Art Nouveau
Introduction to Art Nouveau
• Art Nouveau translates as ‘New Art’ in French.
• It began in the late 1880’s.
• It began in Britain before spreading to Europe and America.
• The name came from a Parisian shop owned by Samuel Bing –
‘La Maison de l’Art Nouveau’.
• The shop imported Japanese art and sold the work of
contemporary designers and sculptors.
• It was not a formal movement at the time – it is only with
hindsight that links and common characteristics can be
established.
• The movement introduced the idea of ‘Total Art’ in its
architecture –designing everything in the same style.
Art Nouveau Influences
• The distinctive Art Nouveau style took its inspiration from a
variety of sources – nature, early Celtic art and Japanese art.
• Common motifs were flowers, stems, leaves, serpents and
dragonflies.
• Celtic art influenced with its twisting and curving decoration.
• Japanese art influenced with its emphasis on decorative line,
creating flat patterned work with a delicate balance between
decoration and plain background.
• “…not mere first-hand copying of nature, but an independent
world of imaginative creation where Nature supplied only the
raw material.” Masini, p.58
Japanese Art
• ‘The Great Wave’
• Hokusai
• Decorative line
• Flat colour
• Sweeping curves
Celtic Art
• Typical example of
Celtic Art.
• Intricate.
• Interwoven lines.
• Natural forms.
• Mystical qualities.
Characteristics of Art Nouveau
• Art Nouveau designs are easily recognised by the designer’s
use of line – flowing, curving, twisting and elegant lines.
• The designers rejected the use of straight line and order in
favour of more natural movement.
• The same is true of 3D designs, except the term to use is form
rather than line.
• The natural influences used are either depicted realistically or
in abstracted shapes.
• ‘Abstracted’ means the designers stylized and exaggerated
natural forms.
• There is an emphasis on decorative pattern.
Art Nouveau Designers
• Alphonse Mucha – a French poster designer and architect,
• Antoni Gaudi – a Spanish architect,
• Rene Lalique – a French jeweller and glass designer,
• Charles Rennie Mackintosh – a Scottish architect and designer,
• Victor Horta – a Belgian architect,
• Hector Guimard – a French architect and designer.
• The leading designers of the movement were most commonly
architects, who branched out into designing their own
furniture for the interiors of their buildings. This
demonstrates the ‘Total Art’ concept of the movement.
HOTEL TASSEL
• The design had a groundbreaking semi open-plan floor layout for
a house of the time.
• It incorporated interior iron structure with curvilinear botanical
forms, later described as “biomorphic whiplash”.
• Ornate and elaborate designs and natural lighting were concealed
behind a stone façade to harmonize the building with the more
rigid houses next door.
• The building has since been recognized as the first appearance of
Art Nouveau in architecture.
• Use of sgraffito.
• Distribution house lies in two areas:
1. Access by the main staircase, which relates the lobby
(common area of the house) with two large bedrooms with
views over the street.
2. Garden side, served by a secondary staircase.
• A Living room, belonging to the second floor of the building, has a
higher elevation than the hall, so that we have an internal
dynamic space.
• Decoration of the walls and floor passes mosaics, stained glass,
rows of decorative forms.
• Horta made a break with the past here by using stone and the
modern material, metal, in domestic architecture.
• He created buildings of simple and sober structures, busy facades
with large windows and functional interior, the decor allied to
structural elements and dilated spaces using sets of mirrors and
paintings illusory.
• A large bay window extending
over two stories, dominates
the front facade.
• While the entrance is
shaded by the
classical overhanging
lintel with enormous
brackets, the rest of
the central bay is
glazed and features
the lightest and most
slender of metal
supports.
• The facade includes classical
elements like moldings and
columns but here some of
the columns are iron, not
stone, and the entablature is
metal, complete with
exposed rivets. The exposed
rivets seem part of the
decorative program.
• The bowing forward of the
entire central bay has
parallels with the linear
curves within. Apparently,
the interior is even more
striking in its use of linear
interior architecture as well
as curvilinear decoration on
walls, stairways, and floors.
The Entrance from Inside
• They all made use of wrought
iron in their work as it is very
versatile, appropriate for both
structural and decorative uses.
• This reception area makes good
use of the material.
• Horta has left the load-bearing
columns exposed, making them
become a decorative feature.
• This was a common trait in Art
Nouveau - making structural
features appear ornamental.
• Horta has echoed the curves in
the balustrading with the
curved stairs, tiled mosaic floor
and the painted wall designs.
• Again, this is the way Art
Nouveau designers worked -
creating a uniformity in the
interior.
Plan of the entrance of one of the
Room / Living Room
rooms, showing their mosaics
Detail of wall decoration
Level connected by stairs
“The effect is one of great decorative fantasy”
p.105, Masini text.
Horta’s works are recognizable by their-
• Open plan- Horta’s most works are based on narrow, linear
spaces. These spaces are very difficult to design in terms of
natural light and ventilation. So to overcome this difficulty, he had
to make the building plans open. This allowed free circulation
along the building, as the main staircase was placed centrally, and
later allowed the property to be sold in parts
• Three-dimensional articulation of space- Use of Mezzanines and
stairways centrally, creating common lobbys as a transition space.
• The diffusion of light- By mezzanines, filigree domes and glass
roofs along the main staircase. Also he incorporated mirrors as a
decorative feature which too helped in diffusion of light. Allowed
entry of natural light even in very narrow ad long buildings.
• The use of large areas of glass and the linear
iron supports allows for a delicate, almost
transparent approach.
• The brilliant joining of the curved lines of
decoration with the structure of the building.
• The use of wrought iron as a material for both
construction and decoration as it is versatile,
appropriate for both structural and decorative
uses .He also left load-bearing columns
exposed, making them become a decorative
feature.
• Horta has echoed the curves in the balustrading
with the curved stairs, tiled mosaic floor and
the painted wall designs- influence of
‘Biomorphism’, i.e., influenced by nature and
vegetation, and incorporated their curves
tendrils in his designs.
