About Art Nouveau and Its Beginnings 

Long, sinuous, organic lines evoke the sense of nature around us and the organic forms of life itself to create timeless, breathtaking works of art and function. Art Nouveau-style artists and craftspeople believed all arts should be united, creating a unified movement in art and design that could encompass many different forms and fields and seamlessly knit together.

For many, Art Nouveau wasn't just a style—but a societal movement toward adding artistry to the industrial revolution. This design and art movement is still capturing the hearts and minds of interior designers and homeowners alike, inspiring them to create stunning spaces, both somehow simple yet elaborate and delicate simultaneously.

Today, we walk through history to try to answer the question and define a movement: What is art nouveau style?

Art Nouveau's Roots

The Art Nouveau style's roots lie in England's Arts and Crafts Movement during the second half of the 19th century. Arts and Crafts, like the Art Nouveau movement, is generally seen as a response to the growing industrialization of Europe and the rise of factory mass production, often at the expense of traditional craftsmanship.

History credits the English designer, writer, socialist, and architect William Morris as the defining figure behind Art Nouveau. Morris was firmly against the lower production values and dehumanizing aspects of Victorian capitalism and sought inspiration from the communal values of the medieval era. Morris translated his ideals of what he believed artisanal craftsmanship should be and utilized styled floral and organic forms, resonating with many other artists then.

The first recorded usage of the term Art Nouveau appeared in a Belgian journal called L'Art Moderne in 1884, and it encompassed a group of reform-minded sculptors, designers, and painters calling themselves Les XX or Les Vingts. The group's founders, including James Ensor and Théo van Rysselberghe, helped spread the idea of the new movement around Europe. The movement was soon translated into various languages as it spread.
The movement's basis revolved around aesthetic values combined with exceptional standards of craftsmanship, with the idea that works of art should be beautiful and functional. They blended the world of fine art with the every day, seen in furniture design, silverware, architecture, paintings, graphic art, jewelry, fashion, and glassware.

Art Nouveau's Heights

Thanks to the 19th century's commercial retailing and mass production of goods, the 'look' of Art Nouveau became associated with luxury, thanks to publications and advertisements that soon made the style a household name. A wide array of Art Nouveau products were marketed to the middle class, who at the time had fashionable aspirations and disposable incomes.

In London, a single retailer, Liberty & Co., became one of Art Nouveau wares' most successful and influential retailers.

In the latter half of the 19th century, Japan's influence began to spread after the ports resumed trade with the West in 1853, which brought an immense volume of Japanese goods. Items such as porcelain, silks, fans, kimonos, and woodblock prints in the Ukiyo-e style became a phenomenon known as Japonism. Inspired by these items, Arthur Liberty from Liberty & Co. became among the first to adopt Japanese-inspired styles into his product ranges.
Japanese art styles became part of the Art Nouveau movement worldwide thanks to Seigfried Bing, an influential figure who ran an import-export business in Paris and edited for the monthly journal Le Japon Artistique.

Art Nouveau Furniture Characteristics

During its first years, Art Nouveau's characteristics began with striking ornate compositions, considered distinguished, unconventional, and daring without going too far against the artistic styles of the time. Though the general design could vary from location to location, country by country, Art Nouveau shares a few commonalities worldwide.

• - Themes from nature. Extensive ornamental motifs and carvings featuring flowers, leaves, trees, and birds strongly influenced this style, with the widespread peacock. Butterflies and dragonflies were also frequently used as decorative motifs as well.
• - Later, inspiration and themes from Gothic and Japanese art forms were incorporated, and artists' styles, such as Ogata Kōrin's work, influenced many different patterns and designs. Many artists brought borrowed motifs found from Japanese woodblock prints, such as angular, linear lines with grids and parallel lines with the curved, flowing impressions of blossoming tree branches, rivers, and kimono patterns.
• - While furniture remained largely symmetrical for functionality, master cabinetry designers would include minute asymmetrical aspects in hand-carved details to break up the lines and keep furniture appearing more natural.
• - Art Nouveau furniture utilized mahogany, walnut, and maple and often featured pieces with exotic wood mixed in as inlays like ebony or snakewood, then skillfully polished with a fine varnish that brought out the natural grain and color of the wood for more expensive pieces. Mass-produced Art Nouveau furniture could use anything from wood to iron, steel, cast iron, bronze, or other materials, making them more reasonably accessible to the middle and lower class.

Is Art Nouveau Still Popular Today?

The saying that history repeats itself can often sum up the design space in interior decoration and fashion. Art Nouveau continues to capture artists and designers today with familiar forms that interweave a warm nostalgia for times gone by and nature's beauty and calming ambiance. It makes sense to see so many turning to history once more in the hunger to decorate their homes and spaces with splashes of color, character, and inviting charm that have lasted for centuries.

In today's climate of seemingly cold, clean, minimalistic white spaces and flat aesthetics still dominating, people yearn for something brighter, bolder, and more beautiful that reflects their lives and themselves within the home.

Art Noveau remains appreciated because its significantly universally understood statement demands artistic freedom and the peace of natural beauty, which lends itself flawlessly to any other styles—allowing homeowners to incorporate this antique style into any décor they may already have.

If you are craving a look that represents your love of winding streams, flowers at full bloom, swans at rest—the Art Nouveau style may be the answer you've been dreaming of. We think dreamy muses covered in flowers and delicate, hypnotizing lines are stunning aspects worthy of our attention, and we believe that this is a genuinely ageless trend with something for everyone.