Stilo Liberty

Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern Style in English. It was popular between 1890 and 1910 during the Belle Époque period, and 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.Sembach, Klaus-Jürgen, ''L'Art Nouveau'' (2013), pp. 8–30

One major objective of Art Nouveau was to break down the traditional distinction between fine arts (especially painting and sculpture) and applied arts. It was most widely used in interior design, graphic arts, furniture, glass art, textiles, ceramics, jewellery and metal work. The style responded to leading 19-century theoreticians, such as French architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879) and British art critic John Ruskin (1819–1900). In Britain, it was influenced by William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. German architects and designers sought a spiritually uplifting '' Gesamtkunstwerk'' ("total work of art") that would unify the architecture, furnishings, and art in the interior in a common style, to uplift and inspire the residents.

The first Art Nouveau houses and interior decoration appeared in Brussels in the 1890s, in the architecture and interior design of houses designed by Paul Hankar, Henry van de Velde, and especially Victor Horta, whose Hôtel Tassel was completed in 1893.Victor Horta
– Encyclopædia Britannica It moved quickly to Paris, where it was adapted by Hector Guimard, who saw Horta's work in Brussels and applied the style for the entrances of the new Paris Métro. It reached its peak at the 1900 Paris International Exposition, which introduced the Art Nouveau work of artists such as Louis Tiffany. It appeared in graphic arts in the posters of Alphonse Mucha, and the glassware of René Lalique and Émile Gallé.

From Belgium and France, Art Nouveau spread to the rest of Europe, taking on different names and characteristics in each country (see Naming section below). It often appeared not only in capitals, but also in rapidly growing cities that wanted to establish artistic identities ( Turin and Palermo in Italy; Glasgow in Scotland; Munich and Darmstadt in Germany), as well as in centres of independence movements ( Helsinki in Finland, then part of the Russian Empire; Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain).

By 1914, and with the beginning of the First World War, Art Nouveau was largely exhausted. In the 1920s, it was replaced as the dominant architectural and decorative art style by Art Deco and then Modernism. The Art Nouveau style began to receive more positive attention from critics in the late 1960s, with a major exhibition of the work of Hector Guimard at the Museum of Modern Art in 1970.

Naming

The term ''Art Nouveau'' was first used in the 1880s in the Belgian journal '' L'Art Moderne'' to describe the work of '' Les Vingt'', twenty painters and sculptors seeking reform through art. The name was popularized by the ''Maison de l'Art Nouveau'' ("House of the New Art"), an art gallery opened in Paris in 1895 by the Franco-German art dealer Siegfried Bing. In Britain, the French term was commonly used, while in France, it was often called by the term (akin to the British term ''Modern Style''), or .Duncan (1994), pp. 23–24. In France, it was also sometimes called (after the novelist Jules Verne), (after Hector Guimard's iron and glass subway entrances), , or .Gontar, Cybele. Art Nouveau. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000 (October 2006)

Art Nouveau is related to, but not identical with, styles that emerged in many countries in Europe at about the same time. Their local names were often used in their respective countries to describe the whole movement.

* In Belgium, it was sometimes termed ("Whiplash style"), ("Eel style"), or ("Noodle style") by its detractors.
* In Britain, besides Art Nouveau, it was known as the ''Modern Style'', or, because of works of Glasgow School, as the ''Glasgow style''. The term ''Modern'' is also used in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine, and in Lithuania.
* In Germany and Scandinavia, it was called ("Reform style"), or '' Jugendstil'' ("Youth style"), after the popular German art magazine of that name, as well as ("Wave style"), or ("Lily style"). It is now called ''Jugend'' in Finland, Sweden and Norway, in Estonia, and in Latvia.
* In Denmark, it is known as ("Work of beauty").
* In Austria and the neighbouring countries then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, , or ("Secession style"), after the artists of the Vienna Secession ( hu, szecesszió, cs, secese, sk, secesia, pl, secesja).
* In Italy, it was often called Liberty style, after Arthur Lasenby Liberty, the founder of London's Liberty & Co, whose textile designs were popular. It was also sometimes called ("Floral style"), or ("New Art").
* In the United States, due to its association with Louis Comfort Tiffany, it was sometimes called the "Tiffany style".Michèle Lavallée, "Art Nouveau", '' Grove Dictionary of Art'' Oxford University Press, accessed 11 April 2008.
* In the Netherlands, it was called ("New Art"), or ("New style").
* In Portugal, .
* In Spain, , '' Modernisme'' (in Catalan) and ''Arte joven'' ("Young Art").
* In Switzerland, Style Sapin ("Fir tree style").
* In Finland, .
* In Russia, ("Modern") or, for painting, ('' Mir Iskusstva'', "World of Art").
* In Japan, ''Shiro-Uma''.
* In Romania, ''Arta 1900'' ("1900 Art"), ''Arta Nouă'' ("New Art") or ''Noul Stil'' ("New Style").

History

Origins

File:Philip Webb's Red House in Upton.jpg, The Red House by William Morris and Philip Webb (1859)
File:Acteur als hoveling-Rijksmuseum AK-MAK-1601A.jpeg, Japanese woodblock print by Utagawa Kunisada (1850s)
File:The Peacock Room.jpg, '' The Peacock Room'' by James McNeill Whistler (1876–77)
File:Chair LACMA M.2009.115 (5 of 5).jpg, Chair designed by Arthur Mackmurdo (1882–83)
File:Morris Wey printed textile design c 1883.jpg, William Morris printed textile design (1883)
File:Swan and Rush and Iris wallpaper Walter Crane.jpg, Swan, rush and iris wallpaper design by Walter Crane (1883)

The new art movement had its roots in Britain, in the floral designs of William Morris, and in the Arts and Crafts movement founded by the pupils of Morris. Early prototypes of the style include the Red House with interiors by Morris and architecture by Philip Webb (1859), and the lavish Peacock Room by James Abbott McNeill Whistler. The new movement was also strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite painters, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones, and especially by British graphic artists of the 1880s, including Selwyn Image, Heywood Sumner, Walter Crane, Alfred Gilbert, and especially Aubrey Beardsley. The chair designed by Arthur Mackmurdo has been recognized as a precursor of Art Nouveau design.

In France, it was influenced by the architectural theorist and historian Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, a declared enemy of the historical Beaux-Arts architectural style, whose theories on rationalism were derived from his study of medieval art:
* Function should define form.
* Unity of the arts and the abolition of any distinction between major art (architecture) and minor arts (decorative arts).
* Nature's logic is the model to be used for architecture.
* Architecture should adapt itself to man's environment and needs.
* Use of modern technologies and materials.
Viollet-le-Duc was himself a precursor of Art Nouveau: in 1851, at Notre-Dame de Paris, he created a series of mural paintings typical of the style. These paintings were removed in 1945 as deemed non academic. At the Château de Roquetaillade in the Bordeaux region, his interior decorations dating from 1865 also anticipate Art Nouveau. In his 1872 book ''Entretiens sur l'architecture'', he wrote, "Use the means and knowledge given to us by our times, without the intervening traditions which are no longer viable today, and in that way we can inaugurate a new architecture. For each function its material; for each material its form and its ornament." This book influenced a generation of architects, including Louis Sullivan, Victor Horta, Hector Guimard, and Antoni Gaudí.

The French painters Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard played an important part in integrating fine arts painting with decoration. "I believe that before everything a painting must decorate", Denis wrote in 1891. "The choice of subjects or scenes is nothing. It is by the value of tones, the coloured surface and the harmony of lines that I can reach the spirit and wake up the emotions." These painters all did both traditional painting and decorative painting on screens, in glass, and in other media.

Another important influence on the new style was Japonism. This was a wave of enthusiasm for Japanese woodblock printing, particularly the works of Hiroshige, Hokusai, and Utagawa Kunisada, which were imported into Europe beginning in the 1870s. The enterprising Siegfried Bing founded a monthly journal, ''Le Japon artistique'' in 1888, and published thirty-six issues before it ended in 1891. It influenced both collectors and artists, including Gustav Klimt. The stylized features of Japanese prints appeared in Art Nouveau graphics, porcelain, jewellery, and furniture. Since the beginning of 1860, a Far Eastern influence suddenly manifested. In 1862, art lovers from London or Paris, could buy Japanese artworks, because in that year, Japan appeared for the first time as an exhibitor at the International Exhibition in London. Also in 1862, in Paris, ''La Porte Chinoise'' store, on Rue de Rivoli, was open, where Japanese ukiyo-e and other objects from the Far East were sold. In 1867, ''Examples of Chinese Ornaments'' by Owen Jones appeared, and in 1870 ''Art and Industries in Japan'' by R. Alcock, and two years later, O. H. Moser and T. W. Cutler published books about Japanese art. Some Art Nouveau artists, like Victor Horta, owned a collection of Far Eastern art, especially Japanese.

New technologies in printing and publishing allowed Art Nouveau to quickly reach a global audience. Art magazines, illustrated with photographs and colour lithographs, played an essential role in popularizing the new style. '' The Studio'' in England, ''Arts et idèes'' and ''Art et décoration'' in France, and '' Jugend'' in Germany allowed the style to spread rapidly to all corners of Europe. Aubrey Beardsley in England, and Eugène Grasset, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Félix Vallotton achieved international recognition as illustrators.
With the posters by Jules Chéret for dancer Loie Fuller in 1893, and by Alphonse Mucha for actress Sarah Bernhardt in 1895, the poster became not just advertising, but an art form. Sarah Bernhardt set aside large numbers of her posters for sale to collectors.

Development – Brussels (1893–1898)

File:St-Gilles (Hankar) JPG01.jpg, Hankar House by Paul Hankar (1893)
File:Victor Horta Hotel Tassel.JPG, Facade of the Hôtel Tassel by Victor Horta (1892–93)
File:Tassel House stairway.JPG, Stairway of the Hôtel Tassel
File:Villa Bloemenwerf (front).JPG, Bloemenwerf house by Henry van de Velde (1895)
File:Henry van de Velde - Chair - 1895.jpg, Bloemenwerf chair made by Van de Velde for his residence (1895)
File:International Exhibition Brussels par Privat-Livemont.jpg, Poster for the International Exposition by Henri Privat-Livemont (1897)

The first Art Nouveau town houses, the Hankar House by Paul Hankar (1893) and the Hôtel Tassel by Victor Horta (1892–1893), were built almost simultaneously in Brussels. They were similar in their originality, but very different in their design and appearance.

Victor Horta was among the most influential architects of early Art Nouveau, and his Hôtel Tassel (1892–1893) in Brussels is one of the style's landmarks. Horta's architectural training was as an assistant to Alphonse Balat, architect to King Leopold II, constructing the monumental iron and glass Royal Greenhouses of Laeken.Culot and Pirlot, ''Bruxelles Art Nouveau'' (2005), pp. 74–75. He was a great admiror of Viollet-le-Duc, whose ideas he completely identified with. In 1892–1893, he put this experience to a very different use. He designed the residence of a prominent Belgian chemist, Émile Tassel, on a very narrow and deep site. The central element of the house was the stairway, not enclosed by walls, but open, decorated with a curling wrought-iron railing, and placed beneath a high skylight. The floors were supported by slender iron columns like the trunks of trees. The mosaic floors and walls were decorated with delicate arabesques in floral and vegetal forms, which became the most popular signature of the style. In a short period, Horta built three more town houses, all with open interiors, and all with skylights for maximum interior light: the Hôtel Solvay, the Hôtel van Eetvelde (for Edmond van Eetvelde), and the Maison & Atelier Horta. All four are now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Paul Hankar was also an innovator of early Art Nouveau. Born at Frameries, in Hainaut, the son of a master stone cutter, he had studied ornamental sculpture and decoration at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels from 1873 to 1884, whilst working as an ornamental sculptor. From 1879 to 1904, he worked in the studio of the prominent architect Henri Beyaert, a master of eclectic and neoclassical architecture. Through Beyaert, Hankar also became an admirer of Viollet-le-Duc. In 1893, Hankar designed and built the Hankar House, his own residence in Brussels. With a goal to create a synthesis of fine arts and decorative arts, he brought together the sculptor René Janssens and the painter to decorate the interior and exterior with sgraffiti, or murals. The facade and balconies featured iron decoration and curling lines in stylised floral patterns, which became an important feature of Art Nouveau. Based on this model, he built several houses for his artist friends. He also designed a series of innovative glass display windows for Brussels shops, restaurants and galleries, in what a local critic called "a veritable delirium of originality". He died in 1901, just as the movement was beginning to receive recognition.

Henry van de Velde, born in Antwerp, was another founding figure in the birth of Art Nouveau. Van de Velde's designs included the interior of his residence in Brussels, the Bloemenwerf (1895). The exterior of the house was inspired by the Red House, the residence of writer and theorist William Morris, the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement. Trained as a painter, Van de Velde turned to illustration, then to furniture design, and finally to architecture. For the Bloemenwerf, he created the textiles, wallpaper, silverware, jewellery, and even clothing, that matched the style of the residence. Van de Velde went to Paris, where he designed furniture and decoration for the German-French art dealer Siegfried Bing, whose Paris gallery gave the style its name. He was also an early Art Nouveau theorist, demanding the use of dynamic, often opposing lines. Van de Velde wrote: "A line is a force like all the other elementary forces. Several lines put together but opposed have a presence as strong as several forces". In 1906, he departed Belgium for Weimar (Germany), where he founded the Grand-Ducal School of Arts and Crafts, where the teaching of historical styles was forbidden. He played an important role in the German Werkbund, before returning to Belgium.

The debut of Art Nouveau architecture in Brussels was accompanied by a wave of Decorative Art in the new style. Important artists included Gustave Strauven, who used wrought iron to achieve baroque effects on Brussels facades; the furniture designer Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, known for his highly original chairs and articulated metal furniture; and the jewellery designer Philippe Wolfers, who made jewellery in the form of dragonflies, butterflies, swans and serpents.

The Brussels International Exposition held in 1897 brought international attention to the style; Horta, Hankar, Van de Velde, and Serrurier-Bovy, among others, took part in the design of the fair, and Henri Privat-Livemont created the poster for the exhibition.

Paris – Maison de l'Art Nouveau (1895) and Castel Beranger (1895–1898)

File:Art nouveau publicité galerie Samuel Bing Paris 1895.jpg, Siegfried Bing invited artists to show modern works in his new Maison de l'Art Nouveau (1895).
File:Galeries Bing entrée rue de Provence.jpg, The Maison de l'Art Nouveau gallery of Siegfried Bing (1895)
File:Vallotton pour Bing.jpg, Poster by Félix Vallotton for the new Maison de l'Art Nouveau (1896)
File:Castel Béranger, February 16, 2013.jpg, Gateway of the Castel Béranger by Hector Guimard (1895–1898)
File:Paris - Castel Béranger (30001340011).jpg, Breezeway of the Castel Béranger, with wall plates by Alexandre Bigot
File:Lescalier principal du Castel Béranger (Hector Guimard) (5478779855).jpg, Detail of main stairway of the Castel Béranger

The Franco-German art dealer and publisher Siegfried Bing played a key role in publicizing the style. In 1891, he founded a magazine devoted to the art of Japan, which helped publicize Japonism in Europe. In 1892, he organized an exhibit of seven artists, among them Pierre Bonnard, Félix Vallotton, Édouard Vuillard, Toulouse-Lautrec and Eugène Grasset, which included both modern painting and decorative work. This exhibition was shown at the Société nationale des beaux-arts in 1895. In the same year, Bing opened a new gallery at 22 rue de Provence in Paris, the Maison de l'Art Nouveau, devoted to new works in both the fine and decorative arts. The interior and furniture of the gallery were designed by the Belgian architect Henry van de Velde, one of the pioneers of Art Nouveau architecture. The ''Maison de l'Art Nouveau'' showed paintings by Georges Seurat, Paul Signac and Toulouse-Lautrec, glass from Louis Comfort Tiffany and Émile Gallé, jewellery by René Lalique, and posters by Aubrey Beardsley. The works shown there were not at all uniform in style. Bing wrote in 1902, "Art Nouveau, at the time of its creation, did not aspire in any way to have the honor of becoming a generic term. It was simply the name of a house opened as a rallying point for all the young and ardent artists impatient to show the modernity of their tendencies."

The style was quickly noticed in neighbouring France. After visiting Horta's Hôtel Tassel, Hector Guimard built the Castel Béranger, among the first Paris buildings in the new style, between 1895 and 1898. Parisians had been complaining of the monotony of the architecture of the boulevards built under Napoleon III by Georges-Eugène Haussmann. The Castel Beranger was a curious blend of Neo-Gothic and Art Nouveau, with curving whiplash lines and natural forms. Guimard, a skilled publicist for his work, declared: "What must be avoided at all cost is...the parallel and symmetry. Nature is the greatest builder of all, and nature makes nothing that is parallel and nothing that is symmetric."

Parisians welcomed Guimard's original and picturesque style; the Castel Béranger was chosen as one of the best new façades in Paris, launching Guimard's career. Guimard was given the commission to design the entrances for the new Paris Métro system, which brought the style to the attention of the millions of visitors to the city's 1900 ''Exposition Universelle''.

Paris ''Exposition Universelle'' (1900)

File:Grand entrance, Exposition Universal, 1900, Paris, France.jpg, Main entrance to the Paris 1900 ''Exposition Universelle''
File:The Bigot-pavilion at the Paris Universal Exposition, 1900.jpg, The Bigot Pavilion, showcasing the work of ceramics artist Alexandre Bigot
File:Paris Exposition Austrian Pavilion, Paris, France, 1900.jpg, Entrance to the Austrian Pavilion, with exhibits designed by Josef Hoffmann
File:Traubensaal.jpg, The German Pavilion by Bruno Möhring
Paris Metro 2 Porte Dauphine Libellule.JPG, Paris metro station entrance at Porte Dauphine designed by Hector Guimard for the 1900 ''Exposition universelle''
File:Finland paviljong.jpg, Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen won international recognition for their design of the pavilion of Finland
File:Menu for Bosnia Pavillion by Alfons Mucha 1900.jpg, Menu designed by Alphonse Mucha for the restaurant of the Bosnia Pavilion
File:Portique Sèvres, square Félix-Desruelles, Paris 6e.jpg, Portico of the Sevres Porcelain Pavilion (1900), now on square Félix-Desruelles in Paris

The Paris 1900 ''Exposition universelle'' marked the high point of Art Nouveau. Between April and November 1900, it attracted nearly fifty million visitors from around the world, and showcased the architecture, design, glassware, furniture and decorative objects of the style. The architecture of the Exposition was often a mixture of Art Nouveau and Beaux-Arts architecture: the main exhibit hall, the Grand Palais had a Beaux-Arts façade completely unrelated to the spectacular Art Nouveau stairway and exhibit hall in the interior.

French designers all made special works for the Exhibition: Lalique crystal and jewellery; jewellery by Henri Vever and Georges Fouquet; Daum glass; the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres in porcelain; ceramics by Alexandre Bigot; sculpted glass lamps and vases by Émile Gallé; furniture by Édouard Colonna and Louis Majorelle; and many other prominent arts and crafts firms. At the 1900 Paris Exposition, Siegfried Bing presented a pavilion called '' Art Nouveau Bing'', which featured six different interiors entirely decorated in the Style.

The Exposition was the first international showcase for Art Nouveau designers and artists from across Europe and beyond. Prize winners and participants included Alphonse Mucha, who made murals for the pavilion of Bosnia-Herzegovina and designed the menu for the restaurant of the pavilion; the decorators and designers Bruno Paul and Bruno Möhring from Berlin; Carlo Bugatti from Turin; Bernhardt Pankok from Bavaria; The Russian architect-designer Fyodor Schechtel, and Louis Comfort Tiffany and Company from the United States. The Viennese architect Otto Wagner was a member of the jury, and presented a model of the Art Nouveau bathroom of his own town apartment in Vienna, featuring a glass bathtub. Josef Hoffmann designed the Viennese exhibit at the Paris exposition, highlighting the designs of the Vienna Secession. Eliel Saarinen first won international recognition for his imaginative design of the pavilion of Finland.

While the Paris Exposition was by far the largest, other expositions did much to popularize the style. The 1888 Barcelona Universal Exposition marked the beginning of the Modernisme style in Spain, with some buildings of Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The '' Esposizione internazionale d'arte decorativa moderna'' of 1902 in Turin, Italy, showcased designers from across Europe, including Victor Horta from Belgium and Joseph Maria Olbrich from Vienna, along with local artists such as Carlo Bugatti, Galileo Chini and Eugenio Quarti.

Local variations

Art Nouveau in France

File:Immeuble art nouveau de Jules Lavirotte à Paris (5519755116).jpg, Facade of the Lavirotte Building by Jules Lavirotte, 29, , Paris (1901)
File:XDSC 7288-29-av-Rapp-paris-7.jpg, Doorway of the Lavirotte Building, with ceramic sculptures by
File:MuchaFouquet3.jpg, The jewellery shop of Georges Fouquet at 6, , Paris, designed by Alphonse Mucha, now in the Carnavalet Museum (1901)
File:Villa Majorelle facade.JPG, The Villa Majorelle in Nancy for furniture designer Louis Majorelle by architect Henri Sauvage (1901–02)
File:La Samaritaine rue de la Monnaie 2.jpg, Facade of '' La Samaritaine'' department store by Frantz Jourdain, , Paris (1905–1910)

Following the 1900 Exposition, the capital of Art Nouveau was Paris. The most extravagant residences in the style were built by Jules Lavirotte, who entirely covered the façades with ceramic sculptural decoration. The most flamboyant example is the Lavirotte Building, at 29, (1901). Office buildings and department stores featured high courtyards covered with stained glass cupolas and ceramic decoration. The style was particularly popular in restaurants and cafés, including '' Maxim's'' at 3, ''rue Royale'', and ''Le Train bleu'' at the Gare de Lyon (1900).

The status of Paris attracted foreign artists to the city. The Swiss-born artist Eugène Grasset was one of the first creators of French Art Nouveau posters. He helped decorate the famous cabaret Le Chat Noir in 1885, made his first posters for the ''Fêtes de Paris'' and a celebrated poster of Sarah Bernhardt in 1890. In Paris, he taught at the Guérin school of art (''École normale d'enseignement du dessin''), where his students included Augusto Giacometti and Paul Berthon. Swiss-born Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen created the famous poster for the Paris cabaret ''Le Chat noir'' in 1896. The Czech artist Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939) arrived in Paris in 1888, and in 1895, made a poster for actress Sarah Bernhardt in the play ''Gismonda'' by Victorien Sardou in Théâtre de la Renaissance. The success of this poster led to a contract to produce posters for six more plays by Bernhardt.

The city of Nancy in Lorraine became the other French capital of the new style. In 1901, the ''Alliance provinciale des industries d'art'', also known as the ''École de Nancy'', was founded, dedicated to upsetting the hierarchy that put painting and sculpture above the decorative arts. The major artists working there included the glass vase and lamp creators Émile Gallé, the Daum brothers in glass design, and the designer Louis Majorelle, who created furniture with graceful floral and vegetal forms. The architect Henri Sauvage brought the new architectural style to Nancy with his Villa Majorelle in 1902.

File:Tea set, by Bapst & Falize, Germain Bapst, and Lucien Falize, partially gilt silver, ivory and agate, inv. 23868 A-D, MAD Paris.jpg, Tea set by Bapst & Falize, Germain Bapst, and Lucien Falize, made of partially gilt silver, ivory and agate ()
File:Cheret, Jules - La Loie Fuller (pl 73).jpg, Poster for the dancer Loie Fuller by Jules Chéret (1893)
File:Martin nancy1894.jpg, Poster by Camille Martin for ''L'Exposition d'art décoratif'' at the Galeries Poirel in Nancy (1894)
File:Alphonse Mucha - Poster for Victorien Sardou's Gismonda starring Sarah Bernhardt.jpg, Poster by Alphonse Mucha for ''Gismonda'' starring Sarah Bernhardt (1894)
File:Émile andrè, ed eugéne vallin, porta di un camerino dei magasing françois vaxelaire et cie, nancy 1901 (vetrata di jacques gruber).JPG, Doors with stained glass for the Store of Francois Vaexlaire in Nancy (1901), glass by Jacques Grüber, doors by Émile Andrè and Eugéne Vallin
File:Chambre à coucher Majorelle.jpg, Bedroom furniture of the Villa Majorelle (1901–02), now in the Museum of Fine Arts of Nancy
File:René lalique, pettine in corno, oro, smalti e brillanti, 1902 ca.JPG, Comb of horn, gold, and diamonds by René Lalique () (Musée d'Orsay, Paris)

The French style was widely propagated by new magazines, including ''The Studio'', ''Arts et Idées'' and ''Art et Décoration'', whose photographs and colour lithographs made the style known to designers and wealthy clients around the world.

In France, the style reached its summit in 1900, and thereafter slipped rapidly out of fashion, virtually disappearing from France by 1905. Art Nouveau was a luxury style, which required expert and highly-paid craftsmen, and could not be easily or cheaply mass-produced. One of the few Art Nouveau products that could be mass-produced was the perfume bottle, and these are still manufactured in the style today.

Art Nouveau in Belgium

File:Henry van de velde, sedia, belgio 1896.JPG, Chair by Henry van de Velde (1896)
File:Philippe Wolfers, Plumes de Paon, KMKG-MRAH.jpg, Philippe Wolfers, ''Plumes de Paon'' ("Peacock Feathers"), belt buckle (1898)
File:Old England facade, Brussels (DSCF7544).jpg, Former Old England department store by Paul Saintenoy, Brussels (1898–99)
File:Gustave Serrurier-Bovy.jpg, Bed and mirror by Gustave Serrurier-Bovy (1898–99), now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris
File:Belgique - Bruxelles - Hôtel Van Eetvelde - 01.jpg, The Hôtel van Eetvelde by Victor Horta, Brussels (1898–1900)
File:Belgique - Bruxelles - Hôtel Van Eetvelde - 20.jpg, Detail of the Winter Garden of the Hôtel van Eetvelde
File:Maison Saint-Cyr (DSCF7558).jpg, Saint-Cyr House by Gustave Strauven, Brussels (1901–1903)
File:Maison Cauchie-445.jpg, House of the architect Paul Cauchie featuring sgraffito, Brussels (1905)

Belgium was an early centre of Art Nouveau, thanks largely to the architecture of Victor Horta, who designed one of the first Art Nouveau houses, the Hôtel Tassel in 1893, and three other townhouses in variations of the same style. They are now UNESCO World Heritage sites. Horta had a strong influence on the work of the young Hector Guimard, who came to see the Hôtel Tassel under construction, and later declared that Horta was the "inventor" of the Art Nouveau. Horta's innovation was not the facade, but the interior, using an abundance of iron and glass to open up space and flood the rooms with light, and decorating them with wrought iron columns and railings in curving vegetal forms, which were echoed on the floors and walls, as well as the furniture and carpets which Horta designed.

Paul Hankar was another pioneer of Brussels' Art Nouveau. His house was completed in 1903, the same year as Horta's Hôtel Tassel, and featured sgraffiti murals on the facade. Hankar was influenced by both Viollet-le-Duc and the ideas of the English Arts and Crafts movement. His conception idea was to bring together decorative and fine arts in a coherent whole. He commissioned the sculptor Alfred Crick and the painter to decorate the facades of houses with their work. The most striking example was the house and studio built for the artist Albert Ciamberlani at 48, / in Brussels, for which he created an exuberant facade covered with sgraffito murals with painted figures and ornament, recreating the decorative architecture of the Quattrocento, or 15th-century Italy. Hankar died in 1901, when his work was just receiving recognition.

Gustave Strauven began his career as an assistant designer working with Horta, before he started his own practice at age 21, making some of the most extravagant Art Nouveau buildings in Brussels. His most famous work is the Saint-Cyr House at 11, /. The house is only wide, but is given extraordinary height by his elaborate architectural inventions. It is entirely covered by polychrome bricks and a network of curling vegetal forms in wrought iron, in a virtually Art Nouveau-Baroque style.

Other important Art Nouveau artists from Belgium included the architect and designer Henry van de Velde, though the most important part of his career was spent in Germany; he strongly influenced the decoration of the Jugendstil. Others included the decorator Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, and the graphic artist Fernand Khnopff. Belgian designers took advantage of an abundant supply of ivory imported from the Belgian Congo; mixed sculptures, combining stone, metal and ivory, by such artists as Philippe Wolfers, was popular.

''Nieuwe Kunst'' in the Netherlands

File:Delftsche Slaolie.jpeg, Poster for Delft Salad Oil by Jan Toorop