Art Nouveau

Time and Place:

Vienna during the 1890’s

This Austrian Capital was a vital cultural and scientific center.

What is Art Nouveau? (sounds like - art new vO)

art nou·veau  –noun

Fine Arts. Means “new art”. This was
a movement that developed during
the 1890’s. Some characteristics
include handmade materials and
flat patterns based on stylized plant
forms.
Art Nouveau (French for 'new art') December 1895: art dealer Siegfried Bing
opened a gallery called L’Art Nouveau for the contemporary décor he exhibited
and sold there
Art Nouveau style reached an international audience through the vibrant graphic
arts printed in such periodicals as
The Savoy, La Plume, Die Jugend, Dekorative Kunst, The Yellow Book, and The
Studio.
Deeply influenced by the socially aware teachings of William Morris
and the Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau designers endeavored
to achieve
the synthesis of art and craft,
the creation of the spiritually uplifting Gesamtkunstwerk (“total work of
art”) encompassing a variety of media.
The successful unification of the fine and applied arts was achieved in
many such complete designed environments as Victor Horta and Henry
van de Velde’s Hôtel Tassel and Hôtel Van Eetvelde (Brussels, 1893–
95), Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald’s design of
the Hill House (Helensburgh, near Glasgow, 1902–4), and Josef
Hoffmann and Gustav Klimt’s Palais Stoclet dining room (Brussels,
1905–11) (2000.350; 1994.120; 2000.278.1–.9)
 Victor HORTA
Hôtel Tassel
1892 – Bruxelas
 Antoni GAUDÍ
Casa Batlló
1904/06 – Barcelona
 Antoni GAUDÍ
Casa Batlló
1904/06 – Barcelona
Belgian journal L’Art Moderne to
describe the work of Les Vingt,
twenty painters and sculptors
seeking reform through art.

Les Vingt, like much of the artistic

community throughout Europe and
America, responded to leading
nineteenth-century theoreticians
such as French Gothic Revival
architect Eugène-Emmanuel
Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879) and
British art critic John Ruskin
(1819–1900), who advocated the
unity of all the arts, arguing against
segregation between the fine arts of
painting and sculpture and the so-
called lesser decorative arts
Pendant
René-Jules Lalique French

French Art Nouveau jeweler

René Lalique (enameling and
precious stones inlay). This
pendant is in the form of two
confronted peacocks standing
on the flat edge of a triangular
cabochon opal, from the base of
which a baroque pearl is
suspended. The peacocks are
formed with cloisonné
enameling in light shades of
blue and green with dark blue
and white wing feathers.
• Cloisons in French means
compartments
• Compartments are made on the
metal object by soldering or
affixing silver or gold wires or thin
strips placed on edges.
• remain visible in the finished piece,
separating the different
compartments of the enamel or
inlays, which are often of several
colors.
• Cloisonné enamel objects are
worked on with enamel powder
made into a paste, which then needs
to be fired in a kiln. If gemstones or
colored glass are used, the pieces
need to be cut or ground into the
shape of each cloison.
Inkwell
Pierre-Adrien Dalpayrat
 French
Mounts by Edward Colonna
 German
Purveyor 
L'Art Nouveau Bing French

The ateliers of L'Art

Nouveau Bing produced
some extraordinary mixed-
media works between 1895
and 1904.
Coffeepot (part of a service)
Manufacturer: Sèvres
Designer: Léon Kann
1900–1904
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 556

The designer chose the fennel plant

to literally encase the functional
wares, thereby integrating their
utilitarian aspects with Art
Nouveau's embrace of naturalistic
forms. The gray-green enamel of
the "fennel" portions was applied to
unglazed porcelain, producing a
matte texture similar to that of the
plant itself, in contrast to the
glossy, glazed white areas above.
Vase
Designed by Louis C. Tiffany 
Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company American

a group of more than forty objects given to the Museum in 1896 by

Louisine and Henry Osborne Havemeyer .the first American glass to
enter the Museum's collection. decorative blown-glass vessels. The
shapes, colors, and finishes of Tiffany's vases and plaques were inspired
by the natural world and by ancient glass.
Vase
Designed by Louis C. Tiffany 
Tiffany Glass and Decorating
Company American

a group of more than forty objects

given to the Museum in 1896 by
Louisine and Henry Osborne
Havemeyer .the first American
glass to enter the Museum's
collection. decorative blown-glass
vessels. The shapes, colors, and
finishes of Tiffany's vases and
plaques were inspired by the
natural world and by ancient glass.
As early as 1902, there was a rebellion against ornamentation
called Art Nouveau; designed to work well with
mechanization; based on flowing, natural lines ending in a
curve similar to the bud of a plant; beautiful for it’s artistic
merit rather than it’s cost; inexpensive woods
This is one of several pieces
made for a Parisian doctor by the
name of Tissier. The tapestry
covers were most likely executed
at the Aubusson factory of
Antoine Jorrand after Bellery-
Desfontaine's designs.
Desk by Van de Velde (1898–
1899) (Musée d'Orsay)
Dining room furniture and wall
panel by Horta from the Hôtel
Aubecq (1902–1904)
Paul Poiret :
Designer.
The Study of:

GUSTAV KLIMT
and
Art Nouveau
The work of the Austrian painter and illustrator Gustav Klimt, b.
July 14, 1862, d. Feb. 6, 1918, founder of the school of painting
known as the Vienna Secession, embodies the high-keyed free
spirited, psychological, and aesthetic preoccupations of turn-of-the-
century Vienna's dazzling intellectual world.
He has been called the top example of ART NOUVEAU.
“I have the gift of neither the spoken nor the written
word, especially if I have to say something about
myself or my work. Whoever wants to know
something about me -as an artist, the only notable
thing- ought to look carefully at my pictures and try
and see in them what I am and what I want to do."
Gustav Klimt
Inspiration:

Klimt visited Ravenna, Italy, where he

saw early Christian mosaics made from
bits of stone and glass that inspired him
to paint the patterns in his artwork.

Death and Life

Two portraits of Emily Floge

He earlier work is
a highly realistic,
formal portrait.

The second
portrait has a
stylized dream-
like quality with a
realistic face.

Emily Floge at the age of 17, 1891.

Portrait of Emily Floge, 1902

In this composition
Klimt incorporated
many design
elements, such as,
complementary
colors yellow (gold)
and blue and repeated
patterns of shapes.
Adele Bloch-Bauer I 1907
Oil and gold on canvas, 138 x 138; Austrian
Gallery, Vienna
Adele Bloch-Bauer clasping her hands (she had a
deformed finger). Dressed in gold, surrounded by
gold. A very gold picture.
 Portrait of Eugenia
Primavesi
1913-1914

 
Klimt, Gustav Oil on canvas
140 x 85 cm
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota
City, Japan

The women in many of

                              Klimt’s portraits were
the wives of wealthy
Viennese businessmen
and art collectors.
Medicine (Hygieia)
1900 – 07
Format 430 x 300 cm
Technique Oil on canvas
Location Burned in Schlob Immendorf,
Austria, 1945

The University of Vienna

rejected Klimt’s Medicine mural
because his mystical, snake
handling priestess did not fit the
University professors’ image of
the physician as a scientist and
healer.
The Kiss

Year 1907 – 08
Format180 x 180 cm
Technique Oil on
canvas
Location Vienna,
Osterreichische
Museum für
Angewandte Kunst
 Mäda Primavesi
(1903–2000), 1912
Gustav Klimt
(Austrian, 1862–1918)

 
Gift of André and Clara Mertens, in
memory of her mother, Jenny
Pulitzer Steiner, 1964 (64.148)

In this portrait, the flower in

Mada’s hair and the row of
flowers across her dress link
                             her with the floral patterns
in the rug and wallpaper.
Klimt’s style became freer
with fewer dense patterns
                and hard edges in his later
years.
Hope, II. 1907-
08.
Gustav Klimt.
(Austrian,
1862-1918). Oil,
gold, and platinum
on canvas, 43 1/2 x
43 1/2" (110.5 x
110.5 cm). Jo Carole
and Ronald S.
Lauder, and Helen
Acheson Funds, and
Serge Sabarsky
 
 Hope II
A pregnant woman bows her head and closes her eyes, as if praying for the
safety of her child. Peeping out from behind her stomach is a death's head,
sign of the danger she faces. At her feet, three women with bowed heads
raise their hands, presumably also in prayer—although their solemnity might
also imply mourning, as if they foresaw the child's fate.
Why, then, the painting's title? Although Klimt himself called this work Vision,
he had called an earlier, related painting of a pregnant woman Hope. By
association with the earlier work, this one has become known as Hope, II.
There is, however, a richness here to balance the women's gravity.
Klimt was among the many artists of his time who were inspired by sources
not only within Europe but far beyond it. He lived in Vienna, a crossroads of
East and West, and he drew on such sources as Byzantine art, Mycenean
metalwork, Persian rugs and miniatures, the mosaics of the Ravenna
churches, and Japanese screens. In this painting the woman's gold-patterned
robe—drawn flat, as clothes are in Russian icons, although her skin is
rounded and dimensional—has an extraordinary decorative beauty. Here,
birth, death, and the sensuality of the living exist side by side suspended in
equilibrium.
Gustav Klimt
Baby (Cradle), 1917/1918
Gift of Otto and Franciska Kallir with the help of the Carol and Edwin Gaines Fullinwider Fund
1978.
Detail of Baby (Cradle)
The
Maiden
1912 - 13
In his landscapes, Klimt left out the human figure. He
preferred to concentrate on the patterns formed by the
plants and flowers.

Why might Beech

Forest I be considered a
“painted mosaic”?

Klimt used small quick

brushstrokes to form a
glittering pattern of
orange and yellow dots,
dashes, and scribbles
that resemble tiles in a
mosaic.
Beech Forest I, 1902
 Contemporary Mosaic by Laurel True

Farm Garden with Sunflower, 1905

Tree of Life

 There is a vast amount of

detail in this painting.
 Notice the “Egyptian eye”
sprouting from the branches.
 There are triangles, swirls, and
circles within circles.
 The colors intensify as you get
at the flower garden on the
ground.
 Made from gold and ceramic
tiles, exotic woods, glass, and
jewels.
 Tree symbolizes life cycles.
Seedpods and other organic
shapes represents creativity
and rebirth; the black bird
symbolizes death.
 Gustav Klimt - Assessment
Working with Pattern

1. What kind of city was Vienna during the 1890s?

2. What is Art Nouveau?
3. How does Klimt’s style differ in the two portraits of Emily
Floge?
4. Why did the university of Vienna reject Klimt’s Medicine
mural?
5. What did Klimt see in 1903 that would inspire the patterns in
his artwork?
6. What are some general characteristics of Klimt’s landscapes?
7. Why might Beech Forest I be considered a “painted
mosaic”?
8. What materials did Klimt use to create Tree of Life?
9. What are some of the symbols in the Tree of Life?
10. Who were the women in many of Klimt’s portraits?
11. What elements did Klimt incorporate into paintings such
as Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer?
12. In Portrait of Mada Primavesi, what elements link the
subject with her surroundings?
Art Lessons
Making
 Lesson 1 – Tree of Life

1. You will create your own “Tree of Life”.

2. In pencil, lightly draw your tree of life…swirl the branches,
add patterns (eyes, circles in circles, etc.)
3. Use beige tempera paint to paint in the tree.
4. Fill in your design with materials of your choice: colored
pencils, markers, oil pastels, tempera paints, etc.
5. Ornament: Create embellishments using metallic markers,
metallic paper, or sequins.

materials needed:
large sheets of white art paper (heavy weight), colored pencils, pencil, tempera
paints, metallic craft paper, gold markers, colored markers, glue, and sequins.
 Lesson 2 – Klimt Scratchboard

Look at Klimt’s paintings for inspiration in creating scratchboard

and collage portraits.

Line, shape, pattern, and the design principle known as Emphasis

were the focus of this lesson.

Utilizing Klimt's trademark gold color and intricate pattern work,

students create designs where their figure was the focal point in
their design. This was accomplished by establishing contrast
between the pattern work in the figure and in the background.

Students used scratch knives to carefully scratch away the black

ink that is applied to the gold board underneath.
Lesson 3 – Creating with Pattern