Art Nouveau: Art Nouveau and the Birth of Modern Design

Jean Lahor

Dec 2023 · Parkstone International

About this ebook

Art Nouveau gives a name to the decorative and architectural style developed in the 1880s and 1890s in the West. Born in reaction to the Industrial Revolution and to the creative vacuum it left behind, Art Nouveau was at the heart of a “renaissance” in the decorative arts. The primary objective of the movement was the creation of a new aesthetic of nature through a return to the study of natural subjects. In order to achieve this, artists such as Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Antoni Gaudí, Jan Toorop, and William Morris favoured innovation in technique and novelty of forms. After its triumph at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1900, the trend continued and has inspired many artists ever since. Art Deco, the successor of Art Nouveau, appeared after World War II.

About the author

Henri Cazalis (Jean Lahor) was a French doctor born in Cormeilles-en-Parisis in 1840. Cazalis was a symbolist poet and published under the pseudonyms Jean Caselli and Jean Lahor for many of his collections of poems and letters, including "The Illusion."Along with Sully Prudhomme (awarded the first Nobel Prize for Literature), Cazalis founded" The Society for the Protection of Landscapes and Aesthetics in France "which aims to protect the landscapes and heritage of the land to ensure a better quality of life in France. The society is still active today. Cazalis also corresponded with French poet and art critic, Stephane Mallarme.