Bring art to every household: the wonder of the Art Nouveau furniture
Bring art to every household: the wonder of the Art Nouveau furniture
Who wants their furniture at home boring?
The designers of the Art Nouveau furniture certainly didn’t.
When they first appeared at the end of the 19th century, they uproared our living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms. For a moment, the movement was omnipresent: in Paris, Brussels, Vienna, to London… to the other side of the Atlantic in the U.S. as well.
Distinctive for its sense of long and sinuous lines, Art Nouveau furniture added new flavors to interiors. Suddenly there were all these vivid, unfamiliar shapes and curls, composed in an organic and fashionable manner. Some pieces were embellished with elongated curing lines that would bend back on themselves or whiplash curves.
The linear quality and flattened spaces – European designers adopted that from Asian cultures such as the Japanese art movement.
Furniture set by Victor Horta in the Hôtel Aubeque in Brussels (1902-1904). It can now be seen at the Musée d’Orsay, Photo: Sailko, CC BY 3.0
One enthusiast who helped introduce Japanese styles and artworks to the West was German-French art dealer Siegfried Bing. The Maison de l’Art Nouveau gallery and shop which he opened in Paris in 1895, stirred artists across the country and also in neighboring Belgium. In these two countries in Europe, the ‘new art’ was more commonplace than anywhere else.
Desk and chair by Hector Guimard, 1909–12 at the Hector Guimard (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon), Photo: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, CC BY 2.0
Artists and creators of Art Nouveau furniture continually offered attention-grabbing pieces, just like Art Nouveau architects persistently rejuvenated public spaces with new building and facade solutions.
The Art Nouveau designation stood precisely for ‘new art.’ The movement, in general, aimed to accomplish a new style at the turn of the century: to set a new mode which meant abandoning any notion of old outdated styles that belonged to the dying 19th century.
Bench by Émile Gallé, 1902, Banquette aux ombelles (musée de l’Ecole de Nancy), Photo: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, CC BY 2.0
Chair, table, and mirror by Carlo Bugatti, at Art Institute of Chicago, Photo: Ed Bierman, CC BY 2.0
The Dawn and Dusk bed (Aube et Crépuscule) is a piece by Emile Gallé made in 1904. Dawn is mentioned at the foot of the bed by two winged pearly mayflies. Dusk is at the headboard with a landscape at night, Photo: Alexandre Prévot, CC BY-SA 2.0
Another purpose of the movement was to offer quality designs and craftsmanship.
Furniture manufacturers typically worked with the finest types of woods
such as oak, walnut, and teak. Metal and glass were also favorites,
combined and incorporated meticulously in the entire furniture
composition.
Woodwork for a dining room by Alexandre Charpentier between 1900 and 1901, Photo: Sailko, CC BY 3.0
Dining room by Eugène Vallin, France, (1903), Made out of Blond mahogany, Tooled leather, painted and gilded, Blown glass and cast bronze, Photo: Alexandre Prévot, CC BY-SA 2.0
However, some hopes and dreams of the Art Nouveau designers were unreal. As much as they wanted everyone to worship good craftsmanship in an age of growing mass-production, as much as they wanted to reignite art in every household, they never managed at entirely replacing other furniture styles.
First, working with super quality woods such as oak and walnut was costly. Then, producing a genuine piece of furniture with all its distinctive curved elements also required a lot of time and great knowledge. The style was simply unaffordable to go mainstream.
Chair by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, UK, (1897–1900), Musée d’Orsay, Photo: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, CC BY 2.0
Adjustable armchair, Model 670, Sitting Machine, designed by Josef Hoffmann, Jacob & Josef Kohn, Vienna, 1904-1906, beech, plywood, wood, brass- Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln – Cologne, Germany.
Wardrobe by Richard Riemerschmid, Germany (1902), at the Musée d’Orsay, Photo: Saliko, CC BY 3.0
Though the Art Nouveau was shortlived, it had a lasting effect. It is sometimes described as the first ‘modern style’ and it subsequently bolstered other art and design movements such as the Art Deco and Modernism.
Comments
Post a Comment