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Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts, known in different languages by different names.
The style was most popular between 1890 and 1910. It was a reaction against the academic art, eclecticism and historicism of 19th century architecture and decoration. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and flowers. Other characteristics of Art Nouveau were a sense of dynamism and movement, often given by asymmetry or whiplash lines, and the use of modern materials, particularly iron, glass, ceramics and later concrete, to create unusual forms and larger open spaces.
[1532-10]
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | The influence of Egyptian art on Klimt is undoubtedly at work in this portrait of the wife of the industrialist Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. He twice commissioned Klimt to paint a portrait of Adele. The portrait is notable for the mix of naturalism, in the painting of the face and hands, and the ornamental decoration used for the dress, chair and background. Since Adele, the subject of both of these works, was one of Klimt’s mistresses, it is difficult not to look for a psychological reason for the disjointing of the head and body. Adele Bloch-Bauer possesses the rare distinction as the only person Klimt ever painted twice. In 2006 Adele Bloch-Bauer I was acquired for Neue Galerie in New York. [Source: gustav-klimt.com] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Adele Bloch-Bauer I, Portrait of | 1903-7 | Oil, silver and gold on canvas | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Klimt, Gustav | 1862 – 1918, aged 55 | Austrian artist | Art Nouveau |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1532-11] | |
| Neue Galerie, 1048 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028, USA | 138 x 138 |
| In Portrait of Fritza Riedler, the treatment of the woman’s white dress is very close, as are the geometrical blocks of colour in the background. Fritza Riedler, however, is seated, and here Klimt has let his imagination take over. The armchair in which she sits – perfectly realistic in the preparatory drawings, has virtually disappeared, becoming a two-dimensional outline filled in with gold and silver eye-shaped motifs. The gold and silver are picked up by the small squares dotted across the background wall. [Source: gustav-klimt.com] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Fritza Riedler | 1906 | Oil/Cnv/GldLf | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Klimt, Gustav | 1862 – 1918, aged 55 | Austrian artist | Art Nouveau |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1532-12] | |
| Belvedere Palace and Museum, Prinz Eugen-Straße 27, 1030 Wien, Austria | 132 x 152 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | In 1907 John Lane issued a portfolio of designs that Aubrey Beardsley created in 1894 for the first British edition of “Salomé.” Oscar Wilde’s play had been written in French in 1891 then translated into English by Lord Alfred Douglas. Several of the images Beardsley submitted were judged to be too erotic to publish, and either altered or omitted. All were, however, included in the 1907 set. The present image of Salomé looking at the severed head of John the Baptist, with blood dripping from its supporting platter like a fountain, appeared in the 1894 book opposite page 56. [Source: metmuseum.org] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Dancer’s Reward, The (for Salomé by Oscar Wilde) | 1907 | Line block print | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Beardsley, Aubrey Vincent | 1872 – 1898, aged 25 | English illustrator | Art Nouveau |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1532-13] | |
| Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY USA | 22.4 x 16.1 |
| The Kiss, probably the most popular work by Gustav Klimt, was first exhibited in 1908 at the Kunstschau art exhibition on the site of today’s Konzerthaus. The Ministry bought it from there for the sum of 25,000 Kronen and thus secured for the state one of the icons of Viennese Jugendstil and indeed of European modern art. It undoubtedly represents the culmination of the phase known as the ‘Golden Epoch’. In this decade, the artist created a puzzling, ornamental encoded programme that revolved around the mystery of existence, love and fulfilment through art. Klimt gained initial inspiration for this in 1903 on a journey to Ravenna to see the Byzantine mosaics. In addition, the painting contains a myriad of motifs from various cultural epochs, above all from Ancient Egyptian mythology. Most recent research has, however, revealed that it is not enough to read the ornaments in the picture just as symbols rooted in tradition aiming to convey a timelessly valid message. They reveal more, such as references to Klimt’s love for Emilie Flöge and the artist’s exploration of the sculptor Auguste Rodin’s art. [Source: artsandculture.google.com] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Kiss, The | 1907-8 | Oil/Gld/Cnv | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Klimt, Gustav | 1862 – 1918, aged 55 | Austrian artist | Art Nouveau |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1532-14] | |
| Osterreichischegallerie, Prinz Eugen-Straße 27, 1030 Wien, Austria | 180 x 180 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | Walter Crane was a British artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children’s book creators of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child’s nursery motif that the genre of English children’s illustrated literature would exhibit in its developmental stages in the later 19th century. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Neptune’s Horses | 1910 | Col Litho | Landscape |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Crane, Walter | 1845 – 1915, aged 70 | British artist | Art Nouveau |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1532-15] | |
| Bibliothèque des Arts décoratifs, 111 Rue de Rivoli 75001 Paris France | 25 x 45 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons |
This illustration by Georges Barbier shows Ida Rubinstein and Vaslav Nijinsky in Scheherazade, first performed by Sergei Dhiagilev’s Ballet Russes in 1910 at the Opéra Garnier in Paris. One of the shah’s many wives, Zobéide, danced by Rubinstein is seduced by a slave, danced by Nijinsky. Photo of the two courtesy of theatrex.net |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Vaslav Nijinsky and Ida Rubinstein in Schéhérazade | 1910 | Lithograph | Illustration |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Barbier, George | 1882-1932, aged 50 | French illustrator | Art Nouveau |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1532-16] | |
| Unknown | 31 x 24 |
| Oskar Nedbal’s ballet-pantomime, Princess Hyacinth, premiered in 1911 at the National Theatre, Prague, with libretto by Ladislav Novák. Mucha’s poster advertising the performance features the portrait of the popular actress Andula Sedláčková, who starred in the title role. A village blacksmith dreams that his daughter becomes the Princess Hyacinth and that she is abducted by a sorcerer. Mucha makes reference to the plot by incorporating hearts, the blacksmith’s tools, a crown and instruments of sorcery. A hyacinth motif is used throughout the decorative details. [Source: |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Princess Hyacinth | 1911 | Poster/Litho | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Mucha, Alphonse | 1860 – 1939, aged 78 | Czech painter, Paris | Art Nouveau |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1532-17] | |
| Mucha Museum, Panská 7, 110 00 Nové Město, Prague, Czechia | 128 x 84 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II is a 1912 painting by Gustav Klimt. The work is a portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. Bloch-Bauer, a Vienna socialite.Klimt had completed an earlier portrait of Bloch-Bauer (above). During World War II, both portraits were among the artworks stolen by the Nazis from the descendants of Bloch-Bauer. After the war, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II was displayed at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere until 2006, when it was returned to Adele Bloch-Bauer’s niece. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Adele Bloch-Bauer II, Portrait of | 1912 | Oil/Canvas | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Klimt, Gustav | 1862 – 1918, aged 55 | Austrian artist | Art Nouveau |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1532-18] | |
| Private collection | 190 x 120 |
| While Klimt’s first landscapes date from the early 1880s, it was not until the late 1890s that he turned consistently to landscape subjects, during summer vacations spent in the picturesque Salzkammergut, outside the city of Salzburg. Landscape painting enabled him to experiment, free from the pressure of commissioned work and the distractions of the metropolis. After the early 1900s, when Klimt eschewed large public commissions and became more dependent upon selling his work, a ready supply of new landscapes proved useful. Klimt’s landscapes are now a highly admired aspect of his oeuvre. Klimt’s landscapes express his wider concerns with biological growth and the cycle of life. Their dazzling decorative surfaces and abstracted motifs align him with emergent modernist tendencies. [Source: gustav-klimt.com] |  Image source: wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Avenue Schlloss Kammer Park | 1912 | Oil/Canvas | Landscape |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Klimt, Gustav | 1862 – 1918, aged 55 | Austrian artist | Art Nouveau |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1532-19] | |
| Belvedere Palace and Museum, Prinz Eugen-Straße 27, 1030 Wien, Austria | 180 x 180 |
 Image source: wikimedia commons | Barbier was twenty-nine years old when he mounted his first exhibition in 1911 and was subsequently swept to the forefront of his profession with commissions to design theatre and ballet costumes, to illustrate books, and to produce haute couture fashion illustrations. For the next 20 years Barbier led a group from the Ecole des Beaux Arts who were nicknamed by Vogue ‘The Knights of the Bracelet’, a tribute to their fashionable and flamboyant mannerisms and style of dress. [Source: Wikimedia.commons} |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Jeanne Paquin Gown | 1914 | Lithograph | Illustration |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Barbier, George | 1882-1932, aged 50 | French illustrator | Art Nouveau |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | ||
| Unknown | 0 |
Forward to 1.5.3.3 Symbolism (1880s-1890s)
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