Antiques - Ghatan Antique

Antiques

What is Antique?

  • An authentic antique is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance and is often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit). However, the term is often used loosely to describe any old object. An antique is usually an item that is collected or desirable because of its age, beauty, rarity, condition, utility, personal emotional connection, or other unique features. It is an object that represents a previous era or period in human history. Vintage and collectible describe old items but do not meet the 100-year criterion.

Antiques are usually decorative arts objects that show some degree of craftsmanship, collectability, or individual attention to design, such as a desk or an early automobile. They are bought at antique shops, estate sales, auction houses, online auctions, and other venues, or estate inherited. Antique dealers often belong to national trade associations, many of which belong to CINOA, a confederation of art and antique associations across 21 countries that represents 5,000 dealers.

 

Definition

 

The standard definition of an antique is a collectible object such as a piece of furniture or work of art that has an enhanced value because of its considerable age. Still, it varies depending on the item, source, year of creation, etc. The standard definition of antique requires that an item be at least 100 years old and in original condition[citation needed]. (Motor vehicles are an exception to this rule, with some definitions requiring an automobile to be as little as 25 years old to qualify as an antique.)

In the United States, the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act defined antiques as "...works of art (except rugs and carpets made after the year 1700), collections in illustration of the progress of the arts, works in bronze, marble, terra cotta, Parian, pottery, or porcelain, artistic antiquities, and objects of ornamental character or educational value which shall have been produced before the year 1830." [citation needed] 1830 was the approximate beginning of mass production in the United States. These definitions were intended to allow people of that time to distinguish between genuine antique pieces, vintage items, and collectible objects.

In 1979, the British art critic Edward Lucie-Smith wrote that "Antique-dealers ... sometimes insist that nothing is an antique made after 1830, although the barrier has been broken down in recent years by the enthusiasm of collectors for Art collectors Nouveau and Art Deco.

The alternative term, antiquities, commonly refers to the remains of ancient art and everyday items from antiquity, often archaeological artifacts. An antique is a person who collects and studies antiquities or things of the past.

China

Traditionally, Chinese antiques are marked by a red seal, a 'chop,' placed there by an owner.[citation needed] Experts can identify previous owners of an antique by reading the chops. The pre-revolution Chinese government[clarification needed] tried to assist collectors of Chinese antiques by requiring their Department of Antiquities to provide a governmental chop on the bottom of a Chinese antique. This chop is visible as a piece of red sealing wax that bears the government chop to verify the date of the antique. The government of the People's Republic of China has its definitions of what it considers antique.[clarification needed] As of the Cultural Revolution and China's opening trade to other countries, the government has tried to protect the definition of a Chinese antique.

 

Antiquing

 

Antiquing is the act of shopping, identifying, negotiating, or bargaining for antiques. People buy items for personal use, gifts, or profit. Sources for antiquing include garage sales and yard sales, estate sales, resort towns, antique districts, collectives, and international auction houses.

Note that antiquing also means the craft of making an object appear antique through distressing or using antique-looking paint applications. Often, individuals get confused between these distressed handmade vintages or everyday items and authentic antiques. Would-be antique collectors unaware of the differences may pay a lot of money for something that would have little value if re-sold.

 

Furniture

 

Antique furniture is a popular area of antiques because the furniture has obvious practical uses and collector value. Many collectors use antique furniture pieces in their homes and care for them with the hope that the value of these items will remain the same or be appreciated. This is in contrast to buying new furniture, which typically depreciates from the moment of purchase.

Antique furniture includes dining tables, chairs, bureaus, chests, etc. The most common woods are mahogany, oak, pine, walnut, and rosewood. Chinese antique furniture is often made with elm, a wood common to many regions in Asia. Each wood has a distinctive grain and color. Many modern pieces of furniture use laminate or wood veneer to achieve the same effect. There are some different styles of antique furniture depending on when and where it was made. Examples of stylistic periods are Arts & Crafts, Georgian, Regency, and Victorian.

An essential part of some antique furniture is its hardware fittings, which vary from one period. For example, Victorian-era hardware is different from other period hardware and is perceived to be aesthetically defined; this is the reason for its popularity.

 

Antique tool

 

Although an antique tool might be said to be more than a hundred years old, the term is often used to describe any senior tool of quality that might be deemed collectible.

The use of tools is one of the primary means humans are distinguished from other animals. Tools are the parents of all other antiques. Most artificial objects were made, and great effort goes into creating newer and better tools to solve the production problems of today. The study of antique tools provides a glimpse of human development and cultural preferences history.

The creation of a tool often makes possible the creation of more advanced tools. Advanced tools made manufacturing internal combustion engines, automobiles, and computers likely. Among those who like to collect, some may do so as part of a rigorous study program – they want to catalog all types of a specific tool. Some collectors may wish to preserve some of the past for future generations. Others fall under the spell of the beauty of some antique tools.

 

Collecting categories

 

Categories of tools range from the broad – planes, rules, braces, hammers, etc., to the specific – planes made by the Gage Company of Vineland, New Jersey, for example. People new to the hobby should know that many good modern reference books will guide you in your search and many reprints of the catalogs these tools were initially offered. Often agencies will exhibit differences contrasting the different locations of their makers or additional features contrasting different periods.

The following are some ways people collect tools:

  • Tools of a specific company or maker include L. Bailey Victor tools, Seneca Falls Tool Company tools, Miller's Falls tools, Disston Saws, Chelor planes, etc.
  • Means of a specific type – hammers, braces, axes, saws, patented planes, transitional planes, treadle-powered machines, etc.
  • Tools of any particular period – instruments from 1850 to 1900, post-World War II era tools, etc.
  • Devices from a specific place – Scottish tools, tools from Massachusetts makers, etc.
  • Means of a particular occupation – cooper's tools, machinist tools, watchmaker's tools, garden tools.
  • A combination of one or more of the above categories is one of a specific type of Stanley tool, i.e., all Stanley saws, all Stanley marking gauges, all Stanley planes, etc.
  • A "type study" of one specific model, for example, a type study of Stanley #6 jointer planes or Norris A5 smooth planes.
  • Tools that show how a particular idea progressed over time, such as tools tracing the development of the plane's adjusting mechanisms or tools leading to how an early patent was bought out and developed by another company.
  • Tool advertising and catalogs.

Sickles and scythes

The American history of hay-cutting tools begins with the reaping hook. Its slender, ultra-sharp, half-circle blade was employed in cutting grass for hay, and it took some skill to use successfully. By the late 1800s, the less artful sickle became the hay-cutting tool of choice. The sickle's blade was serrated and less circular than the reaping hook. The employment of this tool took less finesse and more of a slashing technique. It was used in conjunction with a wooden grass crook with which one held the standing grass steady while swinging the sickle blade through the shank. Today's sickles will have smooth edges to the modern viewer, as the serrations are usually worn away over time.

Scythes are grass-cutting tools with long handles for mowing large amounts of hay. The graceful shape of the scythes of the late 18th and early 19th centuries hinted at the grace and art required for using the tool properly. The blade was straighter than the sickle's, with an almost straight blade side and a gently curved blunt side. The handle, called a snath, would ordinarily be of a hardwood indigenous to the manufacturing area with small handholds, strategically placed, termed nibs. The earliest scythes had no nibs. Later scythes had two nibs. The scythe was used by an experienced hand as an efficient tool, slicing through acres of green hay with methodic precision. Scythes were the prized possession of early Americans and were carefully protected from abuse and weather. They could last for centuries.

 

Vintage (design)

 

Vintage design refers to an item of another era that holds essential and recognizable value. This Style can be applied to interior design, decor, and other areas. Vintage design is widespread, and vintage items have risen in price. Outlets of vintage Design have shifted from thrift stores to shabby chic stores. Usually, vintage is the thought of something being old-fashioned. It means a timeless classic that doesn't necessarily go out of Style but out of print. Something vintage is much harder to obtain and can mean exclusivity, so only the elite can get it.

 

There is debate over what determines if an item is vintage. Some rely on the definition of anything old and of value. The most widely accepted definition of antique and vintage professionals is anything older than 40 (and less than 100) years old. 

The terms vintage, retro, and antique are frequently used interchangeably and have some overlay; however, the words possess different meanings. Retro refers to a style icon of a previous era. Vintage generally refers to an item of high-quality materials and craftsmanship characteristic of a specific period or artist and is between 40 and 100 years old. Lastly, an antique refers to an article of the previous era or at least 100 years old. A related term is an antiquity, which indicates something of past generations or, put, ancient. The word vintage originated in Late Middle English from Old French and Latin origins.

 

Vintage items spark interest in many. The United States Department of Labor tells us, "Design and fashion trends play important furniture production. The integrated design of the article for both esthetic and functional qualities is also a major part of manufacturing furniture." 

The popularity of vintage design and vintage-inspired items can be seen through media. In 2004 designer Nicolas Ghesquière created a line for Balenciaga, which called back to older collections. Tom Ford's group for her also uses references to the past. Vintage design can also be seen in ads that promote vintage-inspired clothing.

There are several reasons for vintage design's popularity. Some claim the phenomenon is due to the rarity and traditional value of the items. Others state the reason to be a result of nostalgia creating a positive emotional appeal for people toward a decade of their childhood or other experience.

 

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau (/ˌɑːrt nuːˈvoʊ, ˌɑːr/; French: [aʁ nuvo]) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts, known in different languages by different names: Jugendstil in German, Stile Liberty in Italian, Modernisme català in Catalan, etc. In English, it is also known as the Modern Style. The style was most popular between 1890 and 1910 during the Belle Époque period that ended with the start of World War I in 1914. It 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. Other characteristics of Art Nouveau were a sense of dynamism and movement, usually 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.

One primary 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, jewelry, and metalwork. 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). It was influenced by William Morris and Britain's 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 standard style to uplift and inspire the residents.

The first Art Nouveau houses and interior decoration appeared in Brussels in the 1890s in the architecture and interior design of homes designed by Paul Hankar, Henry van de Velde, and especially Victor Horta, whose Hôtel Tassel was completed in 1893. It moved quickly to Paris, where it was adapted by Hector Guimard, who saw Horta's work in Brussels and applied the Style to 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, it spread to the rest of Europe, taking on different names and characteristics in each country (see the 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 centers 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. The Art Nouveau style began to receive more positive attention from critics in the late 1960s, with a significant exhibition of Hector Guimard at the Museum of Modern Art in 1970.

 

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 the term Style moderne (akin to the British time Modern Style) or Style 1900. 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), and Art Belle Époque, or Art fin de siècle.

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 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.
  • In Britain, besides Art Nouveau, it was known as the Modern Style, or, because of works of Glasgow School, as the Glasgow style. Modern is also used in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine, and Modernas in Lithuania.
  • In Germany and Scandinavia, it was called Reformstil ("Reform style"), or Jugendstil ("youth style"), after the famous German art magazine of that name, as well as Wellenstil ("Wave style"), or Lilienstil ("Lily style"). It is now called Jugend in Finland, Sweden, and Norway, Jugend in Estonia, and Jūgendstils in Latvia.
  • In Denmark, it is known as Skønvirke ("Work of beauty").
  • In Austria and the neighboring 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).
  • It was often called Liberty style in Italy, 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").
  • In the United States, due to its association with Louis Comfort Tiffany, it was sometimes called the "Tiffany style."
  • In the Netherlands, it was called Nieuwe Kunst ("New Art") or Nieuwe Stijl ("New style").
  • In Portugal, Arte nova.
  • In Spain, Modernismo, Modernisme (in Catalan) and Arte joven ("Young Art").
  • In Switzerland, Style Sapin ("Fir tree style").
  • In Finland, Kalevala Style.
  • In Russia, Модерн ("Modern") or, for painting, Мир Искусства (Mir Iskusstva, "World of Art").
  • In Japan, Shiro-Uma.
  • In Romania, Arta 1900 ("1900 Art"), Arta Nouă ("New Art") or Noul Stil ("New Style").

 

History

 

Origins

The Red House by William Morris and Philip Webb

Japanese woodblock print by Utagawa Kunisada

The Peacock Room by James McNeill Whistler

William Morris printed textile

Swan, rush, and iris wallpaper Design by Walter Crane

Chair designed by Arthur Mackmurdo

 

The new art movement had its roots in Britain, in the floral designs of William Morris and 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. The chair designed by Arthur Mackmurdo has been recognized as a precursor of Art Nouveau design.

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:

  • The function should define form.
  • Unity of the arts and the abolition of any distinction between significant art (architecture) and minor arts (decorative arts).
  • Nature's logic is the model to be used for architecture.
  • Architecture should adapt itself to man's environment and needs.
  • Use of modern technologies and materials.

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. These paintings were removed in 1945 as deemed nonacademic. At the Château de Roquetaillade in the Bordeaux region, his interior decorations 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. Each function its material; each material its form and its ornament." This book influenced a generation of architects, including Louis Sullivan, Victor Horta, Hector Guimard, and Antoni Gaudí.

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

Another significant 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, jewelry, 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, the La Porte Chinoise store on Rue de Rivoli was open, where Japanese ukiyo-e and other objects from the Far Eastern 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.

New technologies in printing and publishing allowed Art Nouveau to reach a global audience quickly. Art magazines, illustrated with photographs and color 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. With the posters by Jules Chéret for dancer Loie Fuller in 1893 and by Alphonse Mucha for actress Sarah Bernhardt in 1895, the sign became not just advertising but an art form. Sarah Bernhardt set aside significant numbers of her posters for sale to collectors.

 

Development – Brussels (1893–1898)

The first Art Nouveau townhouses, the Hankar House by Paul Hankar (1893) and the Hôtel Tassel by Victor Horta (1892–1893),[4][5] were built almost simultaneously in Brussels. Hankar was particularly inspired by the theories of the French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. To create a synthesis of fine arts and decorative arts, he brought Adolphe Crespin [fr] and Albert Ciamberlani [fr] to decorate the interior and exterior with sgraffito, or murals. Hankar decorated stores, restaurants, and galleries in a local critic called "a veritable delirium of originality." He died in 1901, just as the movement was beginning to receive recognition.

Victor Horta was among the most influential architects of early Art Nouveau, and his Hôtel Tassel (1892–1893) is one of the Style's landmarks. 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. 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. In a short period, Horta built three more townhouses with open interiors and 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.

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, the Bloemenwerf (1895). The Red House inspired the house's exterior, the residence of writer and theorist William Morris, the Arts and Crafts movement founder. Trained as a painter, Van de Velde turned to illustration, furniture design, and architecture. For the Bloemenwerf, he created the textiles, wallpaper, silverware, jewelry, and even clothing, that matched the style of the residence. Van de Velde went to Paris, where he designed furniture and decoration for Samuel 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. Before returning to Belgium, he played an essential role in the German Werkbund.

The debut of Art Nouveau architecture in Brussels was accompanied by a wave of Decorative Art in the new Style. Influential 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 jewelry designer Philippe Wolfers, who made jewelry in the form of dragonflies, butterflies, swans, and serpents.

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)

 

The Franco-German art dealer and publisher Siegfried Bing played a crucial role in publicizing the Style. In 1891, he founded a magazine devoted to the art of Japan, which helped promote 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 were shown there were not at all uniform in Style. Bing wrote in 1902, "Art Nouveau, at the time of its creation, did not aspire 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." 

The Style was quickly noticed in neighboring 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, 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." 

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 

 

Paris 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 worldwide and showcased the Style's architecture, design, glassware, furniture, and decorative objects. The Exposition architecture was often a mixture of Art Nouveau and Beaux-Arts architecture: the main exhibit hall, the Grand Palais, had a Beaux-Arts façade entirely unrelated to the spectacular Art Nouveau stairway and exhibit hall in the interior.

French designers all did terrific works for the exhibition:

At the 1900 Paris Exposition, Siegfried Bing presented a pavilion called Art Nouveau Bing, which featured six different interiors entirely decorated in the Style.

The Exposition was the first international showcase for Art Nouveau designers and artists from Europe. Prize winners and participants included:

The Viennese architect Otto Wagner was a member of the jury. He presented a model of the Art Nouveau bathroom of his town apartment in Vienna, featuring a glass bathtub. Josef Hoffmann designed the Viennese exhibit at the Paris exposition, highlighting the designs of the Vienna Secession. Eliel Saarinen first won international recognition for his imaginative structure of the pavilion of Finland.

While the Paris Exposition was 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 modern 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.

 

Following the 1900 Exposition, the capital of Art Nouveau was Paris. Most luxury residences in the Style were built by Jules Lavirotte, who entirely covered the façades with ceramic sculptural decoration. The most striking example is the Lavirotte Building at 29 avenue Rapp (1901). Office buildings and department stores featured high courtyards covered with stained glass domes and ceramic decoration. The Style was trendy in restaurants and cafés, including Maxim's at 3, rue Royale, and Le Train Bleu at the Gare de Lyon (1900).

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. 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 signs 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 significant 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 color lithographs made the Style known to designers and wealthy clients worldwide.

In France, the Style reached its summit in 1900 and after that slipped rapidly out of fashion, virtually disappearing from France by 1905. Art Nouveau was a luxury style, which required expert and highly-paid artisans, and could not be quickly 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

Belgium was an early center of Art Nouveau, thanks mainly to the architecture of Victor Horta. He 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. 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.

Paul Hankar was another pioneer of Brussels' Art Nouveau. His house was completed in 1903, 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. 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. Hankar died in 1901 when his work was just receiving recognition.

Gustave Strauven was Horta's assistant before starting his practice at age 21. His most famous work is the Maison Saint Cyr on Ambiorix Square in Brussels. It is decorated from top to bottom with curving ornament just four meters wide in a virtually Art Nouveau-Baroque style.

Other influential Art Nouveau artists from Belgium included the architect and designer Henry van de Velde, though the most critical 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. 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 were famous.

 

Nieuwe Kunst in the Netherlands

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. 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 influential 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, recognize the lie, and find the essence and not the illusion." Like Victor Horta and Gaudí, he was an admirer of the architectural theories of Viollet-le-Duc. 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 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 main room's walls. He often included very tall towers in his buildings to make them more prominent, a practice used by other Art Nouveau architects, including Joseph Maria Olbrich in Vienna and Eliel Saarinen in Finland.

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.

Important figures in Dutch ceramics and porcelain included Jurriaan Kok and Theo Colenbrander. They used colorful floral patterns 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.

 

Modern Style and Glasgow School in Britain

Art Nouveau had its roots in Britain, in the Arts and Crafts movement, which started in the 1860s and reached international recognition by the 1880s. It called for better treatment of decorative arts and took inspiration from medieval craftsmanship, design, and nature. 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.

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.

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

For Art Nouveau architecture and furniture design, the most critical center 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. 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 significant reputation as a furniture designer and decorator, working closely with his wife, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, a prominent painter and designer. They created striking designs that combined geometric straight lines with gently curving floral decoration, particularly a famous symbol of the Style, the Glasgow Rose".

Léon-Victor Solon contributed to Art Nouveau ceramics as an art director at Minton's. He specialized in plaques and tube-lined vases marketed as "secessionist ware" (usually named after the Viennese art movement). Apart from ceramics, he designed textiles for the Leek silk industry 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 Johannes Gutenberg and William Morris, eminent in printing. A winged figure symbolizes the "Spirit of Light," while a figure holding a lamp and mirror symbolizes light and truth.

 

Jugendstil in Germany

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 he died in 1916. The magazine survived until 1940. During the early 20th century, Jugendstil was applied only to the graphic arts. It referred primarily 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 and 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).

In 1892 Georg Hirth chose the name Munich Secession for the Association of Visual Artists of Munich. The Vienna Secession, founded in 1897, 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 influential 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's typeface in 1904.

Otto Eckmann was one of the most prominent German artists associated with Die Jugend and Pan. His favorite animal was the swan, and so significant 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. 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 the Grand Duke's house and the largest structure of the colony (The wedding tower) was Joseph Maria Olbrich, one of the Vienna Secession founders. Other notable artists of the settlement were Peter Behrens and Hans Christiansen. Ernest Ludwig also commissioned to rebuild the spa complex in Bad Nauheim at the beginning of the 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. Another member of the reigning family who commissioned an Art Nouveau structure was Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by the Rhine. She founded Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in Moscow in 1908, and its katholikon is recognized as an Art Nouveau masterpiece.

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. 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.

In Berlin, Jugendstil was chosen for the construction of several railway stations. The most notable 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 effects from Darmstadt, and Vienna, to operate a local synthesis that reflected the history of the city between the Germanic and the French realms.

 

Secession in Austria–Hungary

Vienna became the center of a distinct variant of Art Nouveau, 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: Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Max Kurzweil, Ernst Stöhr, and others. 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. 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 included magazine illustrations, architecture, silverware, ceramics, porcelain, textiles, stained glass windows, and furniture.

 

The most prominent architect of the Vienna Secession was Otto Wagner; 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. Still, the sleek, modern gold and white interior are lit by an 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 artisans of furniture, carpets, textiles, and decorative objects. 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. 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), announcing the coming of modernist architecture. It was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in June 2009.

 

The pioneer and prophet of the Szecesszió (Secession in Hungarian), the architect Ödön Lechner, created buildings that marked a transition from historicism to modernism for Hungarian architecture. 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. This material was used to construct notable Hungarian buildings of other styles, e.g., the Hungarian Parliament Building and Matthias Church.

Works by Ödön Lechner[85] include the Museum of Applied Arts (1893–1896); other buildings 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 the Hungarian architectural establishment to Lechner's success, he soon could not get new commissions comparable to his earlier buildings. But Lechner was an inspiration and a master to the following generation of architects who played the primary role in popularising the new Style. Within the process of Magyarization, numerous buildings were commissioned to his disciples on the 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 built the Blue Church in Pozsony (present-day Bratislava, Slovakia) in 1909–1913.

Another influential architect was Károly Kós, 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. 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).

 

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

An associate of Gödöllő Art Colony, 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 famous traditional architecture, oriental architecture, and international Art Nouveau in a flamboyant 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.

 

The most prolific Slovenian Art Nouveau architect was Ciril Metod Koch. He studied at Otto Wagner's classes in Vienna and worked in the Laibach (now Ljubljana, Slovenia) City Council from 1894 to 1923. After the earthquake in Laybach in 1895, he designed many secular buildings in the Secession style that he adopted from 1900 to 1910: 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.

Prague's most notable Secession buildings are examples of total art with distinctive architecture, sculpture, and paintings. The central 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), and 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 the spa in Luhačovice (now the 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).

 

Art Nouveau in Romania

The Constanța Casino is probably the most famous example of Art Nouveau in Romania. The Casino, Kurhaus, or Kursaal theme is specific to the Belle Époque. The author of the casino, which started in 1905 and finished in 1910, is the architect Daniel Renard, who studied in Paris between 1894 and 1900. He signed both the architectural and decoration plans of the casino. Specific to Art Nouveau is the embossed ornamentation of the facades, either with naturalistic floral motifs, such as those of the School of Nancy, or motifs inspired by marine fauna, such as shells and dolphins. One of the Art Nouveau houses of Bucharest is the Dinu Lipatti House (no. 12, Lascăr Catargiu Boulevard) by Petre Antonescu, its central motif being the entrance arch, above which there is a female mascaron in high relief. Among the examples of Art Nouveau architecture in Bucharest are townhouses, which sometimes have only horseshoe-shaped windows or other forms or ornaments specific to Art Nouveau.

An example is the Romulus Porescu House (no. 12, Doctor Paleologu Street), which also has Egyptian Revival stained glass windows on the corner windows. Some of the Baroque Revival buildings in Bucharest have Art Nouveau or neorocaille influences, among them the Bucharest Observatory (no. 21, Lascăr Catargiu Boulevard), house no. 58 on Sfinții Voievozi Street, the Mița the Cyclist House (no. 9, Biserica Amzei Street, or no. 11, Christian Tell Street) and the Cantacuzino Palace (no. 141, Victory Avenue). The Romanian Revival style includes Art Nouveau elements present in architecture, furniture, and graphic design.

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

Transylvania has examples of 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," but also in Timișoara, Târgu Mureș, and Sibiu.

 

Stile Liberty in Italy

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 specialized in importing ornaments, textiles, and art objects from Japan and the Far East and whose colorful textiles which were particularly popular in Italy. Notable Italian designers in the Style included Galileo Chini, whose ceramics were often inspired 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.

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).

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

The most crucial figure in Liberty style design was Carlo Bugatti, the son of an architect and decorator, father of Rembrandt Bugatti, Liberty sculptor, and 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, including silverware, textiles, ceramics, and musical instruments. Still, 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.

 

Modernism in Spain

A highly original variant of the Style emerged in Barcelona, Catalonia when 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 novel way in Palau Güell (1886–1890). According to UNESCO, "the park's architecture combined elements from the Arts and Crafts movement, Symbolism, Expressionism, and Rationalism, and presaged and influenced many forms and techniques of 20th-century Modernism." [107][108][109] He integrated crafts such 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), are most closely related to the stylistic elements of Art Nouveau. Later structures such as Sagrada Família combined Art Nouveau elements with revivalist Neo-Gothic. 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).[110] The two latter buildings have been listed by UNESCO as World Cultural Heritage.[111]

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

The Modernisme movement left a broad art heritage, including drawings, paintings, sculptures, glass and metalwork, 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). 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 promote the movement through his posters and postcards. For the café, he created a picture called Ramon Casas and Pere Romeu on a Tandem that was replaced with 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 Battle House. He influenced another notable Catalan furniture designer, Gaspar Homar [ca] (1870–1953), who often combined marquetry and mosaics with his furnishings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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