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chibirhmSo a few of you shamelessly encouraged me to discuss Art Nouveau. I don't think you guys even knew what you were getting into. I love Art Nouveau. It's quite easily the single greatest influence on my art and general aesthetic... ever. And because I'm me, I couldn't just be like OH HERE ARE SOME PRETTY PICTURES. No. This is a ~learning moment~. And by moment, I mean, "this took me a fucking week and a half to do". SO YOU BETTER APPRECIATE IT. ALSO WTF THIS WAS SO TIRING I AM NEVER DOING THIS EVER AGAIN.
I should disclaim, before I start, that I am not an art historian. I have never taken an Art History class in my life. (Or, well, I tried a class once to see if I'd sign up, but dropped it pretty quickly after falling asleep in ten minutes flat, which is a new record, especially since I wasn't even tired.) Everything I know about this stuff I learned from days upon days of reading Wikipedia and educational websites. Cause that's how I roll/spend my leisure hours. Yup. I'm awesome.
ART NOUVEAU 101
(Or: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Art Nouveau But Didn't Know To Ask Because No One Ever Told You How Awesome It Was)
Part One: Art Nou-What The Fuck?
Chances are, you are asking yourself right now "what the fuck is Art Nouveau?" This is a very valid question. The answer is:
By Alphonse Mucha
That, at least superficially, is your answer. Of course, it's actually more complicated than that.
A Brief History of Art Nouveau
Let's take a trip back in time. It's the almost the turn of the century in Europe, and a lot is changing. The art world is slowly shifting from the dreamy Impressionists to the bright colors and bold shapes of the Post-Impressionists. The world is in the heyday of the Industrial Revolution. Capitalism is rampant. The middle class is growing. More and more people have access to education and therefore, the arts. More and more people are starting to have a little bit of money to spend on frivolity and luxury. Travel is now more possible than ever, which means ideas are now coming in from all over the world. And in Europe, there are a bunch of dudes attempting to take advantage of this by doing what old white dudes have done for centuries: sell shit for profit. Enter a hot young lithographer by the name of Alphonse Mucha.
Alphonse Mucha was a beast. He did one commission - a poster for Sarah Bernhardt in Gismonda, and that alone started a frenzy. No one had ever seen anything like what this guy did. Art, before this time, was very... art-y. Mucha's work was graphic. It was accessible. I mean, think about it. Monet's great and all, but can you imagine using his paintings of water lilies to get people to see a play? No. And thus, graphic design was born.
The thing about Art Nouveau that makes it so amazing is that it's just so different from everything that came before it. It didn't really spring up out of one place or in reaction to one movement. And it wasn't contained in the art world. It was an aesthetic that dominated every bit of European culture for nearly twenty years before it was kicked to the curb by Art Deco (which drew heavily from Art Nouveau, though went for more industrial, clean lines). It was the idea that there wasn't a line between the normal, unwashed masses and those who could appreciate art. Art belonged to everyone. Art was for everyone. Art was everywhere.
Most Art Nouveau is in the form of lithographs and/or woodcuts because they could be reproduced en masse. But like I said, Art Nouveau was everywhere, influencing jewelery, pottery, and all those pretty little things that are collectively referred to as objects d'art because art historians are usually French and also, pretentious bastards. (If you want to see good examples of this, check out the work of René Lalique. I'm not a huge fan of his stuff - it's too ornate and leans too into Art Deco for my tastes, but he was a pretty gifted dude. I personally prefer Louis Aucoc, but he wasn't nearly as famous.) Art Nouveau is, in fact, in your life, and you have no idea. For example, if you've ever been to Paris, you've probably seen this:
That's a design by Art Nouveau architect Hector Guimard. I wanted to do more examples of Art Nouveau architecture, because its pretty, but it's something that's hard to find pictures of - it sort of has to be experienced, I think. But this wrought-iron natural curviness stuff? You see it all over Europe. (I believe the Galsgow School of Design was made in the Art Nouveau style?) If you're really into Art Nouveau architechture, you should check out Victor Horta. He was a Belgian designer who went totally nuts in the 1890's. His most famous work is a building called the Hôtel Tassel in Brussels. I'm not sure what it was originally for, but it now hosts a museum dedicated to him. And it is abso-effing-loutely gorgeous.
I believe that experts refer to this as "the bomb diggity".
But if, like me, you're American and not much into travel, there's a really easy way to go see some Art Nouveau influence - look at a lamp. More specifically, look at a Tiffany lamp:
These were made by a company full of glassworkers and Art Nouveau enthusiasts run by a guy named Louis Comfort Tiffany. He did not found the jewelry company you are thinking of. But he did make art as home decor something that was suddenly accessible to the growing population of upper middle class. (And, eventually, middle class - his original work is hella expensive, but the more watered-down versions his company made and he didn't make personally you've probably seen in a house or five.) He also did a lot of really gorgeous stained glass work all over the east coast of the USA, but he's most famous for his totally kickass lamps.
However, if you are looking at Art Nouveau, 99% of the time that will mean you are looking at some sort of print. How do you know if a picture is Art Nouveau? Allow me to break it down for you.
Art Nouveau in the Wild: How To Identify The Wandering Beast
Here is the basic breakdown of Art Nouveau. Note that, like all art movements, there are artists that more literally adhere to it and artists that don't. We'll explore the bounds of that later. To count something as Art Nouveau I'd say you need about 75% of these markers to be checked off:
ONE: Look for copious use of the French curve. You'll learn to recognize that curve from a mile away. And that's not the only curve. See how there are almost no straight lines in this piece? That's extremely typical and pretty much what separates Art Nouveau from Art Deco. Art Deco loves straight lines. Art Nouveau is all about the strong, sinuous black lines.
TWO: You almost never see dudes in Art Nouveau. Pretty ladies sold stuff. Thus, almost all Art Nouveau focuses on a sexy lady. It's extremely rare, in Art Nouveau, for there to be more than one person to focus on. It's usually one sexy lady wearing something decadent, diaphanous, and/or see-through(if she's wearing anything at all).
THREE: And here is where Art Nouveau was considered utterly scandalous - there's no background. It's all abstractions. This, to people in the 1890's, was shocking. A PERSON IN AN ABSTRACT SPACE!?!?!? THERE MAY AS WELL BE ANARCHY. Granted, this is very structured, geometric abstractions, but they are abstractions nonetheless. And I'd say this abstract background happens in about 75% of Art Nouveau pieces. There are times when the setting of a place will be somewhere natural, like a garden, but it's usually not a fully-realized space.
Now, the abstractions are where you really get to see the main influences of Art Nouveau, which is pretty much one part classic European designs, one part Japanese influence. The Japanese stuff we'll get into in the next point, because it's a little harder to see. But the European stuff is pretty easy to spot. There's the circle drawn around the subject in a halo (or "solar disc" if you're an art nerd), and a lot of the motifs are pretty much directly taken from medieval illuminated manuscripts:
Shit don't change too fast in Europe.
FOUR: Around the time Art Nouveau was happening, there was a big wave of this movement called Japonisme. Which I'm using the French of because in English the word "Japonism" just sounds so effing clunky. But basically, everyone was super-fascinated with Japan, which was just opening their doors to the West, and the Art Nouveau guys were like the very first Weeaboos. A lot of Art Nouveau was lifted directly from the thriving world of Japanese printmaking. Observe:
Print by Katsuka Hokusai
Kanji of Gion Holding a Fan by Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Two Portraits by Toyohara Chikanobu
Now, obviously, I've purposefully selected prints that more blatantly reference Art Nouveau, but you see the similarities, right? The flat, abstract backgrounds, the focus on nature, the strong, curved lines, and most importantly, the color?
Because color is super important in Art Nouveau. In fact, I have drawn up an approximate color chart of all the colors you will ever see in an Art Nouveau print:
Art Nouveau focuses heavily on warm colors, with cool tones only used to highlight or accent. Particularly, Art Nouveau artists loved yellow. Loved it in every shade. On top of that, you'll notice that none of these colors are super-saturated. They all look faded and dusty. When you add warm colors + lack of saturation, you get this very romantic, nostalgic, dreamy sort of feel to your piece, which was not only very referential to Japanese prints (which are all done on yellowed paper with no stark whites, similar to Art Nouveau), but was exactly the mood these artists were going for. Thy wanted to create a sort of fantastical place in their work. They wanted their posters to beckon to you and say "buy what I am selling! If you do, I will take you to the sun-drenched world where everything is encrusted in jewels and the sun shines like gold and hot ladies are half-naked everywhere and you can run your fingers through their long, luscious hair!"
Isn't it nice to know advertising's changed so much in the last, oh, 125 years?
So that, my friends, is Art Nouveau in a nutshell. Congratulations! You are now able to identify it, which means we can get to the fun part: looking at actual pieces.
Part Two: Looking At Art Nouveau
Part One: Strictly Art Nouveau
There are two types of artists who are considered Art Nouveau - there are the guys who are the dictionary definition, and there are the guys who were contemporaries and certainly heavily influenced by Art Nouveau, but were also influenced by a lot of other stuff and did their own thing. These guys are the first category. They check off almost everything on the "Is It Art Nouveau?" checklist.
Alphonse Mucha
If you're gonna talk about Art Nouveau, you're going to have to start with Alphonse Mucha. This guy is Art Nouveau. He created it. He's the boss. Everyone after him was basically measured against his sheer, overpowering awesome.
The Four Seasons Series
Lorenzaccio
Monaco Monte Carlo
Byzantine Heads
Dance
The Evening Series
Zodiac
The Precious Stones Series
Moët & Chandon Crémant Impérial
Job Cigarettes
Thistle from the Sands and Heather from Clover Cliffs
Flirt
Henri Privat-Livemont
One of Mucha's most dedicated copycats was Henri Privat-Livemont. Besides having lots of images, the internet doesn't have much to say about him other than the fact that he almost entirely created art for advertisements. So I'm just going to assume he was a really boring person who made really pretty artwork. Also, that art historians are, much like many in the fine art world, snobs who think that the only legitimate art is that which is completely commercially useless. (Don't even get me started on how in the art community the words "illustrator" or "designer" are dirty words. DO NOT EVEN GET ME STARTED. The point is this guy clearly shows that fine art can be created for all sorts of purposes.)
Paul Emile Berthon
Berthon is another artist who no one has much to say about, probably because he made such minor contributions to Art Nouveau, but I wanted to include him because I think he's really, really good at illustrating how much influence Art Nouveau has had on art through the years. So, if you're like me and grew up with hippie parents, you might have seen the artwork of Mary Azarian, or your parents might own a very famous book of (folky) songs for guitar called Rise Up Singing, which was put together by a bunch of people, including Pete Seeger, and illustrated by an artist named Kore Loy Whirter, whose only artwork seems to be that book. The point is, both of these people were heavily, heavily influenced by Art Nouveau, which had a large resurgence of popularity in the late sixties. I actually thought that Berthon's work was some sort of seventies revival Art Nouveau, but no, he was a contemporary of Mucha, and a pretty illustrative link between Art Nouveau then and how it's still influential today.
Sainte Marie des Fleurs
L'Ermitage
Leçons de Violon
Eugène Grasset
Yet another boring guy with pretty artwork.
Aubery Beardsley
So I'm not a fan of Aubery Beardsley. He's just not my thing. But this guy was a huge deal. He was the illustration side of the Art Nouveau movement. The super mega creepy side. He also didn't use color almost ever, which is a downgrade in my book. But you know what, he's popular, and I have to give him his props for that.
The Peacock Skirt
Section Two: Kinda-Sorta Art Nouveau
The Post-Impressionists: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Théophile Steinlen
While Art Nouveau was going on in the more commercial art world, the finer art world was deeply in the throes of Post-Impressionism. And usually, these two movements, while they respected each other, were pretty disperate. Art Nouveau stressed classicism and realism. Well, not when it came to their backgrounds, but you'll notice the figures and the flowers tend to be highly realistic. Post-Impressionism was all about color and shape and movement. Where the palette of Art Nouveau was dreamy, the Post-Impressionist palette was dreamy only if you were severely drugged. Both liked red and yellow, but Art Nouveau liked the softer shades, whereas in Post-Impressionism the more blaringly red and yellow you could make something, the better it was.
Post-Impressionists, however, had to make a buck so they could eat and put a roof over their heads. (Or, in Tolouse-Lautrec's case, he needed it for absinthe and hookers.) And for that, they turned to poster and advertising design, which was a realm entirely dominated Art Nouveau. The two most famous to do so were the aforementioned Toulouse-Lautrec (whose work I don't care for but is a highly entertaining and tragic figure who is worth reading the wikipedia page of) and Steinlen, who designed the extremely famous Chat Noir poster below on the left. Both retained their Post-Impressionist abstraction, shapes that gave a sense of movement, and extremely strict color palette of red and yellow that bordered on garish, but paid extremely healthy homage to their Art Nouveau buddies, which is why they're two people who are considered major artists in both movements.
The Special Snowflake: Georges de Feure
This guy... oh, de Feure. He was just an independent spirit. He never went to art school, as he considered it pointless. And he never really settled down in one style (he's got some Symbolist stuff, some Post-Impressionist stuff, some Art Nouveau, some what the fuck is that style anyways) or one medium. He painted in oils, gauche, and watercolors. He did prints. He was a set designer for theater. He made furniture. He worked for newspapers. He couldn't keep mistresses or money, let alone one style of artwork. When he did do Art Nouveau it was very pretty, but there isn't a whole lot of his work to find, and while a lot of it fits the Art Nouveau style, I say "fits" in the loosest sense of the word, since it fits a whole lot of other styles too.
Oh well, there's one of these in every group. Look at his work - you'll see what I mean. It's all clearly done by the same guy, but the guy in question is one who gets bored really, really easily.
Color Study
Swan Lake
The Voice of Evil
Art Nouveau Women Examining Flowers Series
The Vienna Secessionist: Gustav Klimt
Before there were hippies, before there were communes, the art world had roughly the same thing - The Vienna Secession. They rejected "the man" (aka, the conservative main art gallery in Vienna, the Künstlerhaus). They were all "you know what, we'll start our own club of ~free spirits~". And they did! Of course, their club, unlike other clubs, was defined by the utter lack of cohesiveness. They were all close and supportive of each other, and none of them had anything in common. They were united in their uniqueness.
Gustav Klimt is both the most famous of the Secessionists and also considered to be an Art Nouveau artist, which is fucking ridiculous. Clearly, he was influenced by Art Nouveau (namely, the abstract backgrounds and sinuous lines), but he clung to his autonomy, and it worked for him. He did do some Art Nouveau posters that are almost impossible to find online because they're awful. He's famous for his other stuff, and for good reason. We'll end on him because he's probably the best bridge that exists between the classicism of Art Nouveau and the abstract eras that were about to follow.
Also because I love him. And his love for redheads.
Water Serpents II
Nuda Veritas
Danae
Judith I
Judith II
Adele Bloch-Bauer
The Kiss
I should disclaim, before I start, that I am not an art historian. I have never taken an Art History class in my life. (Or, well, I tried a class once to see if I'd sign up, but dropped it pretty quickly after falling asleep in ten minutes flat, which is a new record, especially since I wasn't even tired.) Everything I know about this stuff I learned from days upon days of reading Wikipedia and educational websites. Cause that's how I roll/spend my leisure hours. Yup. I'm awesome.
(Or: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Art Nouveau But Didn't Know To Ask Because No One Ever Told You How Awesome It Was)
Chances are, you are asking yourself right now "what the fuck is Art Nouveau?" This is a very valid question. The answer is:
By Alphonse Mucha
That, at least superficially, is your answer. Of course, it's actually more complicated than that.
Let's take a trip back in time. It's the almost the turn of the century in Europe, and a lot is changing. The art world is slowly shifting from the dreamy Impressionists to the bright colors and bold shapes of the Post-Impressionists. The world is in the heyday of the Industrial Revolution. Capitalism is rampant. The middle class is growing. More and more people have access to education and therefore, the arts. More and more people are starting to have a little bit of money to spend on frivolity and luxury. Travel is now more possible than ever, which means ideas are now coming in from all over the world. And in Europe, there are a bunch of dudes attempting to take advantage of this by doing what old white dudes have done for centuries: sell shit for profit. Enter a hot young lithographer by the name of Alphonse Mucha.
Alphonse Mucha was a beast. He did one commission - a poster for Sarah Bernhardt in Gismonda, and that alone started a frenzy. No one had ever seen anything like what this guy did. Art, before this time, was very... art-y. Mucha's work was graphic. It was accessible. I mean, think about it. Monet's great and all, but can you imagine using his paintings of water lilies to get people to see a play? No. And thus, graphic design was born.
The thing about Art Nouveau that makes it so amazing is that it's just so different from everything that came before it. It didn't really spring up out of one place or in reaction to one movement. And it wasn't contained in the art world. It was an aesthetic that dominated every bit of European culture for nearly twenty years before it was kicked to the curb by Art Deco (which drew heavily from Art Nouveau, though went for more industrial, clean lines). It was the idea that there wasn't a line between the normal, unwashed masses and those who could appreciate art. Art belonged to everyone. Art was for everyone. Art was everywhere.
Most Art Nouveau is in the form of lithographs and/or woodcuts because they could be reproduced en masse. But like I said, Art Nouveau was everywhere, influencing jewelery, pottery, and all those pretty little things that are collectively referred to as objects d'art because art historians are usually French and also, pretentious bastards. (If you want to see good examples of this, check out the work of René Lalique. I'm not a huge fan of his stuff - it's too ornate and leans too into Art Deco for my tastes, but he was a pretty gifted dude. I personally prefer Louis Aucoc, but he wasn't nearly as famous.) Art Nouveau is, in fact, in your life, and you have no idea. For example, if you've ever been to Paris, you've probably seen this:
That's a design by Art Nouveau architect Hector Guimard. I wanted to do more examples of Art Nouveau architecture, because its pretty, but it's something that's hard to find pictures of - it sort of has to be experienced, I think. But this wrought-iron natural curviness stuff? You see it all over Europe. (I believe the Galsgow School of Design was made in the Art Nouveau style?) If you're really into Art Nouveau architechture, you should check out Victor Horta. He was a Belgian designer who went totally nuts in the 1890's. His most famous work is a building called the Hôtel Tassel in Brussels. I'm not sure what it was originally for, but it now hosts a museum dedicated to him. And it is abso-effing-loutely gorgeous.
I believe that experts refer to this as "the bomb diggity".
But if, like me, you're American and not much into travel, there's a really easy way to go see some Art Nouveau influence - look at a lamp. More specifically, look at a Tiffany lamp:
These were made by a company full of glassworkers and Art Nouveau enthusiasts run by a guy named Louis Comfort Tiffany. He did not found the jewelry company you are thinking of. But he did make art as home decor something that was suddenly accessible to the growing population of upper middle class. (And, eventually, middle class - his original work is hella expensive, but the more watered-down versions his company made and he didn't make personally you've probably seen in a house or five.) He also did a lot of really gorgeous stained glass work all over the east coast of the USA, but he's most famous for his totally kickass lamps.
However, if you are looking at Art Nouveau, 99% of the time that will mean you are looking at some sort of print. How do you know if a picture is Art Nouveau? Allow me to break it down for you.
Here is the basic breakdown of Art Nouveau. Note that, like all art movements, there are artists that more literally adhere to it and artists that don't. We'll explore the bounds of that later. To count something as Art Nouveau I'd say you need about 75% of these markers to be checked off:
ONE: Look for copious use of the French curve. You'll learn to recognize that curve from a mile away. And that's not the only curve. See how there are almost no straight lines in this piece? That's extremely typical and pretty much what separates Art Nouveau from Art Deco. Art Deco loves straight lines. Art Nouveau is all about the strong, sinuous black lines.
TWO: You almost never see dudes in Art Nouveau. Pretty ladies sold stuff. Thus, almost all Art Nouveau focuses on a sexy lady. It's extremely rare, in Art Nouveau, for there to be more than one person to focus on. It's usually one sexy lady wearing something decadent, diaphanous, and/or see-through(if she's wearing anything at all).
THREE: And here is where Art Nouveau was considered utterly scandalous - there's no background. It's all abstractions. This, to people in the 1890's, was shocking. A PERSON IN AN ABSTRACT SPACE!?!?!? THERE MAY AS WELL BE ANARCHY. Granted, this is very structured, geometric abstractions, but they are abstractions nonetheless. And I'd say this abstract background happens in about 75% of Art Nouveau pieces. There are times when the setting of a place will be somewhere natural, like a garden, but it's usually not a fully-realized space.
Now, the abstractions are where you really get to see the main influences of Art Nouveau, which is pretty much one part classic European designs, one part Japanese influence. The Japanese stuff we'll get into in the next point, because it's a little harder to see. But the European stuff is pretty easy to spot. There's the circle drawn around the subject in a halo (or "solar disc" if you're an art nerd), and a lot of the motifs are pretty much directly taken from medieval illuminated manuscripts:
Shit don't change too fast in Europe.
FOUR: Around the time Art Nouveau was happening, there was a big wave of this movement called Japonisme. Which I'm using the French of because in English the word "Japonism" just sounds so effing clunky. But basically, everyone was super-fascinated with Japan, which was just opening their doors to the West, and the Art Nouveau guys were like the very first Weeaboos. A lot of Art Nouveau was lifted directly from the thriving world of Japanese printmaking. Observe:
Print by Katsuka Hokusai
Kanji of Gion Holding a Fan by Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Two Portraits by Toyohara Chikanobu
Now, obviously, I've purposefully selected prints that more blatantly reference Art Nouveau, but you see the similarities, right? The flat, abstract backgrounds, the focus on nature, the strong, curved lines, and most importantly, the color?
Because color is super important in Art Nouveau. In fact, I have drawn up an approximate color chart of all the colors you will ever see in an Art Nouveau print:
Art Nouveau focuses heavily on warm colors, with cool tones only used to highlight or accent. Particularly, Art Nouveau artists loved yellow. Loved it in every shade. On top of that, you'll notice that none of these colors are super-saturated. They all look faded and dusty. When you add warm colors + lack of saturation, you get this very romantic, nostalgic, dreamy sort of feel to your piece, which was not only very referential to Japanese prints (which are all done on yellowed paper with no stark whites, similar to Art Nouveau), but was exactly the mood these artists were going for. Thy wanted to create a sort of fantastical place in their work. They wanted their posters to beckon to you and say "buy what I am selling! If you do, I will take you to the sun-drenched world where everything is encrusted in jewels and the sun shines like gold and hot ladies are half-naked everywhere and you can run your fingers through their long, luscious hair!"
Isn't it nice to know advertising's changed so much in the last, oh, 125 years?
So that, my friends, is Art Nouveau in a nutshell. Congratulations! You are now able to identify it, which means we can get to the fun part: looking at actual pieces.
There are two types of artists who are considered Art Nouveau - there are the guys who are the dictionary definition, and there are the guys who were contemporaries and certainly heavily influenced by Art Nouveau, but were also influenced by a lot of other stuff and did their own thing. These guys are the first category. They check off almost everything on the "Is It Art Nouveau?" checklist.
If you're gonna talk about Art Nouveau, you're going to have to start with Alphonse Mucha. This guy is Art Nouveau. He created it. He's the boss. Everyone after him was basically measured against his sheer, overpowering awesome.
The Four Seasons Series
Lorenzaccio
Monaco Monte Carlo
Byzantine Heads
Dance
The Evening Series
Zodiac
The Precious Stones Series
Moët & Chandon Crémant Impérial
Job Cigarettes
Thistle from the Sands and Heather from Clover Cliffs
Flirt
One of Mucha's most dedicated copycats was Henri Privat-Livemont. Besides having lots of images, the internet doesn't have much to say about him other than the fact that he almost entirely created art for advertisements. So I'm just going to assume he was a really boring person who made really pretty artwork. Also, that art historians are, much like many in the fine art world, snobs who think that the only legitimate art is that which is completely commercially useless. (Don't even get me started on how in the art community the words "illustrator" or "designer" are dirty words. DO NOT EVEN GET ME STARTED. The point is this guy clearly shows that fine art can be created for all sorts of purposes.)
Berthon is another artist who no one has much to say about, probably because he made such minor contributions to Art Nouveau, but I wanted to include him because I think he's really, really good at illustrating how much influence Art Nouveau has had on art through the years. So, if you're like me and grew up with hippie parents, you might have seen the artwork of Mary Azarian, or your parents might own a very famous book of (folky) songs for guitar called Rise Up Singing, which was put together by a bunch of people, including Pete Seeger, and illustrated by an artist named Kore Loy Whirter, whose only artwork seems to be that book. The point is, both of these people were heavily, heavily influenced by Art Nouveau, which had a large resurgence of popularity in the late sixties. I actually thought that Berthon's work was some sort of seventies revival Art Nouveau, but no, he was a contemporary of Mucha, and a pretty illustrative link between Art Nouveau then and how it's still influential today.
Sainte Marie des Fleurs
L'Ermitage
Leçons de Violon
Yet another boring guy with pretty artwork.
So I'm not a fan of Aubery Beardsley. He's just not my thing. But this guy was a huge deal. He was the illustration side of the Art Nouveau movement. The super mega creepy side. He also didn't use color almost ever, which is a downgrade in my book. But you know what, he's popular, and I have to give him his props for that.
The Peacock Skirt
While Art Nouveau was going on in the more commercial art world, the finer art world was deeply in the throes of Post-Impressionism. And usually, these two movements, while they respected each other, were pretty disperate. Art Nouveau stressed classicism and realism. Well, not when it came to their backgrounds, but you'll notice the figures and the flowers tend to be highly realistic. Post-Impressionism was all about color and shape and movement. Where the palette of Art Nouveau was dreamy, the Post-Impressionist palette was dreamy only if you were severely drugged. Both liked red and yellow, but Art Nouveau liked the softer shades, whereas in Post-Impressionism the more blaringly red and yellow you could make something, the better it was.
Post-Impressionists, however, had to make a buck so they could eat and put a roof over their heads. (Or, in Tolouse-Lautrec's case, he needed it for absinthe and hookers.) And for that, they turned to poster and advertising design, which was a realm entirely dominated Art Nouveau. The two most famous to do so were the aforementioned Toulouse-Lautrec (whose work I don't care for but is a highly entertaining and tragic figure who is worth reading the wikipedia page of) and Steinlen, who designed the extremely famous Chat Noir poster below on the left. Both retained their Post-Impressionist abstraction, shapes that gave a sense of movement, and extremely strict color palette of red and yellow that bordered on garish, but paid extremely healthy homage to their Art Nouveau buddies, which is why they're two people who are considered major artists in both movements.
This guy... oh, de Feure. He was just an independent spirit. He never went to art school, as he considered it pointless. And he never really settled down in one style (he's got some Symbolist stuff, some Post-Impressionist stuff, some Art Nouveau, some what the fuck is that style anyways) or one medium. He painted in oils, gauche, and watercolors. He did prints. He was a set designer for theater. He made furniture. He worked for newspapers. He couldn't keep mistresses or money, let alone one style of artwork. When he did do Art Nouveau it was very pretty, but there isn't a whole lot of his work to find, and while a lot of it fits the Art Nouveau style, I say "fits" in the loosest sense of the word, since it fits a whole lot of other styles too.
Oh well, there's one of these in every group. Look at his work - you'll see what I mean. It's all clearly done by the same guy, but the guy in question is one who gets bored really, really easily.
Color Study
Swan Lake
The Voice of Evil
Art Nouveau Women Examining Flowers Series
Before there were hippies, before there were communes, the art world had roughly the same thing - The Vienna Secession. They rejected "the man" (aka, the conservative main art gallery in Vienna, the Künstlerhaus). They were all "you know what, we'll start our own club of ~free spirits~". And they did! Of course, their club, unlike other clubs, was defined by the utter lack of cohesiveness. They were all close and supportive of each other, and none of them had anything in common. They were united in their uniqueness.
Gustav Klimt is both the most famous of the Secessionists and also considered to be an Art Nouveau artist, which is fucking ridiculous. Clearly, he was influenced by Art Nouveau (namely, the abstract backgrounds and sinuous lines), but he clung to his autonomy, and it worked for him. He did do some Art Nouveau posters that are almost impossible to find online because they're awful. He's famous for his other stuff, and for good reason. We'll end on him because he's probably the best bridge that exists between the classicism of Art Nouveau and the abstract eras that were about to follow.
Also because I love him. And his love for redheads.
Water Serpents II
Nuda Veritas
Danae
Judith I
Judith II
Adele Bloch-Bauer
The Kiss
