Top left: Sarah Bernhardt by Alphonse Mucha (1896); Top Right:The Twins by Will H. Bradley for Chap Book magazine (1895); bottom left: Cover of Jugend by Otto Eckmann (1896); Bottom right: Vienna Secession Poster by Ferdinand Andri (1909)
Years active
1890–1914
Art Nouveau posters and graphic arts flourished and became an important vehicle of the style, thanks to the new technologies of color lithography and color printing, which allowed the creation of and distribution of the style to a vast audience in Europe, the United States and beyond. Art was no longer confined to art galleries, but could be seen on walls and illustrated magazines.
The Art Nouveau posters and illustrations almost always feature women, representing glamor, beauty and modernity. Images of men are extremely rare. Posters and illustrations are highly stylized. approaching two dimensions, and frequently are filled with flowers and other vegetal decoration. The major artists who created work in this domain included Aubrey Beardsley in Britain, The Czech Alphonse Mucha and Eugène Grasset, Jules Chéret, Georges de Feure and the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in France, Koloman Moser in Vienna, and Will H. Bradley in the United States.
Art Nouveau poster designers, especially in the earlier years, had to work with the early technology of lithography, which in early versions limited the number of colors they could use. They are also very much influenced by Japanese prints, especially those of Hiroshige, with their flat planes and two dimensions, which were being popularized expositions in Paris during this period.
Britain
The first appearance of the curving, sinuous forms that came to be called Art Nouveau is traditionally attributed to Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo (1851–1942) in 1883.[1] They were soon adapted by pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones and Aubrey Beardsley in the 1890s. They were following the advice of the art historian and critic John Ruskin, who urged artists to "go to nature" for their inspiration.[2]
In Britain, one of the first leading graphic artists in what became Art Nouveau style was Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898). He began with engraved book illustrations for Le Morte d'Arthur, then black and white illustrations for Salome by Oscar Wilde (1893), which brought him fame. In the same year, he began engraving illustrations and posters for the art magazine The Studio, which helped publicize European artists such as Fernand Khnopff in Britain. The curving lines and intricate floral patterns attracted as much attention as the text.[3]
First issue of The Studio, with cover by Aubrey Beardsley (1893)
France
The artist-designer Jules Chéret (1835–1932) was a notable early creator of French Art Nouveau posters. He helped turn the advertising poster into an art form. The son a family of artisans, he apprenticed with a lithographer and also studied at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs. Finding little work in Paris, he went to London, and designed furniture for a time, but then returned to Paris and had a great success in 1858 with a poster for Orpheus in the Underworld by Jacques Offenbach. He still struggled, and returned to London to design brochures. His breakthrough came in 1866 when a French perfume and toiletries maker, Eugene Rimmel, commissioned him to make advertising posters for his products. Rimmel funded Chéret to open the first color lithography shop in Paris. He experimented with different techniques and materials, first working in two colors, then 1869 advancing to three colors, black, red and combination color. He produced a wide variety of very popular posters, depicting idealized contemporary women, in posters for cosmetics and then for theater performances and ice skating rinks, including a famous poster for the Palais de Glace ice-skating rink in Paris (1896).
The Swiss-French artist Eugène Grasset (1845–1917) was another early creator of French Art Nouveau posters. He moved to Paris in 1871 and began designing ceramics, jewelry, furniture and tapestries. He gradually moved toward the graphic arts, and did an exceptional series of book illustrations and advertising posters. He helped decorate the famous cabaret Le Chat noir in 1885 and made his first posters for the Fêtes de Paris. He made a celebrated poster of Sarah Bernhardt in 1890, and a wide variety of book illustrations.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) was also a major figure in the early style. He began working together with two of the Les Nabis painters, Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, who turned him toward illustration. His Art Nouveau career was brief; he died at the age of 36 in 1901.
Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939), born in Moravia in what is now the Czech Republic, trained as a painter in Munich for two years and then moved to Paris in 1887, where he struggled to survive. His moment came in December 1894, when he was asked, on very short notice, to create a poster for a new play, Gismonda, starring Sarah Bernhardt. His poster, a full-length portrait of Bernardt in costume against a background of Byzantine mosaic and sinuous lettering, became an immediate classic of Art Nouveau. Bernhardt signed him to a five-year contract, and, with each successive play and poster, his fame increased. Bernardt herself set aside a number of each new poster to sell them to collectors. Mucha was asked to produce posters for a variety of clients, from travel resorts to winemakers. The female figure were always highly stylized, and embellished with floral decoration and curling whiplash lines or The backgrounds were two-dimensional, filled with ornament but no depth. Mucha himself rejected the term Art Nouveau for his work, saying that "art cannot be new". He moved to Prague in 1910 to pursue more serious historical painting, a cycle of large-scale works called The Slav Epic.[4]
Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859–1923) was another important early Art Nouveau figure, whose work focused more on ordinary people and life in Montmartre, and political causes; besides making posters for cabarets, he illustrated socialist and anarchist publications. He made a famous poster for a cabaret called Le Chat Noir in 1896, with typical Art Nouveau curved lines and asymmetric print. Curling cat tails featured in several of his works.[5]
Based on the success of his theater posters, Mucha made posters for a variety of products, ranging from cigarettes and soap to beer biscuits, all featuring an idealized female figure with an hourglass figure. He went on to design products, from jewellery to biscuit boxes, in his distinctive style.[6]
Paul Berthon (1872–1909) was a notable figure of the later French Art Nouveau. A student of Eugène Grasset, he helped develop chromolithography, a more refined version of lithography which gave more accurate colors as well as the possibility of highlighting some colors over others. He specialized in portraits of women, either portraying them as idealized figures, taken from the style of the Pre-Raphaelites, as in the illustration for the cover of L'Hermitage, or as seducers, as in his poster for the Folies Bergere, depicting the dancer and courtesan Liane de Pougy luring men into a spider's web.[7]
Manuel Orazi (1860–1934) was born in Rome, but came to work in Paris in 1892 as an illustrator for novels and magazines. In 1895 he made a series of symbolist illustrations, called The Magic Calendar. His best known Art Nouveau work is the poster for La Maison Moderne, a shop of Art Nouveau interior design which competed with that of Samuel Bing, which combined a dozen aspects of Art Nouveau into a single illustration. Orazi also made illustrations of Sarah Bernhardt, including a poster of her as the Byzantine Empress Theodora, surrounded by mosaic patterns.[8]
Belgium
The first Art Nouveau architecture had appeared in Belgium in 1893, and Belgian graphic artists were quick to use the style. The most prominent was Henri Privat-Livemont, a member of the symbolist movement, who made his reputation as a member of the Circle of Artists of Schaerbeek, a group of artists in that neighborhood of Brussels. He became highly successful for the discreetly erotic women in his advertising posters, filled with the sinuous lines that were trademark of Art Nouveau.
Henri Meunier (1873-1922) was another very successful Belgian graphic designer and painter (1873–1922). The curling Art Nouveau lines appeared in each poster, in costumes or in the rising steam from a cup of coffee. His posters were so popular that he sold them to collectors by subscription, a practice soon followed by other prominent Art Nouveau poster designers, including Alphonse Mucha.
The Munich Secession was an artistic movement which broke away from the more conservative fine arts establishment in Munich in 1892. Its creation inspired the better-known Vienna Secession a few years later.[9]
The Jugendstil, or "Young Style", was centered in Munich, and was the German variant of Art Nouveau. Its most prominent graphic artist was Otto Eckmann, who produced numerous illustrations for the movement's journal, Jugend, in a sinuous, floral style that was similar to the French style. He also created a type style based upon Japanese calligraphy. Joseph Sattler was another graphic artist who contributed to the style through another artistic journal, called Pan. Sattler invented a type face often used in the Jugendstil.
Another important German graphic artist was Josef Rudolf Witzel (1867–1925), who produced many early covers for Jugend with curving, floral forms which helped shape the style.
Cover of Jugend issue #40 by Josef Rudolf Witzel (1896)
Cover of Jugend magazine (1896)
Restaurant poster by Josef Rudolf Witzel (1896)
Vienna Secession
The Vienna Secession was movement with a very different aesthetic and style from the Belgian and French Art Nouveau. The sinuous lines and floral designs of the early style were largely replaced by geometric patterns and symmetry. The painter Gustav Klimt made a venture into graphic arts, designing the poster for the Secession Exhibition of 1898. The major graphic artists of the Secession included Joseph Maria Olbrich, who designed posters for the exhibitions of the Secession, and also designed the gilded cupola for the Secession's gallery in central Vienna.
Poster for the 1898 Secession exhibition in Vienna by Gustav Klimt
The color lithograph advertising poster was introduced in the United States in 1893 by Harper's Magazine, which published a series of very popular posters. The rival of Scriber's was the Chapbook, which hired Will H. Bradley to design a poster in 1894 to celebrate Thanksgiving. This poster, called The Twins, with its two-dimensional format, similar to Japanese prints, and bold sinuous lines, is considered the first American Art Nouveau poster.[10]
The Art Nouveau posters in the U.S., as in Europe, featured almost exclusively women. The range of colors was muted, partly because of the limitations of early color lithography, and partly by the choice of the artist. A popular theme of the era was the peacock design. The peacock was an early Christian symbol of immortality; it was used by James McNeill Whistler to decorate a room in London, by Louis Comfort Tiffany for a celebrated stained glass window, and by Bradley for The Modern Poster, advertising a book of that name by Scribner's publishers.[10]
Art Nouveau style was especially popular for advertising bicycles, which were just becoming common. These posters were also aimed primarily at women, illustrating the freedom that a bicycle could bring.[11]
Louis John Rhead (1887–1926 was another important artist of Art Nouveau. Born in England, he studied in Paris, and moved to the United States in 1883, and became artistic director of the publishing house D. Appleton. His posters show the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite movement in England, He won a gold medal at the first international poster exposition held in Boston in 1895. He also illustrated children's books.
Edward Penfield (1866–1923) was an illustrator and then the art editor of Harper's Magazine. His work was best known for its simplicity of line, with no excess ornament, so posters could be viewed easily at a distance.
Louis John Rhead, Century Magazine Midsummer Holiday issue (1894)
Louis Rhead, Poster for The Sun newspaper, January 1900
Lahor, Jean (2007) [1901]. L'Art nouveau (in French). Baseline Co. Ltd. ISBN978-1-85995-667-0.
Ormiston, Rosalind; Robinson, Michael (2013). Art Nouveau – Posters, Illustration and Fine Art. Flame Tree Publishing. ISBN978-1-84786-280-8.
Sato, Tamako (2015). Alphonse Mucha - the Artist as Visionary. Cologne: Taschen. ISBN978-3-8365-5009-3.
Sembach, Klaus-Jürgen (2013). L'Art Nouveau- L'Utopie de la Réconciliation (in French). Taschen. ISBN978-3-8228-3005-5.
Thiébaut, Philippe (2018). Mucha et l'Art Nouveau (in French). Paris: Éditions du Chêne. ISBN978-2-81231-806-1.
Tierchant, Hélène (2009). Sarah Bernhardt- Madame Quand même (in French). Paris: SW Télémaque. ISBN978-2-7533-0092-7.
Thiébaut, Philippe (2018). Mucha et l'Art Nouveau (in French). Paris: Éditions du Chêne. ISBN978-2-81231-806-1.
Related Research Articles
Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and flowers. Other characteristics of Art Nouveau were a sense of dynamism and movement, often given by asymmetry or whiplash lines, and the use of modern materials, particularly iron, glass, ceramics and later concrete, to create unusual forms and larger open spaces. It was popular between 1890 and 1910 during the Belle Époque period, and was a reaction against the academicism, eclecticism and historicism of 19th century architecture and decorative art.
Jugendstil was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German counterpart of Art Nouveau. The members of the movement were reacting against the historicism and neo-classicism of the official art and architecture academies. It took its name from the art journal Jugend, founded by the German artist Georg Hirth. It was especially active in the graphic arts and interior decoration.
Alfons Maria Mucha, known internationally as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech painter, illustrator, and graphic artist. Living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, he was widely known for his distinctly stylized and decorative theatrical posters, particularly those of Sarah Bernhardt. He produced illustrations, advertisements, decorative panels, as well as designs, which became among the best-known images of the period.
Maîtres de l'Affiche refers to 256 color lithographic plates used to create an art publication during the Belle Époque in Paris, France. The collection, reproduced from the original works of ninety-seven artists in a smaller 11 x 15 inch format, was put together by Jules Chéret, the father of poster art.
The Vienna Secession is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects, including Josef Hoffman, Koloman Moser, Otto Wagner and Gustav Klimt. They resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists in protest against its support for more traditional artistic styles. Their most influential architectural work was the Secession exhibitions hall designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich as a venue for expositions of the group. Their official magazine was called Ver Sacrum, which published highly stylised and influential works of graphic art. In 1905 the group itself split, when some of the most prominent members, including Klimt, Wagner, and Hoffmann, resigned in a dispute over priorities, but it continued to function, and still functions today, from its headquarters in the Secession Building. In its current form, the Secession exhibition gallery is independently led and managed by artists.
In art history, secession refers to a historic break between a group of avant-garde artists and conservative European standard-bearers of academic and official art in the late 19th and early 20th century. The name was first suggested by Georg Hirth (1841–1916), the editor and publisher of the influential German art magazine Jugend (Youth), which also went on to lend its name to the Jugendstil. His word choice emphasized the tumultuous rejection of legacy art while it was being reimagined.
Koloman Moser was an Austrian artist who exerted considerable influence on twentieth-century graphic art. He was one of the foremost artists of the Vienna Secession movement and a co-founder of Wiener Werkstätte.
William Henry Bradley was an American Art Nouveau illustrator, artist and film director. Nicknamed the "Dean of American Designers" by The Saturday Evening Post, he was the highest-paid American artist of the early 20th century.
Privat Antoine Théodore Livemont (1861–1936) was a Belgian Symbolist painter and Art Nouveau decorator who sometimes worked under the name T. Privat-Livemont.
The Modern Style is a style of architecture, art, and design that first emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-1880s. It was the first Art Nouveau style worldwide, and it represents the evolution of the Arts and Crafts movement which was native to Great Britain. The Modern Style provided the base and intellectual background for the Art Nouveau movement and was adapted by other countries, giving birth to local variants such as Jugendstil and the Vienna Secession. It was cultivated and disseminated through the Liberty department store and The Studio magazine.
A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. Posters may be used for many purposes. They are a frequent tool of advertisers, propagandists, protestors, and other groups trying to communicate a message. Posters are also used for reproductions of artwork, particularly famous works, and are generally low-cost compared to the original artwork. The modern poster, as we know it, however, dates back to the 1840s and 1850s when the printing industry perfected colour lithography and made mass production possible.
Henri Meunier was a Belgian Art Nouveau lithographer, etcher, illustrator, bookbinder and poster designer of the Belle Époque.
Jugend (1896–1940) was an influential German arts magazine. Founded in Munich by Georg Hirth who edited it until his death in 1916, the weekly was originally intended to showcase German Arts and Crafts, but became famous for showcasing the German version of Art Nouveau instead. It was also famed for its "shockingly brilliant covers and radical editorial tone" and for its avant-garde influence on German arts and culture for decades, ultimately launching the eponymous Jugendstil movement in Munich, Weimar, and Germany's Darmstadt Artists' Colony.
Salon des Cent was a commercial art exhibition in Paris, based at 31 Rue Bonaparte. The Salon sold color posters, prints and reproductions of artwork to the general public at reasonable prices. It was established in February 1894 by Léon Deschamps, founder of La Plume an avant garde literary and artistic magazine. It became known for its exhibitions showcasing the works of contemporary graphical artists. The salon held exhibitions until 1900. Many of the posters advertising Salon des Cent exhibitions have themselves become collectors' items.
Hans Sachs (1881-1974) was a Berlin dentist whose greatest accomplishment came from his passion for posters. He was the leading founder of an important group devoted to collecting posters which started an influential poster magazine. Before the seizure of his collection of 12,500 posters during Kristallnacht on 9 November 1938, he had the largest collection of posters in Germany, probably in the world. He was able to escape to the United States, but he never regained possession of the posters. After years of court battles, 4,344 posters were returned to his son in 2013. Some will be given to museums, but most have been or will be sold at auction.
The Art Nouveau movement of architecture and design flourished in Paris from about 1895 to 1914, reaching its high point at the 1900 Paris International Exposition. with the Art Nouveau metro stations designed by Hector Guimard. It was characterized by a rejection of historicism and traditional architectural forms, and a flamboyant use of floral and vegetal designs, sinuous curving lines such as the whiplash line, and asymmetry. It was most prominent in architecture, appearing in department stores, apartment buildings, and churches; and in the decorative arts, particularly glassware, furniture, and jewelry. Besides Guimard, major artists included René Lalique in glassware, Louis Majorelle in furniture, and Alphonse Mucha in graphic arts, It spread quickly to other countries, but lost favor after 1910 and came to an end with the First World War.
The whiplash or whiplash line is a motif of decorative art and design that was particularly popular in Art Nouveau. It is an asymmetrical, sinuous line, often in an ornamental S-curve, usually inspired by natural forms such as plants and flowers, which suggests dynamism and movement. It took its name from a woven fabric panel "Cyclamen", by the German artist Hermann Obrist (1895) which depicted the stems and roots of the cyclamen plant, which critics dubbed "Coup de Fouet" ('whiplash'). The panel was later reproduced by the textile workshop of the Darmstadt Artists Colony.
Art Nouveau glass is fine glass in the Art Nouveau style. Typically the forms are undulating, sinuous and colorful art, usually inspired by natural forms. Pieces are generally larger than drinking glasses, and decorative rather than practical, other than for use as vases and lighting fittings; there is little tableware. Prominently makers, from the 1890s onwards, are in France René Lalique, Emile Gallé and the Daum brothers, the American Louis Comfort Tiffany, Christopher Dresser in Scotland and England, and Friedrich Zitzman, Karl Koepping and Max Ritter von Spaun in Germany. Art Nouveau glass included decorative objects, vases, lamps, and stained glass windows. It was usually made by hand, and was usually colored with metal oxides while in a molten state in a furnace.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
