Jugendstil or Art Nouveau is an art movement that was popular in various places in Europe between 1890 and 1914, mainly as a reaction to the form-blurring Impressionism. Jugendstil manifested itself mainly in everyday objects (glass art, books, pottery, jewellery, furniture, etc.), architecture and painting. The movement had a short but intense heyday, which mainly expanded during the Belle Époque. In Western Europe, the style was a thing of the past well before 1910, in the East it was able to survive somewhat longer.
Name
The term ‘Jugendstil’ goes back to the name of the weekly magazine Die Jugend, which was published in Munich from January 1896. Other terms are also in use for related movements that flourished elsewhere in Europe, one of which, art nouveau, has become an umbrella term, just like ‘jugendstil’. Art nouveau (art-nouveau written in compounds) is common in Belgium, France and the Anglo-Saxon world, while jugendstil is associated with Austria and Germany. In Dutch, both terms are in use, with the French term art nouveau also being used in the translation new art for the expressions of the style in the Netherlands itself. In addition, the terms slaolie-, spaghetti- or vermicellistijl are used derisively. Names for other local variants include Austrian Secession, common in much of Eastern Europe, English modern style or Liberty style, Catalan modernism, and Russian stile modern.
Despite the striking regional differences, there are some characteristics that unite these movements: an optimistic worldview and faith in the future, a preference for the use of new, modern techniques (in architecture, for example, large glass surfaces), an aversion to symmetry and a preference for ornamentation, in which floral and bird motifs dominate.
An Art Nouveau building is often a Gesamtkunstwerk because it was not unusual for the furniture, ornaments and/or decorative objects placed in the building to be specially made with the same stylistic characteristics.
General characteristics of Art Nouveau
The Art Nouveau ornament is composed of motifs that usually form asymmetrical compositions with a two-dimensional character, as seen on furniture, jewelry, lamps, printed fabrics, etc. The main source of inspiration for this art movement is nature. The motifs are often long-stemmed, gracefully stylized plants and flowers (lilies, calyxes, irises, poppies, rosebuds), birds (swans, peacocks), dragonflies, the egg shape, cloud, water and rock formations, often combined with slender female figures.
The moving lines were a means to express emotions. These forms can also be seen in the printing press and in decorative forms such as banisters, balconies and facades. Iron was suitable for processing into graceful curved forms. The fact that it was used in so many art forms was because it was very common for an architect to also design furniture, silver, glassware, wall decorations and posters. The Art Nouveau characteristics were most evident in graphic art, where the line is the most important element. The illustrations and letters were designed as a whole. This created a combination of image and text.
Art Nouveau products also often have Japanese features such as empty spaces and the fan shape. The fact that artists came into contact with Japanese art was partly due to the influential art dealer Siegfried Bing. He was very impressed by the Japanese culture that came onto the European and American market from 1854 onwards. Bing specialized in this art and had a lot of Japanese art in his Parisian gallery L’Art Nouveau, from which the movement takes its French name.
Art nouveau and Siegfried Bing
On the European continent there was universal admiration for arts and crafts. People understood the challenge to create a new art form, based on inventive creativity and solid craftsmanship. Here too, the social element was ignored, which was an important starting point. As a result, art nouveau has been a luxurious, expensive art form from the very beginning, and only affordable by a handful of enthusiasts.
Ideas and work of the arts and crafts first reached the Belgian artists in Brussels on the continent. There, in 1883, 20 artists signed the manifesto of the artists’ group “Les Vingt” (The Twenty). The group aimed to unite progressive, artistic forces and to organize joint salons. The group was mainly Belgian, but had close contacts with the Parisian, Dutch and English modern art worlds. The Vingt members were enthusiastic about the writings of William Morris and Walter Crane, among others. Crane used wavy lines that we find on the cover of the Les Vingt catalogues. Here we also see that the empty surface is used, an important characteristic that was adopted from Japanese art.
Siegfried Bing (1838-1905) was of German origin and grew up trading in porcelain and luxury goods. He initially earned his living by producing newly designed tableware. He soon specialized in Japanese art. But the market for Japanese art gradually became oversaturated in the 1880s and 1990s. Bing sought and found new challenges in the United States, among other places. There he came into contact with Tiffany. He commissioned work including stained glass windows to be made in the Tiffany factory in New York. Tiffany was a member of a group of artists who used a special painting method. They painted nature as they experienced it in unmixed colors. The color planes were clearly separated by lines. He asked members of the same group of Nabis artists to make designs for furniture, textiles, tableware and book covers for his new gallery. This was very unusual for an art dealer and so he gained the reputation of being a promoter. The new gallery in the Rue de Provence opened in 1895 and was called L’Art Nouveau. L’Art Nouveau was a progressive salon where young artists exhibited their new art. That is how this art movement got its name. Bing was therefore a great stimulator of innovative art.
There are differences between Belgian and French Art Nouveau. In Belgium, plant motifs were often stylized. This is where the now well-known dynamic “whiplash” of Victor Horta (1861-1947) and Henry Van de Velde (1863-1957) originated. Horta and Van de Velde are considered two of the most important representatives of the movement. The Horta Museum is also located in Brussels.
In France, the plant stems and flower buds were not adopted in such a stylized way, but more as they looked in real life. The development of posters gave the artist a whole new field of work. By designing posters, different branches of art worked together. This created unity in graphic and painting art, in combination with typography (letter art). There are still many posters in art nouveau style by Belgian and French artists known. For example, those by Alfons Mucha (born in Czechoslovakia and made famous by his design for Sarah Bernhardt) and by Henri de Toulouse Lautrec are still very much in the spotlight. Mucha created a completely unique style by using letters inspired by Hebrew. His drawn female figures were often sparsely dressed. He produced an enormous amount. In 2006, there was an exhibition in Rotterdam about his work. Another example of French Art Nouveau are the metro entrances by Hector Guimard (1867-1942) in Paris, for many the best-known examples of French Art Nouveau. In France, Art Nouveau flourished mainly in Paris and Nancy (L’École de Nancy). The latter city developed into an important centre of innovative architecture and arts and crafts around 1900, partly thanks to the activities of glass and furniture designer Émile Gallé (1846-1904).
Jugendstil
As early as 1896, the new Art Nouveau style had been given its name in Germany and Austria by the magazine “Die Jugend”, an illustrated weekly magazine “für Kunst & Leben” published by Georg Hirth in Munich. The typeface there already had the characteristic shapes of this new style. Otto Eckmann illustrated the first issues with characteristic vignettes and border decorations. Hirth already advocated art renewal in the first editorial. The term Art Nouveau appeared in a text of the revue Insel by Rudolf Schröder in the same year. In 1899, the magazine “Die Woche” was founded. This was the reason for Eckmann to develop his own alphabet for the Rudhardsche Schriftgiesserei (Type Foundry) in Offenbach, complete with border decorations and vignettes. This became the classic script of Art Nouveau. It served as a model for all later drawn typefaces.
German Art Nouveau designers used stylized, natural elements. They are often so stylized that there is no clear plant or animal motif to be recognized. The characteristic whiplash is of course also found.
The famous Belgian architect Henry Van de Velde settled in Weimar. There his style became more sober and eventually he too worked in this stylized Art Nouveau style.