Art Nouveau Cupboards
Art Nouveau was a modernizing movement in the decorative arts that developed in France and Britain in the early 1880s and quickly became a dominant aesthetic style in Western Europe and the United States. In its sinuous lines and flamboyant curves inspired by the natural world, Art Nouveau furniture, jewelry and graphic design reflected a desire for freedom from the stuffy social and artistic strictures of the Victorian era.
Art Nouveau can be easily identified by its lush, flowing forms suggested by flowers and plants, as well as the lissome tendrils of sea life. The 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. The style quickly reached a wide audience in Europe via advertising posters, book covers, illustrations and other work by such artists as Aubrey Beardsley, Henri 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.
19th Century French Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Walnut
Early 1900s Dutch Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Glass, Birch, Macassar, Oak
Early 1900s Dutch Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Marble, Brass
19th Century French Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Bamboo, Rush
Early 20th Century Austrian Art Nouveau Cupboards
Oak
Late 19th Century Italian Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Cherry
Early 1900s Finnish Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Birch, Leather
1890s French Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Wood
1910s European Vintage Art Nouveau Cupboards
Glass, Pine
1920s American Vintage Art Nouveau Cupboards
Walnut
Early 19th Century English Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Mahogany
Early 20th Century Spanish Art Nouveau Cupboards
Walnut
19th Century French Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Bronze
1890s French Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Walnut
1910s Austrian Vintage Art Nouveau Cupboards
Oak
1940s Finnish Vintage Art Nouveau Cupboards
Glass, Oak
Early 20th Century Austrian Art Nouveau Cupboards
Silver
1890s German Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Walnut, Pine
Early 20th Century European Art Nouveau Cupboards
Mirror, Oak
Early 1900s Hungarian Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Brass
Early 20th Century Scandinavian Art Nouveau Cupboards
Iron
Late 19th Century French Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Wood
Early 20th Century German Art Nouveau Cupboards
Pine
Early 20th Century English Art Nouveau Cupboards
Fruitwood, Mahogany
Early 1900s Italian Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Walnut
Mid-20th Century French Art Nouveau Cupboards
Wood
1980s American Vintage Art Nouveau Cupboards
Wicker, Glass, Mirror, Cane, Reed, Bentwood
Early 19th Century European Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Wood
Early 20th Century Art Nouveau Cupboards
Walnut
1920s French Vintage Art Nouveau Cupboards
Wood
1880s French Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Oak
19th Century French Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Iron
20th Century French Art Nouveau Cupboards
Beech
19th Century French Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Iron
1930s Unknown Vintage Art Nouveau Cupboards
Glass, Mahogany
Late 18th Century Dutch Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Steel
Mid-19th Century French Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Amboyna
20th Century Italian Art Nouveau Cupboards
Fruitwood
1880s Italian Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Walnut
20th Century Italian Art Nouveau Cupboards
Wood, Giltwood
1880s Dutch Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Oak
1880s Dutch Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Oak
Early 1900s European Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Mahogany
Early 20th Century European Art Nouveau Cupboards
Oak
Early 1900s French Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Brass
Early 1900s European Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Gesso, Mahogany
20th Century Italian Art Nouveau Cupboards
Fruitwood
1890s German Antique Art Nouveau Cupboards
Cherry
Early 20th Century French Art Nouveau Cupboards
Burl