Art Nouveau and Jugendstil
A new style for a new century: flowing lines, plants, insects and female figures, in glass, jewellery, posters and metro entrances.
Around 1890 artists and designers all over Europe wanted to free themselves from the historical styles. The result took different names: Art Nouveau in France and Belgium after Siegfried Bing's shop Maison de l'Art Nouveau in Paris, Jugendstil in Germany after the magazine Jugend, Secession style in Vienna, Stile Liberty in Italy, Modernisme in Catalonia – and jugend in Sweden.
What they shared was the line: the whiplash, the flowing curve that seemed to grow out of nature. Designers studied plants, insects and water, and Japanese prints gave them flat areas of colour and bold cropping. Everything was to be designed by the same hand – the house, the furniture, the lamps, the wallpapers and the cutlery.
In Nancy Émile Gallé and the Daum family made glass in several layers with etched plant motifs, and Louis Majorelle furniture with floral marquetry. René Lalique renewed jewellery with enamel, horn and glass instead of diamonds. The posters of Alfons Mucha and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec took art out onto the street.