Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture and design that peaked in popularity at the beginning of the 20th century.

In Nutshell

Terminology
Name derives from Siegfried Bing's shop L'Art Nouveau ("the New Art") which opened in Paris in 1895. This shop sold new and original designs, as opposed to period pieces. The style itself originated more than a decade earlier. Art Nouveau had many other names in various countries: Jugendstil (Germany), Stile Liberty (Italy), Modernista (Spain), Modern Style (France) and Sezessionstil (Austria).
Artists
Victor Horta, Hector Guimard, Antoní Gaudí, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Henry van de Velde, Walter Crane, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Gustave KLIMT, Alphonse Mucha, and Aubrey Beardsley.
Timeline
1880-1914.
Started In
Europe and the United States.
About
A self-consciously new and modern style, as the name suggests. Art Nouveau refers mainly to architectural and design concerns, although the work of some visual artists, such as Gustave Klimt, Aubrey Beardsley, and Alphonse Mucha contain elements of Art Nouveau. The goal of Art Nouveau adherents was to raise the level of the crafts (furniture, design, textiles, glasswork, jewelry, etc.) to that of "fine arts." Architects and designers used such varied materials as stained-glass, mosaic, cast- and wrought-iron, wood, etc. Art Nouveau designers rejected the 19th century trend of drawing literally from classic, historical design sources ("revival styles" or "historicism").
Theme
Usually organic imagery (leaves, stems, flowers, etc., but also such things as waves, fire, flowing hair of women) to non-objective design. Sometimes, particularly within the organic approach, there is an erotic undertone.
Art Style
Anything from sinuous, flowing, curvy, asymmetrical lines to the later, more geometrically abstract designs of buildings and furniture.
Known Work
HORTA, Interior Stairwell, Tassel House, Brussels, 1892-93.
Inspiration
Arts and Crafts Movement, Symbolism, Vienna Secession, Japanese design, ancient Egyptian art, and 18th century Rococo.
Become Inspiration Of
20th century abstraction.

More localised terms for the cluster of self-consciously radical, somewhat mannered reformist chic that formed a prelude to 20th-century modernism included Jugendstil in Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, named after the avant-garde periodical Jugend ('Youth'), Młoda Polska ('Young Poland' style) in Poland, and Sezessionsstil ('Secessionism') in Vienna, where forward-looking artists and designers seceded from the mainstream salon exhibitions to exhibit on their own work in more congenial surroundings.

In Russia, the movement revolved around the art magazine Mir iskusstva ('World of Art'), which spawned the revolutionary Ballets Russes. In Italy, Stile Liberty was named for the London shop, Liberty & Co, which distributed modern design emanating from the Arts and Crafts movement, a sign both of the Art Nouveau's commercial aspect and the 'imported' character that it always retained in Italy.

In Catalonia, the movement was centred in Barcelona and was known as modernisme, with the architect Antoni Gaudí as the most noteworthy practitioner. Art Nouveau was also a force in Eastern Europe, with the influence of Alfons Mucha in Prague and Moravia (part of the modern Czech Republic) and Latvian Romanticism (Riga, the capital of Latvia, is home to over 800 Art Nouveau buildings). The entrances to the Paris Metro designed by Hector Guimard in 1899 and 1900 are famous examples of Art Nouveau.

The name 'Art Nouveau' derived from the name of a shop in Paris, Maison de l'Art Nouveau, at the time run by Siegfried Bing, that showcased objects that followed this approach to design.

A high point in the evolution of Art Nouveau was the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris, in which the 'modern style' triumphed in every medium. It probably reached its apogee, however, at the Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Decorativa Moderna of 1902 in Turin, Italy, where designers exhibited from almost every European country where Art Nouveau flourished. Art Nouveau made use of many technological innovations of the late 19th century, especially the broad use of exposed iron and large, irregularly shaped pieces of glass in architecture. By the start of the First World War, however, the highly stylised nature of Art Nouveau design — which itself was expensive to produce — began to be dropped in favour of more streamlined, rectilinear modernism that was cheaper and thought to be more faithful to the rough, plain, industrial aesthetic that became Art Deco.

As an art movement it has affinities with the Pre-Raphaelites and the Symbolism (arts) movement, and artists like Aubrey Beardsley, Alfons 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 visual look; and unlike the backward-looking Pre-Raphaelites, Art Nouveau artists quickly used new materials, machined surfaces, and abstraction in the service of pure design.

Bellas Artes Palace in Mexico City.Art Nouveau in architecture and interior design eschewed the eclectic revival styles of the Victorian era. Though Art Nouveau designers selected and 'modernised' some of the more abstract elements of Rococo style, such as flame and shell textures, they also advocated the use of highly stylized organic forms as a source of inspiration, expanding the 'natural' repertoire to embrace seaweed, grasses, and insects.

Japanese wood-block prints, with their curved lines, patterned surfaces, contrasting voids, and flatness of visual plane, also inspired Art Nouveau. Some line and curve patterns became graphic clichés that were later found in works of artists from all parts of the world.

Art Nouveau did not negate the machine as the Arts and Crafts Movement did, but used it to its advantage. For sculpture, the principal materials employed were glass and wrought iron, leading to sculptural qualities even in architecture.

Art Nouveau is considered a 'total' style, meaning that it encompasses a hierarchy of scales in design — architecture; interior design; decorative arts including jewellery, furniture, textiles, household silver and other utensils, and lighting; and the range of visual arts.

Art Nouveau & Media

Two-dimensional Art Nouveau pieces were painted, drawn, and printed in popular forms such as advertisements, posters, labels, magazines, and the like.

Glass making was an area in which the style found tremendous expression — for example, the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany in New York and Émile Gallé and the Daum brothers in Nancy, France.

Jewellery of the Art Nouveau period revitalised the jeweller's art, with nature as the principal source of inspiration, complemented by new levels of virtuosity in enamelling and the introduction of new materials, such as opals and semi-precious stones. The widespread interest in Japanese art, and the more specialised enthusiasm for Japanese metalworking skills, fostered new themes and approaches to ornament.

For the previous two centuries, the emphasis in fine jewellery had been on gemstones, particularly on the diamond, and the jeweller or goldsmith had been principally concerned with providing settings for their advantage. With Art Nouveau, a different type of jewellery emerged, motivated by the artist-designer rather than the jeweller as setter of precious stones.

Mikhail Vrubel. Demon Seated in a Garden, 1890The jewellers of Paris and Brussels defined Art Nouveau in jewellery, and in these cities it achieved the most renown. Contemporary French critics were united in acknowledging that jewellery was undergoing a radical transformation, and that the French designer-jeweller-glassmaker René Lalique was at its heart. Lalique glorified nature in jewellery, extending the repertoire to include new aspects of nature — dragonflies or grasses — inspired by his encounter with Japanese art.

The jewellers were keen to establish the new style in a noble tradition, and for this they looked back to the Renaissance, with its jewels of sculpted and enamelled gold, and its acceptance of jewellers as artists rather than craftsmen. In most of the enamelled work of the period precious stones receded. Diamonds were usually given subsidiary roles, used alongside less familiar materials such as moulded glass, horn and ivory.

• Agathon Léonard (French, 1841-1923) for Sèvres, Royal Porcelain Factory, Dancing Figure from the Table Centrepiece 'Dance with Scarves', 1900, bisque porcelain, height 47.5 cm, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. This figure is one of fourteen in a set of female figures dancing and playing music.
• Agostino Lauro (Italian, 1861-1924), Sofa, 1900-1901, mahogany with silk moiré, the Mitchell Wolfson Jr. Collection, The Wolfsonian-Florida International U, Miami Beach, FL. See furniture and wood.
• Alphonse Marie Mucha (Czech, 1860-1939), Job, 1898, lithograph in five colors: red, yellow, blue green, dark violet, and black, 54 1/2 x 36 1/2 in. (138.43 x 92.71 cm). This poster advertised a brand of cigarette papers.
• Alphonse Marie Mucha, Maude Adams (1872-1953) as Joan of Arc, 1909, oil on canvas, 82 1/4 x 30 inches (208.9 x 76.2 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
• American (Tiffany Studios?), Window in the Winchester "Mystery House," c. 1890s (house built 1884-1922), colored and beveled glass, San Jose, CA. Sarah L. Winchester, a wealthy widow — heiress to the Winchester Rifle fortune — began the construction of what became a 160-room mansion, ending only at her death 38 years later. This may be one of the stained glass windows she commissioned Tiffany Studios to produce for the house.
• Antoní Gaudí (Spanish, 1852-1926), manufactured by Gaudí's workshop, Prayer Bench, 1898-1914, wood and wrought iron, 32 5/8 x 44 1/2 x 26 inches (82.9 x 113 x 66 cm), seat height 16 5/8 inches (42.2 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY.
• Antoní Gaudí, Wall clock from the Casa Milá, Barcelona, 1906-1910, gilded wood, private collection. See architect, architecture, horology, and Spanish art.
• Aubrey Beardsley, The Dream, 1896, pen and black ink, J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, CA.
• Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Scottish, 1868-1928), Side Chair, 1897, oak and silk, 54 3/8 x 20 x 18 inches (138.1 x 50.8 x 45.7 cm), seat height 17 inches (43.2 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY.
• Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Ladies' Luncheon Room from Miss Cranston's Ingram Street Tearooms, 1900, Glasgow Museums, Art Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove. See Arts and Crafts Movement.
• Designed by Hector Guimard (French, 1867-1942), Panel, c. 1900, early 20th century, silk and paint on silk, width 18 inches (45.7 cm), length 27 inches (68.6 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See curvilinear.
• Émile Gallé (French, 1846-1904), Dragonfly Coupe, La Libellule, layered, inlaid, blown, and trailed glass, internal metal-foil decoration, cut, engraved, height 18.3 cm, Corning Museum of Glass, NY.
• Émile Gallé, Bat Vase, c. 1903-1904, wheel-cut and acid-etched glass with applied cabochons over silver foil, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
• Ferdinand Hodler (Swiss, 1853-1918), Study for Day, c. 1898-99, oil on canvas, 106 x 100 cm (42 x 39 1/2 inches), Detroit Institute of Arts, MI. See Swiss art.
• Ferdinand Hodler, Day II (Der Tag. 2. Fassung), 1904 / 06, oil on canvas, 163 x 358 cm, Kunsthaus Zurich, Switzerland.
• Ferdinand Hodler, Der Niesen, 1910, oil on canvas, 83 x 105.5 cm, Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland. See landscape.
• François Rupert Carabin (French, 1862-1932), Chair, 1896, wood, private collection. See furniture.
• František [aka Franz or Frank] Kupka (Czech, 1871-1957), View from a Carriage Window, c. 1901, gouache and watercolor on paper with cardboard overlay, with cut out overlay: 19 7/8 x 23 5/8 inches (50.6 x 60 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY. See Symbolism and Orphism.
• Giovanni Segantini (Italian, 1858-1899), Love at the Fountain of Life (L'amore alla fonte della vita), oil on canvas, 72 x 100 cm, Civica Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milano. See Segantini stitch.
• Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1862-1918), Serena Lederer (died 1943), 1899, oil on canvas, 75 1/8 x 33 5/8 inches (190.8 x 85.4 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See Austrian art, emphasis, portrait, and secession.
• Gustav Klimt, Hope, II, 1907-08, oil, gold, and platinum on canvas, 43 1/2 x 43 1/2 inches, (110.5 x 110.5 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY. See pattern.
• Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Hermine Gallia, 1904, oil on canvas, 170.5 x 96.5 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
• Gustav Klimt, The Park, 1910 or earlier, oil on canvas, 43 1/2 x 43 1/2 inches (110.4 x 110.4 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY.
• Hector Guimard, Side Chair, c.1904, pearwood with leather upholstery, 47 X 18 X 17 1/4 inches (119.4 X 45.7 X 43.8 cm), Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA. See furniture and wood.
• Hector Guimard, Side Table, c. 1904-07, pear wood, 29 7/8 x 20 1/2 x 17 7/8 inches (75.9 x 52.1 x 45.4 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY.
• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864-1901), Divan Japonais, 1893, color lithograph, complete: 31 5/8 x 23 7/8 inches (80.3 x 60.7 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY. This poster advertises a cabaret in Montmartre, Paris. In the center sits the famous cancan dancer Jane Avril, whose elegant black silhouette dominates the scene. Lithographed posters proliferated during the 1890s due to technical advances in color printing and the relaxation of laws restricting the placement of posters. Dance halls, café-concerts, and festive street life invigorated nighttime activities. Toulouse-Lautrec's brilliant posters, made as advertisements, captured the vibrant appeal of the prosperous Belle Époque. See a page about Toulouse-Lautrec and Post-Impressionism.
• Henry van de Velde (Belgian, 1863-1957), Tropon, 1897, color lithograph, 31 x 20 cm, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran.
• Henry van de Velde, Candelabrum, 1898-1899, electroplated bronze, Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels. See candelabrum.
• Henry van de Velde, designer (Belgian, 1863-1957), for Meissen Factory (German), Plate, c. 1903, glazed porcelain, Cleveland Museum of Art, OH.
• Henry van de Velde, Desk, 1898, wood and metal, German National Museum, Nurnberg.
• Josef Hoffmann (Austrian, 1870-1956) for Wiener Werkstätte, Fruit Basket, 1904, silver, Victoria and Albert Museum, London. See basket.
• Josef Hoffmann (Austrian, 1870-1956), designer, at the studio of Wiener Werkstätte, for J. & J. Kohn, Austrian manufacturer, Sitzmaschine Chair with Adjustable Back, c. 1905, bent beechwood and sycamore panels, 43 1/2 x 28 1/4 x 32 inches (110.5 x 71.8 x 81.3 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY. "Sitzmashine" is literally "machine for sitting," an apparent bow to the mechanical aspects of the modernism. Hoffmann and the Wiener Werkstätte championed the aesthetic of the Vienna Secession.
• Josef Hoffmann for Wiener Werkstätte, Square Brooch, silver lattice, repoussé gold, and opal, c. 1905. See jewelry, opalescence, and secession.
• Józef Mehoffer (Polish, 1869-1946), The Strange Garden, 1903, oil on canvas, 217 x 208 cm, Polish National Museum, Warsaw, Poland. Member of Sztuka (Art), an organization of Polish painters related to Art Nouveau founded in 1897.
• Lambert Escaler (French, 1874-1957), Jardinière, c. 1903, polychrome terra cotta, 27 x 40 x 23 cm, National Museum of Catalonian Art, Barcelona.
• Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848-1933) for Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, Three-panel screen, c. 1900, leaded Favrile glass in bronze frame, Lillian Nassau Ltd., NY.
• Louis Comfort Tiffany, manufactured by Tiffany Studios, New York, NY, Vase, 1913, favrile glass, 20 1/2 x 11 x 4 1/2 inches (52.1 x 27.9 x 11.4 cm).
• Louis Majorelle (French, 1859-1926), Armoire, c. 1900-1910, fruitwood and tropical veneers, oak, mirror, Columbia Museum of Art, SC.
• Louis Sullivan (American, 1856-1924) and George Grant Elmslie (American, 1871-1952), Elevator medallion from the Schlesinger and Mayer Department Store (now Carson Pirie Scott & Co.), Chicago, 1898-1899, copper-plated cast iron, Seymore H. Persky collection.
• Louis Sullivan (American, 1856-1924) and George Grant Elmslie (American, 1871-1952), Main entrance to the Schlesinger and Meyer Department Store (now Carson Pirie Scott & Co.), Chicago, featuring Art Nouveau style cast iron decor, 1899-1901 (additions 1901-1904). Detail: cast iron over one doorway. See Prairie school.
• Paul Signac (French, 1863-1935), Portrait of Félix Fénéon, 1890, oil on canvas, private collection.
• René Jules Lalique (French, 1860-1945), Necklace, c. 1895-1905, gold, enamel, Australian opal, Siberian amethysts; overall diameter 9 1/2 inches (24.1 cm); 9 large pendants: 2 3/4 x 2 1/4 inches (7 x 5.7 cm), 9 small pendants: 1 3/8 x 1 1/4 inches (3.5 x 3.2 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
• Sir Thomas Malory (British, 15th c.), Author; Aubrey Beardsley (British, 1872-1898), Illustrator; London: J. M. Dent and Co., 1893, Publisher, Morte d'Arthur, 1893, printed book; 12 pts. : ill. , pl. ; 26 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
• Théophile Alexandre Steinlen (French, 1859-1923), Chat Noir, color lithograph. This poster advertised an event at the Chat Noir, a Paris cabaret from 1881 to 1897.
• Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, Compagnie Française des Chocolate et des Thés, 1895, color lithograph poster, Cleveland Museum of Art, OH.
• Victor Horta (Belgian, 1861-1947), Tassel House, Brussels, 1893. First floor landing with view towards staircase.
• Vilmos Zsolnay (Hungarian, 1828-1900), Vase, 1899, earthenware with iridescent metallic luster glaze, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. See Hungarian art.
• William H. Bradley (American, 1868-1962) for Stone & Kimball (Chicago), The Chap Book: Thanksgiving Number, 1895, color lithograph, 19 5/8 x 18 7/8 inches (49.9 x 33.8 cm), Baltimore Museum of Art.
• William H. Bradley, for Narcoti Chemical Co. (Springfield, Massachusetts), Narcoti-Cure, 1895, color lithograph, 20 x 13 1/2 inches (50 x 34 cm), Baltimore Museum of Art. The product advertised here was promoted as a cure for the cigarette smoking habit, although the curative value of using a narcotic to do it remains suspect.