Jugendstil and Art Nouveau

Sinuous plant lines in glass, wrought iron and furniture – a style that sought to unite art and everyday life and leave historicism behind.

The style went by many names: Art Nouveau in Paris and Brussels, Jugendstil in Germany, Secession in Vienna, modernismo in Barcelona. What they shared was the desire to create a new style of their own instead of copying old ones.

Victor Horta in Brussels and Hector Guimard in Paris built houses and métro entrances with undulating iron. Émile Gallé and Louis Comfort Tiffany made glass resembling plants and insects, and René Lalique made jewellery of gold, enamel and glass.

In Glasgow and Vienna the style became more austere and geometric. Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed tall, narrow chairs, and the Wiener Werkstätte, founded in 1903 by Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser, designed everything from cutlery to entire houses.