French Mahogany Carved Art Nouveau Mirror
Early 20th Century French Art Nouveau Pier Mirrors and Console Mirrors
Mahogany
Antique Early 1900s French Art Nouveau Floor Mirrors and Full-Length Mir...
Copper
20th Century French Art Nouveau Vanities
Metal, Brass
Early 1900s Art Nouveau Interior Prints
Lithograph
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2010s French Modern Chairs
Oak
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Brass
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Brass
21st Century and Contemporary Portuguese Organic Modern Center Tables
Travertine
2010s English Chippendale Mantel Mirrors and Fireplace Mirrors
Gold Leaf
Antique 1890s American Art Nouveau Wall Mirrors
Mirror, Walnut, Mahogany
Antique 19th Century English Chippendale Mantel Mirrors and Fireplace Mi...
Mirror, Wood
20th Century French Floor Lamps
Crystal
Antique Late 19th Century French Art Nouveau Tray Tables
Walnut, Satinwood, Nutwood, Beech
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Mirror
Vintage 1910s European Art Nouveau Table Lamps
Bronze
Antique Early 19th Century European Art Nouveau Wall Mirrors
Mahogany
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Fruitwood
Antique Early 1900s French Art Nouveau Apothecary Cabinets
Mahogany
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Walnut
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Early 20th Century French Art Nouveau Cupboards
Bronze
Antique Early 1900s French Art Nouveau Cabinets
Mahogany
Antique Early 1900s Spanish Art Nouveau Wall Mirrors
Fruitwood, Mahogany
20th Century French Art Nouveau Wall Mirrors
Antique Late 19th Century French Art Nouveau Wall Mirrors
Mirror, Wood, Mahogany, Giltwood, Lacquer
Early 20th Century Art Nouveau Mantel Mirrors and Fireplace Mirrors
Mahogany, Giltwood
20th Century French Wall Mirrors
Wood, Glass
Antique Early 1900s French Art Nouveau Pier Mirrors and Console Mirrors
Wood
Antique Early 1900s French Art Nouveau Decorative Art
Gold, Gold Leaf
Early 20th Century French Art Nouveau Cabinets
Brass
Early 20th Century French Buffets
Marble, Brass
Vintage 1910s French Art Nouveau Dressers
Bronze
Antique 1890s Art Nouveau Sideboards
Walnut
Vintage 1970s French Art Nouveau Wall Mirrors
Glass, Mirror, Wood, Paint, Walnut
Early 20th Century French Art Nouveau Fireplaces and Mantels
Mahogany, Mirror
Antique Early 1900s French Arts and Crafts Coat Racks and Stands
Porcelain, Mirror, Mahogany
Early 20th Century French Wall Mirrors
Mahogany
Early 20th Century French More Mirrors
Paint
Early 20th Century French Art Nouveau Console Tables
Mahogany, Mirror
Early 20th Century French Art Nouveau Sideboards
Bronze
Antique Early 1900s French Art Nouveau Floor Mirrors and Full-Length Mir...
Mahogany, Mirror
Early 20th Century French Art Nouveau Wall Mirrors
Mahogany
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Mahogany, Glass, Mirror
A Close Look at art-nouveau Furniture
In its sinuous lines and flamboyant curves inspired by the natural world, antique Art Nouveau furniture reflects a desire for freedom from the stuffy social and artistic strictures of the Victorian era. The Art Nouveau movement developed in the decorative arts in France and Britain in the early 1880s and quickly became a dominant aesthetic style in Western Europe and the United States.
ORIGINS OF ART NOUVEAU FURNITURE DESIGN
- Emerged during the late 19th century
- Popularity of this modernizing style declined in the early 20th century
- Originated in France and Britain but variants materialized elsewhere
- Informed by Rococo, Pre-Raphaelite art, Japanese art (and Japonisme), Arts and Crafts; influenced modernism, Bauhaus
CHARACTERISTICS OF ART NOUVEAU FURNITURE DESIGN
- Sinuous, organic and flowing lines
- Forms that mimic flowers and plant life
- Decorative inlays and ornate carvings of natural-world motifs such as insects and animals
- Use of hardwoods such as oak, mahogany and rosewood
ART NOUVEAU FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW
ANTIQUE ART NOUVEAU FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS
Art Nouveau — which spanned furniture, architecture, jewelry and graphic design — can be easily identified by its lush, flowing forms suggested by flowers and plants, as well as the lissome tendrils of sea life. Although Art Deco and Art Nouveau were both in the forefront of turn-of-the-20th-century design, they are very different styles — Art Deco is marked by bold, geometric shapes while Art Nouveau incorporates dreamlike, floral motifs. The latter’s signature motif is the "whiplash" curve — a deep, narrow, dynamic parabola that appears as an element in everything from chair arms to cabinetry and mirror frames.
The visual vocabulary of Art Nouveau was particularly influenced by the soft colors and abstract images of nature seen in Japanese art prints, which arrived in large numbers in the West after open trade was forced upon Japan in the 1860s. Impressionist artists were moved by the artistic tradition of Japanese woodblock printmaking, and Japonisme — a term used to describe the appetite for Japanese art and culture in Europe at the time — greatly informed Art Nouveau.
The Art Nouveau style quickly reached a wide audience in Europe via advertising posters, book covers, illustrations and other work by such artists as Aubrey Beardsley, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Alphonse Mucha. While all Art Nouveau designs share common formal elements, different countries and regions produced their own variants.
In Scotland, the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh developed a singular, restrained look based on scale rather than ornament; a style best known from his narrow chairs with exceedingly tall backs, designed for Glasgow tea rooms. Meanwhile in France, Hector Guimard — whose iconic 1896 entry arches for the Paris Metro are still in use — and Louis Majorelle produced chairs, desks, bed frames and cabinets with sweeping lines and rich veneers.
The Art Nouveau movement was known as Jugendstil ("Youth Style") in Germany, and in Austria the designers of the Vienna Secession group — notably Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann and Joseph Maria Olbrich — produced a relatively austere iteration of the Art Nouveau style, which mixed curving and geometric elements.
Art Nouveau revitalized all of the applied arts. Ceramists such as Ernest Chaplet and Edmond Lachenal created new forms covered in novel and rediscovered glazes that produced thick, foam-like finishes. Bold vases, bowls and lighting designs in acid-etched and marquetry cameo glass by Émile Gallé and the Daum Freres appeared in France, while in New York the glass workshop-cum-laboratory of Louis Comfort Tiffany — the core of what eventually became a multimedia decorative-arts manufactory called Tiffany Studios — brought out buoyant pieces in opalescent favrile glass.
Jewelry design was revolutionized, as settings, for the first time, were emphasized as much as, or more than, gemstones. A favorite Art Nouveau jewelry motif was insects (think of Tiffany, in his famed Dragonflies glass lampshade).
Like a mayfly, Art Nouveau was short-lived. The sensuous, languorous style fell out of favor early in the 20th century, deemed perhaps too light and insubstantial for European tastes in the aftermath of World War I. But as the designs on 1stDibs demonstrate, Art Nouveau retains its power to fascinate and seduce.
There are ways to tastefully integrate a touch of Art Nouveau into even the most modern interior — browse an extraordinary collection of original antique Art Nouveau furniture on 1stDibs, which includes decorative objects, seating, tables, garden elements and more.
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The first art and design movement of the 20th century was all about celebrating beauty of women and nature.