Art Nouveau building in Paris. © Tyanka | Dreamstime.com
The End of a Century: Art Nouveau Style
"The end of the century brought the dawning of a new age and a new attitude toward life. It was an era when social differences dissipated and the mores, customs, and expectations of the citizenry came together...The burgeoning middle classes had a voice and a visible presence, and reaped the rewards of the economy they created. Nowhere was their presence more apparent than in the increased desire for popular entertainment." Can you guess the year described in the above sentences? If you guessed 1999, you'd be only 100 years off. It is a description of the year 1899 and the last decade before the turn of the 20th century.
The end of the 19th century is often called "La Belle Époque" - or "beautiful era." It was a time when the technological and social changes affected the daily lives of people who only a generation before had lived almost medieval lives. The wonders of the modern world which sprang into being in the 1880s and 1890's brought the first rewards of modern industrialization and mass-produced abundance.
Not only was there more money spread among more people, there were many more ways to spend it. More food, more fashion, more entertainment, more travel, more newspapers and books. "It was as social historians have characterized it, the dawning of the age of material novelties, heard in the clatter of the telegraph, the jingle of the telephone and the cacophony of the first mass-produced typewriters, experienced in the eerie feeling of ascent on the first elevator rides, the dazzling aura of electric light, and the new, democratic mobility of the bicycle." [from a 1999 catalog of San Diego Museum of Art exhibit of Toulouse-Lautrec.]
Around 1890, a new style of design in architecture, furniture, clothing, commercial art, and household articles began to appear. It took its name from a Paris shop owned by Siegfried Bing. This elusive and brilliant connoisseur and entrepreneur may well be called the "father" of Art Nouveau. A traveling exhibition of the Smithsonian Institution in 1986-1987 brought Bing's role to the attention of the international art and academic community.
Bing as an entrepreneur could deal in art as both an investor and a patron. France had suffered a lack of innovation and creativity in design compared to the excitement of the Arts & Crafts movement in England, the Jugendstil movement in Germany and the Stilo Liberty in Italy. Even the United States had its abundance of arts and crafts advocates. Bing remedied the situation with his unusual talent of anticipating public taste. An admirer of the Japanese aesthetic, Bing believed that new design would naturally follow if one simply applied Japanese design principles to everyday objects. The French at this time were fascinated by anything Japanese ("japonisme") and Bing capitalized on this by opening his own workshop, or "atelier," where furniture, wall coverings, appliances and other utilitarian objects were created in a single esthetic concept.
The end of the 19th century is often called "La Belle Époque" - or "beautiful era." It was a time when the technological and social changes affected the daily lives of people who only a generation before had lived almost medieval lives. The wonders of the modern world which sprang into being in the 1880s and 1890's brought the first rewards of modern industrialization and mass-produced abundance.
Not only was there more money spread among more people, there were many more ways to spend it. More food, more fashion, more entertainment, more travel, more newspapers and books. "It was as social historians have characterized it, the dawning of the age of material novelties, heard in the clatter of the telegraph, the jingle of the telephone and the cacophony of the first mass-produced typewriters, experienced in the eerie feeling of ascent on the first elevator rides, the dazzling aura of electric light, and the new, democratic mobility of the bicycle." [from a 1999 catalog of San Diego Museum of Art exhibit of Toulouse-Lautrec.]
Around 1890, a new style of design in architecture, furniture, clothing, commercial art, and household articles began to appear. It took its name from a Paris shop owned by Siegfried Bing. This elusive and brilliant connoisseur and entrepreneur may well be called the "father" of Art Nouveau. A traveling exhibition of the Smithsonian Institution in 1986-1987 brought Bing's role to the attention of the international art and academic community.
Bing as an entrepreneur could deal in art as both an investor and a patron. France had suffered a lack of innovation and creativity in design compared to the excitement of the Arts & Crafts movement in England, the Jugendstil movement in Germany and the Stilo Liberty in Italy. Even the United States had its abundance of arts and crafts advocates. Bing remedied the situation with his unusual talent of anticipating public taste. An admirer of the Japanese aesthetic, Bing believed that new design would naturally follow if one simply applied Japanese design principles to everyday objects. The French at this time were fascinated by anything Japanese ("japonisme") and Bing capitalized on this by opening his own workshop, or "atelier," where furniture, wall coverings, appliances and other utilitarian objects were created in a single esthetic concept.
Bing's pavilion at the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition, called Art Nouveau Bing after his shop L'Art Nouveau, was the only French exhibit to gain praise when compared with the artistic advancements of other nations on display. His shop eventually became identified not only with an innovative style but with the international decorative arts movement which came to epitomize "La Belle Époque" and the transition from the 19th to the 20th century. [Art Nouveau Bing-Paris Style 1900, catalog, Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition, 1986-87. Gabriel P. Weisberg, editor.]
Although Art Nouveau received its generous share of criticism, skepticism and ridicule, both among the French critics and the British, the style became widely recognizable in daily life. Curvacious lines interweaving into extravagent forms were one of the characteristics of Art Nouveau architecture. In fashion, the "S" curve dominated women's fashions and created an exaggerated, yet unnatural shape. Ornamentation continued to cling in substantial amounts to both clothing and to structures.The most enduring examples of the lyrical, organic, and sensuous ornamentation can be seen today in the few remaining Paris Metro station entrances designed by Hector Guimard. Here can be seen the style that drew on the fluid lines and writhing curves of plants for visual inspiration. Functionality became inseparable from beauty. The social aim was to provide pleasing and uplifting surroundings at a price affordable to a broad segment of society rather than just the priviledged few. Once again, one is reminded of the spirit of William Morris and his Arts & Crafts ideals.
Art Nouveau influenced all elements of design. Some of the artists and craftsmen whose names became synonymous with the period include the American Louis C. Tiffany (stained glass windows, Favrile glass), the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, the French Toulouse-Lautrec (posters of the demimonde, the Café-Concerts, Montmartre), the architects Victor Horta (Belgian), Hector Guimard of the Metro stations fame, and Antonio Gaudi of Spain, and illustrators of popular publications such as Englishman Aubrey Beardsley and Alphonse Mucha, Czech. Often used in collaboration with other contemporaneous styles such as Jugendstil and Arts & Crafts, a typical interior might include carpets and wallcoverings by William Morris, windows by Tiffany, furniture in the Art Nouveau style, in an apartment building fronted with elaborate iron grilles in fantastical organic flowing forms.
For further information and excellent links to a host of Art Nouveau websites, please visit:
National Gallery of Art: Anatomy of an Exhibition. Introduction to Art Nouveau written by Paul Greenhalgh, Head of Research, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and Mari Griffith, department of exhibition programs, National Gallery of Art.
Artchive.com: Art Nouveau. Links to information about Klimt, Aubrey Beardsley, Toulouse-Lautrec, and other icons of the era's art and design.
Although Art Nouveau received its generous share of criticism, skepticism and ridicule, both among the French critics and the British, the style became widely recognizable in daily life. Curvacious lines interweaving into extravagent forms were one of the characteristics of Art Nouveau architecture. In fashion, the "S" curve dominated women's fashions and created an exaggerated, yet unnatural shape. Ornamentation continued to cling in substantial amounts to both clothing and to structures.The most enduring examples of the lyrical, organic, and sensuous ornamentation can be seen today in the few remaining Paris Metro station entrances designed by Hector Guimard. Here can be seen the style that drew on the fluid lines and writhing curves of plants for visual inspiration. Functionality became inseparable from beauty. The social aim was to provide pleasing and uplifting surroundings at a price affordable to a broad segment of society rather than just the priviledged few. Once again, one is reminded of the spirit of William Morris and his Arts & Crafts ideals.
Art Nouveau influenced all elements of design. Some of the artists and craftsmen whose names became synonymous with the period include the American Louis C. Tiffany (stained glass windows, Favrile glass), the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, the French Toulouse-Lautrec (posters of the demimonde, the Café-Concerts, Montmartre), the architects Victor Horta (Belgian), Hector Guimard of the Metro stations fame, and Antonio Gaudi of Spain, and illustrators of popular publications such as Englishman Aubrey Beardsley and Alphonse Mucha, Czech. Often used in collaboration with other contemporaneous styles such as Jugendstil and Arts & Crafts, a typical interior might include carpets and wallcoverings by William Morris, windows by Tiffany, furniture in the Art Nouveau style, in an apartment building fronted with elaborate iron grilles in fantastical organic flowing forms.
For further information and excellent links to a host of Art Nouveau websites, please visit:
National Gallery of Art: Anatomy of an Exhibition. Introduction to Art Nouveau written by Paul Greenhalgh, Head of Research, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and Mari Griffith, department of exhibition programs, National Gallery of Art.
Artchive.com: Art Nouveau. Links to information about Klimt, Aubrey Beardsley, Toulouse-Lautrec, and other icons of the era's art and design.