Art nouveau & art déco, an early 20th century affair
IMAGINARIUM : An Alternate History of Art
Welcome to Imaginarium: an alternate history of art. A podcast where we delve in to the most obscure parts of art history.
Hello dear listeners, I’m your host Nadjah, and in this podcast, we try to shed light on less studied parts of the history of art and visual culture. In this third part of our mini-series on the Golden Age of Illustration, we’ll discuss the movement of Art Nouveau toward the turn of the 20th century, its place within the greater context of the golden age of illustration.
All these movements that were happening during the golden age of illustration were all overlapping each other and a lot of artists were dabbling in several movements at once. All these movements were influencing and informing each other. There is a way of thinking about art history that is very categorical and rigid, with the very specific dates at which a movement begins and ends. But the truth is far more complex than that, those movements were born organically and formed within a very specific historical and social context, but you could have the genres of symbolism, impressionism, art nouveau, aestheticism, the school of barbizon, realism, All of these movements co-existed in the same era in different declination depending on where you were in the world. Art and culture is far from being static and unchanging, it is constantly evolving and growing with the world around it. When we start looking at the threads of culture, art , fashion and knowledge that bind us all, it is magnificent and beautiful. We have always been intimately connected with each other and the world, and we’ll always continue to be and that’s amazing.
If you haven’t listened to it yet, you can pause and listen to the first episode where we talked about the arts and crafts, some women of the golden age and the general context of the golden age of illustration. But in today’s episode, we’ll focus on Art Nouveau illustrations and the illustrated posters of La Belle Époque, especially in France.
Let’s begin
The beginning of the 20th century brings a new beginning and a new way of thinking when it comes to art. The edwardian era that starts in 1901 with the coronation of the king Edward the 7th in England, way too many kings by the way, or the Belle Époque in Paris, brought a very much needed breath of fresh air compared to the victorian era. The 1900s and the 1910s were generally lighter and less stuffy than the victorian era o n a general basis, i mean it still was very much stuffy, but it wasn’t as much as the 19th century you know. Art nouveau, or New Art, when translated in english, was a reactionary movement that started right at the end of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century against the absence of creativity when it comes the decorative arts and is a direct continuity to the movement of the Arts and Crafts and the movement of aestheticisms and decadence art that we talked about in the previous episodes of the podcast, as well as the symbolist movement which was a movement that sought to truly express the individual emotional experience through the use of highly symbolized language.
One of the fundamental tenet of Art Nouveau was the abolition of the dichotomy between minor arts and fine arts, which is to say that they fully considered stuff like decorative arts, ceramics, textiles and etc, as work of arts and not simply as functional objects. I think it is definitely the beginning of Design as we understand it today, so creating functional objects but also having a lot of thought behind the creation of those objects to not only the practical and ergonomically aspect of it, but also on the aesthetic level. Of course, this is something that has always been done, but I think it’s truly during that era that design as a discipline got cemented, what with the founding of the BAUHAUS, which was a german design, arts and crafts school that started in 1919. There was a refusal of making one type of art be more refined and more elitist, and the other more inferior because of it is not as exclusive and expensive. They thought the sober decor boring and dull, and wanted something more vibrant and beautiful. So thus was born a new type of design : Art Nouveau.
Visually, art nouveau is very easy to distinguish with its very loopy and organic lines and its twisted and winding pattern, that were something new and modern, hence the name, art nouveau. This movement was hugely influenced by aestheticism, which we talked about in the last episode, as well as Japanese prints. I have talked a bit about the influence of Japanese illustrations and woodblock prints during the 2nd half of the 19th century in previous episodes in the first season of Imaginarium, but I think this is something that bears repeating. During the late 19th century, there was a craze for all things Oriental quote unquote, it was the height of orientalism as an artistic movement, with artists such as Benjamin constant and Jean-Léon Gérome who were portraying the oriental arab, but also with how now that japan had opened its borders again with the western world, europeans had a new interest toward the woodblock prints, the art and the general culture of the East, which is something that simply hugely influenced the world of art in the late 19th century in a truly profound way.
The movement of Art Nouveau was seen mostly in continental Europe with artists such as Alphonse Mucha for example, who is arguably the most well known figure of the genre. His commercial work was very successful at the time, and I think he is one of the main representative artists of the genre, creating a style that is still a huge visual influence to this day, constantly referenced and copied. Mucha’s art work was a lot of commercial work that was mass-printed and distributed everywhere across europe, and today, across the world. Chances are that even if you do not know of the name of this artist, you have at least seen his works of art. His promotional and commercial artworks are the ones that are the most well known, but I have to say that my favorite pieces of his are his graphite artwork from Le Pater in 1899, which are stunning in their supernatural and bigger than life nature. Even tho this movement was largely in Europe, this doesn’t mean that it was strictly contained to. Once again something about how we need to think about art movements beyond the scope of the western world of art, because it restricts the ideas and the possibilities of what we can explore. By focusing strictly on Europe and north America, we reinforce the current narrative that the only valuable art is from these countries but also we ignore how much more complex and intricate the artistic and cultural output can be. Especially from the 19th century and onward, globalization and to be honest, colonialism as well, make it so that these art styles have traveled across the world, it is easier and quicker to travel across the globe so they are no longer confined to a specific place and time, they change and evolve and the way a certain movement will be understood and then translated through the mediums are different and unique and it is something fascinating to unravel.
The artist Fujishima takeji (1867-1943) was an artist that really liked to __ and « yo-ga » in the Japanese painting, not to be confused with the spiritual and/or fitness practice of yoga, which basically means « western-style » but with his own personal sensibilities and cultural context. He drew a lot of those western styles, including art nouveau especially within the painting « butterflies » in 1904, which is a really beautiful painting that represents a young woman surrounded with butterflies. something here about the natural motifs . The colors are warm, yellows, deep greens and ochres. This painting totally embodies the feeling of closeness to nature and the importance of it in the iconography of art nouveau. Even though the art nouveau style is not quite exactly the same depending on where it exists, the structural fundamental tenets of it do stay the same. It is possible to pinpoint the influence of the art nouveau in the decorative motifs, but it is always appropriated and made theirs. The way the art nouveau movement will decline itself outside of Europe will always be slightly different from the way it started out. What I find genuinely fascinating with those artists and works of art, is just how imbued with their own culture and personal heritage it is, as they take an originally western art movement and spin it into something wholeheartedly theirs. This is one of the most amazing parts of art, the way you can take several inspirations and influences and then create something different and unique and lovely.
As I said, flowers and nature inspired patterns and designs are essential to the visual identity and symbolism of the art. Eugène Grasset, a franco-swiss artists who used a lot of this natural motifs in his art, notably as wallpaper patterns, but also as illustrations for magazines, from covers to advertisements. The place of plants and flowers in ornamentation of the late 19th century was extremely important, it can be seen as well in the movement of Arts and Crafts, but it is central in the movement of Art Nouveau. He even published a book titled « Plants and their application to Ornament » in 1896. This is a reflection and consequence of the role of natural sciences and botany which was extremely relevant and popular in the cultural landscape of the era. His patterns and motifs, as well as the color palette he often used were hugely in line with the aesthetic of the movement. The focus on the natural world, but also the inspiration taken from it, had a huge impact on the organic and sensual lines of the genre. Flowers, vines, sinuous lines and wild nature are an integral part of the Art Nouveau style, a style that is elusive and created from the inspiration of the soul, contrary to the very rigid social norms of the time, especially in Europe, where everything was extremely codified. The floral motif is the center of the art nouveau movement, aesthetic and iconography, it is the flowy and curvy line of the natural elements that contrasted with the rigidity of the industrial era. There is a lightness to the pen stroke that was not present in previous art styles, especially with how the artists were now focusing on trying to have a newfound freedom in the way they composed their works of art. The art of Eugène Grasset, was well within the same style as these artists, and in fact look so extremely well crafted that it does not look out of place in our current visual world. He also illustrated beautiful calendars with themes of nature and slow living for gardening and home magazines in the 1880s. Once again when it comes to art, and especially illustration, the tools and the available technologies really do make the differences, and with the many innovations in technology of printing brought to the world of art, the artists were presented with a sea of new possibilities.
Art nouveau will decline itself in several forms and shapes, from architecture, to the decorative arts, jewelry and fashion and so much more. The thing with art nouveau, is that it is not a movement that stayed confined within the lines of the pictorial. It was a movement that joined the worlds of design and art . It was as much a lifestyle as it was an artistic movement. One of the primary way it existed was mostly in the form of illustration for posters and advertisements. During the fin-de-siècle, and also isn’t it still very peculiar the the terms « fin-de-siècle » and turn of the century still refer to the passage from the 19th century to the 20th century, even though we have had a similar passage from the 20th to the 21st century ? But I guess that is the Turn of the millennium, the y2k, i digress to be honest, this is just something I have been noticing. But during that era, the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, the art of the poster was at its probably all time peak. The posters for shows and operas in the Paris of the Belle-Époque, as well as the new type of magazines that emerged during that era.
The movement also in the United-States, with artists such as Charles D. Gibson who was a huge staple of the art of the 1900s and the 1910s. The Gibson Girls were the it girls of a generation. There has always been famous women, and socialites, especially during the 18th and 19th century, but the ushering of the mass communication methods during the 19th century made this an even more prominent phenomenon. Now it was possible to read about the latest gossips and the latest fashions but also the latest tips and tricks for beauty, life and culture. I think it was truly the beginning of the cult of celebrity as we know it today, but it was not for a desire of authenticity the way it exists now, where it feels like, as a culture, celebrities need to be authentic and reachable. The it girls of the time were not trying to be hashtag relatable, but they were trying to sell an unattainable image of perfection, they were young, beautiful and rich, and they knew it. and this was something that the normal woman would not be able to ever achieve, but they used this likeness to advertise and sell magazines, journals and products. It is indeed the beginning of the advertisement industry I think as we truly know it today.
Mass media really consolidated the construction of the image in society with the medium of magazines and posters, especially in the first two decades of the 20th century. The way people were understanding identities, gender, class and status was solidified and consolidated by mass media. For example, the concept of womanhood was spread through the images that were disseminated through mass media, notably magazines, posters, illustrations and others, a process that is still happening today, even though I think it is more insidious today, with social media. Women’s magazine were a huge enforce of the gender roles of the time and the ways women were portrayed in the media. From the virginal and sporty young woman, the seductive and facetious charming lady, the housewife and mother or the feminist suffragette, it is like that the way they understood femininity and womanhood was being constructed. Of course, it is paramount to precise that these ways of understanding what being a woman are mostly surrounding white women, often with a certain standing. The role of the image in media is paramount in how we understand society, but most importantly in how we shape society. But women’s magazines, since their inception, have always been a key concept in the way women’s role and place in society was changing and evolving. Even today, when arguably, the medium of the magazine is genuinely out of breath in the form we often understand it, it is by reading those women’s magazines, or currently I think the shape would be more as a social media savvy website, that we can understand the general social zeitgest of womanhood, a concept that has changed through times and means different things to different people. The illustrations and the advertisements that were in these magazines are extremely telling of the society of the era and the way women behaved themselves in a safe space of sorts.
Leyendecker is an artist that really ushered a new style of american illustration, he is the forefather of artists such as Norman Rockwell for example, who really solidified and sold the aesthetic and concept of Americana, not as it exists, but as an idealized and perfect vision of the United-States. While Rockwell constructed a very near perfect post-war utopia in his art, Leyendecker… god ok first of all, on the technical skills alone, he is up there, the way he paints, the brush strokes, the compositions, the very refined and yet slightly humorous aesthetic is absolutely wonderful. He was an extremely prolific artist, illustrating more than 300 covers for The Post, as well as many advertisements. I think as I talked earlier about the construction of womanhood, I think it is important to talk about how the illustrations of Leyendecker had the effect of constructing instead american masculinity. The men he drew for his advertisements, such a the Arrow Collar ones which were extremely popular » gave an image of a handsome and refined man, but still very much broad-shouldered and slightly rugged, the model of which was his long-term lover. His art had a very wide reach through the Post and the advertisements he illustrated, and so this is why I think it was so influential to the understanding of masculinity, even if just so slightly. Once again, the art of Leyendecker could be honestly considered « fine art » simply with the painterly quality to it and its extreme detail, but it is this popular use for greater accessibility and easy reproducibility that separates it from fine art. So once again, the difference between fine arts and popular art lays down, not in skills, but really in the goal of the art. Illustrations are made to be copied and distributed, made easily accessible to everyone, and ultimately, I think, will have as much as a great influence on the general culture as fine arts. Leyendecker is an artist that truly was forgotten for a long while, but has been rediscovered in the past years as people admire and appreciate the timelessness of his compositions, colors and painting talent.
This era, the 1900s, the turn of the century, La Belle Époque in France and the Edwardian era in England, was a real explosion when it comes to the art of the posters. The art of the poster, of course, was extremely influenced by the art of japan, and especially when it comes to ukiyo-e and all the techniques of woodblock printing.The art of the poster in the western world took a lot of cues from this influence. It was truly Japonism at its paroxysm, I know I keep talking about it, but the impact that the opening of the japanese borders to the western world had in the culture and art of the 19th century is honestly so considerable. From flat colors to a new way of thinking about the stylistic composition of the work of art. The artists took risks and tried new things when it came to the way they constructed the composition of their images and art. The poster, l’Affiche, was an extremely fun medium for artists to explore and to experiment with. In france, there was definitely an engouement for these posters, even at in the last decade of the 19th century, when the word affichomanie, which can be simply translated as poster-mania, got coined, there were catalogue books that collected several posters of the era by several artists, which could be bought by the enthusiasts, who even sometimes start collecting and amassing these posters. There is something to be said about the accessibility of the medium comparatively to fine arts or sculptures, which are not as readily available or affordable to the average person. With the printing techniques, it was possible to create several exemplars and copies of the same art work, at a speed that never used to be possible previously.
Is a copy of the art work the art work when it comes to illustration ? I think this is one of the reasons why very often, illustration is not as valued as the fine arts, because of that exclusivity and rarity. The prices in fine art are determined by several factors, a lot of them very nebulous and genuinely, the whole world of selling and pricing fine art is one that is extremely guarded, but one factor that can determine the price of a work of art is rarity, there is only but one single copy of that original art. But is it something that still holds true today, in an era where so many of the famous works of art are easily accessible through the digital collections of museums, or simply through a quick google research ? If one of the main reasons illustration was considered as less worth it than fine arts was due to its popular appeal and ease of accessibility compared to the scarcity of the fine arts, then what does it mean now ? I do not pretend to hold all of the answers, but it is an important conversation to have and to start, especially when the art world is still as elitist as ever. I want to mention the short series of John Berger called Ways of Seeing, as well as the book of the same name. John Berger is one of my favorite art historians and art essayists, and I think especially in the first episode, he says something extremely relevant to this topic : about how there is the original art. But we buy all of these postcards, and we see the images in books and on screens, and does that art still exists as a unique version ? Are these copies still art ? I do not know but I think these kinds of conversation are very interesting.
When it comes to Art Déco, it is a genre that is definitely associated with the 1920s and the early 1930s, so this is a movement that is toward the end of the golden age of illustrations, which we have established previously as being from the 1870s to 1920s, but it is still a beacon of art and creativity. This art movement existed, as was art nouveau before it, not only in the field of visual art, but also of architecture, interior design, advertisements and I think most importantly in the world of fashion. It is derived from the words « art décoratifs » aka decorative arts. One important event for this movement was the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes, which can be translated as « Universal exhibit of decorative arts and modern industrialisms ». Visually, art deco was extremely sleek and modern, and definitely was leaning into the aesthetic of modernity. Especially after the first world war, there was a desire to leave the past behind and move forward. It was used heavily in the sets of the Hollywood movies during its early years, especially with the pre-code movies and the early golden age of movies, and it is associated with the concept of upwards social mobility, after it is not surprising that it is so deeply associated with the vibe of the era. The 1920s were the age of jazz, of the great Gatsby, of the roaring twenties, but also of continued colonialism and imperialism, of the aftermath of a horrible first world war, something that must have been incredibly traumatizing to the people who lived through it and were not expecting for it to happen so soon again.
Art Deco is a very streamlined style, in line with the very simple fashion style of the era, where we let go of the lavish Edwardian fashion style and the extravagance of the art nouveau style’s flourishes and ornaments for a more simple, clean and visually less cluttered style of the Jazz Age. We have to thank the influence of Jeanne Lanvin, Elsa Schiaparelli and Paul Poiret, just to name a few, and unfortunately Coco Chanel as I cannot Not Mention her when it comes to the fashion of the 1920s and how influential Chanel was, but I just want to also mention that she very much was a nazi spy and I absolutely despise her as a person. I do admit that I love the brand’s aesthetic in general, but there needs to be a reckoning with the fact that she was very much a nazi spy. Anyway… so during those years, where curves and organic lines were once favored, it was now a very straight and geometrical stylized look with angles and perpendicular lines. Even though there were definitely handcrafted items as well as mass produced objects, there was this desire of bringing a counterpoint and a contrast to the traditional approach of art nouveau. Despite the visual novelty of art nouveau, the themes were very much in keeping with nature, romanticism and beauty. Meanwhile Art Deco was something that defined itself as very modern.It can be seen in the new aesthetics of the buildings that were constructed in the middle of the most urban cities of the world. For example, simply in New York city, there is the chrysler building, but the one that definitely caught my eye more than the others is the american radiator building in new york, which I have put an image of it on my social media, but you can just quickly google it, and it is extremely striking as a building. It’s black and gold, some of the main colors of the art deco palette, and it is so different from the rest of the urban landscape.
The aesthetic of art deco was also incredibly influenced by colonial and orientalist aesthetics. The prevalent visual inspirations for the 1920s art déco is thus a mix of extreme modernity for the era, the current artistic movements in fine arts, such as cubism, fauvism and futurism, but also of quote unquote exotic aesthetics and visuals, notable orientalist elements such as the kimono, the puffy Aladdin style trousers making their way in the mainstream fashions. There was also a vested interest in egyptology and everything relating to exploration of dark and unknown locales, of the mystery of the Exotic Brown People. Once again, this is more about how the only way western culture was relating to foreign cultures. Always positioning itself in a position of power, but also of consumer, in a very paternalistic attitude at best, or outright racist at worse. I mentioned earlier that this was also the beginnings of the industry of cinema and of the 7th art, and in the 1920s, there was a ton of movies playing on the « exotic » and « foreign » settings and tropes for the entertainment of a western audience. Such movies like « The Thief of Baghdad » «The Sheikh», «The Son of the sheikh » Well you can see how that goes. Of course, these movies starred only white people, or vaguely exotic white-passi ng people, in brown face and costumed in vaguely oriental and fully orientalist costumes.
When it comes to the cultural landscape of the 1920s, it is important to keep fashion in mind, as it has been something that has always been in dialogue with art, there were a lot of art nouveau inspired dresses and accessories, But with art deco and the fashion world of the 1920s, there was a synergy between the two that was incredibly unique and it was the age where Haute couture really solidified itself, but also the magazines about fashion, such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, which are both still available today. The 1920s was before the prevalence of photography in the magazines, so the covers were often illustrated in the style of the era by extremely talented artists such as Georges Barbier and his contemporaries : Georges Lepape and Erté. We talked earlier about how the art of the poster became incredibly important to advertising with the Art nouveau movement, but it is during the art deco age that it truly solidified itself as essential to the marketing not only of promoting plays or products, but a lifestyle. From travels (which by the way, I explored this subject a bit more in the first season episode of this podcast about travel advertisements of the first half of the 20th century.) to the newest fashions, to the furniture and design to daily life products. The poster became a crucial part of the modern world of retail. The bauhaus was the first school of modern design, but it was not the only one during that era, several books to learn how to design and how to create in the new modern world were suddenly available. The main difference with the 1920s age of posters, comparatively to the late 1890s and 1900s, was that the artists and designers, such as the « union des artistes modernes, was that they wanted to promoted craftsmanship within mass production. It was about mass communication and capitalism. Design is a lot of things, and people understand it differently, but it is also about this desire to bring beauty and artistry to the mundane, to the quotidian, but also to the mass-produced objects. As industrialization was visibly now a certainty in modern life, the outcomes of it should at least be pleasant.
Before we go, I put a bunch of relevant resources on today’s subject in the show notes, you have some books as well as some theses and articles that you can read if you maybe want to further your knowledge and read more on the subject. As always, all the relevant images will also be on all of our social platforms @ imaginarium_pod on instagram as well as on twitter. This podcast was written, narrated and produced, by yours truly, Nadjah, If you want to support this podcast, you can do so on patreon.com-nadjah , n a d j a h . I want to take this opportunity to thank my patrons : may leigh, vilja sala, Trung-Le Nguyen Cappecci, Jak, Sam Hirst, Jenny, Jameson Gregg as well as Nathalie, thank you so much for making the work i do with this podcast possible.
On this, I wish you all a very lovely day, evening or night, and I hope to see you again very soon.