul Hankar (1893) and the Hôtel Tassel by Victor Horta (1892–1893),[4][5] were built almost simultaneously in Brussels. They were similar in their originality, but very different in their design and appearance.

Victor Horta was among the most influential architects of early Art Nouveau, and his Hôtel Tassel (1892–1893) in Brussels is one of the style's landmarks.[28][29] Horta's architectural training was as an assistant to Alphonse Balat, architect to King Leopold II, constructing the monumental iron and glass Royal Greenhouses of Laeken.[30] He was a great admiror of Viollet-le-Duc, whose ideas he completely identified with.[31][32] In 1892–1893, he put this experience to a very different use. He designed the residence of a prominent Belgian chemist, Émile Tassel, on a very narrow and deep site. The central element of the house was the stairway, not enclosed by walls, but open, decorated with a curling wrought-iron railing, and placed beneath a high skylight. The floors were supported by slender iron columns like the trunks of trees. The mosaic floors and walls were decorated with delicate arabesques in floral and vegetal forms, which became the most popular signature of the style.[33][34] In a short period, Horta built three more town houses, all with open interiors, and all with skylights for maximum interior light: the Hôtel Solvay, the Hôtel van Eetvelde (for Edmond van Eetvelde), and the Maison & Atelier Horta. All four are now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Paul Hankar was also an innovator of early Art Nouveau. Born at Frameries, in Hainaut, the son of a master stone cutter, he had studied ornamental sculpture and decoration at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels from 1873 to 1884, whilst working as an ornamental sculptor. From 1879 to 1904, he worked in the studio of the prominent architect Henri Beyaert, a master of eclectic and neoclassical architecture. Through Beyaert, Hankar also became an admirer of Viollet-le-Duc.[35] In 1893, Hankar designed and built the Hankar House, his own residence in Brussels. With a goal to create a synthesis of fine arts and decorative arts, he brought together the sculptor René Janssens and the painter Albert Ciamberlani [fr] to decorate the interior and exterior with sgraffiti, or murals. The facade and balconies featured iron decoration and curling lines in stylised floral patterns, which became an important feature of Art Nouveau. Based on this model, he built several houses for his artist friends. He also designed a series of innovative glass display windows for Brussels shops, restaurants and galleries, in what a local critic called "a veritable delirium of originality".[36] He died in 1901, just as the movement was beginning to receive recognition.[37]

Henry van de Velde, born in Antwerp, was another founding figure in the birth of Art Nouveau. Van de Velde's designs included the interior of his residence in Brussels, the Bloemenwerf (1895).[38][39] The exterior of the house was inspired by the Red House, the residence of writer and theorist William Morris, the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement. Trained as a painter, Van de Velde turned to illustration, then to furniture design, and finally to architecture. For the Bloemenwerf, he created the textiles, wallpaper, silverware, jewellery, and even clothing, that matched the style of the residence.[40] Van de Velde went to Paris, where he designed furniture and decoration for the German-French art dealer Siegfried Bing, whose Paris gallery gave the style its name. He was also an early Art Nouveau theorist, demanding the use of dynamic, often opposing lines. Van de Velde wrote: "A line is a force like all the other elementary forces. Several lines put together but opposed have a presence as strong as several forces". In 1906, he departed Belgium for Weimar (Germany), where he founded the Grand-Ducal School of Arts and Crafts, where the teaching of historical styles was forbidden. He played an important role in the German Werkbund, before returning to Belgium.[41]

The debut of Art Nouveau architecture in Brussels was accompanied by a wave of Decorative Art in the new style. Important artists included Gustave Strauven, who used wrought iron to achieve baroque effects on Brussels facades; the furniture designer Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, known for his highly original chairs and articulated metal furniture; and the jewellery designer Philippe Wolfers, who made jewellery in the form of dragonflies, butterflies, swans and serpents.[42]

The Brussels International Exposition held in 1897 brought international attention to the style; Horta, Hankar, Van de Velde, and Serrurier-Bovy, among others, took part in the design of the fair, and Henri Privat-Livemont created the poster for the exhibition.

Paris – Maison de l'Art Nouveau (1895) and Castel Beranger (1895–1898)

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    Siegfried Bing invited artists to show modern works in his new Maison de l'Art Nouveau (1895).

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    The Maison de l'Art Nouveau gallery of Siegfried Bing (1895)

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    Poster by Félix Vallotton for the new Maison de l'Art Nouveau (1896)

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    Gateway of the Castel Béranger by Hector Guimard (1895–1898)

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    Breezeway of the Castel Béranger, with wall plates by Alexandre Bigot

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    Detail of main stairway of the Castel Béranger

The Franco-German art dealer and publisher Siegfried Bing played a key role in publicizing the style. In 1891, he founded a magazine devoted to the art of Japan, which helped publicize Japonism in Europe. In 1892, he organized an exhibit of seven artists, among them Pierre Bonnard, Félix Vallotton, Édouard Vuillard, Toulouse-Lautrec and Eugène Grasset, which included both modern painting and decorative work. This exhibition was shown at the Société nationale des beaux-arts in 1895. In the same year, Bing opened a new gallery at 22 rue de Provence in Paris, the Maison de l'Art Nouveau, devoted to new works in both the fine and decorative arts. The interior and furniture of the gallery were designed by the Belgian architect Henry van de Velde, one of the pioneers of Art Nouveau architecture. The Maison de l'Art Nouveau showed paintings by Georges Seurat, Paul Signac and Toulouse-Lautrec, glass from Louis Comfort Tiffany and Émile Gallé, jewellery by René Lalique, and posters by Aubrey Beardsley. The works shown there were not at all uniform in style. Bing wrote in 1902, "Art Nouveau, at the time of its creation, did not aspire in any way to have the honor of becoming a generic term. It was simply the name of a house opened as a rallying point for all the young and ardent artists impatient to show the modernity of their tendencies."[43]

The style was quickly noticed in neighbouring France. After visiting Horta's Hôtel Tassel, Hector Guimard built the Castel Béranger, among the first Paris buildings in the new style, between 1895 and 1898.[nb 1] Parisians had been complaining of the monotony of the architecture of the boulevards built under Napoleon III by Georges-Eugène Haussmann. The Castel Beranger was a curious blend of Neo-Gothic and Art Nouveau, with curving whiplash lines and natural forms. Guimard, a skilled publicist for his work, declared: "What must be avoided at all cost is...the parallel and symmetry. Nature is the greatest builder of all, and nature makes nothing that is parallel and nothing that is symmetric."[45]

Parisians welcomed Guimard's original and picturesque style; the Castel Béranger was chosen as one of the best new façades in Paris, launching Guimard's career. Guimard was given the commission to design the entrances for the new Paris Métro system, which brought the style to the attention of the millions of visitors to the city's 1900 Exposition Universelle.[10]

Paris Exposition Universelle (1900)

Main article: Exposition Universelle (1900)

The Paris 1900 Exposition universelle marked the high point of Art Nouveau. Between April and November 1900, it attracted nearly fifty million visitors from around the world, and showcased the architecture, design, glassware, furniture and decorative objects of the style. The architecture of the Exposition was often a mixture of Art Nouveau and Beaux-Arts architecture: the main exhibit hall, the Grand Palais had a Beaux-Arts façade completely unrelated to the spectacular Art Nouveau stairway and exhibit hall in the interior.

French designers all made special works for the Exhibition: Lalique crystal and jewellery; jewellery by Henri Vever and Georges Fouquet; Daum glass; the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres in porcelain; ceramics by Alexandre Bigot; sculpted glass lamps and vases by Émile Gallé; furniture by Édouard Colonna and Louis Majorelle; and many other prominent arts and crafts firms. At the 1900 Paris Exposition, Siegfried Bing presented a pavilion called Art Nouveau Bing, which featured six different interiors entirely decorated in the Style.[46][47]

The Exposition was the first international showcase for Art Nouveau designers and artists from across Europe and beyond. Prize winners and participants included Alphonse Mucha, who made murals for the pavilion of Bosnia-Herzegovina and designed the menu for the restaurant of the pavilion; the decorators and designers Bruno Paul and Bruno Möhring from Berlin; Carlo Bugatti from Turin; Bernhardt Pankok from Bavaria; The Russian architect-designer Fyodor Schechtel, and Louis Comfort Tiffany and Company from the United States.[48] The Viennese architect Otto Wagner was a member of the jury, and presented a model of the Art Nouveau bathroom of his own town apartment in Vienna, featuring a glass bathtub.[49] Josef Hoffmann designed the Viennese exhibit at the Paris exposition, highlighting the designs of the Vienna Secession.[50] Eliel Saarinen first won international recognition for his imaginative design of the pavilion of Finland.[51]

While the Paris Exposition was by far the largest, other expositions did much to popularize the style. The 1888 Barcelona Universal Exposition marked the beginning of the Modernisme style in Spain, with some buildings of Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The Esposizione internazionale d'arte decorativa moderna of 1902 in Turin, Italy, showcased designers from across Europe, including Victor Horta from Belgium and Joseph Maria Olbrich from Vienna, along with local artists such as Carlo Bugatti, Galileo Chini and Eugenio Quarti.[52]

Local variations

Art Nouveau in France

Main articles: École de Nancy and Art Nouveau in Paris

Following the 1900 Exposition, the capital of Art Nouveau was Paris. The most extravagant residences in the style were built by Jules Lavirotte, who entirely covered the façades with ceramic sculptural decoration. The most flamboyant example is the Lavirotte Building, at 29, avenue Rapp (1901). Office buildings and department stores featured high courtyards covered with stained glass cupolas and ceramic decoration. The style was particularly popular in restaurants and cafés, including Maxim's at 3, rue Royale, and Le Train bleu at the Gare de Lyon (1900).[53]

The status of Paris attracted foreign artists to the city. The Swiss-born artist Eugène Grasset was one of the first creators of French Art Nouveau posters. He helped decorate the famous cabaret Le Chat Noir in 1885, made his first posters for the Fêtes de Paris and a celebrated poster of Sarah Bernhardt in 1890. In Paris, he taught at the Guérin school of art (École normale d'enseignement du dessin), where his students included Augusto Giacometti and Paul Berthon.[54][55] Swiss-born Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen created the famous poster for the Paris cabaret Le Chat noir in 1896. The Czech artist Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939) arrived in Paris in 1888, and in 1895, made a poster for actress Sarah Bernhardt in the play Gismonda by Victorien Sardou in Théâtre de la Renaissance. The success of this poster led to a contract to produce posters for six more plays by Bernhardt.

The city of Nancy in Lorraine became the other French capital of the new style. In 1901, the Alliance provinciale des industries d'art, also known as the École de Nancy, was founded, dedicated to upsetting the hierarchy that put painting and sculpture above the decorative arts. The major artists working there included the glass vase and lamp creators Émile Gallé, the Daum brothers in glass design, and the designer Louis Majorelle, who created furniture with graceful floral and vegetal forms. The architect Henri Sauvage brought the new architectural style to Nancy with his Villa Majorelle in 1902.

The French style was widely propagated by new magazines, including The Studio, Arts et Idées and Art et Décoration, whose photographs and colour lithographs made the style known to designers and wealthy clients around the world.

In France, the style reached its summit in 1900, and thereafter slipped rapidly out of fashion, virtually disappearing from France by 1905. Art Nouveau was a luxury style, which required expert and highly-paid craftsmen, and could not be easily or cheaply mass-produced. One of the few Art Nouveau products that could be mass-produced was the perfume bottle, and these are still manufactured in the style today.

Art Nouveau in Belgium

Main articles: Art Nouveau in Brussels and Art Nouveau in Antwerp

Belgium was an early centre of Art Nouveau, thanks largely to the architecture of Victor Horta, who designed one of the first Art Nouveau houses, the Hôtel Tassel in 1893, and three other townhouses in variations of the same style. They are now UNESCO World Heritage sites. Horta had a strong influence on the work of the young Hector Guimard, who came to see the Hôtel Tassel under construction, and later declared that Horta was the "inventor" of the Art Nouveau.[56] Horta's innovation was not the facade, but the interior, using an abundance of iron and glass to open up space and flood the rooms with light, and decorating them with wrought iron columns and railings in curving vegetal forms, which were echoed on the floors and walls, as well as the furniture and carpets which Horta designed.[57]

Paul Hankar was another pioneer of Brussels' Art Nouveau. His house was completed in 1893, the same year as Horta's Hôtel Tassel, and featured sgraffiti murals on the facade. Hankar was influenced by both Viollet-le-Duc and the ideas of the English Arts and Crafts movement. His conception idea was to bring together decorative and fine arts in a coherent whole. He commissioned the sculptor Alfred Crick and the painter Adolphe Crespin [fr] to decorate the facades of houses with their work. The most striking example was the house and studio built for the artist Albert Ciamberlani at 48, rue Defacqz/Defacqzstraat in Brussels, for which he created an exuberant facade covered with sgraffito murals with painted figures and ornament, recreating the decorative architecture of the Quattrocento, or 15th-century Italy.[30] Hankar died in 1901, when his work was just receiving recognition.[58]

Gustave Strauven began his career as an assistant designer working with Horta, before he started his own practice at age 21, making some of the most extravagant Art Nouveau buildings in Brussels. His most famous work is the Saint-Cyr House at 11, square Ambiorix/Ambiorixsquare. The house is only 4 metres (13 ft) wide, but is given extraordinary height by his elaborate architectural inventions. It is entirely covered by polychrome bricks and a network of curling vegetal forms in wrought iron, in a virtually Art Nouveau-Baroque style.[59]

Other important Art Nouveau artists from Belgium included the architect and designer Henry van de Velde, though the most important part of his career was spent in Germany; he strongly influenced the decoration of the Jugendstil. Others included the decorator Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, and the graphic artist Fernand Khnopff.[5][60][61] Belgian designers took advantage of an abundant supply of ivory imported from the Belgian Congo; mixed sculptures, combining stone, metal and ivory, by such artists as Philippe Wolfers, was popular.[62]

Nieuwe Kunst in the Netherlands

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    Poster for Delft Salad Oil by Jan Toorop (1893)

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    The Amsterdam Commodities Exchange, by Hendrik Petrus Berlage (1896–1903)

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    Cabinet/Desk by Berlage (1898)

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    Vase with abstract floral design by Theo Colenbrander (1898)

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    Porcelain vase designed by J. Jurriaan Kok and decorated by W.R. Sterken (1901)

In the Netherlands, the style was known as the Nieuwe Stijl ("New Style"), or Nieuwe Kunst ("New Art"), and it took a different direction from the more floral and curving style in Belgium. It was influenced by the more geometric and stylized forms of the German Jugendstil and Austrian Vienna Secession.[62] It was also influenced by the art and imported woods from Indonesia, then the Dutch East Indies, particularly the designs of the textiles and batik from Java.

The most important architect and furniture designer in the style was Hendrik Petrus Berlage, who denounced historical styles and advocated a purely functional architecture. He wrote, "It is necessary to fight against the art of illusion, to and to recognize the lie, in order to find the essence and not the illusion."[63] Like Victor Horta and Gaudí, he was an admirer of architectural theories of Viollet-le-Duc.[63] His furniture was designed to be strictly functional, and to respect the natural forms of wood, rather than bending or twisting it as if it were metal. He pointed to the example of Egyptian furniture, and preferred chairs with right angles. His first and most famous architectural work was the Beurs van Berlage (1896–1903), the Amsterdam Commodities Exchange, which he built following the principles of constructivism. Everything was functional, including the lines of rivets that decorated the walls of the main room. He often included very tall towers to his buildings to make them more prominent, a practice used by other Art Nouveau architects of the period, including Joseph Maria Olbrich in Vienna and Eliel Saarinen in Finland.[64]

Other buildings in the style include the American Hotel (1898–1900), also by Berlage; and Astoria (1904–1905) by Herman Hendrik Baanders and Gerrit van Arkel in Amsterdam; the railway station in Haarlem (1906–1908), and the former office building of the Holland America Lines (1917) in Rotterdam, now the Hotel New York.

Prominent graphic artists and illustrators in the style included Jan Toorop, whose work inclined toward mysticism and symbolism, even in his posters for salad oil. In their colors and designs, they also sometimes showed the influence of the art of Java.[64]

Important figures in Dutch ceramics and porcelain included Jurriaan Kok and Theo Colenbrander. They used colorful floral pattern and more traditional Art Nouveau motifs, combined with unusual forms of pottery and contrasting dark and light colors, borrowed from the batik decoration of Java.[65]

Modern Style and Glasgow School in Britain

Main article: Modern Style (British Art Nouveau style)
See also: Glasgow School

Art Nouveau had its roots in Britain, in the Arts and Crafts movement which started in 1860s and reached international recognition by 1880s. It called for better treatment of decorative arts, and took inspiration in medieval craftmanship and design, and nature.[66] One notable early example of the Modern Style is Arthur Mackmurdo's design for the cover of his essay on the city churches of Sir Christopher Wren, published in 1883, as is his Mahogany chair from the same year.[67]

Other important innovators in Britain included the graphic designers Aubrey Beardsley whose drawings featured the curved lines that became the most recognizable feature of the style. Free-flowing wrought iron from the 1880s could also be adduced, or some flat floral textile designs, most of which owed some impetus to patterns of 19th century design. Other British graphic artists who had an important place in the style included Walter Crane and Charles Ashbee.[68]

The Liberty department store in London played an important role, through its colourful stylized floral designs for textiles, and the silver, pewter, and jewellery designs of Manxman (of Scottish descent) Archibald Knox. His jewellery designs in materials and forms broke away entirely from the historical traditions of jewellery design.

For Art Nouveau architecture and furniture design, the most important centre in Britain was Glasgow, with the creations of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow School, whose work was inspired by Scottish baronial architecture and Japanese design.[69] Beginning in 1895, Mackintosh displayed his designs at international expositions in London, Vienna, and Turin; his designs particularly influenced the Secession Style in Vienna. His architectural creations included the Glasgow Herald Building (1894) and the library of the Glasgow School of Art (1897). He also established a major reputation as a furniture designer and decorator, working closely with his wife, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, a prominent painter and designer. Together they created striking designs that combined geometric straight lines with gently curving floral decoration, particularly a famous symbol of the style, the Glasgow Rose".[70]

Léon-Victor Solon, made an important contribution to Art Nouveau ceramics as art director at Mintons. He specialised in plaques and in tube-lined vases marketed as "secessionist ware" (usually described as named after the Viennese art movement).[71] Apart from ceramics, he designed textiles for the Leek silk industry[72] and doublures for a bookbinder (G.T.Bagguley of Newcastle under Lyme), who patented the Sutherland binding in 1895.

George Skipper was perhaps the most active Art Nouveau architect in England. The Edward Everard building in Bristol, built during 1900–01 to house the printing works of Edward Everard, features an Art Nouveau façade. The figures depicted are of Johannes Gutenberg and William Morris, both eminent in the field of printing. A winged figure symbolises the "Spirit of Light", while a figure holding a lamp and mirror symbolises light and truth.

Jugendstil in Germany

See also: Jugendstil

German Art Nouveau is commonly known by its German name, Jugendstil, or "Youth Style". The name is taken from the artistic journal, Die Jugend, or Youth, which was published in Munich. The magazine was founded in 1896 by Georg Hirth, who remained editor until his death in 1916. The magazine survived until 1940. During the early 20th century, Jugendstil was applied only to the graphic arts.[73] It referred especially to the forms of typography and graphic design found in German magazines such as Jugend, Pan, and Simplicissimus. Jugendstil was later applied to other versions of Art Nouveau in Germany, the Netherlands. The term was borrowed from German by several languages of the Baltic states and Nordic countries to describe Art Nouveau (see Naming section).[11][74]

In 1892 Georg Hirth chose the name Munich Secession for the Association of Visual Artists of Munich. The Vienna Secession, founded in 1897,[75] and the Berlin Secession also took their names from the Munich group.

The journals Jugend and Simplicissimus, published in Munich, and Pan, published in Berlin, were important proponents of the Jugendstil. Jugendstil art combined sinuous curves and more geometric lines, and was used for covers of novels, advertisements, and exhibition posters. Designers often created original styles of typeface that worked harmoniously with the image, e.g. Arnold Böcklin typeface in 1904.

Otto Eckmann was one of the most prominent German artists associated with both Die Jugend and Pan. His favourite animal was the swan, and so great was his influence that the swan came to serve as the symbol of the entire movement. Another prominent designer in the style was Richard Riemerschmid, who made furniture, pottery, and other decorative objects in a sober, geometric style that pointed forward toward Art Deco.[76] The Swiss artist Hermann Obrist, living in Munich, illustrated the coup de fouet or whiplash motif, a highly stylized double curve suggesting motion taken from the stem of the cyclamen flower.

The Darmstadt Artists' Colony was founded in 1899 by Ernest Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse. The architect who built Grand Duke's house, as well as the largest structure of the colony (Wedding tower), was Joseph Maria Olbrich, one of the Vienna Secession founders. Other notable artists of the colony were Peter Behrens and Hans Christiansen. Ernest Ludwig also commissioned to rebuild the spa complex in Bad Nauheim at the beginning of century. A completely new Sprudelhof [de] complex was constructed in 1905–1911 under the direction of Wilhelm Jost [de] and attained one of the main objectives of Jugendstil: a synthesis of all the arts.[77] Another member of the reigning family who commissioned an Art Nouveau structure was Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine. She founded Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in Moscow in 1908 and its katholikon is recognized as an Art Nouveau masterpiece.[78]

Another notable union in German Empire was the Deutscher Werkbund, founded in 1907 in Munich at the instigation of Hermann Muthesius by artists of Darmstadt Colony Joseph Maria Olbrich, Peter Behrens; by another founder of Vienna Secession Josef Hoffmann, as well as by Wiener Werkstätte (founded by Hoffmann), by Richard Riemerschmid, Bruno Paul and other artists and companies.[79] Later Belgian Henry van de Velde joined the movement[nb 2]. The Grand-Ducal School of Arts and Crafts [de], founded by him in Weimar, was a predecessor of Bauhaus, one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture.[81]

In Berlin Jugendstil was chosen for the construction of several railway stations. The most notable[82] is Bülowstraße by Bruno Möhring (1900–1902), other examples are Mexikoplatz (1902–1904), Botanischer Garten (1908–1909), Frohnau (1908–1910), Wittenbergplatz (1911–1913) and Pankow (1912–1914) stations. Another notable structure of Berlin is Hackesche Höfe (1906) which used polychrome glazed brick for the courtyard facade.

Art Nouveau in Strasbourg (then part of the German Empire as the capital of the Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen) was a specific brand, in that it combined influences from Nancy, and Brussels, with influences from Darmstadt, and Vienna, to operate a local synthesis which reflected the history of the city between the Germanic and the French realms.

Secession in Austria–Hungary

Vienna Secession

Main article: Vienna Secession

Vienna became the centre of a distinct variant of Art Nouveau, which became known as the Vienna Secession. The movement took its name from Munich Secession established in 1892. Vienna Secession was founded in April 1897 by a group of artists that included Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Max Kurzweil, Ernst Stöhr, and others.[75] The painter Klimt became the president of the group. They objected to the conservative orientation toward historicism expressed by Vienna Künstlerhaus, the official union of artists. The Secession founded a magazine, Ver Sacrum, to promote their works in all media.[83] The architect Joseph Olbrich designed the domed Secession building in the new style, which became a showcase for the paintings of Gustav Klimt and other Secession artists.

Klimt became the best-known of the Secession painters, often erasing the border between fine art painting and decorative painting. Koloman Moser was an extremely versatile artist in the style; his work including magazine illustrations, architecture, silverware, ceramics, porcelain, textiles, stained glass windows, and furniture.

The most prominent architect of the Vienna Secession was Otto Wagner,[84] he joined the movement soon after its inception to follow his students Hoffmann and Olbrich. His major projects included several stations of the urban rail network (the Stadtbahn), the Linke Wienzeile Buildings (consisting of Majolica House, the House of Medallions and the house at Köstlergasse). The Karlsplatz Station is now an exhibition hall of the Vienna Museum. The Kirche am Steinhof of Steinhof Psychiatric hospital (1904–1907) is a unique and finely-crafted example of Secession religious architecture, with a traditional domed exterior but sleek, modern gold and white interior lit by abundance of modern stained glass.

In 1899 Joseph Maria Olbrich moved to Darmstadt Artists' Colony, in 1903 Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann founded the Wiener Werkstätte, a training school and workshop for designers and craftsmen of furniture, carpets, textiles and decorative objects.[85] In 1905 Koloman Moser and Gustav Klimt separated from Vienna Secession, later in 1907 Koloman Moser left Wiener Werkstätte as well, while its other founder Josef Hoffmann joined the Deutscher Werkbund.[79] Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffmann continued collaborating, they organized Kunstschau Exhibition [de] in 1908 in Vienna and built the Stoclet Palace in Brussels (1905–1911) that announced the coming of modernist architecture.[86][87] It was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in June 2009.[88]

Hungarian Szecesszió

The pioneer and prophet of the Szecesszió (Secession in Hungarian), the architect Ödön Lechner, created buildings which marked a transition from historicism to modernism for Hungarian architecture.[89] His idea for a Hungarian architectural style was the use of architectural ceramics and oriental motifs. In his works, he used pygorganite placed in production by 1886 by Zsolnay Porcelain Manufactory.[89] This material was used in the construction of notable Hungarian buildings of other styles, e.g. the Hungarian Parliament Building and Matthias Church.

Works by Ödön Lechner[90] include the Museum of Applied Arts (1893–1896), other building with similar distinctive features are Geological Museum (1896–1899) and The Postal Savings Bank building (1899–1902), all in Budapest. However, due to the opposition of Hungarian architectural establishment to Lechner's success, he soon was unable to get new commissions comparable to his earlier buildings.[89] But Lechner was an inspiration and a master to the following generation of architects who played the main role in popularising the new style.[89] Within the process of Magyarization numerous buildings were commissioned to his disciples in outskirts of the kingdom: e.g. Marcell Komor [hu] and Dezső Jakab were commissioned to build the Synagogue (1901–1903) and Town Hall (1908–1910) in Szabadka (now Subotica, Serbia), County Prefecture (1905–1907) and Palace of Culture (1911–1913) in Marosvásárhely (now Târgu Mureș, Romania). Later Lechner himself built the Blue Church in Pozsony (present-day Bratislava, Slovakia) in 1909–1913.

Another important architect was Károly Kós who was a follower of John Ruskin and William Morris. Kós took the Finnish National Romanticism movement as a model and the Transylvanian vernacular as the inspiration.[91] His most notable buildings include the Roman Catholic Church in Zebegény (1908–09), pavilions for the Budapest Municipal Zoo (1909–1912) and the Székely National Museum in Sepsiszentgyörgy (now Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania, 1911–12).

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    Pax, mosaic by Miksa Róth, which received the silver medal at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900

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    Cabinet by Ödön Faragó, from Budapest (1901)

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    Window with flower motives from the Villa Alpár in Budapest, by Miksa Róth (1903)

The movement that promoted Szecesszió in arts was Gödöllő Art Colony, founded by Aladár Körösfői-Kriesch, also a follower John Ruskin and William Morris and a professor at the Royal School of Applied Arts in Budapest in 1901.[92] Its artists took part in many projects, including the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest.[93]

An associate to Gödöllő Art Colony,[94] Miksa Róth was also involved in several dozen Szecesszió projects, including Budapest buildings including Gresham Palace (stained glass, 1906) and Török Bank [fr] (mosaics, 1906) and also created mosaics and stained glass for Palace of Culture (1911–1913) in Marosvásárhely.

A notable furniture designer is Ödön Faragó [hu] who combined traditional popular architecture, oriental architecture and international Art Nouveau in a highly picturesque style. Pál Horti [hu], another Hungarian designer, had a much more sober and functional style, made of oak with delicate traceries of ebony and brass.

Secession in Prague and elsewhere

The most notable Secession buildings in Prague are examples of total art with distinctive architecture, sculpture and paintings.[95] The main railway station (1901–1909) was designed by Josef Fanta and features paintings of Václav Jansa and sculptures of Ladislav Šaloun and Stanislav Sucharda along with other artists. The Municipal House (1904–1912) was designed by Osvald Polívka and Antonín Balšánek, painted by famous Czech painter Alphonse Mucha and features sculptures of Josef Mařatka and Ladislav Šaloun. Polívka, Mařatka, and Šaloun simultaneously cooperated in the construction of New City Hall (1908–1911) along with Stanislav Sucharda, and Mucha later painted St. Vitus Cathedral's stained glass windows in his distinctive style.

The style of combining Hungarian Szecesszió and national architectural elements was typical for a Slovak architect Dušan Jurkovič. His most original works are the Cultural House in Szakolca (now Skalica in Slovakia, 1905), the buildings of spa in Luhačovice (now Czech Republic) in 1901–1903 and 35 war cemeteries near Nowy Żmigród in Galicia (now Poland), most of them heavily influenced by local Lemko (Rusyn) folk art and carpentry (1915–1917).

The most prolific Slovenian Secession architect was Ciril Metod Koch.[96] He studied at Otto Wagner's classes in Vienna and worked in the Laybach (now Ljubljana, Slovenia) City Council from 1894 to 1923. After the earthquake in Laybach in 1895, he designed many secular buildings in Secession style that he adopted from 1900 to 1910:[96] Pogačnik House (1901), Čuden Building (1901), The Farmers Loan Bank (1906–07), renovated Hauptmann Building in Secession style in 1904. The highlight of his career was the Loan Bank in Radmannsdorf (now Radovljica) in 1906.[96]

Art Nouveau in Romania

See also: Romanian Revival architecture
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    Romulus Porescu House by Dimitrie Maimarolu (1905), mix of Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau[97]

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    Constanța Casino by Daniel Renard and Petre Antonescu (1905–1910), mix of Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau

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    Brück House in Timișoara. Along with Oradea, Timișoara is part of the Art Nouveau European Route.[98]

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    Black Eagle Palace in Oradea (1907–08)

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    Mița the Cyclist House by Nicolae C. Mihăescu (1910), mix of Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau[99]

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    House at Strada Dimitrie Racoviță no. 16 in Bucharest (unknown date)

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    Piața Mihail Kogălniceanu no. 7 in Bucharest (unknown date)

Art Nouveau appears in Romania during the same years as it does in Western Europe (early 1890s until the outbreak of World War I in 1914), but here few are the buildings in this style, the Beaux Arts being predominant. The most famous of them is the Constanța Casino. Most of the Romanian examples of Art Nouveau architecture are actually mixes of Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau, like the Romulus Porescu House or house no. 61 on Strada Vasile Lascăr, both in Bucharest.[100] This is because the style was somewhat illegal in Romanian architecture, due to being popular in Transilvania, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time, where Romanians were suppressed and discriminated, despite being the majority of the population. So, the people who wanted an Art Nouveau home in the 1900s and early 1910s could only put some subtile ornaments reminiscent of the style, while the rest was completely Beaux Arts or in some rare cases Romanian Revival. An example of this is the Fanny and Isac Popper House in Bucharest (Strada Sfinților no. 1), 1914, by Alfred Popper, which is primarily in the Beaux Arts academic style, but has some Art Nouveau reliefs of women dancing and playing musical instruments at the bases of the two pilasters and flowers above the arch door. A frequent feature reminiscent of the style are the arch windows which have curvy woodwork elements. However, this window feature may not necessarily be Art Nouveau, since Beaux Arts and Rococo Revival architecture tends to use curvy and sinuous lines, especially during the 1890s, 1900s and 1910s.

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    A cover of the Literatură și Artă Română ("Romanian Literature and Arts") magazine (1899)

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    Decorative panel by Ștefan Luchian (1900)

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    Spring, decorative panel by Ștefan Luchian (1901)

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    Young woman by Ștefan Luchian, drawing for the cover the Ileana Magazine

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    Stamp of the Weaver Charity Society (1906)

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    The Water Fairy by Elena Alexandrina Bednarik (1908)

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    The cover of a small poetry book from 1908

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    The title page of a small poetry book from 1908

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    The cover of a small poetry magazine from the Biblioteca Societății series (1912)

One of the most notable Art Nouveau painters from Romania was Ștefan Luchian, who quickly took over the innovative and decorative directions of Art Nouveau for a short period of time. The moment was synchronized with the founding of the Ileana Society in 1897, of which he was a founding member, a company that organized an exhibition (1898) at the Union Hotel entitled The Exhibition of Independent Artists and published a magazine – the Ileana Magazine.[101]

Transylvania has examples of both Art Nouveau and Romanian Revival buildings, the former being from the Austro-Hungarian era. Most of them can be found in Oradea, nicknamed the "Art Nouveau capital of Romania",[102] but also in Timișoara, Târgu Mureș and Sibiu.[103][104][105]

Stile Liberty in Italy

Main article: Liberty style

Art Nouveau in Italy was known as arte nuova, stile floreale, stile moderno and especially stile Liberty. Liberty style took its name from Arthur Lasenby Liberty and the store he founded in 1874 in London, Liberty Department Store, which specialised in importing ornaments, textiles and art objects from Japan and the Far East, and whose colourful textiles which were particularly popular in Italy. Notable Italian designers in the style included Galileo Chini, whose ceramics were often inspired both by majolica patterns. He was later known as a painter and a theatrical scenery designer; he designed the sets for two celebrated Puccini operas Gianni Schicchi and Turandot.[106][107][11]

Liberty style architecture varied greatly, and often followed historical styles, particularly the Baroque. Facades were often drenched with decoration and sculpture. Examples of the Liberty style include the Villino Florio (1899–1902) by Ernesto Basile in Palermo; the Palazzo Castiglioni in Milan by Giuseppe Sommaruga (1901–1903); Milan, and the Casa Guazzoni (1904–05) in Milan by Giovanni Battista Bossi (1904–06).[108]

Colorful frescoes, painted or in ceramics, and sculpture, both in the interior and exterior, were a popular feature of Liberty style. They drew upon both classical and floral themes. as in the baths of Acque della Salute, and in the Casa Guazzoni in Milan.

The most important figure in Liberty style design was Carlo Bugatti, the son of an architect and decorator, father of Rembrandt Bugatti, Liberty sculptor, and of Ettore Bugatti, famous automobile designer. He studied at the Milanese Academy of Brera, and later the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His work was distinguished by its exoticism and eccentricity, included silverware, textiles, ceramics, and musical instruments, but he is best remembered for his innovative furniture designs, shown first in the 1888 Milan Fine Arts Fair. His furniture often featured a keyhole design, and had unusual coverings, including parchment and silk, and inlays of bone and ivory. It also sometimes had surprising organic shapes, copied after snails and cobras.[109]

Art Nouveau and Secession in Serbia

Main articles: Architecture of Serbia § Art Nouveau and Secession style, and Serbo-Byzantine Revival architecture

Due to the close proximity to Austria–Hungary and Vojvodina being part of the empire until 1918, both the Vienna Secession and Hungarian Szecesszió were prevalent movements in what is today's northern Serbia, as well as the Capital of Belgrade.[110] Famous Austrian and Hungarian architects would design many buildings in Subotica, Novi Sad, Palić, Zrenjanin, Vrbas, Senta, and Kikinda. Art Nouveau heritage in Belgrade, Pančevo, Aranđelovac, and Vrnjačka Banja are a mixture of French, German, Austrian, Hungarian, and local Serbian movements. From the curvy floral beauty of the Subotica's Synagogue to the Morava-style inspired rosettes on Belgrade's telegraph building, Art Nouveau architecture takes various shapes in present-day Serbia.

Back in early 1900s, north of the Sava and the Danube, resurgent Hungarian national sentiment infused the buildings in Subotica and Senta with local floral ethnic motifs, while in the tiny Kingdom of Serbia, national romantics like Branko Tanezević and Dragutin Inkiostiri-Medenjak (both born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire), translated Serbia's traditional motifs into marvellous buildings. Other architects, like Milan Antonović and Nikola Nestorović brought the then-fashionable sinuous lines and natural motifs to the homes and businesses of their wealthy patrons, so they could show off their worldliness and keeping up with the trends in Paris, Munich and Vienna.[111]

Modernismo and Modernisme in Spain

Main articles: Modernisme and Valencian Art Nouveau

A highly original variant of the style emerged in Barcelona, Catalonia, at about the same time that the Art Nouveau style appeared in Belgium and France. It was called Modernisme in Catalan and Modernismo in Spanish. Its most famous creator was Antoni Gaudí. Gaudí used floral and organic forms in a very novel way in Palau Güell (1886–1890). According to UNESCO, "the architecture of the park combined elements from the Arts and Crafts movement, Symbolism, Expressionism, and Rationalism, and presaged and influenced many forms and techniques of 20th-century Modernism."[113][114][115] He integrated crafts as ceramics, stained glass, wrought ironwork forging and carpentry into his architecture. In his Güell Pavilions (1884–1887) and then Parc Güell (1900–1914) he also used a new technique called trencadís, which used waste ceramic pieces. His designs from about 1903, the Casa Batlló (1904–1906) and Casa Milà (1906–1912),[112] are most closely related to the stylistic elements of Art Nouveau.[116] Later structures such as Sagrada Família combined Art Nouveau elements with revivalist Neo-Gothic.[116] Casa Batlló, Casa Milà, Güell Pavilions, and Parc Güell were results of his collaboration with Josep Maria Jujol, who himself created houses in Sant Joan Despí (1913–1926), several churches near Tarragona (1918 and 1926) and the sinuous Casa Planells (1924) in Barcelona.

Besides the dominating presence of Gaudí, Lluís Domènech i Montaner also used Art Nouveau in Barcelona in buildings such as the Castell dels Tres Dragons (1888), Casa Lleó Morera, Palau de la Música Catalana (1905) and Hospital de Sant Pau (1901–1930).[116] The two latter buildings have been listed by UNESCO as World Cultural Heritage.[117]

Another major modernista was Josep Puig i Cadafalch, who designed the Casa Martí and its Els Quatre Gats café, the Casimir Casaramona textile factory (now the CaixaFòrum art museum), Casa Macaya, Casa Amatller, the Palau del Baró de Quadras (housing Casa Àsia for 10 years until 2013) and the Casa de les Punxes ("House of Spikes").

A distinctive Art Nouveau movement was also in the Valencian Community. Some of the notable architects were Demetrio Ribes Marco, Vicente Pascual Pastor, Timoteo Briet Montaud, and José María Manuel Cortina Pérez. Valencian Art Nouveau defining characteristics are a notable use of ceramics in decoration, both in the facade and in ornamentation, and also the use of Valencian regional motives.

Another remarkable variant is the Madrilenian Art Nouveau or "Modernismo madrileño", with such notable buildings as the Longoria Palace, the Casino de Madrid or the Cementerio de la Almudena, among others. Renowned modernistas from Madrid were architects José López Sallaberry, Fernando Arbós y Tremanti and Francisco Andrés Octavio [es].

See also: Art Nouveau in Alcoy

The Modernisme movement left a wide art heritage including drawings, paintings, sculptures, glass and metal work, mosaics, ceramics, and furniture. A part of it can be found in Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.

Inspired by a Paris café called Le Chat Noir, where he had previously worked, Pere Romeu i Borràs [ca] decided to open a café in Barcelona that was named Els Quatre Gats (Four Cats in Catalan).[118] The café became a central meeting point for Barcelona's most prominent figures of Modernisme, such as Pablo Picasso and Ramon Casas i Carbó who helped to promote the movement by his posters and postcards. For the café he created a picture called Ramon Casas and Pere Romeu on a Tandem that was replaced with his another composition entitled Ramon Casas and Pere Romeu in an Automobile in 1901, symbolizing the new century.

Antoni Gaudí designed furniture for many of the houses he built; one example is an armchair called the for the Battle House. He influenced another notable Catalan furniture designer, Gaspar Homar [ca] (1870–1953) who often combined marquetry and mosaics with his furnishings.[119]

Arte Nova in Portugal

The Art Nouveau variant in Aveiro (Portugal) was called Arte Nova, and its principal characteristic feature was ostentation: the style was used by bourgeoisie who wanted to express their wealth on the facades while leaving the interiors conservative.[121] Another distinctive feature of Arte Nova was the use of locally produced tiles with Art Nouveau motifs.[121]

The most influential artist of Arte Nova was Francisco Augusto da Silva Rocha.[121] Though he was not trained as an architect, he designed many buildings in Aveiro and in other cities in Portugal.[122][121] One of them, the Major Pessoa residence, has both an Art Nouveau facade and interior, and now hosts the Museum of Arte Nova.[121]

There are other examples of Arte Nova in other cities of Portugal.[123][124] Some of them are the Museum-Residence Dr. Anastácio Gonçalves by Manuel Joaquim Norte Júnior [pt] (1904–1905) in Lisbon, Café Majestic by João Queiroz [pt] (1921) and Livraria Lello bookstore by Xavier Esteves [pt] (1906), both in Porto.

Jugendstil in the Nordic countries

Finland

Art Nouveau was popular in the Nordic countries, where it was usually known as Jugendstil, and was often combined with the National Romantic Style of each country. The Nordic country with the largest number of Jugendstil buildings is the Grand Duchy of Finland, then a part of Russian Empire.[125] The Jugendstil period coincided with Golden Age of Finnish Art and national awakening. After Paris Exposition in 1900 the leading Finnish artist was Akseli Gallen-Kallela.[126] He is known for his illustrations of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic, as well as for painting numerous Judendstil buildings in the Duchy.

The architects of the Finnish pavilion at the Exposition were Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren, and Eliel Saarinen. They worked together from 1896 to 1905 and created many notable buildings in Helsinki including Pohjola Insurance building (1899–1901) and National Museum of Finland (1905–1910)[127] as well as their joint residence Hvitträsk in Kirkkonummi (1902). Architects were inspired by Nordic legends and nature, rough granite façade thus became a symbol for belonging to the Finnish nation.[128] After the firm dissolved, Saarinen designed the Helsinki Railway Station (1905–1914) in clearer forms, influenced by American architecture.[128] The sculptor who worked with Saarinen in construction of National Museum of Finland and Helsinki Railway Station was Emil Wikström.

Another architect who created several notable works in Finland was Lars Sonck. His major Jugendstil works include Tampere Cathedral (1902–1907), Ainola, the home of Jean Sibelius (1903), Headquarters of the Helsinki Telephone Association (1903–1907) and Kallio Church in Helsinki (1908–1912). Also, Magnus Schjerfbeck, brother of Helene Schjerfbeck, made tuberculosis sanatorium known as Nummela Sanatorium in 1903 using the Jugendstil style.[129][130][131]

Norway

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    Viking-Art Nouveau Chair by Norwegian designer Lars Kinsarvik (1900)

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    Art Nouveau Centre in Ålesund (1905–1907)

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    Graphic design by Gerhard Munthe (1914)

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    Interior of Art Nouveau Centre in Ålesund

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    Ornaments of a door in Art Nouveau Centre in Ålesund

Norway also was aspiring independence (from Sweden) and local Art Nouveau was connected with a revival inspired by Viking folk art and crafts. Notable designers included Lars Kisarvik, who designed chairs with traditional Viking and Celtic patterns, and Gerhard Munthe, who designed a chair with a stylized dragon-head emblem from ancient Viking ships, as well as a wide variety of posters, paintings and graphics.[132]

The Norwegian town of Ålesund is regarded as the main centre of Art Nouveau in Scandinavia because it was completely reconstructed after a fire of 23 January 1904.[133] About 350 buildings were built between 1904 and 1907 under an urban plan designed by the engineer Frederik Næsser. The merger of unity and variety gave birth to a style known as Ål Stil. Buildings of the style have linear decor and echoes of both Jugendstil and vernacular elements, e.g. towers of stave churches or the crested roofs.[133] One of the buildings, Swan Pharmacy, now hosts the Art Nouveau Centre.

Sweden and Denmark

Jugendstil masterpieces of other Nordic countries include Engelbrektskyrkan (1914) and Royal Dramatic Theater (1901–1908) in Stockholm, Sweden[134] and former City Library (now Danish National Business Archives) in Aarhus, Denmark (1898–1901).[135] The architect of the latter is Hack Kampmann, then a proponent of National Romantic Style who also created Custom House, Theatre and Villa Kampen in Aarhus. Denmark's most notable Art Nouveau designer was the silversmith Georg Jensen. The Baltic Exhibition in Malmö 1914 can be seen as the last major manifestation of the Jugendstil in Sweden.[136]

Modern in Russia

Main articles: Mir Iskusstva and Art Nouveau architecture in Russia

Модерн ("Modern") was a very colourful Russian variation of Art Nouveau which appeared in Moscow and Saint Petersburg in 1898 with the publication of a new art journal, "Мир искусства" (transliteration: Mir Iskusstva) ("The World of Art"), by Russian artists Alexandre Benois and Léon Bakst, and chief editor Sergei Diaghilev. The magazine organized exhibitions of leading Russian artists, including Mikhail Vrubel, Konstantin Somov, Isaac Levitan, and the book illustrator Ivan Bilibin. The World of Art style made less use of the vegetal and floral forms of French Art Nouveau; it drew heavily upon the bright colours and exotic designs of Russian folklore and fairy tales. The most influential contribution of the "World of Art" was the creation of a new ballet company, the Ballets Russes, headed by Diaghilev, with costumes and sets designed by Bakst and Benois. The new ballet company premiered in Paris in 1909, and performed there every year through 1913. The exotic and colourful sets designed by Benois and Bakst had a major impact on French art and design. The costume and set designs were reproduced in the leading Paris magazines, L'Illustration, La Vie parisienne and Gazette du bon ton, and the Russian style became known in Paris as à la Bakst. The company was stranded in Paris first by the outbreak of World War I, and then by the Russian Revolution in 1917, and ironically never performed in Russia.[137]

Of Russian architects, the most prominent in the pure Art Nouveau style was Fyodor Schechtel. The most famous example is the Ryabushinsky House in Moscow. It was built by a Russian businessman and newspaper owner, and then, after the Russian Revolution, became the residence of the writer Maxim Gorky, and is now the Gorky Museum. Its main staircase, made of a polished aggregate of concrete, marble and granite, has flowing, curling lines like the waves of the sea, and is illuminated by a lamp in the form of a floating jellyfish. The interior also features doors, windows and ceiling decorated with colorful frescoes of mosaic.[138] Schechtel, who is also considered a major figure in Russian symbolism, designed several other landmark buildings in Moscow, including the rebuilding of the Moscow Yaroslavsky railway station, in a more traditional Moscow revival style.[138]

Other Russian architects of the period created Russian Revival architecture, which drew from historic Russian architecture. These buildings were created mostly in wood, and referred to the Architecture of Kievan Rus'. One example is the Teremok House in Talashkino (1901–1902) by Sergey Malyutin, and Pertsova House (also known as Pertsov House) in Moscow (1905–1907). He also was a member of Mir iskusstva movement. The Saint Petersburg architect Nikolai Vasilyev built in a range of styles before emigrating in 1923. This building is most notable for stone carvings made by Sergei Vashkov inspired by the carvings of Cathedral of Saint Demetrius in Vladimir and Saint George Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky of the XII and XIII centuries. Another example of this Russian Revival architecture is the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent (1908–1912), an updated Russian Orthodox Church by Alexey Shchusev, who later, ironically, designed Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow.

Several art colonies in Russia in this period were built in the Russian Revival style. The two best-known colonies were Abramtsevo, funded by Savva Mamontov, and Talashkino, Smolensk Governorate, funded by Princess Maria Tenisheva.

Jūgendstils (Art Nouveau in Riga)

Main article: Art Nouveau architecture in Riga
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    Facade of house at Elizabetes ielā, 10b, by Mikhail Eisenstein (1903)

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    Stairway in Pēkšēns House by Konstantīns Pēkšēns (1903) now hosting Riga Jūgendstils museum

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    National Romantic decoration on a house built by Konstantīns Pēkšēns (1908)

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    Ministry of Education, built by Edgar Friesendorf (1911)

Riga, the present-day capital of Latvia, was at the time one of the major cities of the Russian Empire. Art Nouveau architecture in Riga nevertheless developed according to its own dynamics, and the style became overwhelmingly popular in the city. Soon after the Latvian Ethnographic Exhibition in 1896 and the Industrial and Handicrafts Exhibition in 1901, Art Nouveau became the dominant style in the city.[139] Thus Art Nouveau architecture accounts for one-third of all the buildings in the centre of Riga, making it the city with the highest concentration of such buildings anywhere in the world. The quantity and quality of Art Nouveau architecture was among the criteria for including Riga in UNESCO World Cultural Heritage.[140]

There were different variations of Art Nouveau architecture in Riga:

  • in Eclectic Art Nouveau, floral and other nature-inspired elements of decoration were most popular. Examples of that variation are works of Mikhail Eisenstein,
  • in Perpendicular Art Nouveau, geometrical ornaments were integrated into the vertical compositions of the facades. Several department stores were built in this style, and it is sometimes also referred to as "department store style" or Warenhausstil in German,
  • National Romantic Art Nouveau was inspired by local folk art, monumental volumes and the use of natural building materials.

Some later Neo-Classical buildings also contained Art Nouveau details.

Style Sapin in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland

Main article: Style Sapin
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    Villa Fallet with fir-inspired decoration (1906) by Le Corbusier (1905)

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    Crematorium (1908–1910), interior, with stylized fir tree design on ceiling. The symbolist murals by L'Epplattenier were added later.

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    Crematorium, with stylized "sapin" or pine cone detail

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    Crematorium, with pine cone detail.

A variation called Style Sapin ("Pine Tree Style") emerged in La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. The style was launched by the painter and artist Charles l’Eplattenier and was inspired especially by the sapin, or pine tree, and other plants and wildlife of the Jura Mountains. One of his major works was the Crematorium in the town, which featured triangular tree forms, pine cones, and other natural themes from the region. The style also blended in the more geometric stylistic elements of Jugendstil and Vienna Secession.[141]

Another notable building in the style is the Villa Fallet La Chaux-de-Fonds, a chalet designed and built in 1905 by a student of L'Epplattenier, the eighteen-year-old Le Corbusier. The form of the house was a traditional Swiss chalet, but the decoration of the facade included triangular trees and other natural features. Le Corbusier built two more chalets in the area, including the Villa Stotzer, in a more traditional chalet style.[142][141][143][144]

Tiffany Style and Louis Sullivan in the United States

In the United States, the firm of Louis Comfort Tiffany played a central role in American Art Nouveau. Born in 1848, he studied at the National Academy of Design in New York, began working with glass at the age of 24, entered the family business started by his father, and in 1885 set up his own enterprise devoted to fine glass, and developed new techniques for its colouring. In 1893, he began making glass vases and bowls, again developing new techniques that allowed more original shapes and colouring, and began experimenting with decorative window glass. Layers of glass were printed, marbled and superimposed, giving an exceptional richness and variety of colour in 1895 his new works were featured in the Art Nouveau gallery of Siegfried Bing, giving him a new European clientele. After the death of his father in 1902, he took over the entire Tiffany enterprise, but still devoted much of his time to designing and manufacturing glass art objects. At the urging of Thomas Edison, he began to manufacture electric lamps with multicoloured glass shades in structures of bronze and iron, or decorated with mosaics, produced in numerous series and editions, each made with the care of a piece of jewellery. A team of designers and craftsmen worked on each product. The Tiffany lamp in particular became one of the icons of the Art Nouveau, but Tiffany's craftsmen designed and made extraordinary windows, vases, and other glass art. Tiffany's glass also had great success at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris; his stained glass window called the Flight of Souls won a gold medal.[145] The Columbian Exposition was an important venue for Tiffany; a chapel he designed was shown at the Pavilion of Art and Industry. The Tiffany Chapel, along with one of the windows of Tiffany's home in New York, are now on display at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, Florida.

Another important figure in American Art Nouveau was the architect Louis Sullivan. Sullivan was a leading pioneer of American modern architecture. He was the founder of the Chicago School, the architect of some of the first skyscrapers, and the teacher of Frank Lloyd Wright. His most famous saying was "Form follows function". While the form of his buildings was shaped by their function, his decoration was an example of American Art Nouveau. At the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, most famous for the neoclassical architecture of its renowned White City, he designed a spectacular Art Nouveau entrance for the very functional Transportation Building.[146][147]

While the architecture of his Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building (1899) (now the Sullivan Center) was strikingly modern and functional, he surrounded the windows with stylized floral decoration. He invented equally original decoration for the National Farmer's Bank of Owatonna, Minnestota (1907–1908) and the Merchants' National Bank in Grinell, Iowa. He invented a specifically American variety of Art Nouveau, declaring that decorative forms should oscillate, surge, mix and derive without end. He created works of great precision which sometimes combined Gothic with Art Nouveau themes.[148]

Art Nouveau in Argentina

Flooded with European immigrants, Argentina welcomed all artistic and architectural European styles, including Art Nouveau.[149] Cities with the most notable Art Nouveau heritage in Argentina are Buenos Aires, Rosario and Mar del Plata.[150]

Paris was a prototype for Buenos Aires with the construction of large boulevards and avenues in the 19th century.[149] The local style along with French influence was also following Italian Liberty as many architects (Virginio Colombo, Francisco Gianotti, Mario Palanti) were Italians. In works of Julián García Núñez [es] Catalan influence can be noted as he completed his studies in Barcelona in 1900.[149] The influence of Vienna Secession can be found at Paso y Viamonte building.[149]

The introduction of Art Nouveau in Rosario is connected to Francisco Roca Simó [es] who trained in Barcelona.[151] His Club Español building [es] (1912) features one of the largest stained glass windows in Latin America produced (as well as tiling and ceramics) by the local firm Buxadera, Fornells y Cía.[152] The sculptor of the building is Diego Masana from Barcelona.[152]

Belgian influence on Argentinian Art Nouveau is represented by the Villa Ortiz Basualdo, now hosting the Juan Carlos Castagnino Municipal Museum of Art in Mar del Plata where the furniture, interiors, and lighting are by Gustave Serrurier-Bovy.

Art Nouveau in the rest of the world

As in Argentina, Art Nouveau in other countries was mostly influenced by foreign artists:

Art Nouveau motifs can also be found in French Colonial artchitechture throughout French Indochina.

A notable art movement called Bezalel school appeared in the Palestine region in dating to the late Ottoman and British Mandate periods. It has been described as "a fusion of oriental art and Jugendstil."[163] Several artists associated with the Bezalel school were noted for their Art Nouveau style, including Ze'ev Raban, Ephraim Moses Lilien and Abel Pann.[164]

Characteristics

Early Art Nouveau, particularly in Belgium and France, was characterized by undulating, curving forms inspired by lilies, vines, flower stems and other natural forms, used in particular in the interiors of Victor Horta and the decoration of Louis Majorelle and Émile Gallé.[165] It also drew upon patterns based on butterflies and dragonflies, borrowed from Japanese art, which were popular in Europe at the time.[165]

Early Art Nouveau also often featured more stylized forms expressing movement, such as the coup de fouet or "whiplash" line, depicted in the cyclamen plants drawn by designer Hermann Obrist in 1894. A description published in Pan magazine of Hermann Obrist's wall hanging Cyclamen (1894), compared it to the "sudden violent curves generated by the crack of a whip,"[166] The term "whiplash", though it was originally used to ridicule the style, is frequently applied to the characteristic curves employed by Art Nouveau artists.[166] Such decorative undulating and flowing lines in a syncopated rhythm and asymmetrical shape, are often found in the architecture, painting, sculpture, and other forms of Art Nouveau design.[166]

Other floral forms were popular, inspired by lilies, wisteria and other flowers, particularly in the lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany and the glass objects made by the artists of the School of Nancy and Émile Gallé. Other curving and undulating forms borrowed from nature included butterflies, peacocks, swans, and water lilies. Many designs depicted women's hair intertwined with stems of lilies, irises and other flowers.[167] Stylized floral forms were particularly used by Victor Horta in carpets, balustrades, windows, and furniture. They were also used extensively by Hector Guimard for balustrades, and, most famously, for the lamps and railings at the entrances of the Paris Metro. Guimard explained: "That which must be avoided in everything that is continuous is the parallel and symmetry. Nature is the greatest builder and nature makes nothing that is parallel and nothing that is symmetrical."[168]

Earlier Art Nouveau furniture, such as that made by Louis Majorelle and Henry van de Velde, was characterized by the use of exotic and expensive materials, including mahogany with inlays of precious woods and trim, and curving forms without right angles. It gave a sensation of lightness.

In the second phase of Art Nouveau, following 1900, the decoration became purer and the lines were more stylized. The curving lines and forms evolved into polygons and then into cubes and other geometric forms. These geometric forms were used with particular effect in the architecture and furniture of Joseph Maria Olbrich, Otto Wagner, Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann, especially the Stoclet Palace in Brussels, which announced the arrival of Art Deco and modernism.[86][87][88]

Another characteristic of Art Nouveau architecture was the use of light, by opening up of interior spaces, by the removal of walls, and the extensive use of skylights to bring a maximum amount of light into the interior. Victor Horta's residence-studio and other houses built by him had extensive skylights, supported on curving iron frames. In the Hotel Tassel he removed the traditional walls around the stairway, so that the stairs became a central element of the interior design.

Relationship with contemporary styles and movements

 
 
Two examples of rococo: a design of a console table from 1752 (in the left), and a porcelain covered tureen from 1756 (in the right). Curves, vegetal ornaments, asymmetry and motifs inspired by nature were widly used both in Rococo Revival (one of the most popular styles in the 1870s and 1880s) and Art Nouveau

As an art style, Art Nouveau has affinities with the Pre-Raphaelites and the Symbolist styles, and artists like Aubrey Beardsley, Alphonse Mucha, Edward Burne-Jones, Gustav Klimt and Jan Toorop could be classed in more than one of these styles. Unlike Symbolist painting, however, Art Nouveau has a distinctive appearance; and, unlike the artisan-oriented Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau artists readily used new materials, machined surfaces, and abstraction in the service of pure design.

Art Nouveau did not eschew the use of machines, as the Arts and Crafts movement did. For sculpture, the principal materials employed were glass and wrought iron, resulting in sculptural qualities even in architecture. Ceramics were also employed in creating editions of sculptures by artists such as Auguste Rodin.[169] though his sculpture is not considered Art Nouveau.

Art Nouveau architecture made use of many technological innovations of the late 19th century, especially the use of exposed iron and large, irregularly shaped pieces of glass for architecture.

Art Nouveau tendencies were also absorbed into local styles. In Denmark, for example, it was one aspect of Skønvirke ("aesthetic work"), which itself more closely relates to the Arts and Crafts style.[170][171] Likewise, artists adopted many of the floral and organic motifs of Art Nouveau into the Młoda Polska ("Young Poland") style in Poland.[172] Młoda Polska, however, was also inclusive of other artistic styles and encompassed a broader approach to art, literature, and lifestyle.[173]

Architecturally, Art Nouveau has affinities with styles that, although modern, exist outside the modernist tradition established by architects like Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier. It is particularly closely related to Expressionist architecture, which shares its preference for organic shapes, but grew out of an intellectual dissatisfaction with Art Nouveau's approach to ornamentation. As opposed to Art Nouveau's focus on plants and vegetal motifs, Expressionism takes inspiration from things like caves, mountains, lightning, crystal, and rock formations.[174] Another style conceived as a reaction to Art Nouveau was Art Deco, which rejected organic surfaces altogether in preference for a rectilinear style derived from the contemporary artistic avant-garde.

Genres

Art Nouveau is represented in painting and sculpture, but it is most prominent in architecture and the decorative arts. It was well-suited to the graphic arts, especially the poster, interior design, metal and glass art, jewellery, furniture design, ceramics and textiles.

Posters and graphic art

Main article: Art Nouveau posters and graphic arts

The graphic arts flourished in the Art Nouveau period, thanks to new technologies of printing, particularly colour lithography, which allowed the mass production of colour posters. Art was no longer confined to galleries, museums and salons; it could be found on Paris walls, and in illustrated art magazines, which circulated throughout Europe and to the United States. The most popular theme of Art Nouveau posters was women; women symbolizing glamour, modernity and beauty, often surrounded by flowers.

In Britain, the leading graphic artist in the Art Nouveau style was Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898). He began with engraved book illustrations for Le Morte d'Arthur, then black and white illustrations for Salome by Oscar Wilde (1893), which brought him fame. In the same year, he began engraving illustrations and posters for the art magazine The Studio, which helped publicize European artists such as Fernand Khnopff in Britain. The curving lines and intricate floral patterns attracted as much attention as the text.[175]

The Swiss-French artist Eugène Grasset (1845–1917) was one of the first creators of French Art Nouveau posters. He helped decorate the famous cabaret Le Chat noir in 1885 and made his first posters for the Fêtes de Paris. He made a celebrated poster of Sarah Bernhardt in 1890, and a wide variety of book illustrations. The artist-designers Jules Chéret, Georges de Feure and the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec all made posters for Paris theaters, cafés, dance halls cabarets. The Czech artist Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939) arrived in Paris in 1888, and in 1895 made a poster for actress Sarah Bernhardt in the play Gismonda by Victorien Sardou. The success of this poster led to a contract to produce posters for six more plays by Bernhardt. Over the next four years, he also designed sets, costumes, and even jewellery for the actress.[176][177] Based on the success of his theater posters, Mucha made posters for a variety of products, ranging from cigarettes and soap to beer biscuits, all featuring an idealized female figure with an hourglass figure. He went on to design products, from jewellery to biscuit boxes, in his distinctive style.[178]

In Vienna, the most prolific designer of graphics and posters was Koloman Moser (1868–1918), who actively participated in the Secession movement with Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffmann, and made illustrations and covers for the magazine of the movement, Ver Sacrum, as well as paintings, furniture and decoration.[179]

Painting

Painting was another domain of Art Nouveau, though most painters associated with Art Nouveau are primarily described as members of other movements, particularly post-impressionism and symbolism. Alphonse Mucha was famous for his Art Nouveau posters, which frustrated him. According to his son and biographer, Jiří Mucha, he did not think much of Art Nouveau. "What is it, Art Nouveau? he asked. "...Art can never be new."[180] He took the greatest pride in his work as a history painter. His one Art-Nouveau inspired painting, "Slava", is a portrait of the daughter of his patron in Slavic costume, which was modelled after his theatrical posters.[180]

The painters most closely associated with Art Nouveau were Les Nabis, post-impressionist artists who were active in Paris from 1888 until 1900. One of their stated goals was to break down the barrier between the fine arts and the decorative arts. They painted not only canvases, but also decorative screens and panels. Many of their works were influenced by the aesthetics of Japanese prints. The members included Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Édouard Vuillard, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Félix Vallotton, and Paul Sérusier.[181]

In Belgium, Fernand Khnopff worked in both painting and graphic design. Wall murals by Gustav Klimt were integrated into decorative scheme of Josef Hoffmann for the Stoclet Palace (1905–1911). The Klimt mural for the dining room at the Stoclet Palace is considered a masterpiece of late Art Nouveau.

One subject did appear both in traditional painting and Art Nouveau; the American dancer Loie Fuller, was portrayed by French and Austrian painters and poster artists.[43]

One particular style that became popular in the Art Nouveau period, especially in Brussels, was sgraffito, a technique invented in the Renaissance of applying layers of tinted plaster to make murals on the facades of houses. This was used in particular by Belgian architect Paul Hankar for the houses he built for two artist friends, Paul Cauchie and Albert Ciamberlani.

Glass art

Main article: Art Nouveau glass art

Glass art was a medium in which Art Nouveau found new and varied ways of expression. Intense amount of experimentation went on, particularly in France, to find new effects of transparency and opacity: in engraving win cameo, double layers, and acid engraving, a technique that permitted production in series. The city of Nancy became an important centre for the French glass industry, and the workshops of Émile Gallé and the Daum studio, led by Auguste and Antonin Daum, were located there. They worked with many notable designers, including Ernest Bussière [fr], Henri Bergé (illustrateur) [fr], and Amalric Walter. They developed a new method of incrusting glass by pressing fragments of different coloured glass into the unfinished piece. They often collaborated with the furniture designer Louis Majorelle, whose home and workshops were in Nancy. Another feature of Art Nouveau was the use of stained glass windows with that style of floral themes in residential salons, particularly in the Art Nouveau houses in Nancy. Many were the work of Jacques Grüber, who made windows for the Villa Majorelle and other houses.[183]

In Belgium, the leading firm was the glass factory of Val Saint Lambert, which created vases in organic and floral forms, many of them designed by Philippe Wolfers. Wolfers was noted particularly for creating works of symbolist glass, often with metal decoration attached. In Bohemia, then a region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire noted for crystal manufacture, the companies J. & L. Lobmeyr and Joh. Loetz Witwe also experimented with new colouring techniques, producing more vivid and richer colours. In Germany, experimentation was led by Karl Köpping, who used blown glass to create extremely delicate glasses in the form of flowers; so delicate that few survive today.[184]

In Vienna, the glass designs of the Secession movement were much more geometrical than those of France or Belgium; Otto Prutscher was the most rigorous glass designer of the movement.[184] In Britain, a number of floral stained glass designs were created by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh for the architectural display called "The House of an Art Lover".

In the United States, Louis Comfort Tiffany and his designers became particularly famous for their lamps, whose glass shades used common floral themes intricately pieced together. Tiffany lamps gained popularity after the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, where Tiffany displayed his lamps in a Byzantine-like chapel. Tiffany experimented extensively with the processes of colouring glass, patenting in 1894 the process Favrile glass, which used metallic oxides to colour the interior of the molten glass, giving it an iridescent effect. His workshops produced several different series of the Tiffany lamp in different floral designs, along with stained glass windows, screens, vases and a range of decorative objects. His works were first imported to Germany, then to France by Siegfried Bing, and then became one of the decorative sensations of the 1900 Exposition. An American rival to Tiffany, Steuben Glass, was founded in 1903 in Corning, NY, by Frederick Carder, who, like Tiffany, used the Fevrile process to create surfaces with iridescent colours. Another notable American glass artist was John La Farge, who created intricate and colourful stained glass windows on both religious and purely decorative themes.[184]

Examples of stained glass windows in churches can be found in the Art Nouveau religious buildings article.

Metal art

The 19th-century architectural theorist Viollet-le-Duc had advocated showing, rather than concealing the iron frameworks of modern buildings, but Art Nouveau architects Victor Horta and Hector Guimard went a step further: they added iron decoration in curves inspired by floral and vegetal forms both in the interiors and exteriors of their buildings. They took the form of stairway railings in the interior, light fixtures, and other details in the interior, and balconies and other ornaments on the exterior. These became some of the most distinctive features of Art Nouveau architecture. The use of metal decoration in vegetal forms soon also appeared in silverware, lamps, and other decorative items.[185]

In the United States, the designer George Grant Elmslie made extremely intricate cast iron designs for the balustrades and other interior decoration of the buildings of Chicago architect Louis Sullivan.

While French and American designers used floral and vegetal forms, Joseph Maria Olbrich and the other Secession artists designed teapots and other metal objects in a more geometric and sober style.[186]

Jewellery

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    Dragonfly Lady brooch by René Lalique, made of gold, enamel, chrysoprase, moonstone, and diamonds (1897–98)

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    Carved horn decorated with pearls, by Louis Aucoc (c. 1900)

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    Translucent enamel flowers with small diamonds in the veins, by Louis Aucoc (c. 1900)

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    "Flora" brooch by Louis Aucoc (c. 1900)

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    A corsage ornament by Louis Tiffany (1900)

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    Brooch with woman by René Lalique

    January 18, 2023
nouveau, ɑː, ɑː, french, nuvo, international, style, architecture, applied, especially, decorative, arts, style, known, different, names, different, languages, jugendstil, german, stile, liberty, italian, modernisme, catalan, also, known, modern, style, englis. Art Nouveau ˌ ɑː r t n uː ˈ v oʊ ˌ ɑː r French aʁ nuvo is an international style of art architecture and applied art especially the decorative arts The style is known by different names in different languages Jugendstil in German Stile Liberty in Italian Modernisme in Catalan and also known as the Modern Style in English It was popular between 1890 and 1910 during the Belle Epoque period 1 and was a reaction against the academic art eclecticism and historicism of 19th century architecture and decoration It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and flowers 2 Other characteristics of Art Nouveau were a sense of dynamism and movement often given by asymmetry or whiplash lines and the use of modern materials particularly iron glass ceramics and later concrete to create unusual forms and larger open spaces 3 Art NouveauClockwise from top left Paris Metro station Abbesses by Hector Guimard 1900 Lithograph by Alphonse Mucha 1898 Wall cabinet by Louis Majorelle Interior of the Hotel Tassel in Brussels by Victor Horta 1892 1893 Lamp by Louis Comfort Tiffany 1900 1910 Years activec 1883 1914CountryWestern worldOne major objective of Art Nouveau was to break down the traditional distinction between fine arts especially painting and sculpture and applied arts It was most widely used in interior design graphic arts furniture glass art textiles ceramics jewellery and metal work The style responded to leading 19 century theoreticians such as French architect Eugene Emmanuel Viollet le Duc 1814 1879 and British art critic John Ruskin 1819 1900 In Britain it was influenced by William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement German architects and designers sought a spiritually uplifting Gesamtkunstwerk total work of art that would unify the architecture furnishings and art in the interior in a common style to uplift and inspire the residents 3 The first Art Nouveau houses and interior decoration appeared in Brussels in the 1890s in the architecture and interior design of houses designed by Paul Hankar Henry van de Velde and especially Victor Horta whose Hotel Tassel was completed in 1893 4 5 6 It moved quickly to Paris where it was adapted by Hector Guimard who saw Horta s work in Brussels and applied the style for the entrances of the new Paris Metro It reached its peak at the 1900 Paris International Exposition which introduced the Art Nouveau work of artists such as Louis Tiffany It appeared in graphic arts in the posters of Alphonse Mucha and the glassware of Rene Lalique and Emile Galle From Belgium and France Art Nouveau spread to the rest of Europe citation needed taking on different names and characteristics in each country see Naming section below It often appeared not only in capitals but also in rapidly growing cities that wanted to establish artistic identities Turin and Palermo in Italy Glasgow in Scotland Munich and Darmstadt in Germany as well as in centres of independence movements Helsinki in Finland then part of the Russian Empire Barcelona in Catalonia Spain By 1914 and with the beginning of the First World War Art Nouveau was largely exhausted In the 1920s it was replaced as the dominant architectural and decorative art style by Art Deco and then Modernism 7 The Art Nouveau style began to receive more positive attention from critics in the late 1960s with a major exhibition of the work of Hector Guimard at the Museum of Modern Art in 1970 8 Contents 1 Naming 2 History 2 1 Origins 2 2 Development Brussels 1893 1898 2 3 Paris Maison de l Art Nouveau 1895 and Castel Beranger 1895 1898 2 4 Paris Exposition Universelle 1900 3 Local variations 3 1 Art Nouveau in France 3 2 Art Nouveau in Belgium 3 3 Nieuwe Kunst in the Netherlands 3 4 Modern Style and Glasgow School in Britain 3 5 Jugendstil in Germany 3 6 Secession in Austria Hungary 3 6 1 Vienna Secession 3 6 2 Hungarian Szecesszio 3 6 3 Secession in Prague and elsewhere 3 7 Art Nouveau in Romania 3 8 Stile Liberty in Italy 3 9 Art Nouveau and Secession in Serbia 3 10 Modernismo and Modernisme in Spain 3 11 Arte Nova in Portugal 3 12 Jugendstil in the Nordic countries 3 12 1 Finland 3 12 2 Norway 3 12 3 Sweden and Denmark 3 13 Modern in Russia 3 14 Jugendstils Art Nouveau in Riga 3 15 Style Sapin in La Chaux de Fonds Switzerland 3 16 Tiffany Style and Louis Sullivan in the United States 3 17 Art Nouveau in Argentina 3 18 Art Nouveau in the rest of the world 4 Characteristics 5 Relationship with contemporary styles and movements 6 Genres 6 1 Posters and graphic art 6 2 Painting 6 3 Glass art 6 4 Metal art 6 5 Jewellery 6 6 Architecture and ornamentation 6 7 Sculpture 6 8 Furniture 6 9 Ceramics 6 9 1 Mosaics 6 10 Textiles and wallpaper 7 Museums 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 Bibliography 12 Further reading 13 External linksNaming EditThe term Art Nouveau was first used in the 1880s in the Belgian journal L Art Moderne to describe the work of Les Vingt twenty painters and sculptors seeking reform through art The name was popularized by the Maison de l Art Nouveau House of the New Art an art gallery opened in Paris in 1895 by the Franco German art dealer Siegfried Bing In Britain the French term Art Nouveau was commonly used while in France it was often called by the term Style moderne akin to the British term Modern Style or Style 1900 9 In France it was also sometimes called Style Jules Verne after the novelist Jules Verne Style Metro after Hector Guimard s iron and glass subway entrances Art Belle Epoque or Art fin de siecle 10 Art Nouveau is related to but not identical with styles that emerged in many countries in Europe at about the same time Their local names were often used in their respective countries to describe the whole movement In Belgium it was sometimes termed Style coup de fouet Whiplash style Paling Stijl Eel style or Style nouille Noodle style by its detractors 10 In Britain besides Art Nouveau it was known as the Modern Style or because of works of Glasgow School as the Glasgow style The term Modern is also used in Azerbaijan Kazakhstan Russia and Ukraine and Modernas in Lithuania For painting the name of the Mir Iskusstva World of Art movement was also used In Germany and Scandinavia it was called Reformstil Reform style or Jugendstil Youth style after the popular German art magazine of that name 10 as well as Wellenstil Wave style or Lilienstil Lily style 9 It is now called Jugend in Finland Sweden and Norway Juugend in Estonia and Jugendstils in Latvia In Finland it was also called Kalevala Style In Denmark it is known as Skonvirke Work of beauty In Austria and the neighbouring countries then part of the Austro Hungarian Empire Wiener Jugendstil or Secessionsstil Secession style after the artists of the Vienna Secession Hungarian szecesszio Czech secese Slovak secesia Polish secesja In Italy it was often called Liberty style after Arthur Lasenby Liberty the founder of London s Liberty amp Co whose textile designs were popular It was also sometimes called Stile floreale Floral style or Arte nuova New Art 10 In the United States due to its association with Louis Comfort Tiffany it was sometimes called the Tiffany style 3 11 9 12 In the Netherlands it was called Nieuwe Kunst New Art or Nieuwe Stijl New style 11 9 In Portugal Arte nova In Spain Modernismo Modernisme in Catalan and Arte joven Young Art In Switzerland Style Sapin Fir tree style 9 In Japan Shiro Uma 13 In Romania Arta 1900 1900 Art Arta Nouă New Art or Noul Stil New Style 14 History EditFor a chronological guide see Timeline of Art Nouveau Origins Edit The Red House by William Morris and Philip Webb 1859 Japanese woodblock print by Utagawa Kunisada 1850s The Peacock Room by James McNeill Whistler 1876 77 Chair designed by Arthur Mackmurdo 1882 83 William Morris printed textile design 1883 Swan rush and iris wallpaper design by Walter Crane 1883 The new art movement had its roots in Britain in the floral designs of William Morris and in the Arts and Crafts movement founded by the pupils of Morris Early prototypes of the style include the Red House with interiors by Morris and architecture by Philip Webb 1859 and the lavish Peacock Room by James Abbott McNeill Whistler The new movement was also strongly influenced by the Pre Raphaelite painters including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne Jones and especially by British graphic artists of the 1880s including Selwyn Image Heywood Sumner Walter Crane Alfred Gilbert and especially Aubrey Beardsley 15 The chair designed by Arthur Mackmurdo has been recognized as a precursor of Art Nouveau design 16 In France it was influenced by the architectural theorist and historian Eugene Viollet le Duc a declared enemy of the historical Beaux Arts architectural style whose theories on rationalism were derived from his study of medieval art Function should define form 17 Unity of the arts and the abolition of any distinction between major art architecture and minor arts decorative arts 18 Nature s logic is the model to be used for architecture 19 Architecture should adapt itself to man s environment and needs Use of modern technologies and materials 20 Viollet le Duc was himself a precursor of Art Nouveau in 1851 at Notre Dame de Paris he created a series of mural paintings typical of the style 21 These paintings were removed in 1945 as deemed non academic At the Chateau de Roquetaillade in the Bordeaux region his interior decorations dating from 1865 also anticipate Art Nouveau In his 1872 book Entretiens sur l architecture he wrote Use the means and knowledge given to us by our times without the intervening traditions which are no longer viable today and in that way we can inaugurate a new architecture For each function its material for each material its form and its ornament 22 This book influenced a generation of architects including Louis Sullivan Victor Horta Hector Guimard and Antoni Gaudi 23 The French painters Maurice Denis Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard played an important part in integrating fine arts painting with decoration I believe that before everything a painting must decorate Denis wrote in 1891 The choice of subjects or scenes is nothing It is by the value of tones the coloured surface and the harmony of lines that I can reach the spirit and wake up the emotions 24 These painters all did both traditional painting and decorative painting on screens in glass and in other media 25 Another important influence on the new style was Japonism This was a wave of enthusiasm for Japanese woodblock printing particularly the works of Hiroshige Hokusai and Utagawa Kunisada which were imported into Europe beginning in the 1870s The enterprising Siegfried Bing founded a monthly journal Le Japon artistique in 1888 and published thirty six issues before it ended in 1891 It influenced both collectors and artists including Gustav Klimt The stylized features of Japanese prints appeared in Art Nouveau graphics porcelain jewellery and furniture Since the beginning of 1860 a Far Eastern influence suddenly manifested In 1862 art lovers from London or Paris could buy Japanese artworks because in that year Japan appeared for the first time as an exhibitor at the International Exhibition in London Also in 1862 in Paris La Porte Chinoise store on Rue de Rivoli was open where Japanese ukiyo e and other objects from the Far East were sold In 1867 Examples of Chinese Ornaments by Owen Jones appeared and in 1870 Art and Industries in Japan by R Alcock and two years later O H Moser and T W Cutler published books about Japanese art Some Art Nouveau artists like Victor Horta owned a collection of Far Eastern art especially Japanese 13 New technologies in printing and publishing allowed Art Nouveau to quickly reach a global audience Art magazines illustrated with photographs and colour lithographs played an essential role in popularizing the new style The Studio in England Arts et idees and Art et decoration in France and Jugend in Germany allowed the style to spread rapidly to all corners of Europe Aubrey Beardsley in England and Eugene Grasset Henri de Toulouse Lautrec and Felix Vallotton achieved international recognition as illustrators 26 With the posters by Jules Cheret for dancer Loie Fuller in 1893 and by Alphonse Mucha for actress Sarah Bernhardt in 1895 the poster became not just advertising but an art form Sarah Bernhardt set aside large numbers of her posters for sale to collectors 27 Development Brussels 1893 1898 Edit Hankar House by Paul Hankar 1893 Facade of the Hotel Tassel by Victor Horta 1892 93 Stairway of the Hotel Tassel Bloemenwerf house by Henry van de Velde 1895 Bloemenwerf chair made by Van de Velde for his residence 1895 Poster for the International Exposition by Henri Privat Livemont 1897 The first Art Nouveau town houses the Hankar House by Paul Hankar 1893 and the Hotel Tassel by Victor Horta 1892 1893 4 5 were built almost simultaneously in Brussels They were similar in their originality but very different in their design and appearance Victor Horta was among the most influential architects of early Art Nouveau and his Hotel Tassel 1892 1893 in Brussels is one of the style s landmarks 28 29 Horta s architectural training was as an assistant to Alphonse Balat architect to King Leopold II constructing the monumental iron and glass Royal Greenhouses of Laeken 30 He was a great admiror of Viollet le Duc whose ideas he completely identified with 31 32 In 1892 1893 he put this experience to a very different use He designed the residence of a prominent Belgian chemist Emile Tassel on a very narrow and deep site The central element of the house was the stairway not enclosed by walls but open decorated with a curling wrought iron railing and placed beneath a high skylight The floors were supported by slender iron columns like the trunks of trees The mosaic floors and walls were decorated with delicate arabesques in floral and vegetal forms which became the most popular signature of the style 33 34 In a short period Horta built three more town houses all with open interiors and all with skylights for maximum interior light the Hotel Solvay the Hotel van Eetvelde for Edmond van Eetvelde and the Maison amp Atelier Horta All four are now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site Paul Hankar was also an innovator of early Art Nouveau Born at Frameries in Hainaut the son of a master stone cutter he had studied ornamental sculpture and decoration at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels from 1873 to 1884 whilst working as an ornamental sculptor From 1879 to 1904 he worked in the studio of the prominent architect Henri Beyaert a master of eclectic and neoclassical architecture Through Beyaert Hankar also became an admirer of Viollet le Duc 35 In 1893 Hankar designed and built the Hankar House his own residence in Brussels With a goal to create a synthesis of fine arts and decorative arts he brought together the sculptor Rene Janssens and the painter Albert Ciamberlani fr to decorate the interior and exterior with sgraffiti or murals The facade and balconies featured iron decoration and curling lines in stylised floral patterns which became an important feature of Art Nouveau Based on this model he built several houses for his artist friends He also designed a series of innovative glass display windows for Brussels shops restaurants and galleries in what a local critic called a veritable delirium of originality 36 He died in 1901 just as the movement was beginning to receive recognition 37 Henry van de Velde born in Antwerp was another founding figure in the birth of Art Nouveau Van de Velde s designs included the interior of his residence in Brussels the Bloemenwerf 1895 38 39 The exterior of the house was inspired by the Red House the residence of writer and theorist William Morris the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement Trained as a painter Van de Velde turned to illustration then to furniture design and finally to architecture For the Bloemenwerf he created the textiles wallpaper silverware jewellery and even clothing that matched the style of the residence 40 Van de Velde went to Paris where he designed furniture and decoration for the German French art dealer Siegfried Bing whose Paris gallery gave the style its name He was also an early Art Nouveau theorist demanding the use of dynamic often opposing lines Van de Velde wrote A line is a force like all the other elementary forces Several lines put together but opposed have a presence as strong as several forces In 1906 he departed Belgium for Weimar Germany where he founded the Grand Ducal School of Arts and Crafts where the teaching of historical styles was forbidden He played an important role in the German Werkbund before returning to Belgium 41 The debut of Art Nouveau architecture in Brussels was accompanied by a wave of Decorative Art in the new style Important artists included Gustave Strauven who used wrought iron to achieve baroque effects on Brussels facades the furniture designer Gustave Serrurier Bovy known for his highly original chairs and articulated metal furniture and the jewellery designer Philippe Wolfers who made jewellery in the form of dragonflies butterflies swans and serpents 42 The Brussels International Exposition held in 1897 brought international attention to the style Horta Hankar Van de Velde and Serrurier Bovy among others took part in the design of the fair and Henri Privat Livemont created the poster for the exhibition Paris Maison de l Art Nouveau 1895 and Castel Beranger 1895 1898 Edit Siegfried Bing invited artists to show modern works in his new Maison de l Art Nouveau 1895 The Maison de l Art Nouveau gallery of Siegfried Bing 1895 Poster by Felix Vallotton for the new Maison de l Art Nouveau 1896 Gateway of the Castel Beranger by Hector Guimard 1895 1898 Breezeway of the Castel Beranger with wall plates by Alexandre Bigot Detail of main stairway of the Castel BerangerThe Franco German art dealer and publisher Siegfried Bing played a key role in publicizing the style In 1891 he founded a magazine devoted to the art of Japan which helped publicize Japonism in Europe In 1892 he organized an exhibit of seven artists among them Pierre Bonnard Felix Vallotton Edouard Vuillard Toulouse Lautrec and Eugene Grasset which included both modern painting and decorative work This exhibition was shown at the Societe nationale des beaux arts in 1895 In the same year Bing opened a new gallery at 22 rue de Provence in Paris the Maison de l Art Nouveau devoted to new works in both the fine and decorative arts The interior and furniture of the gallery were designed by the Belgian architect Henry van de Velde one of the pioneers of Art Nouveau architecture The Maison de l Art Nouveau showed paintings by Georges Seurat Paul Signac and Toulouse Lautrec glass from Louis Comfort Tiffany and Emile Galle jewellery by Rene Lalique and posters by Aubrey Beardsley The works shown there were not at all uniform in style Bing wrote in 1902 Art Nouveau at the time of its creation did not aspire in any way to have the honor of becoming a generic term It was simply the name of a house opened as a rallying point for all the young and ardent artists impatient to show the modernity of their tendencies 43 The style was quickly noticed in neighbouring France After visiting Horta s Hotel Tassel Hector Guimard built the Castel Beranger among the first Paris buildings in the new style between 1895 and 1898 nb 1 Parisians had been complaining of the monotony of the architecture of the boulevards built under Napoleon III by Georges Eugene Haussmann The Castel Beranger was a curious blend of Neo Gothic and Art Nouveau with curving whiplash lines and natural forms Guimard a skilled publicist for his work declared What must be avoided at all cost is the parallel and symmetry Nature is the greatest builder of all and nature makes nothing that is parallel and nothing that is symmetric 45 Parisians welcomed Guimard s original and picturesque style the Castel Beranger was chosen as one of the best new facades in Paris launching Guimard s career Guimard was given the commission to design the entrances for the new Paris Metro system which brought the style to the attention of the millions of visitors to the city s 1900 Exposition Universelle 10 Paris Exposition Universelle 1900 Edit Main article Exposition Universelle 1900 Main entrance to the Paris 1900 Exposition Universelle The Bigot Pavilion showcasing the work of ceramics artist Alexandre Bigot Entrance to the Austrian Pavilion with exhibits designed by Josef Hoffmann The German Pavilion by Bruno Mohring Paris metro station entrance at Porte Dauphine designed by Hector Guimard for the 1900 Exposition universelle Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen won international recognition for their design of the pavilion of Finland Menu designed by Alphonse Mucha for the restaurant of the Bosnia Pavilion Portico of the Sevres Porcelain Pavilion 1900 now on square Felix Desruelles in ParisThe Paris 1900 Exposition universelle marked the high point of Art Nouveau Between April and November 1900 it attracted nearly fifty million visitors from around the world and showcased the architecture design glassware furniture and decorative objects of the style The architecture of the Exposition was often a mixture of Art Nouveau and Beaux Arts architecture the main exhibit hall the Grand Palais had a Beaux Arts facade completely unrelated to the spectacular Art Nouveau stairway and exhibit hall in the interior French designers all made special works for the Exhibition Lalique crystal and jewellery jewellery by Henri Vever and Georges Fouquet Daum glass the Manufacture nationale de Sevres in porcelain ceramics by Alexandre Bigot sculpted glass lamps and vases by Emile Galle furniture by Edouard Colonna and Louis Majorelle and many other prominent arts and crafts firms At the 1900 Paris Exposition Siegfried Bing presented a pavilion called Art Nouveau Bing which featured six different interiors entirely decorated in the Style 46 47 The Exposition was the first international showcase for Art Nouveau designers and artists from across Europe and beyond Prize winners and participants included Alphonse Mucha who made murals for the pavilion of Bosnia Herzegovina and designed the menu for the restaurant of the pavilion the decorators and designers Bruno Paul and Bruno Mohring from Berlin Carlo Bugatti from Turin Bernhardt Pankok from Bavaria The Russian architect designer Fyodor Schechtel and Louis Comfort Tiffany and Company from the United States 48 The Viennese architect Otto Wagner was a member of the jury and presented a model of the Art Nouveau bathroom of his own town apartment in Vienna featuring a glass bathtub 49 Josef Hoffmann designed the Viennese exhibit at the Paris exposition highlighting the designs of the Vienna Secession 50 Eliel Saarinen first won international recognition for his imaginative design of the pavilion of Finland 51 While the Paris Exposition was by far the largest other expositions did much to popularize the style The 1888 Barcelona Universal Exposition marked the beginning of the Modernisme style in Spain with some buildings of Lluis Domenech i Montaner The Esposizione internazionale d arte decorativa moderna of 1902 in Turin Italy showcased designers from across Europe including Victor Horta from Belgium and Joseph Maria Olbrich from Vienna along with local artists such as Carlo Bugatti Galileo Chini and Eugenio Quarti 52 Local variations EditArt Nouveau in France Edit Main articles Ecole de Nancy and Art Nouveau in Paris Facade of the Lavirotte Building by Jules Lavirotte 29 avenue Rapp Paris 1901 Doorway of the Lavirotte Building with ceramic sculptures by Jean Baptiste Larrive fr The jewellery shop of Georges Fouquet at 6 rue Royale Paris designed by Alphonse Mucha now in the Carnavalet Museum 1901 The Villa Majorelle in Nancy for furniture designer Louis Majorelle by architect Henri Sauvage 1901 02 Facade of La Samaritaine department store by Frantz Jourdain rue de la Monnaie Paris 1905 1910 Following the 1900 Exposition the capital of Art Nouveau was Paris The most extravagant residences in the style were built by Jules Lavirotte who entirely covered the facades with ceramic sculptural decoration The most flamboyant example is the Lavirotte Building at 29 avenue Rapp 1901 Office buildings and department stores featured high courtyards covered with stained glass cupolas and ceramic decoration The style was particularly popular in restaurants and cafes including Maxim s at 3 rue Royale and Le Train bleu at the Gare de Lyon 1900 53 The status of Paris attracted foreign artists to the city The Swiss born artist Eugene Grasset was one of the first creators of French Art Nouveau posters He helped decorate the famous cabaret Le Chat Noir in 1885 made his first posters for the Fetes de Paris and a celebrated poster of Sarah Bernhardt in 1890 In Paris he taught at the Guerin school of art Ecole normale d enseignement du dessin where his students included Augusto Giacometti and Paul Berthon 54 55 Swiss born Theophile Alexandre Steinlen created the famous poster for the Paris cabaret Le Chat noir in 1896 The Czech artist Alphonse Mucha 1860 1939 arrived in Paris in 1888 and in 1895 made a poster for actress Sarah Bernhardt in the play Gismonda by Victorien Sardou in Theatre de la Renaissance The success of this poster led to a contract to produce posters for six more plays by Bernhardt The city of Nancy in Lorraine became the other French capital of the new style In 1901 the Alliance provinciale des industries d art also known as the Ecole de Nancy was founded dedicated to upsetting the hierarchy that put painting and sculpture above the decorative arts The major artists working there included the glass vase and lamp creators Emile Galle the Daum brothers in glass design and the designer Louis Majorelle who created furniture with graceful floral and vegetal forms The architect Henri Sauvage brought the new architectural style to Nancy with his Villa Majorelle in 1902 Tea set by Bapst amp Falize Germain Bapst and Lucien Falize made of partially gilt silver ivory and agate c 1889 Poster for the dancer Loie Fuller by Jules Cheret 1893 Poster by Camille Martin for L Exposition d art decoratif at the Galeries Poirel in Nancy 1894 Poster by Alphonse Mucha for Gismonda starring Sarah Bernhardt 1894 Doors with stained glass for the Store of Francois Vaexlaire in Nancy 1901 glass by Jacques Gruber doors by Emile Andre and Eugene Vallin Bedroom furniture of the Villa Majorelle 1901 02 now in the Museum of Fine Arts of Nancy Comb of horn gold and diamonds by Rene Lalique c 1902 Musee d Orsay Paris The French style was widely propagated by new magazines including The Studio Arts et Idees and Art et Decoration whose photographs and colour lithographs made the style known to designers and wealthy clients around the world In France the style reached its summit in 1900 and thereafter slipped rapidly out of fashion virtually disappearing from France by 1905 Art Nouveau was a luxury style which required expert and highly paid craftsmen and could not be easily or cheaply mass produced One of the few Art Nouveau products that could be mass produced was the perfume bottle and these are still manufactured in the style today Art Nouveau in Belgium Edit Main articles Art Nouveau in Brussels and Art Nouveau in Antwerp Chair by Henry van de Velde 1896 Philippe Wolfers Plumes de Paon Peacock Feathers belt buckle 1898 Former Old England department store by Paul Saintenoy Brussels 1898 99 Bed and mirror by Gustave Serrurier Bovy 1898 99 now in the Musee d Orsay Paris The Hotel van Eetvelde by Victor Horta Brussels 1898 1900 Detail of the Winter Garden of the Hotel van Eetvelde Saint Cyr House by Gustave Strauven Brussels 1901 1903 House of the architect Paul Cauchie featuring sgraffito Brussels 1905 Belgium was an early centre of Art Nouveau thanks largely to the architecture of Victor Horta who designed one of the first Art Nouveau houses the Hotel Tassel in 1893 and three other townhouses in variations of the same style They are now UNESCO World Heritage sites Horta had a strong influence on the work of the young Hector Guimard who came to see the Hotel Tassel under construction and later declared that Horta was the inventor of the Art Nouveau 56 Horta s innovation was not the facade but the interior using an abundance of iron and glass to open up space and flood the rooms with light and decorating them with wrought iron columns and railings in curving vegetal forms which were echoed on the floors and walls as well as the furniture and carpets which Horta designed 57 Paul Hankar was another pioneer of Brussels Art Nouveau His house was completed in 1893 the same year as Horta s Hotel Tassel and featured sgraffiti murals on the facade Hankar was influenced by both Viollet le Duc and the ideas of the English Arts and Crafts movement His conception idea was to bring together decorative and fine arts in a coherent whole He commissioned the sculptor Alfred Crick and the painter Adolphe Crespin fr to decorate the facades of houses with their work The most striking example was the house and studio built for the artist Albert Ciamberlani at 48 rue Defacqz Defacqzstraat in Brussels for which he created an exuberant facade covered with sgraffito murals with painted figures and ornament recreating the decorative architecture of the Quattrocento or 15th century Italy 30 Hankar died in 1901 when his work was just receiving recognition 58 Gustave Strauven began his career as an assistant designer working with Horta before he started his own practice at age 21 making some of the most extravagant Art Nouveau buildings in Brussels His most famous work is the Saint Cyr House at 11 square Ambiorix Ambiorixsquare The house is only 4 metres 13 ft wide but is given extraordinary height by his elaborate architectural inventions It is entirely covered by polychrome bricks and a network of curling vegetal forms in wrought iron in a virtually Art Nouveau Baroque style 59 Other important Art Nouveau artists from Belgium included the architect and designer Henry van de Velde though the most important part of his career was spent in Germany he strongly influenced the decoration of the Jugendstil Others included the decorator Gustave Serrurier Bovy and the graphic artist Fernand Khnopff 5 60 61 Belgian designers took advantage of an abundant supply of ivory imported from the Belgian Congo mixed sculptures combining stone metal and ivory by such artists as Philippe Wolfers was popular 62 Nieuwe Kunst in the Netherlands Edit Poster for Delft Salad Oil by Jan Toorop 1893 The Amsterdam Commodities Exchange by Hendrik Petrus Berlage 1896 1903 Cabinet Desk by Berlage 1898 Vase with abstract floral design by Theo Colenbrander 1898 Porcelain vase designed by J Jurriaan Kok and decorated by W R Sterken 1901 In the Netherlands the style was known as the Nieuwe Stijl New Style or Nieuwe Kunst New Art and it took a different direction from the more floral and curving style in Belgium It was influenced by the more geometric and stylized forms of the German Jugendstil and Austrian Vienna Secession 62 It was also influenced by the art and imported woods from Indonesia then the Dutch East Indies particularly the designs of the textiles and batik from Java The most important architect and furniture designer in the style was Hendrik Petrus Berlage who denounced historical styles and advocated a purely functional architecture He wrote It is necessary to fight against the art of illusion to and to recognize the lie in order to find the essence and not the illusion 63 Like Victor Horta and Gaudi he was an admirer of architectural theories of Viollet le Duc 63 His furniture was designed to be strictly functional and to respect the natural forms of wood rather than bending or twisting it as if it were metal He pointed to the example of Egyptian furniture and preferred chairs with right angles His first and most famous architectural work was the Beurs van Berlage 1896 1903 the Amsterdam Commodities Exchange which he built following the principles of constructivism Everything was functional including the lines of rivets that decorated the walls of the main room He often included very tall towers to his buildings to make them more prominent a practice used by other Art Nouveau architects of the period including Joseph Maria Olbrich in Vienna and Eliel Saarinen in Finland 64 Other buildings in the style include the American Hotel 1898 1900 also by Berlage and Astoria 1904 1905 by Herman Hendrik Baanders and Gerrit van Arkel in Amsterdam the railway station in Haarlem 1906 1908 and the former office building of the Holland America Lines 1917 in Rotterdam now the Hotel New York Prominent graphic artists and illustrators in the style included Jan Toorop whose work inclined toward mysticism and symbolism even in his posters for salad oil In their colors and designs they also sometimes showed the influence of the art of Java 64 Important figures in Dutch ceramics and porcelain included Jurriaan Kok and Theo Colenbrander They used colorful floral pattern and more traditional Art Nouveau motifs combined with unusual forms of pottery and contrasting dark and light colors borrowed from the batik decoration of Java 65 Modern Style and Glasgow School in Britain Edit Main article Modern Style British Art Nouveau style See also Glasgow School Cover design by Arthur Mackmurdo for a book on Christopher Wren 1883 Pub building at 59 Dumbarton Road Glasgow by James Hoey Craigie 1899 1900 The Hatrack building by James Salmon 142a 144 St Vincent Street Glasgow 1899 1902 The former Everard s Printing Works Broad Street Bristol by Henry Williams 1900 Belt buckle by Archibald Knox for Liberty Department Store Embroidered panels by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh 1902 Willow Tearooms by Charles Rennie Mackintosh 217 Sauchiehall Street Glasgow 1903 The Royal Liver Building Liverpool by Walter Aubrey Thomas 1908 1911 Art Nouveau had its roots in Britain in the Arts and Crafts movement which started in 1860s and reached international recognition by 1880s It called for better treatment of decorative arts and took inspiration in medieval craftmanship and design and nature 66 One notable early example of the Modern Style is Arthur Mackmurdo s design for the cover of his essay on the city churches of Sir Christopher Wren published in 1883 as is his Mahogany chair from the same year 67 Other important innovators in Britain included the graphic designers Aubrey Beardsley whose drawings featured the curved lines that became the most recognizable feature of the style Free flowing wrought iron from the 1880s could also be adduced or some flat floral textile designs most of which owed some impetus to patterns of 19th century design Other British graphic artists who had an important place in the style included Walter Crane and Charles Ashbee 68 The Liberty department store in London played an important role through its colourful stylized floral designs for textiles and the silver pewter and jewellery designs of Manxman of Scottish descent Archibald Knox His jewellery designs in materials and forms broke away entirely from the historical traditions of jewellery design For Art Nouveau architecture and furniture design the most important centre in Britain was Glasgow with the creations of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow School whose work was inspired by Scottish baronial architecture and Japanese design 69 Beginning in 1895 Mackintosh displayed his designs at international expositions in London Vienna and Turin his designs particularly influenced the Secession Style in Vienna His architectural creations included the Glasgow Herald Building 1894 and the library of the Glasgow School of Art 1897 He also established a major reputation as a furniture designer and decorator working closely with his wife Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh a prominent painter and designer Together they created striking designs that combined geometric straight lines with gently curving floral decoration particularly a famous symbol of the style the Glasgow Rose 70 Leon Victor Solon made an important contribution to Art Nouveau ceramics as art director at Mintons He specialised in plaques and in tube lined vases marketed as secessionist ware usually described as named after the Viennese art movement 71 Apart from ceramics he designed textiles for the Leek silk industry 72 and doublures for a bookbinder G T Bagguley of Newcastle under Lyme who patented the Sutherland binding in 1895 George Skipper was perhaps the most active Art Nouveau architect in England The Edward Everard building in Bristol built during 1900 01 to house the printing works of Edward Everard features an Art Nouveau facade The figures depicted are of Johannes Gutenberg and William Morris both eminent in the field of printing A winged figure symbolises the Spirit of Light while a figure holding a lamp and mirror symbolises light and truth Jugendstil in Germany Edit See also Jugendstil Ernst Ludwig House by Joseph Maria Olbrich 1900 now hosting Darmstadt Colony Museum Mexikoplatz station in Berlin 1902 1904 Spa complex Sprudelhof in Bad Nauheim 1905 1911 Hackesche Hofe in Berlin 1906 Wedding tower in Darmstadt Artists Colony 1908 Art Nouveau door with a decorative sunflower motif Rybnik Silesia German Art Nouveau is commonly known by its German name Jugendstil or Youth Style The name is taken from the artistic journal Die Jugend or Youth which was published in Munich The magazine was founded in 1896 by Georg Hirth who remained editor until his death in 1916 The magazine survived until 1940 During the early 20th century Jugendstil was applied only to the graphic arts 73 It referred especially to the forms of typography and graphic design found in German magazines such as Jugend Pan and Simplicissimus Jugendstil was later applied to other versions of Art Nouveau in Germany the Netherlands The term was borrowed from German by several languages of the Baltic states and Nordic countries to describe Art Nouveau see Naming section 11 74 In 1892 Georg Hirth chose the name Munich Secession for the Association of Visual Artists of Munich The Vienna Secession founded in 1897 75 and the Berlin Secession also took their names from the Munich group The journals Jugend and Simplicissimus published in Munich and Pan published in Berlin were important proponents of the Jugendstil Jugendstil art combined sinuous curves and more geometric lines and was used for covers of novels advertisements and exhibition posters Designers often created original styles of typeface that worked harmoniously with the image e g Arnold Bocklin typeface in 1904 Otto Eckmann was one of the most prominent German artists associated with both Die Jugend and Pan His favourite animal was the swan and so great was his influence that the swan came to serve as the symbol of the entire movement Another prominent designer in the style was Richard Riemerschmid who made furniture pottery and other decorative objects in a sober geometric style that pointed forward toward Art Deco 76 The Swiss artist Hermann Obrist living in Munich illustrated the coup de fouet or whiplash motif a highly stylized double curve suggesting motion taken from the stem of the cyclamen flower Cover of Pan magazine by Joseph Sattler 1895 Cover of Jugend by Otto Eckmann 1896 Tapestry The Five Swans by Otto Eckmann 1896 97 Poster of the Munich Secession by Franz Stuck 1898 1900 Jugendstil door handle in Berlin c 1900 Chair by Richard Riemerschmid 1902 Jugendstil dining room set and dishes by Peter Behrens 1900 01 Stoneware jug by Richard Riemerschmid 1902 Jugendstil pewter dish by WMF design no 232 c 1906 The Darmstadt Artists Colony was founded in 1899 by Ernest Ludwig Grand Duke of Hesse The architect who built Grand Duke s house as well as the largest structure of the colony Wedding tower was Joseph Maria Olbrich one of the Vienna Secession founders Other notable artists of the colony were Peter Behrens and Hans Christiansen Ernest Ludwig also commissioned to rebuild the spa complex in Bad Nauheim at the beginning of century A completely new Sprudelhof de complex was constructed in 1905 1911 under the direction of Wilhelm Jost de and attained one of the main objectives of Jugendstil a synthesis of all the arts 77 Another member of the reigning family who commissioned an Art Nouveau structure was Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine She founded Marfo Mariinsky Convent in Moscow in 1908 and its katholikon is recognized as an Art Nouveau masterpiece 78 Another notable union in German Empire was the Deutscher Werkbund founded in 1907 in Munich at the instigation of Hermann Muthesius by artists of Darmstadt Colony Joseph Maria Olbrich Peter Behrens by another founder of Vienna Secession Josef Hoffmann as well as by Wiener Werkstatte founded by Hoffmann by Richard Riemerschmid Bruno Paul and other artists and companies 79 Later Belgian Henry van de Velde joined the movement nb 2 The Grand Ducal School of Arts and Crafts de founded by him in Weimar was a predecessor of Bauhaus one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture 81 In Berlin Jugendstil was chosen for the construction of several railway stations The most notable 82 is Bulowstrasse by Bruno Mohring 1900 1902 other examples are Mexikoplatz 1902 1904 Botanischer Garten 1908 1909 Frohnau 1908 1910 Wittenbergplatz 1911 1913 and Pankow 1912 1914 stations Another notable structure of Berlin is Hackesche Hofe 1906 which used polychrome glazed brick for the courtyard facade Art Nouveau in Strasbourg then part of the German Empire as the capital of the Reichsland Elsass Lothringen was a specific brand in that it combined influences from Nancy and Brussels with influences from Darmstadt and Vienna to operate a local synthesis which reflected the history of the city between the Germanic and the French realms Secession in Austria Hungary Edit Vienna Secession Edit Main article Vienna Secession The Secession Hall in Vienna by Joseph Maria Olbrich 1897 98 Floral design by Alois Ludwig on the facade of Maiolica House by Otto Wagner 1898 Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station by Otto Wagner 1899 Church of St Leopold by Otto Wagner 1903 1907 Interior of the Church of St Leopold with altarpiece by Leopold Forstner The Stoclet Palace in Brussels by Josef Hoffmann 1905 1911 Vienna became the centre of a distinct variant of Art Nouveau which became known as the Vienna Secession The movement took its name from Munich Secession established in 1892 Vienna Secession was founded in April 1897 by a group of artists that included Gustav Klimt Koloman Moser Josef Hoffmann Joseph Maria Olbrich Max Kurzweil Ernst Stohr and others 75 The painter Klimt became the president of the group They objected to the conservative orientation toward historicism expressed by Vienna Kunstlerhaus the official union of artists The Secession founded a magazine Ver Sacrum to promote their works in all media 83 The architect Joseph Olbrich designed the domed Secession building in the new style which became a showcase for the paintings of Gustav Klimt and other Secession artists Klimt became the best known of the Secession painters often erasing the border between fine art painting and decorative painting Koloman Moser was an extremely versatile artist in the style his work including magazine illustrations architecture silverware ceramics porcelain textiles stained glass windows and furniture Vampire in Ver Sacrum 12 1899 p 8 by Ernst Stohr Vase by Johann Loetz Witwe c 1900 Armchair by Koloman Moser c 1900 Poster for the 14th Secession Exhibit by Alfred Roller 1902 Woman in a Yellow Dress by Max Kurzweil 1907 The Kiss by Gustav Klimt 1907 08 The Spring glass mosaic by Leopold Forstner in the Hotel Wiesler GrazThe most prominent architect of the Vienna Secession was Otto Wagner 84 he joined the movement soon after its inception to follow his students Hoffmann and Olbrich His major projects included several stations of the urban rail network the Stadtbahn the Linke Wienzeile Buildings consisting of Majolica House the House of Medallions and the house at Kostlergasse The Karlsplatz Station is now an exhibition hall of the Vienna Museum The Kirche am Steinhof of Steinhof Psychiatric hospital 1904 1907 is a unique and finely crafted example of Secession religious architecture with a traditional domed exterior but sleek modern gold and white interior lit by abundance of modern stained glass In 1899 Joseph Maria Olbrich moved to Darmstadt Artists Colony in 1903 Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann founded the Wiener Werkstatte a training school and workshop for designers and craftsmen of furniture carpets textiles and decorative objects 85 In 1905 Koloman Moser and Gustav Klimt separated from Vienna Secession later in 1907 Koloman Moser left Wiener Werkstatte as well while its other founder Josef Hoffmann joined the Deutscher Werkbund 79 Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffmann continued collaborating they organized Kunstschau Exhibition de in 1908 in Vienna and built the Stoclet Palace in Brussels 1905 1911 that announced the coming of modernist architecture 86 87 It was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in June 2009 88 Hungarian Szecesszio Edit Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest by Odon Lechner 1893 1896 Geological Museum of Budapest by Odon Lechner 1898 99 Facade detail of Cifrapalota in Kecskemet 1902 Mosaic by Miksa Roth at Torok Bank fr building in Budapest 1906 Relief at the facade of Gresham Palace in Budapest by Geza Maroti 1906 Grof Palace in Szeged by Ferenc Raichle 1913 The pioneer and prophet of the Szecesszio Secession in Hungarian the architect Odon Lechner created buildings which marked a transition from historicism to modernism for Hungarian architecture 89 His idea for a Hungarian architectural style was the use of architectural ceramics and oriental motifs In his works he used pygorganite placed in production by 1886 by Zsolnay Porcelain Manufactory 89 This material was used in the construction of notable Hungarian buildings of other styles e g the Hungarian Parliament Building and Matthias Church Works by Odon Lechner 90 include the Museum of Applied Arts 1893 1896 other building with similar distinctive features are Geological Museum 1896 1899 and The Postal Savings Bank building 1899 1902 all in Budapest However due to the opposition of Hungarian architectural establishment to Lechner s success he soon was unable to get new commissions comparable to his earlier buildings 89 But Lechner was an inspiration and a master to the following generation of architects who played the main role in popularising the new style 89 Within the process of Magyarization numerous buildings were commissioned to his disciples in outskirts of the kingdom e g Marcell Komor hu and Dezso Jakab were commissioned to build the Synagogue 1901 1903 and Town Hall 1908 1910 in Szabadka now Subotica Serbia County Prefecture 1905 1907 and Palace of Culture 1911 1913 in Marosvasarhely now Targu Mureș Romania Later Lechner himself built the Blue Church in Pozsony present day Bratislava Slovakia in 1909 1913 Another important architect was Karoly Kos who was a follower of John Ruskin and William Morris Kos took the Finnish National Romanticism movement as a model and the Transylvanian vernacular as the inspiration 91 His most notable buildings include the Roman Catholic Church in Zebegeny 1908 09 pavilions for the Budapest Municipal Zoo 1909 1912 and the Szekely National Museum in Sepsiszentgyorgy now Sfantu Gheorghe Romania 1911 12 Pax mosaic by Miksa Roth which received the silver medal at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900 Cabinet by Odon Farago from Budapest 1901 Window with flower motives from the Villa Alpar in Budapest by Miksa Roth 1903 The movement that promoted Szecesszio in arts was Godollo Art Colony founded by Aladar Korosfoi Kriesch also a follower John Ruskin and William Morris and a professor at the Royal School of Applied Arts in Budapest in 1901 92 Its artists took part in many projects including the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest 93 An associate to Godollo Art Colony 94 Miksa Roth was also involved in several dozen Szecesszio projects including Budapest buildings including Gresham Palace stained glass 1906 and Torok Bank fr mosaics 1906 and also created mosaics and stained glass for Palace of Culture 1911 1913 in Marosvasarhely A notable furniture designer is Odon Farago hu who combined traditional popular architecture oriental architecture and international Art Nouveau in a highly picturesque style Pal Horti hu another Hungarian designer had a much more sober and functional style made of oak with delicate traceries of ebony and brass Secession in Prague and elsewhere Edit Prague main railway station by Josef Fanta 1901 1909 Municipal House in Prague 1905 1912 Frescoes of Municipal House by Alphonse Mucha Stained glass window of St Vitus Cathedral in Prague by Alphonse Mucha Ceramic relief of Viola Theater in Prague by Ladislav Saloun The New City Hall of Prague 1908 1911 The most notable Secession buildings in Prague are examples of total art with distinctive architecture sculpture and paintings 95 The main railway station 1901 1909 was designed by Josef Fanta and features paintings of Vaclav Jansa and sculptures of Ladislav Saloun and Stanislav Sucharda along with other artists The Municipal House 1904 1912 was designed by Osvald Polivka and Antonin Balsanek painted by famous Czech painter Alphonse Mucha and features sculptures of Josef Maratka and Ladislav Saloun Polivka Maratka and Saloun simultaneously cooperated in the construction of New City Hall 1908 1911 along with Stanislav Sucharda and Mucha later painted St Vitus Cathedral s stained glass windows in his distinctive style The style of combining Hungarian Szecesszio and national architectural elements was typical for a Slovak architect Dusan Jurkovic His most original works are the Cultural House in Szakolca now Skalica in Slovakia 1905 the buildings of spa in Luhacovice now Czech Republic in 1901 1903 and 35 war cemeteries near Nowy Zmigrod in Galicia now Poland most of them heavily influenced by local Lemko Rusyn folk art and carpentry 1915 1917 The most prolific Slovenian Secession architect was Ciril Metod Koch 96 He studied at Otto Wagner s classes in Vienna and worked in the Laybach now Ljubljana Slovenia City Council from 1894 to 1923 After the earthquake in Laybach in 1895 he designed many secular buildings in Secession style that he adopted from 1900 to 1910 96 Pogacnik House 1901 Cuden Building 1901 The Farmers Loan Bank 1906 07 renovated Hauptmann Building in Secession style in 1904 The highlight of his career was the Loan Bank in Radmannsdorf now Radovljica in 1906 96 Art Nouveau in Romania Edit See also Romanian Revival architecture Romulus Porescu House by Dimitrie Maimarolu 1905 mix of Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau 97 Constanța Casino by Daniel Renard and Petre Antonescu 1905 1910 mix of Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau Bruck House in Timișoara Along with Oradea Timișoara is part of the Art Nouveau European Route 98 Black Eagle Palace in Oradea 1907 08 Mița the Cyclist House by Nicolae C Mihăescu 1910 mix of Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau 99 House at Strada Dimitrie Racoviță no 16 in Bucharest unknown date Piața Mihail Kogălniceanu no 7 in Bucharest unknown date Art Nouveau appears in Romania during the same years as it does in Western Europe early 1890s until the outbreak of World War I in 1914 but here few are the buildings in this style the Beaux Arts being predominant The most famous of them is the Constanța Casino Most of the Romanian examples of Art Nouveau architecture are actually mixes of Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau like the Romulus Porescu House or house no 61 on Strada Vasile Lascăr both in Bucharest 100 This is because the style was somewhat illegal in Romanian architecture due to being popular in Transilvania part of the Austro Hungarian Empire at that time where Romanians were suppressed and discriminated despite being the majority of the population So the people who wanted an Art Nouveau home in the 1900s and early 1910s could only put some subtile ornaments reminiscent of the style while the rest was completely Beaux Arts or in some rare cases Romanian Revival An example of this is the Fanny and Isac Popper House in Bucharest Strada Sfinților no 1 1914 by Alfred Popper which is primarily in the Beaux Arts academic style but has some Art Nouveau reliefs of women dancing and playing musical instruments at the bases of the two pilasters and flowers above the arch door A frequent feature reminiscent of the style are the arch windows which have curvy woodwork elements However this window feature may not necessarily be Art Nouveau since Beaux Arts and Rococo Revival architecture tends to use curvy and sinuous lines especially during the 1890s 1900s and 1910s A cover of the Literatură și Artă Romană Romanian Literature and Arts magazine 1899 Decorative panel by Ștefan Luchian 1900 Spring decorative panel by Ștefan Luchian 1901 Young woman by Ștefan Luchian drawing for the cover the Ileana Magazine Stamp of the Weaver Charity Society 1906 The Water Fairy by Elena Alexandrina Bednarik 1908 The cover of a small poetry book from 1908 The title page of a small poetry book from 1908 The cover of a small poetry magazine from the Biblioteca Societății series 1912 One of the most notable Art Nouveau painters from Romania was Ștefan Luchian who quickly took over the innovative and decorative directions of Art Nouveau for a short period of time The moment was synchronized with the founding of the Ileana Society in 1897 of which he was a founding member a company that organized an exhibition 1898 at the Union Hotel entitled The Exhibition of Independent Artists and published a magazine the Ileana Magazine 101 Transylvania has examples of both Art Nouveau and Romanian Revival buildings the former being from the Austro Hungarian era Most of them can be found in Oradea nicknamed the Art Nouveau capital of Romania 102 but also in Timișoara Targu Mureș and Sibiu 103 104 105 Stile Liberty in Italy Edit Main article Liberty style Villino Florio in Palermo by Ernesto Basile 1899 1902 Palazzo Castiglioni in Milan by Giuseppe Sommaruga 1901 1903 Poster for the 1902 Turin Exposition Carlo Bugatti Cobra Chair and Desk 1902 Brooklyn Museum Entrance of Casa Guazzoni 1904 05 in Milan by Giovanni Battista Bossi 1904 1906 Art Nouveau in Italy was known as arte nuova stile floreale stile moderno and especially stile Liberty Liberty style took its name from Arthur Lasenby Liberty and the store he founded in 1874 in London Liberty Department Store which specialised in importing ornaments textiles and art objects from Japan and the Far East and whose colourful textiles which were particularly popular in Italy Notable Italian designers in the style included Galileo Chini whose ceramics were often inspired both by majolica patterns He was later known as a painter and a theatrical scenery designer he designed the sets for two celebrated Puccini operas Gianni Schicchi and Turandot 106 107 11 Liberty style architecture varied greatly and often followed historical styles particularly the Baroque Facades were often drenched with decoration and sculpture Examples of the Liberty style include the Villino Florio 1899 1902 by Ernesto Basile in Palermo the Palazzo Castiglioni in Milan by Giuseppe Sommaruga 1901 1903 Milan and the Casa Guazzoni 1904 05 in Milan by Giovanni Battista Bossi 1904 06 108 Colorful frescoes painted or in ceramics and sculpture both in the interior and exterior were a popular feature of Liberty style They drew upon both classical and floral themes as in the baths of Acque della Salute and in the Casa Guazzoni in Milan The most important figure in Liberty style design was Carlo Bugatti the son of an architect and decorator father of Rembrandt Bugatti Liberty sculptor and of Ettore Bugatti famous automobile designer He studied at the Milanese Academy of Brera and later the Academie des Beaux Arts in Paris His work was distinguished by its exoticism and eccentricity included silverware textiles ceramics and musical instruments but he is best remembered for his innovative furniture designs shown first in the 1888 Milan Fine Arts Fair His furniture often featured a keyhole design and had unusual coverings including parchment and silk and inlays of bone and ivory It also sometimes had surprising organic shapes copied after snails and cobras 109 Art Nouveau and Secession in Serbia Edit Main articles Architecture of Serbia Art Nouveau and Secession style and Serbo Byzantine Revival architecture Pucka Bank in Pancevo by Albert Kalman Korossy and Ullmann Gyula 1868 House of Vuk s Foundation in Belgrade by Aleksandar Bugarski 1879 Iodine Spa in Novi Sad Serbia 1897 Subotica Synagogue by Marcell Komor and Dezso Jakab 1901 Raichle Palace in Subotica 1904 Karađorđevic Bridge previously named Franz Josef Bridge in Zrenjanin 1904 Novi Sad Synagogue by Lipot Baumhorn 1905 Building of Merchant Stamenkovic in Belgrade by Nikola Nestorovic and Andra Stevanovic 1907 Hotel Moskva in Belgrade by Jovan Ilkic 1908 Menrat s Palace in Novi Sad by Lipot Baumhorn 1908 Subotica City Hall by Dezso Jakab 1910 Mika Alas s House in Belgrade by Petar Bajalovic 1910 Due to the close proximity to Austria Hungary and Vojvodina being part of the empire until 1918 both the Vienna Secession and Hungarian Szecesszio were prevalent movements in what is today s northern Serbia as well as the Capital of Belgrade 110 Famous Austrian and Hungarian architects would design many buildings in Subotica Novi Sad Palic Zrenjanin Vrbas Senta and Kikinda Art Nouveau heritage in Belgrade Pancevo Aranđelovac and Vrnjacka Banja are a mixture of French German Austrian Hungarian and local Serbian movements From the curvy floral beauty of the Subotica s Synagogue to the Morava style inspired rosettes on Belgrade s telegraph building Art Nouveau architecture takes various shapes in present day Serbia Back in early 1900s north of the Sava and the Danube resurgent Hungarian national sentiment infused the buildings in Subotica and Senta with local floral ethnic motifs while in the tiny Kingdom of Serbia national romantics like Branko Tanezevic and Dragutin Inkiostiri Medenjak both born in the Austro Hungarian Empire translated Serbia s traditional motifs into marvellous buildings Other architects like Milan Antonovic and Nikola Nestorovic brought the then fashionable sinuous lines and natural motifs to the homes and businesses of their wealthy patrons so they could show off their worldliness and keeping up with the trends in Paris Munich and Vienna 111 Modernismo and Modernisme in Spain Edit Main articles Modernisme and Valencian Art Nouveau El Capricho de Gaudi in Comillas Cantabria 1883 1885 Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona by Antoni Gaudi 1883 Hospital de Sant Pau by Lluis Domenech i Montaner 1901 1930 Trencadis facade of Casa Batllo by Antoni Gaudi and Josep Maria Jujol 1904 1906 Casa Mila by Antoni Gaudi 1906 1912 112 Casa de les Punxes by Josep Puig i Cadafalch 1905 Casa Gallardo in Madrid 1911 1914 Sanctuary of Maria Magdalena ca in Novelda Valencian Community 1918 1946 A highly original variant of the style emerged in Barcelona Catalonia at about the same time that the Art Nouveau style appeared in Belgium and France It was called Modernisme in Catalan and Modernismo in Spanish Its most famous creator was Antoni Gaudi Gaudi used floral and organic forms in a very novel way in Palau Guell 1886 1890 According to UNESCO the architecture of the park combined elements from the Arts and Crafts movement Symbolism Expressionism and Rationalism and presaged and influenced many forms and techniques of 20th century Modernism 113 114 115 He integrated crafts as ceramics stained glass wrought ironwork forging and carpentry into his architecture In his Guell Pavilions 1884 1887 and then Parc Guell 1900 1914 he also used a new technique called trencadis which used waste ceramic pieces His designs from about 1903 the Casa Batllo 1904 1906 and Casa Mila 1906 1912 112 are most closely related to the stylistic elements of Art Nouveau 116 Later structures such as Sagrada Familia combined Art Nouveau elements with revivalist Neo Gothic 116 Casa Batllo Casa Mila Guell Pavilions and Parc Guell were results of his collaboration with Josep Maria Jujol who himself created houses in Sant Joan Despi 1913 1926 several churches near Tarragona 1918 and 1926 and the sinuous Casa Planells 1924 in Barcelona Besides the dominating presence of Gaudi Lluis Domenech i Montaner also used Art Nouveau in Barcelona in buildings such as the Castell dels Tres Dragons 1888 Casa Lleo Morera Palau de la Musica Catalana 1905 and Hospital de Sant Pau 1901 1930 116 The two latter buildings have been listed by UNESCO as World Cultural Heritage 117 Another major modernista was Josep Puig i Cadafalch who designed the Casa Marti and its Els Quatre Gats cafe the Casimir Casaramona textile factory now the CaixaForum art museum Casa Macaya Casa Amatller the Palau del Baro de Quadras housing Casa Asia for 10 years until 2013 and the Casa de les Punxes House of Spikes A distinctive Art Nouveau movement was also in the Valencian Community Some of the notable architects were Demetrio Ribes Marco Vicente Pascual Pastor Timoteo Briet Montaud and Jose Maria Manuel Cortina Perez Valencian Art Nouveau defining characteristics are a notable use of ceramics in decoration both in the facade and in ornamentation and also the use of Valencian regional motives Another remarkable variant is the Madrilenian Art Nouveau or Modernismo madrileno with such notable buildings as the Longoria Palace the Casino de Madrid or the Cementerio de la Almudena among others Renowned modernistas from Madrid were architects Jose Lopez Sallaberry Fernando Arbos y Tremanti and Francisco Andres Octavio es See also Art Nouveau in Alcoy Ramon Casas and Pere Romeu on a Tandem by Ramon Casas 1897 Sculpture of polychrome terracota by Lambert Escaler ca 1902 Furniture by Gaspar Homar ca 1903 Prie Dieu or prayer desk designed by Antoni Gaudi for Casa Batllo 1904 1906 Stained glass ceiling of Palau de la Musica Catalana by Antoni Rigalt 1905 1908 Window of the Palace of the Valencian Regional Exposition in Valencia 1908 The Modernisme movement left a wide art heritage including drawings paintings sculptures glass and metal work mosaics ceramics and furniture A part of it can be found in Museu Nacional d Art de Catalunya Inspired by a Paris cafe called Le Chat Noir where he had previously worked Pere Romeu i Borras ca decided to open a cafe in Barcelona that was named Els Quatre Gats Four Cats in Catalan 118 The cafe became a central meeting point for Barcelona s most prominent figures of Modernisme such as Pablo Picasso and Ramon Casas i Carbo who helped to promote the movement by his posters and postcards For the cafe he created a picture called Ramon Casas and Pere Romeu on a Tandem that was replaced with his another composition entitled Ramon Casas and Pere Romeu in an Automobile in 1901 symbolizing the new century Antoni Gaudi designed furniture for many of the houses he built one example is an armchair called the for the Battle House He influenced another notable Catalan furniture designer Gaspar Homar ca 1870 1953 who often combined marquetry and mosaics with his furnishings 119 Arte Nova in Portugal Edit Museum Residence Dr Anastacio Goncalves in Lisbon 1904 05 The Livraria Lello bookstore in Porto Portugal 1906 Facade of Major Pessoa Residence in Aveiro 1907 1909 120 Atrium of Major Pessoa Residence Details of Almirante Reis 2 2K building in Lisbon 1908 Ceramic tile of Cooperativa Agricola in Aveiro 1913 The Art Nouveau variant in Aveiro Portugal was called Arte Nova and its principal characteristic feature was ostentation the style was used by bourgeoisie who wanted to express their wealth on the facades while leaving the interiors conservative 121 Another distinctive feature of Arte Nova was the use of locally produced tiles with Art Nouveau motifs 121 The most influential artist of Arte Nova was Francisco Augusto da Silva Rocha 121 Though he was not trained as an architect he designed many buildings in Aveiro and in other cities in Portugal 122 121 One of them the Major Pessoa residence has both an Art Nouveau facade and interior and now hosts the Museum of Arte Nova 121 There are other examples of Arte Nova in other cities of Portugal 123 124 Some of them are the Museum Residence Dr Anastacio Goncalves by Manuel Joaquim Norte Junior pt 1904 1905 in Lisbon Cafe Majestic by Joao Queiroz pt 1921 and Livraria Lello bookstore by Xavier Esteves pt 1906 both in Porto Jugendstil in the Nordic countries Edit Finland Edit Main entrance of the Pohjola Insurance building 1899 1901 sculptures by Hilda Flodin Tampere Cathedral in the Finnish National Romantic Style 1902 1907 by Lars Sonck By the River of Tuonela 1903 in the Finnish National Romantic Style by Akseli Gallen Kallela Chair by Eliel Saarinen 1907 1908 Statues at Helsinki Central railway station by Emil WikstromArt Nouveau was popular in the Nordic countries where it was usually known as Jugendstil and was often combined with the National Romantic Style of each country The Nordic country with the largest number of Jugendstil buildings is the Grand Duchy of Finland then a part of Russian Empire 125 The Jugendstil period coincided with Golden Age of Finnish Art and national awakening After Paris Exposition in 1900 the leading Finnish artist was Akseli Gallen Kallela 126 He is known for his illustrations of the Kalevala the Finnish national epic as well as for painting numerous Judendstil buildings in the Duchy The architects of the Finnish pavilion at the Exposition were Herman Gesellius Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen They worked together from 1896 to 1905 and created many notable buildings in Helsinki including Pohjola Insurance building 1899 1901 and National Museum of Finland 1905 1910 127 as well as their joint residence Hvittrask in Kirkkonummi 1902 Architects were inspired by Nordic legends and nature rough granite facade thus became a symbol for belonging to the Finnish nation 128 After the firm dissolved Saarinen designed the Helsinki Railway Station 1905 1914 in clearer forms influenced by American architecture 128 The sculptor who worked with Saarinen in construction of National Museum of Finland and Helsinki Railway Station was Emil Wikstrom Another architect who created several notable works in Finland was Lars Sonck His major Jugendstil works include Tampere Cathedral 1902 1907 Ainola the home of Jean Sibelius 1903 Headquarters of the Helsinki Telephone Association 1903 1907 and Kallio Church in Helsinki 1908 1912 Also Magnus Schjerfbeck brother of Helene Schjerfbeck made tuberculosis sanatorium known as Nummela Sanatorium in 1903 using the Jugendstil style 129 130 131 Norway Edit Viking Art Nouveau Chair by Norwegian designer Lars Kinsarvik 1900 Art Nouveau Centre in Alesund 1905 1907 Graphic design by Gerhard Munthe 1914 Interior of Art Nouveau Centre in Alesund Ornaments of a door in Art Nouveau Centre in AlesundNorway also was aspiring independence from Sweden and local Art Nouveau was connected with a revival inspired by Viking folk art and crafts Notable designers included Lars Kisarvik who designed chairs with traditional Viking and Celtic patterns and Gerhard Munthe who designed a chair with a stylized dragon head emblem from ancient Viking ships as well as a wide variety of posters paintings and graphics 132 The Norwegian town of Alesund is regarded as the main centre of Art Nouveau in Scandinavia because it was completely reconstructed after a fire of 23 January 1904 133 About 350 buildings were built between 1904 and 1907 under an urban plan designed by the engineer Frederik Naesser The merger of unity and variety gave birth to a style known as Al Stil Buildings of the style have linear decor and echoes of both Jugendstil and vernacular elements e g towers of stave churches or the crested roofs 133 One of the buildings Swan Pharmacy now hosts the Art Nouveau Centre Sweden and Denmark Edit Vase with blackberry painting by Per Algot Eriksson and silver by E Lefebvre in the Brohan Museum Berlin Cup and saucer from the iris service 1897 in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Inkwell and stamp box by Jens Dahl Jensen c 1900 in the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt Darmstadt Germany The Great Hall of City Library of Aarhus by Karl Hansen Reistrup Altar of Engelbrektskyrkan in Stockholm 1914 Poster for the Baltic Exhibition in Malmo 1914 Jugendstil masterpieces of other Nordic countries include Engelbrektskyrkan 1914 and Royal Dramatic Theater 1901 1908 in Stockholm Sweden 134 and former City Library now Danish National Business Archives in Aarhus Denmark 1898 1901 135 The architect of the latter is Hack Kampmann then a proponent of National Romantic Style who also created Custom House Theatre and Villa Kampen in Aarhus Denmark s most notable Art Nouveau designer was the silversmith Georg Jensen The Baltic Exhibition in Malmo 1914 can be seen as the last major manifestation of the Jugendstil in Sweden 136 Modern in Russia Edit Main articles Mir Iskusstva and Art Nouveau architecture in Russia An Art Nouveau Faberge egg nb 3 1898 Illustration of the Firebird by Ivan Bilibin 1899 Chairs by Sergey Malyutin c 1900 Talashkino Art Colony Ceramic fireplace on Russian folklore theme by Mikhail Vrubel 1908 Set for Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov s ballet Sheherazade by Leon Bakst 1910 Program design for Afternoon of a Faun by Leon Bakst for Ballets Russes 1912 Modern Modern was a very colourful Russian variation of Art Nouveau which appeared in Moscow and Saint Petersburg in 1898 with the publication of a new art journal Mir iskusstva transliteration Mir Iskusstva The World of Art by Russian artists Alexandre Benois and Leon Bakst and chief editor Sergei Diaghilev The magazine organized exhibitions of leading Russian artists including Mikhail Vrubel Konstantin Somov Isaac Levitan and the book illustrator Ivan Bilibin The World of Art style made less use of the vegetal and floral forms of French Art Nouveau it drew heavily upon the bright colours and exotic designs of Russian folklore and fairy tales The most influential contribution of the World of Art was the creation of a new ballet company the Ballets Russes headed by Diaghilev with costumes and sets designed by Bakst and Benois The new ballet company premiered in Paris in 1909 and performed there every year through 1913 The exotic and colourful sets designed by Benois and Bakst had a major impact on French art and design The costume and set designs were reproduced in the leading Paris magazines L Illustration La Vie parisienne and Gazette du bon ton and the Russian style became known in Paris as a la Bakst The company was stranded in Paris first by the outbreak of World War I and then by the Russian Revolution in 1917 and ironically never performed in Russia 137 Of Russian architects the most prominent in the pure Art Nouveau style was Fyodor Schechtel The most famous example is the Ryabushinsky House in Moscow It was built by a Russian businessman and newspaper owner and then after the Russian Revolution became the residence of the writer Maxim Gorky and is now the Gorky Museum Its main staircase made of a polished aggregate of concrete marble and granite has flowing curling lines like the waves of the sea and is illuminated by a lamp in the form of a floating jellyfish The interior also features doors windows and ceiling decorated with colorful frescoes of mosaic 138 Schechtel who is also considered a major figure in Russian symbolism designed several other landmark buildings in Moscow including the rebuilding of the Moscow Yaroslavsky railway station in a more traditional Moscow revival style 138 Facade of the Hotel Metropol in Moscow with mosaics by Mikhail Vrubel 1899 1907 Ryabushinsky House in Moscow by Fyodor Schechtel 1900 Main staircase of Ryabushinsky House in Moscow by Fyodor Schechtel 1900 Teremok House in Talashkino a Russian Revival work by Sergey Malyutin 1901 02 Singer House in Saint Petersburg by Pavel Suzor 1904 Cartouche with a mascaron on the facade of the Singer House Pertsova House by Sergey Malyutin in Moscow 1905 1907 Dining room of the Grand Hotel Europe in Saint Petersburg 1910 The Holy Spirit Church in Talashkino by Sergey MalyutinOther Russian architects of the period created Russian Revival architecture which drew from historic Russian architecture These buildings were created mostly in wood and referred to the Architecture of Kievan Rus One example is the Teremok House in Talashkino 1901 1902 by Sergey Malyutin and Pertsova House also known as Pertsov House in Moscow 1905 1907 He also was a member of Mir iskusstva movement The Saint Petersburg architect Nikolai Vasilyev built in a range of styles before emigrating in 1923 This building is most notable for stone carvings made by Sergei Vashkov inspired by the carvings of Cathedral of Saint Demetrius in Vladimir and Saint George Cathedral in Yuryev Polsky of the XII and XIII centuries Another example of this Russian Revival architecture is the Marfo Mariinsky Convent 1908 1912 an updated Russian Orthodox Church by Alexey Shchusev who later ironically designed Lenin s Mausoleum in Moscow Several art colonies in Russia in this period were built in the Russian Revival style The two best known colonies were Abramtsevo funded by Savva Mamontov and Talashkino Smolensk Governorate funded by Princess Maria Tenisheva Jugendstils Art Nouveau in Riga Edit Main article Art Nouveau architecture in Riga Facade of house at Elizabetes iela 10b by Mikhail Eisenstein 1903 Stairway in Peksens House by Konstantins Peksens 1903 now hosting Riga Jugendstils museum National Romantic decoration on a house built by Konstantins Peksens 1908 Ministry of Education built by Edgar Friesendorf 1911 Riga the present day capital of Latvia was at the time one of the major cities of the Russian Empire Art Nouveau architecture in Riga nevertheless developed according to its own dynamics and the style became overwhelmingly popular in the city Soon after the Latvian Ethnographic Exhibition in 1896 and the Industrial and Handicrafts Exhibition in 1901 Art Nouveau became the dominant style in the city 139 Thus Art Nouveau architecture accounts for one third of all the buildings in the centre of Riga making it the city with the highest concentration of such buildings anywhere in the world The quantity and quality of Art Nouveau architecture was among the criteria for including Riga in UNESCO World Cultural Heritage 140 There were different variations of Art Nouveau architecture in Riga in Eclectic Art Nouveau floral and other nature inspired elements of decoration were most popular Examples of that variation are works of Mikhail Eisenstein in Perpendicular Art Nouveau geometrical ornaments were integrated into the vertical compositions of the facades Several department stores were built in this style and it is sometimes also referred to as department store style or Warenhausstil in German National Romantic Art Nouveau was inspired by local folk art monumental volumes and the use of natural building materials Some later Neo Classical buildings also contained Art Nouveau details Style Sapin in La Chaux de Fonds Switzerland Edit Main article Style Sapin Villa Fallet with fir inspired decoration 1906 by Le Corbusier 1905 Crematorium 1908 1910 interior with stylized fir tree design on ceiling The symbolist murals by L Epplattenier were added later Crematorium with stylized sapin or pine cone detail Crematorium with pine cone detail A variation called Style Sapin Pine Tree Style emerged in La Chaux de Fonds in the Canton of Neuchatel in Switzerland The style was launched by the painter and artist Charles l Eplattenier and was inspired especially by the sapin or pine tree and other plants and wildlife of the Jura Mountains One of his major works was the Crematorium in the town which featured triangular tree forms pine cones and other natural themes from the region The style also blended in the more geometric stylistic elements of Jugendstil and Vienna Secession 141 Another notable building in the style is the Villa Fallet La Chaux de Fonds a chalet designed and built in 1905 by a student of L Epplattenier the eighteen year old Le Corbusier The form of the house was a traditional Swiss chalet but the decoration of the facade included triangular trees and other natural features Le Corbusier built two more chalets in the area including the Villa Stotzer in a more traditional chalet style 142 141 143 144 Tiffany Style and Louis Sullivan in the United States Edit Windows of the Wainwright Building by Louis Sullivan 1891 Tiffany Chapel from the 1893 Word s Columbian Exposition now in the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park Florida Glass vase by Louis Comfort Tiffany now in the Cincinnati Art Museum 1893 1896 Poster Century by Louis John Rhead 1894 Detail of the Prudential Guaranty Building New York Louis Sullivan 1896 South State Street entrance to the Carson Pirie Scott and Company Store 1899 by Louis Sullivan The Flight of Souls Window by Louis Comfort Tiffany won a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition Wisteria lamp by Louis Comfort Tiffany c 1902 in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts National Farmer s Bank of Owatonna by Louis Sullivan 1907 08 Tiffany window in his house at Oyster Bay New York 1908 In the United States the firm of Louis Comfort Tiffany played a central role in American Art Nouveau Born in 1848 he studied at the National Academy of Design in New York began working with glass at the age of 24 entered the family business started by his father and in 1885 set up his own enterprise devoted to fine glass and developed new techniques for its colouring In 1893 he began making glass vases and bowls again developing new techniques that allowed more original shapes and colouring and began experimenting with decorative window glass Layers of glass were printed marbled and superimposed giving an exceptional richness and variety of colour in 1895 his new works were featured in the Art Nouveau gallery of Siegfried Bing giving him a new European clientele After the death of his father in 1902 he took over the entire Tiffany enterprise but still devoted much of his time to designing and manufacturing glass art objects At the urging of Thomas Edison he began to manufacture electric lamps with multicoloured glass shades in structures of bronze and iron or decorated with mosaics produced in numerous series and editions each made with the care of a piece of jewellery A team of designers and craftsmen worked on each product The Tiffany lamp in particular became one of the icons of the Art Nouveau but Tiffany s craftsmen designed and made extraordinary windows vases and other glass art Tiffany s glass also had great success at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris his stained glass window called the Flight of Souls won a gold medal 145 The Columbian Exposition was an important venue for Tiffany a chapel he designed was shown at the Pavilion of Art and Industry The Tiffany Chapel along with one of the windows of Tiffany s home in New York are now on display at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park Florida Another important figure in American Art Nouveau was the architect Louis Sullivan Sullivan was a leading pioneer of American modern architecture He was the founder of the Chicago School the architect of some of the first skyscrapers and the teacher of Frank Lloyd Wright His most famous saying was Form follows function While the form of his buildings was shaped by their function his decoration was an example of American Art Nouveau At the 1893 World s Columbian Exposition in Chicago most famous for the neoclassical architecture of its renowned White City he designed a spectacular Art Nouveau entrance for the very functional Transportation Building 146 147 While the architecture of his Carson Pirie Scott and Company Building 1899 now the Sullivan Center was strikingly modern and functional he surrounded the windows with stylized floral decoration He invented equally original decoration for the National Farmer s Bank of Owatonna Minnestota 1907 1908 and the Merchants National Bank in Grinell Iowa He invented a specifically American variety of Art Nouveau declaring that decorative forms should oscillate surge mix and derive without end He created works of great precision which sometimes combined Gothic with Art Nouveau themes 148 Art Nouveau in Argentina Edit Stained glass and sculptures by Ercole Pasina in Calise House in Buenos Aires 1911 Metal work ceramics and statues at the facade of Club Espanol building es in Rosario 1912 Interior of Galeria Guemes Buenos Aires by Francisco Gianotti 1913 Ceramic chimney of Confiteria La Europea in Rosario 1916 Palacio Barolo in Buenos Aires by Mario Palanti 1919 1923 Flooded with European immigrants Argentina welcomed all artistic and architectural European styles including Art Nouveau 149 Cities with the most notable Art Nouveau heritage in Argentina are Buenos Aires Rosario and Mar del Plata 150 Paris was a prototype for Buenos Aires with the construction of large boulevards and avenues in the 19th century 149 The local style along with French influence was also following Italian Liberty as many architects Virginio Colombo Francisco Gianotti Mario Palanti were Italians In works of Julian Garcia Nunez es Catalan influence can be noted as he completed his studies in Barcelona in 1900 149 The influence of Vienna Secession can be found at Paso y Viamonte building 149 The introduction of Art Nouveau in Rosario is connected to Francisco Roca Simo es who trained in Barcelona 151 His Club Espanol building es 1912 features one of the largest stained glass windows in Latin America produced as well as tiling and ceramics by the local firm Buxadera Fornells y Cia 152 The sculptor of the building is Diego Masana from Barcelona 152 Belgian influence on Argentinian Art Nouveau is represented by the Villa Ortiz Basualdo now hosting the Juan Carlos Castagnino Municipal Museum of Art in Mar del Plata where the furniture interiors and lighting are by Gustave Serrurier Bovy Art Nouveau in the rest of the world Edit Art Nouveau Neoclassical Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City 1904 1934 The Mexico City Gran Hotel Art Nouveau interior built in 1918 by Jacques Gruber 153 154 Theatre municipal in Tunis 1902 Goerke Haus in Luderitz Namibia 1909 1910 An Allegorical Wedding Sketch for a carpet Triptych from right to left Exile Marriage Redemption by Ephraim Moses Lilien 1906 A bistro at Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi 1902 with Art Nouveau and colonial designsAs in Argentina Art Nouveau in other countries was mostly influenced by foreign artists Spaniards were behind Art Nouveau projects in Havana Cuba they were even not qualified enough to be called architects 155 Spaniards were not directly involved in works in Ponce Puerto Rico but were an inspiration and a subject of study for local architects in Ponce Puerto Rico 156 French were behind Art Nouveau in Tunisia that was a French protectorate then Germans were behind Jugendstil heritage of Luderitz Namibia 157 Qingdao China Italians were behind Art Nouveau in Valparaiso Chile 158 Montevideo Uruguay Rio de Janeiro Brasil 159 Russians were behind Art Nouveau heritage of Harbin China 160 Art Nouveau Heritage in Lima consists of work of Italians Masperi brothers French architect Claude Sahut and British masters of stained glass 161 Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City was a result of the cooperation of Italians architect Adamo Boari and sculptor Leonardo Bistolfi local architect Federico Mariscal es Hungarian artists Aladar Korosfoi Kriesch Geza Maroti and Miksa Roth Catalan sculptor Agusti Querol Subirats and French master Edgar Brandt 162 Art Nouveau motifs can also be found in French Colonial artchitechture throughout French Indochina A notable art movement called Bezalel school appeared in the Palestine region in dating to the late Ottoman and British Mandate periods It has been described as a fusion of oriental art and Jugendstil 163 Several artists associated with the Bezalel school were noted for their Art Nouveau style including Ze ev Raban Ephraim Moses Lilien and Abel Pann 164 Characteristics Edit Floor of the Hotel Tassel by Victor Horta with a whiplash vegetal motif 1893 Coup de Fouet or whiplash motif depicting the stems of cyclamen flowers by Hermann Obrist 1895 Highly stylized floral designs in balconies and railings Otto Wagner stairway in Majolica House Vienna 1898 Floral patterns Lamp with Wisteria design by Louis Comfort Tiffany 1899 1900 Stylized vegetal forms Entrance of the Anvers Metro Station in Paris by Hector Guimard 1900 Exotic materials and decoration Mahogany and amourette wood cabinet with water lily decoration of gilded bronze by Louis Majorelle 1905 1908 Geometric lines the Vienna Secession Stoclet Palace by Josef Hoffmann 1905 1911 Early Art Nouveau particularly in Belgium and France was characterized by undulating curving forms inspired by lilies vines flower stems and other natural forms used in particular in the interiors of Victor Horta and the decoration of Louis Majorelle and Emile Galle 165 It also drew upon patterns based on butterflies and dragonflies borrowed from Japanese art which were popular in Europe at the time 165 Early Art Nouveau also often featured more stylized forms expressing movement such as the coup de fouet or whiplash line depicted in the cyclamen plants drawn by designer Hermann Obrist in 1894 A description published in Pan magazine of Hermann Obrist s wall hanging Cyclamen 1894 compared it to the sudden violent curves generated by the crack of a whip 166 The term whiplash though it was originally used to ridicule the style is frequently applied to the characteristic curves employed by Art Nouveau artists 166 Such decorative undulating and flowing lines in a syncopated rhythm and asymmetrical shape are often found in the architecture painting sculpture and other forms of Art Nouveau design 166 Other floral forms were popular inspired by lilies wisteria and other flowers particularly in the lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany and the glass objects made by the artists of the School of Nancy and Emile Galle Other curving and undulating forms borrowed from nature included butterflies peacocks swans and water lilies Many designs depicted women s hair intertwined with stems of lilies irises and other flowers 167 Stylized floral forms were particularly used by Victor Horta in carpets balustrades windows and furniture They were also used extensively by Hector Guimard for balustrades and most famously for the lamps and railings at the entrances of the Paris Metro Guimard explained That which must be avoided in everything that is continuous is the parallel and symmetry Nature is the greatest builder and nature makes nothing that is parallel and nothing that is symmetrical 168 Earlier Art Nouveau furniture such as that made by Louis Majorelle and Henry van de Velde was characterized by the use of exotic and expensive materials including mahogany with inlays of precious woods and trim and curving forms without right angles It gave a sensation of lightness In the second phase of Art Nouveau following 1900 the decoration became purer and the lines were more stylized The curving lines and forms evolved into polygons and then into cubes and other geometric forms These geometric forms were used with particular effect in the architecture and furniture of Joseph Maria Olbrich Otto Wagner Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann especially the Stoclet Palace in Brussels which announced the arrival of Art Deco and modernism 86 87 88 Another characteristic of Art Nouveau architecture was the use of light by opening up of interior spaces by the removal of walls and the extensive use of skylights to bring a maximum amount of light into the interior Victor Horta s residence studio and other houses built by him had extensive skylights supported on curving iron frames In the Hotel Tassel he removed the traditional walls around the stairway so that the stairs became a central element of the interior design Relationship with contemporary styles and movements Edit Two examples of rococo a design of a console table from 1752 in the left and a porcelain covered tureen from 1756 in the right Curves vegetal ornaments asymmetry and motifs inspired by nature were widly used both in Rococo Revival one of the most popular styles in the 1870s and 1880s and Art Nouveau As an art style Art Nouveau has affinities with the Pre Raphaelites and the Symbolist styles and artists like Aubrey Beardsley Alphonse Mucha Edward Burne Jones Gustav Klimt and Jan Toorop could be classed in more than one of these styles Unlike Symbolist painting however Art Nouveau has a distinctive appearance and unlike the artisan oriented Arts and Crafts movement Art Nouveau artists readily used new materials machined surfaces and abstraction in the service of pure design Art Nouveau did not eschew the use of machines as the Arts and Crafts movement did For sculpture the principal materials employed were glass and wrought iron resulting in sculptural qualities even in architecture Ceramics were also employed in creating editions of sculptures by artists such as Auguste Rodin 169 though his sculpture is not considered Art Nouveau Art Nouveau architecture made use of many technological innovations of the late 19th century especially the use of exposed iron and large irregularly shaped pieces of glass for architecture Art Nouveau tendencies were also absorbed into local styles In Denmark for example it was one aspect of Skonvirke aesthetic work which itself more closely relates to the Arts and Crafts style 170 171 Likewise artists adopted many of the floral and organic motifs of Art Nouveau into the Mloda Polska Young Poland style in Poland 172 Mloda Polska however was also inclusive of other artistic styles and encompassed a broader approach to art literature and lifestyle 173 Architecturally Art Nouveau has affinities with styles that although modern exist outside the modernist tradition established by architects like Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier It is particularly closely related to Expressionist architecture which shares its preference for organic shapes but grew out of an intellectual dissatisfaction with Art Nouveau s approach to ornamentation As opposed to Art Nouveau s focus on plants and vegetal motifs Expressionism takes inspiration from things like caves mountains lightning crystal and rock formations 174 Another style conceived as a reaction to Art Nouveau was Art Deco which rejected organic surfaces altogether in preference for a rectilinear style derived from the contemporary artistic avant garde Genres EditArt Nouveau is represented in painting and sculpture but it is most prominent in architecture and the decorative arts It was well suited to the graphic arts especially the poster interior design metal and glass art jewellery furniture design ceramics and textiles Posters and graphic art Edit Main article Art Nouveau posters and graphic arts The Peacock Skirt by Aubrey Beardsley 1892 Divan Japonais lithograph by Henri de Toulouse Lautrec 1892 93 First issue of The Studio with cover by Aubrey Beardsley 1893 Poster for Grafton Galleries by Eugene Grasset 1893 The Inland Printer magazine cover by Will H Bradley 1894 Poster for The Chap Book by Will H Bradley 1895 Biscuits Lefevre Utile by Alphonse Mucha 1896 Zodiac Calendar by Alphonse Mucha 1896 Motocycles Comiot by Theophile Alexandre Steinlen from Les Maitres de l affiche 1899 Ver Sacrum illustration by Koloman Moser 1899 illustration from Ver Sacrum by Koloman Moser 1900 Cover for the Book of Common Prayer vellucent binding by Cedric Chivers 1900s Festival poster by Ludwig Hohlwein 1910 The graphic arts flourished in the Art Nouveau period thanks to new technologies of printing particularly colour lithography which allowed the mass production of colour posters Art was no longer confined to galleries museums and salons it could be found on Paris walls and in illustrated art magazines which circulated throughout Europe and to the United States The most popular theme of Art Nouveau posters was women women symbolizing glamour modernity and beauty often surrounded by flowers In Britain the leading graphic artist in the Art Nouveau style was Aubrey Beardsley 1872 1898 He began with engraved book illustrations for Le Morte d Arthur then black and white illustrations for Salome by Oscar Wilde 1893 which brought him fame In the same year he began engraving illustrations and posters for the art magazine The Studio which helped publicize European artists such as Fernand Khnopff in Britain The curving lines and intricate floral patterns attracted as much attention as the text 175 The Swiss French artist Eugene Grasset 1845 1917 was one of the first creators of French Art Nouveau posters He helped decorate the famous cabaret Le Chat noir in 1885 and made his first posters for the Fetes de Paris He made a celebrated poster of Sarah Bernhardt in 1890 and a wide variety of book illustrations The artist designers Jules Cheret Georges de Feure and the painter Henri de Toulouse Lautrec all made posters for Paris theaters cafes dance halls cabarets The Czech artist Alphonse Mucha 1860 1939 arrived in Paris in 1888 and in 1895 made a poster for actress Sarah Bernhardt in the play Gismonda by Victorien Sardou The success of this poster led to a contract to produce posters for six more plays by Bernhardt Over the next four years he also designed sets costumes and even jewellery for the actress 176 177 Based on the success of his theater posters Mucha made posters for a variety of products ranging from cigarettes and soap to beer biscuits all featuring an idealized female figure with an hourglass figure He went on to design products from jewellery to biscuit boxes in his distinctive style 178 In Vienna the most prolific designer of graphics and posters was Koloman Moser 1868 1918 who actively participated in the Secession movement with Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffmann and made illustrations and covers for the magazine of the movement Ver Sacrum as well as paintings furniture and decoration 179 Painting Edit Le Corsage raye by Edouard Vuillard 1895 National Gallery of Art Paul Serusier Women at the Spring Musee d Orsay 1898 Beethoven Frieze in the Sezessionshaus in Vienna by Gustav Klimt 1902 Watercolour and ink painting of Loie Fuller Dancing by Koloman Moser 1902 Sgraffito by Paul Cauchie on his residence and studio Brussels 1905 Detail of the frieze by Gustav Klimt in the Stoclet Palace Brussels 1905 1911 Slavia by Alphonse Mucha 1908 Painting was another domain of Art Nouveau though most painters associated with Art Nouveau are primarily described as members of other movements particularly post impressionism and symbolism Alphonse Mucha was famous for his Art Nouveau posters which frustrated him According to his son and biographer Jiri Mucha he did not think much of Art Nouveau What is it Art Nouveau he asked Art can never be new 180 He took the greatest pride in his work as a history painter His one Art Nouveau inspired painting Slava is a portrait of the daughter of his patron in Slavic costume which was modelled after his theatrical posters 180 The painters most closely associated with Art Nouveau were Les Nabis post impressionist artists who were active in Paris from 1888 until 1900 One of their stated goals was to break down the barrier between the fine arts and the decorative arts They painted not only canvases but also decorative screens and panels Many of their works were influenced by the aesthetics of Japanese prints The members included Pierre Bonnard Maurice Denis Paul Ranson Edouard Vuillard Ker Xavier Roussel Felix Vallotton and Paul Serusier 181 In Belgium Fernand Khnopff worked in both painting and graphic design Wall murals by Gustav Klimt were integrated into decorative scheme of Josef Hoffmann for the Stoclet Palace 1905 1911 The Klimt mural for the dining room at the Stoclet Palace is considered a masterpiece of late Art Nouveau One subject did appear both in traditional painting and Art Nouveau the American dancer Loie Fuller was portrayed by French and Austrian painters and poster artists 43 One particular style that became popular in the Art Nouveau period especially in Brussels was sgraffito a technique invented in the Renaissance of applying layers of tinted plaster to make murals on the facades of houses This was used in particular by Belgian architect Paul Hankar for the houses he built for two artist friends Paul Cauchie and Albert Ciamberlani Glass art Edit Main article Art Nouveau glass art Cup Par une telle nuit by Emile Galle France 1894 Henri de Toulouse Lautrec Louis Comfort Tiffany Au Nouveau Cirque Papa Chrysantheme c 1894 stained glass Musee d Orsay Blown glass with flower design by Karl Koepping Germany 1896 Daum vase France 1900 Lamp by Daum France 1900 Lily lamp by Louis Comfort Tiffany 1900 1910 Rose de France cup by Emile Galle 1901 Window for the House of an Art Lover by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh 1901 Lampe aux ombelles by Emile Galle France c 1902 Stained glass windows by Koloman Moser for the Church of St Leopold Vienna 1902 1907 Stained glass window Architecture by John La Farge U S 1903 Stained glass window Veranda de la Salle by Jacques Gruber in Nancy France 1904 Iridescent vase by Louis Comfort Tiffany 1904 Glass designed by Otto Prutscher Austria 1909 Jack in the pulpit vase Louis Comfort Tiffany U S c 1913 182 Glass art was a medium in which Art Nouveau found new and varied ways of expression Intense amount of experimentation went on particularly in France to find new effects of transparency and opacity in engraving win cameo double layers and acid engraving a technique that permitted production in series The city of Nancy became an important centre for the French glass industry and the workshops of Emile Galle and the Daum studio led by Auguste and Antonin Daum were located there They worked with many notable designers including Ernest Bussiere fr Henri Berge illustrateur fr and Amalric Walter They developed a new method of incrusting glass by pressing fragments of different coloured glass into the unfinished piece They often collaborated with the furniture designer Louis Majorelle whose home and workshops were in Nancy Another feature of Art Nouveau was the use of stained glass windows with that style of floral themes in residential salons particularly in the Art Nouveau houses in Nancy Many were the work of Jacques Gruber who made windows for the Villa Majorelle and other houses 183 In Belgium the leading firm was the glass factory of Val Saint Lambert which created vases in organic and floral forms many of them designed by Philippe Wolfers Wolfers was noted particularly for creating works of symbolist glass often with metal decoration attached In Bohemia then a region of the Austro Hungarian Empire noted for crystal manufacture the companies J amp L Lobmeyr and Joh Loetz Witwe also experimented with new colouring techniques producing more vivid and richer colours In Germany experimentation was led by Karl Kopping who used blown glass to create extremely delicate glasses in the form of flowers so delicate that few survive today 184 In Vienna the glass designs of the Secession movement were much more geometrical than those of France or Belgium Otto Prutscher was the most rigorous glass designer of the movement 184 In Britain a number of floral stained glass designs were created by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh for the architectural display called The House of an Art Lover In the United States Louis Comfort Tiffany and his designers became particularly famous for their lamps whose glass shades used common floral themes intricately pieced together Tiffany lamps gained popularity after the World s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 where Tiffany displayed his lamps in a Byzantine like chapel Tiffany experimented extensively with the processes of colouring glass patenting in 1894 the process Favrile glass which used metallic oxides to colour the interior of the molten glass giving it an iridescent effect His workshops produced several different series of the Tiffany lamp in different floral designs along with stained glass windows screens vases and a range of decorative objects His works were first imported to Germany then to France by Siegfried Bing and then became one of the decorative sensations of the 1900 Exposition An American rival to Tiffany Steuben Glass was founded in 1903 in Corning NY by Frederick Carder who like Tiffany used the Fevrile process to create surfaces with iridescent colours Another notable American glass artist was John La Farge who created intricate and colourful stained glass windows on both religious and purely decorative themes 184 Examples of stained glass windows in churches can be found in the Art Nouveau religious buildings article Metal art Edit Wrought iron balcony of Castel Beranger in Paris by Hector Guimard 1897 98 Tulip candelabra by Fernand Dubois 1899 Cast iron Baluster by George Grant Elmslie 1899 1904 Chocolate pot with a molinet stirring rod by Lucien Bonvallet made of silver ivory and palmwood c 1900 Teapot by Alphonse Debain made of gilt silver and ivory 1900 Paris Metro balustrade plaque by Hector Guimard 1900 Table Lamp by Francois Raoul Larche in gilt bronze with the dancer Loie Fuller as model 1901 Wrought iron balconies of the Saint Cyr House in Brussels by Gustave Strauven 1901 1903 Light fixture by Victor Horta 1903 Lamp by German architect Friedrich Adler 1903 04 Lamp by Ernst Riegel made of silver and malachite 1905 Gate of Villa Knopf in Strasbourg 1905 Bat goblet by Henri Husson made of embossed and hammered copper gold and silver applications c 1909 The 19th century architectural theorist Viollet le Duc had advocated showing rather than concealing the iron frameworks of modern buildings but Art Nouveau architects Victor Horta and Hector Guimard went a step further they added iron decoration in curves inspired by floral and vegetal forms both in the interiors and exteriors of their buildings They took the form of stairway railings in the interior light fixtures and other details in the interior and balconies and other ornaments on the exterior These became some of the most distinctive features of Art Nouveau architecture The use of metal decoration in vegetal forms soon also appeared in silverware lamps and other decorative items 185 In the United States the designer George Grant Elmslie made extremely intricate cast iron designs for the balustrades and other interior decoration of the buildings of Chicago architect Louis Sullivan While French and American designers used floral and vegetal forms Joseph Maria Olbrich and the other Secession artists designed teapots and other metal objects in a more geometric and sober style 186 Jewellery Edit Dragonfly Lady brooch by Rene Lalique made of gold enamel chrysoprase moonstone and diamonds 1897 98 Carved horn decorated with pearls by Louis Aucoc c 1900 Translucent enamel flowers with small diamonds in the veins by Louis Aucoc c 1900 Flora brooch by Louis Aucoc c 1900 A corsage ornament by Louis Tiffany 1900 Brooch with woman by Rene Lalique, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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