Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau (from French for' New Art') describes a highly decorative, new and modern style from the late 19th century in Europe and North America. It was stylization to the extreme. It has many artistic forms including fine art, architecture and the decorative arts. Artists took inspiration from the natural world trying to break away from past styles. It is also known as Modernisme in Spain, Jugendstil in Germany, Stile Liberty in Italy, Style Guimard in France and Sezessionstil in Austria.  In America it was considered to form part of the Arts and Crafts movement. Art Nouveau was a phenomenon of the western world.

Art Nouveau was an out growth of two British styles. The Arts and Crafts movement led by English designer Edward Morris and the Aesthetic movement. The Arts and Crafts movement emphasised the importance of handcrafted work.  Japonisme which was popular in Europe influenced many artists with its line drawings, organic forms and references to the natural world.

In the Fine Arts many artists adopted elements of Art Nouveau. These included Edward Munch,Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard, Jan Toorop, Gustav Klimt and Odilon Redon to mention a few.



                                                            Hector Guimard

Metropolitan Line Entrance by Hector Guimard

This is a dramatic piece of art in Paris (1898 to 1901) by Hector Guimard.  The public entrance to Paris' Metropolitain line used iron and glass with metallic twists of his signature plant motif .Each entrance is different but the design motif is carried out to all. Guimard's design for the metro entrances are viewed as iconic symbols of the fin-de-siecle era.



                                                     Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec 

            Poster for La Goulue  at The Moulin Rouge (1891)

    The Moulin Rouge was opened in Paris in 1889. It gained  a reputation of an exciting nightclub.   

   

Poster for Le Divan Japonais (1892)

Henri De Toulouse Lautrec was influenced by Cheret and Bonnard. His work was also influenced by Japanese Ukiyo-e prints. He used area of flat colour bound by bold outlines,silhouettes, cropped compositions and oblique angles were all typical of Japanese prints.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Antoni Gaudi

 Antoni Gaudi was born on 25th June,1852 in the Province of Tarragona in Southern Catalonia, Spain. He went to school in Barcelona, the city which holds most of his greatest works. Gaudi was part of the Catalan Modernista Movement which he developed with his nature based organic style. His interest were architecture and went to study in Barcelona, the most modern city in Spain. Gaudi Graduated in 1878 at Provincial School of Architecture. When he graduated he worked in the Victorian style but then he started developing his own style, Composing his works with surfaces of patterned brick or stone, bright ceramic tiles and floral or reptilian metalwork. 

In 1878 in his early period at Paris World's Fair Gaudi displayed a showcase which impressed Count Eusebi Guell. This led to the commission of Palau Guell and Guell estate. In 1883 he was charged with the construction of the Sagrada Famiglia. Gaudi changed the design and gave it his own distinctive style. He worked on it for more than fourty years until his death in 1926.                                                                                                                                                                                          This is one of Antoni Gaudi's Impressive works La Sagrada Familia. It was built in 1882 but it is still unfinished.             

                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                    The Nativity Facade facing East finished by Gaudi himself

     
                       Photos of the early construction of  La Sagrada Familia.(Sagrada Museum)                                                                                                                                                                                                         

                                                  Interior of La Sagrada Famiglia

                                                     Casa Batllo apartments

                                                       

Casa Battlo apartments  in Barcelona remodelled by Gaudi (1905-1907). He created a facade , roof and interior space. The exterior is on two levels. It has windows on each floor and Gaudi adds skull masks as balconies. The facade is covered in coloured mosaics and the roof is decorated with fish scales design and giant chimneys.

                                                              Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt was a symbolist painter and a prominent member of the Vienna Art Nouveau movement. His major works include paintings, murals and sketches. His  own interpretation of the Art Nouveau style  made him one of the world's greatest decorative artists. His primary subject was the female body which he rendered as sensual and erotic. He was a great portraitist and produced decorative works for patrons notably in Brussels , Belgium.

His style was influenced by his learning foundations at the School of Applied Art. He was influenced by mosaics especially the ones he had seen at Ravenna, Italy.  This prompted Klimt to build up his pictures using brilliantly coloured forms.

The Kiss (1907-1908)

Oil and silver and gold leaf on canvas

Alphonse Maria Mucha  

Alphonse Mucha was born in the town of Ivancice in southern Moravia (now the Czech Republic) on 24^th July 1860. He left school at 15 for failing to complete his studies in time. He started working as a clerk but at 19 years of age he left the civil service and found work as a theatrical scene painter. This gave him experience of large scale decorative work. In 1881 he received an extensive commission for Count Karl Khuen Belassi. After a few commissions for painting he studied at the Munich Academy of fine arts from 1885 until 1887. He then moved to Paris where he continued studying and also shared a studio for a period of time with Paul Gauguin. In 1894 he became famous from the commission for a  poster for the actress Sarah Bernhardt for the play production Gismonda. Mucha became the talk of Paris and his decorative form of Art Nouveau would became Le Style Mucha. From then on he was swamped by commissions for posters for advertising.  Mucha used lithography as the printing technique for his posters. Besides posters, Mucha designed costumes, jewellery, wallpaper, stamps and theatre sets and more.

Poster for Gismonda 1894

Monaco- Monte-Carlo poster for the new opened railway line (1897)

Jewellery designed by Mucha

                                                        Louis Comfort Tiffany

The American artist and designer  Louis Comfort Tiffany is best known for his work in stained glass. At the age of 24 he began studying the chemistry and techniques of glass making.  He established his own firm and while taking commissions he continued to develope new ways of manufacturing glass.
Tiffany believed that nature should be the primary source of inspiration. He became world famous with his Favrile glass. Tiffany designed  lamps, stained glass windows, glass mosaics, blown glass, jewellery, enamels and metalwork.

                       'The Holy City' at the Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church Baltimore, Maryland

                                                      by Louis Comfort Tiffany

Harvard System

Books

Ormiston, R. a. R. M., 2009. Art Nouveau:Posters and Illustrations From the Glamorous Fin de Siecle. London: Flame Tree Publishing.

Ormiston, R., and Robinson, M., 2009. Art Nouveau. London: Flame Tree Publishing

Websites

Tiffany, L. C., 2013. ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA. [Online]
Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/595436/Louis-Comfort-Tiffany
[Accessed 14 April 2014].

Gontar, C., 2000-2014. HEILBRUNN TIMELINE OF ART HISTORY.. [Online]
Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/artn/hd_artn.htm
[Accessed 14 April 2014].