Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau sprang from a major movement in the decorative arts that first appeared in Western Europe in 1892, but its birth was not quite as spontaneous as is commonly believed. Decorative ornament and furniture underwent many changes between the waning of the Empire Style around 1815 and the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris celebrating the centennial of the French Revolution.

Around 1920: Art Nouveau gives way to a new style:

Art Deco.

Woman’s Writing Desk and Chair
Koloman Moser, 1903

The Beethoven Frieze (detail)
Gustav Klimt, 1902

With Ruskin and Morris among the originators, let’s not forget the leaders of the new movement: Philip Webb, architect, and Walter Crane, the period’s most creative and appealing decorator, who was capable of exquisite imagination, fantasy, and elegance.

Indeed, nationalism and cosmopolitanism are two aspects of the trend that we will discuss.

Up until 1789 (the end of the ancien régime), style had advanced by reign; this era wanted its own style. And (at least outside of France) there was a yearning for something more: no longer to be slave to foreign fashion, taste, and art.

What then did the new decorative art movement stand for in 1900? In France, as elsewhere, it meant that people were tired of the usual repetitive forms and methods, the same old decorative clichés and banalities, the eternal imitation of furniture from the reigns of monarchs named Louis (Louis XIII to XVI) and furniture from the Renaissance and Gothic periods.

Art Nouveau sprang from a major movement in the decorative arts that first appeared in Western Europe in 1892, but its birth was not quite as spontaneous as is commonly believed.

1904: Antoni Gaudí creates the Casa Batlló in Barcelona.