NORBERT WOLF

PRESTEL
MUNICH LONDON NEW YORK
 NORBERT WOLF

PRESTEL
MUNICH LONDON NEW YORK
12 INTRODUCTION 120 FROM RUSKIN TO THE AESTHETIC MOVEMENT 188 AUSTRIA
14 I THE NEW STYLE: AN APPROACH 121 WILLIAM MORRIS, THE PRE-RAPHAELITES, 189 THE WIENER WERKSTÄTTE
18 ART LUXURY—LUXURY ART AND THE ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT 190 Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser
20 THE MATTER OF ADVERTISING 126 THE FRENCH PROPHETS 194 THE UNITED STATES

23 A NEW AESTHETIC OF LIGHT 127 TOULOUSE-LAUTREC 195 NEW YORK AND TIFFANY
128 GAUGUIN AND THE NABIS 197 CHICAGO AND SULLIVAN
25 LUXURY FASHION AND REFORM DRESS
30 “MOBILIZING INWARDNESS” OR THE 132 IN THE ORBIT OF SYMBOLISM
BREAK WITH THE STATUS QUO
200 VI IMAGE SYSTEMS
204 FRANZ VON STUCK
32 SELF-PROMOTION: THE ART MAGAZINES 136 V EVERYWHERE AN
214 GUSTAV KLIMT
AWAKENING: THE GREAT
224 FERDINAND HODLER
36 II PROBLEMS OF STYLE CENTERS OF ART NOUVEAU
232 EDVARD MUNCH
40 VISIONS OF UNITY AND SPIRITUALIZATIONS 140 GREAT BRITAIN
41 YOUTH—AWAKENING 141 GLASGOW AND MACKINTOSH
238 VII ART NOUVEAU AND THE AVANTGARDE
46 “SACRED SPRING” 148 FRANCE
240 THE PARADIGM OF ARCHITECTURE
59 TOTAL WORKS OF ART 149 PARIS
241 VIENNA: BETWEEN RINGSTRASSE
62 A CONSCIOUSNESS OF STYLE 149 La Maison Bing AND “WHITE CITY”
64 “RINASCI” 150 Guimard 241 Otto Wagner
153 Mucha
246 Adolf Loos
68 III THE PHYSIOGNOMY OF STYLE 154 GALLÉ AND THE ÉCOLE DE NANCY
252 THE CASTING OUT OF ORNAMENT
70 THE CULT OF BEAUTY 160 BELGIUM
256 THE PARADIGM OF PAINTING
71 THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN 161 HENRY VAN DE VELDE: THE HOUSE IN UCCLE
257 František Kupka
78 THE MAGIC OF JEWELRY 162 VICTOR HORTA
257 Kandinsky and the Blaue Reiter
84 SYNESTHESIA 166 THE NETHERLANDS
262 Piet Mondrian and De Stijl
85 BUILT SYMPHONIES 168 SPAIN
87 PAINTED MUSIC AND DANCED ARABESQUES 169 ANTONI GAUDÍ
266 VIII CONCLUSION AND PROSPECTS
98 ORNAMENTS AND LINES 172 GERMANY
268 BETWEEN REALITY AND UTOPIA
99 POLARIZATIONS 173 BERLIN AND WORPSWEDE 272 THE SEMANTICS OF DESIGN
106 JAPONISM 177 MUNICH 276 THE REVIVAL OF ART NOUVEAU
179 THE ARTISTS OF THE DARMSTADT MATHILDENHÖHE
110 IV PRELUDES 180 Joseph Maria Olbrich 282 APPENDICES
114 THE ENGLISH PATH 182 Peter Behrens 290 REFERENCES AND SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
115 FROM BLAKE TO BEARDSLEY 183 HAGEN, WEIMAR AND VAN DE VELDE 295 INDEX OF NAMES
12 INTRODUCTION 120 FROM RUSKIN TO THE AESTHETIC MOVEMENT 188 AUSTRIA
14 I THE NEW STYLE: AN APPROACH 121 WILLIAM MORRIS, THE PRE-RAPHAELITES, 189 THE WIENER WERKSTÄTTE
18 ART LUXURY—LUXURY ART AND THE ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT 190 Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser
20 THE MATTER OF ADVERTISING 126 THE FRENCH PROPHETS 194 THE UNITED STATES

23 A NEW AESTHETIC OF LIGHT 127 TOULOUSE-LAUTREC 195 NEW YORK AND TIFFANY
128 GAUGUIN AND THE NABIS 197 CHICAGO AND SULLIVAN
25 LUXURY FASHION AND REFORM DRESS
30 “MOBILIZING INWARDNESS” OR THE 132 IN THE ORBIT OF SYMBOLISM
BREAK WITH THE STATUS QUO
200 VI IMAGE SYSTEMS
204 FRANZ VON STUCK
32 SELF-PROMOTION: THE ART MAGAZINES 136 V EVERYWHERE AN
214 GUSTAV KLIMT
AWAKENING: THE GREAT
224 FERDINAND HODLER
36 II PROBLEMS OF STYLE CENTERS OF ART NOUVEAU
232 EDVARD MUNCH
40 VISIONS OF UNITY AND SPIRITUALIZATIONS 140 GREAT BRITAIN
41 YOUTH—AWAKENING 141 GLASGOW AND MACKINTOSH
238 VII ART NOUVEAU AND THE AVANTGARDE
46 “SACRED SPRING” 148 FRANCE
240 THE PARADIGM OF ARCHITECTURE
59 TOTAL WORKS OF ART 149 PARIS
241 VIENNA: BETWEEN RINGSTRASSE
62 A CONSCIOUSNESS OF STYLE 149 La Maison Bing AND “WHITE CITY”
64 “RINASCI” 150 Guimard 241 Otto Wagner
153 Mucha
246 Adolf Loos
68 III THE PHYSIOGNOMY OF STYLE 154 GALLÉ AND THE ÉCOLE DE NANCY
252 THE CASTING OUT OF ORNAMENT
70 THE CULT OF BEAUTY 160 BELGIUM
256 THE PARADIGM OF PAINTING
71 THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN 161 HENRY VAN DE VELDE: THE HOUSE IN UCCLE
257 František Kupka
78 THE MAGIC OF JEWELRY 162 VICTOR HORTA
257 Kandinsky and the Blaue Reiter
84 SYNESTHESIA 166 THE NETHERLANDS
262 Piet Mondrian and De Stijl
85 BUILT SYMPHONIES 168 SPAIN
87 PAINTED MUSIC AND DANCED ARABESQUES 169 ANTONI GAUDÍ
266 VIII CONCLUSION AND PROSPECTS
98 ORNAMENTS AND LINES 172 GERMANY
268 BETWEEN REALITY AND UTOPIA
99 POLARIZATIONS 173 BERLIN AND WORPSWEDE 272 THE SEMANTICS OF DESIGN
106 JAPONISM 177 MUNICH 276 THE REVIVAL OF ART NOUVEAU
179 THE ARTISTS OF THE DARMSTADT MATHILDENHÖHE
110 IV PRELUDES 180 Joseph Maria Olbrich 282 APPENDICES
114 THE ENGLISH PATH 182 Peter Behrens 290 REFERENCES AND SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
115 FROM BLAKE TO BEARDSLEY 183 HAGEN, WEIMAR AND VAN DE VELDE 295 INDEX OF NAMES
 INTRODUCTION 13

Art Nouveau cannot be presumed to have the to Art Nouveau or that closely touched upon it, in able for children, into a style of life and of binding there any intention to list designers, artists, and their
same degree of art historical and cultural histori- particular Symbolism. these to an ideal. works anywhere near completely.3
cal significance as, for example, Impressionism or The first sees the new movement, which began The present book thus investigates fundamental
Expressionism. For this reason I will approach its CHAPTER V is devoted to the main centers of the toward the end of the nineteenth century, in terms aspects. It raises, not least, the question of whether
origins and historical development as carefully as style and their artistic exponents, with the excep- of cultural psychology, and locates its guiding image one must presuppose an “inborn” failure on the part
possible, that is to say as impartially as possible. tion of four outstanding painters for whom I in Narcissistic self-love: “Man is never less immedi- of Art Nouveau, or whether this assumption is not
reserve a special chapter, which follows. ate than when he seeks to bring forth the immediate the result of an overly narrow avant-garde view, into
CHAPTER I concerns phenomena linked with the expression of himself. The idea of Jugendstil [as con- whose coordinates “art nouveau” does not quite fit.
style’s “self-promotion.” Did it react to the modern CHAPTER VI examines the works and impact of temporary Germans termed Art Nouveau] was to These objectives simultaneously declare what
world of consumerism with what Walter Benjamin Franz von Stuck, Gustav Klimt, Ferdinand Hodler, surround people, in fact the era in its entirety … the book does not aim to achieve: It is not one of
called a “mobilization of inwardness” or did it and Edvard Munch. It also returns to the question with nothing but reflections of their own inner that large group of publications that organize the
place priority on an attempt to avoid being clois- raised previously of whether the art form of paint- selves … Narcissus died because he lost himself in development of Art Nouveau chronologically or
tered off from the world and rather to oppose the ing must be excluded from Art Nouveau; whether, his own reflection.”1 According to this view, Art Nou- in terms of art as a whole. Only chapter VII follows
contemporary industrialized world? that is, Art Nouveau is realized only in the crafts veau’s “autism,” its aesthetic self-reflection in a mass this model, with the intention of making it possible
and in architecture. society, necessarily led to its swift conclusion. to glean synoptic information of undoubted signifi-
CHAPTER II seeks to clarify a problem rooted in the The second interpretation, which could title cance. But all the other chapters examine the fun-
contemporary terms “Art Nouveau,” “Jugendstil,” CHAPTER VII deals with the relationship between itself “How Modernism Learned to Walk,” locates damental problems with which Art Nouveau saw
“Modern Style,” and so on: whether the self-image Art Nouveau and the Functionalism of the early the failure of Art Nouveau not in its Narcissism, itself confronted in the historical and socio-cultural
expressed in these gives us the right, from the per- twentieth century, which sought to allow art to but rather in the opposing attempt, namely in its context of the epochal threshold around 1900.
spective of art historical scholarship, to similarly be absorbed into everyday usefulness and thus effort “to bring about a reconciliation of conven- In order to keep the bibliography within bounds,
speak of a “style.” I believe that a comparison with to dispense with “superfluous” decoration. The tional expectations about art with the phenomena I have limited myself to important works that are
the paradigm of Renaissance style permits impor- apologists for an ornament-free art categorically of the technological age,” and especially with the relatively easily accessible to the reader. I also
tant conclusions to be drawn, which additionally condemned Art Nouveau as a cosmetic aesthetic driving impulses of technocratic motion. “The fact sought to set limits to the footnotes by generally
illuminate Art Nouveau’s penchant for the Gesamt- of repression, as a fundamental self-delusion and that something like this was possibly a self-con- citing only quotations or particularly important
kunstwerk, or “total” work of art. cultural illusion; was this condemnation based tradiction can be suspected, but it became certain sources of ideas from the literature. As a rule I have
upon appropriate premises? first through Jugendstil. This was surely painful; avoided listing again in the footnotes publications
The concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk also creates its continuing popularity can therefore only be already in the bibliography that clearly deal with
a transition to the idea of the “physiognomy” of CHAPTER VIII returns to this problem in a resumptive interpreted as the irrational desire to repeatedly concrete artists, factual matters, and so on. This
style, discussed in CHAPTER III, whose most impor- look back at the history of Art Nouveau and in light delay this moment of realization. For this reason limitation should not lead the reader to falsely pre-
tant features lie in the all-encompassing cult of of its revival, which began a couple of decades ago Jugendstil will … probably live on forever as the sume that my investigations are not indebted to all
beauty (which proves itself obsolete in the further (“metaphor of a utopian hope”—see below). metaphor of a utopian hope.”2 the publications mentioned.
course of the twentieth century), in the striving for
synesthetic harmony, and in the immense signifi- Two positions, which I single out from the litera- Obviously, the organizational structure of this book In addition I would like to thank Stefanie Penck of
cance of ornament and decoration. ture, offer extremely contrasting perspectives on necessarily ignores a whole array of points: in par- Prestel Verlag, who supported this project from the
Art Nouveau, which ventured the attempt—a late ticular technological aspects and questions of pro- very beginning; Anita Dahlinger for her astute and
In order to classify these qualities within the his- one in terms of cultural history—of combining duction technology have been set aside, for example thorough image research; and not least Eckhard
torical development, CHAPTER IV introduces those intrinsically artistic forms, but also fashion, dance, in the case of decorative glass and furniture, just as Hollmann, whose editorial supervision of the text
nineteenth-century artistic movements that led the culture of eating, and an environment suit- has a listing of factory, workshops, and so on. Nor is was performed with reliable and seasoned diligence.

12
 INTRODUCTION 13

Art Nouveau cannot be presumed to have the to Art Nouveau or that closely touched upon it, in able for children, into a style of life and of binding there any intention to list designers, artists, and their
same degree of art historical and cultural histori- particular Symbolism. these to an ideal. works anywhere near completely.3
cal significance as, for example, Impressionism or The first sees the new movement, which began The present book thus investigates fundamental
Expressionism. For this reason I will approach its CHAPTER V is devoted to the main centers of the toward the end of the nineteenth century, in terms aspects. It raises, not least, the question of whether
origins and historical development as carefully as style and their artistic exponents, with the excep- of cultural psychology, and locates its guiding image one must presuppose an “inborn” failure on the part
possible, that is to say as impartially as possible. tion of four outstanding painters for whom I in Narcissistic self-love: “Man is never less immedi- of Art Nouveau, or whether this assumption is not
reserve a special chapter, which follows. ate than when he seeks to bring forth the immediate the result of an overly narrow avant-garde view, into
CHAPTER I concerns phenomena linked with the expression of himself. The idea of Jugendstil [as con- whose coordinates “art nouveau” does not quite fit.
style’s “self-promotion.” Did it react to the modern CHAPTER VI examines the works and impact of temporary Germans termed Art Nouveau] was to These objectives simultaneously declare what
world of consumerism with what Walter Benjamin Franz von Stuck, Gustav Klimt, Ferdinand Hodler, surround people, in fact the era in its entirety … the book does not aim to achieve: It is not one of
called a “mobilization of inwardness” or did it and Edvard Munch. It also returns to the question with nothing but reflections of their own inner that large group of publications that organize the
place priority on an attempt to avoid being clois- raised previously of whether the art form of paint- selves … Narcissus died because he lost himself in development of Art Nouveau chronologically or
tered off from the world and rather to oppose the ing must be excluded from Art Nouveau; whether, his own reflection.”1 According to this view, Art Nou- in terms of art as a whole. Only chapter VII follows
contemporary industrialized world? that is, Art Nouveau is realized only in the crafts veau’s “autism,” its aesthetic self-reflection in a mass this model, with the intention of making it possible
and in architecture. society, necessarily led to its swift conclusion. to glean synoptic information of undoubted signifi-
CHAPTER II seeks to clarify a problem rooted in the The second interpretation, which could title cance. But all the other chapters examine the fun-
contemporary terms “Art Nouveau,” “Jugendstil,” CHAPTER VII deals with the relationship between itself “How Modernism Learned to Walk,” locates damental problems with which Art Nouveau saw
“Modern Style,” and so on: whether the self-image Art Nouveau and the Functionalism of the early the failure of Art Nouveau not in its Narcissism, itself confronted in the historical and socio-cultural
expressed in these gives us the right, from the per- twentieth century, which sought to allow art to but rather in the opposing attempt, namely in its context of the epochal threshold around 1900.
spective of art historical scholarship, to similarly be absorbed into everyday usefulness and thus effort “to bring about a reconciliation of conven- In order to keep the bibliography within bounds,
speak of a “style.” I believe that a comparison with to dispense with “superfluous” decoration. The tional expectations about art with the phenomena I have limited myself to important works that are
the paradigm of Renaissance style permits impor- apologists for an ornament-free art categorically of the technological age,” and especially with the relatively easily accessible to the reader. I also
tant conclusions to be drawn, which additionally condemned Art Nouveau as a cosmetic aesthetic driving impulses of technocratic motion. “The fact sought to set limits to the footnotes by generally
illuminate Art Nouveau’s penchant for the Gesamt- of repression, as a fundamental self-delusion and that something like this was possibly a self-con- citing only quotations or particularly important
kunstwerk, or “total” work of art. cultural illusion; was this condemnation based tradiction can be suspected, but it became certain sources of ideas from the literature. As a rule I have
upon appropriate premises? first through Jugendstil. This was surely painful; avoided listing again in the footnotes publications
The concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk also creates its continuing popularity can therefore only be already in the bibliography that clearly deal with
a transition to the idea of the “physiognomy” of CHAPTER VIII returns to this problem in a resumptive interpreted as the irrational desire to repeatedly concrete artists, factual matters, and so on. This
style, discussed in CHAPTER III, whose most impor- look back at the history of Art Nouveau and in light delay this moment of realization. For this reason limitation should not lead the reader to falsely pre-
tant features lie in the all-encompassing cult of of its revival, which began a couple of decades ago Jugendstil will … probably live on forever as the sume that my investigations are not indebted to all
beauty (which proves itself obsolete in the further (“metaphor of a utopian hope”—see below). metaphor of a utopian hope.”2 the publications mentioned.
course of the twentieth century), in the striving for
synesthetic harmony, and in the immense signifi- Two positions, which I single out from the litera- Obviously, the organizational structure of this book In addition I would like to thank Stefanie Penck of
cance of ornament and decoration. ture, offer extremely contrasting perspectives on necessarily ignores a whole array of points: in par- Prestel Verlag, who supported this project from the
Art Nouveau, which ventured the attempt—a late ticular technological aspects and questions of pro- very beginning; Anita Dahlinger for her astute and
In order to classify these qualities within the his- one in terms of cultural history—of combining duction technology have been set aside, for example thorough image research; and not least Eckhard
torical development, CHAPTER IV introduces those intrinsically artistic forms, but also fashion, dance, in the case of decorative glass and furniture, just as Hollmann, whose editorial supervision of the text
nineteenth-century artistic movements that led the culture of eating, and an environment suit- has a listing of factory, workshops, and so on. Nor is was performed with reliable and seasoned diligence.

12
 I
THE NEW
STYLE: AN
APPROACH
 I
THE NEW
STYLE: AN
APPROACH
 PLANTS ARE ORGANIZED artist sees the flow of line as the formal echo of a
non-objective, poetical sentiment and as a result
Harry Graf Kessler, too, at the end of the
nineteenth century, deemed the cooperation
led to organic or zoomorphic “growths” as in
the work of Antoni Gaudí (compare pp. 52/53
17

BEINGS, POSSESSED OF abstracts it much more severely. between “high” and “applied” art as a gain for the and 168ff.). The playfully flamboyant version,
A POWER OF GROWTH. Henry van de Velde was one of the most impor-
latter: Now, he enthusiastically stated, “for the first
time, the applied arts [participate] in the mystical
Easton believed, invited parody, thus prompt-
ing its imminent demise. Easton thus concurs
Christopher Dresser, 1859 tant representatives of a new style, one that radiance that has always transfigured the great with those authors who place the death of Art
understood itself as the beacon of a new cultural art, architecture, sculpture, and painting. While Nouveau in the first decade of the twentieth
era. In 1902 it made its impressive collective insurmountable obstacles kept them [the cultural century. Following upon floral Art Nouveau, a
WHAT IMPEDES THE ENGLISH appearance on the international stage: With its
motto “Le Arti Decorative Internazionali Del Nuovo
pioneers; N. W.] for the time being away from the
design of practical life …, in art the adaptation
movement emerged that was liberated from
the stream of ornament, and was practiced by
IS THEIR INABILITY TO FREE Secolo,” the great decorative arts show in Turin to the new feeling for life met with the weakest artists such as Henry van de Velde, Charles Ren-
THEMSELVES FROM THE brought together products from America, Eng-
land, Belgium, Germany, Austria, France, Den-
resistance. For this reason, it was there that the
profound transformation from old to new human
nie Mackintosh, and Josef Hoffmann.10 But with
this, Easton claims, Art Nouveau had reached
FLOWER. mark, Holland, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Hun- being first manifested itself.”8 its conclusion, for now began a radically “orna-
gary, and the host country Italy.5 The exponents Clearly then, the amount of avant-garde ment-free” and technical design, which, via Otto
Julius Meyer-Graefe, 1896 represented all possible design options, ones that power one attributes to the new style—and Wagner, Adolf Loos, Peter Behrens, and others,
would have pleased someone like Meier-Graefe as which kind of power—is a function of what one led to the German Bauhaus or, in the US, to the
well as ones that abandoned themselves unreserv- discursively subsumes under it or “expects” from Functionalist building style of Louis Henry Sul-
edly to a horror vacui of floral ornament. Self-cel- it. Henry Wilson’s design for the Ladbroke Grove livan and Frank Lloyd Wright.11
The English designer Christopher Dresser4 began ebratory ostentation, which carried forward the Free Library in London in 1890–91 has been A minority of scholars sees the formal con-
teaching at the design school of London’s South bourgeois historicism and exoticism of the previ- described by several architectural historians as trast just described as arising genetically from Art
Kensington Museum, today’s Victoria and Albert ous years clothed in a new “stylistic dress”—and the earliest example of the new style—of Art Nou- Nouveau, as two sides of one and the same coin,
Museum, in 1859. That same year he published that not infrequently crossed the line into kitsch— veau—in Europe, an assessment rejected by Tim so to speak, and sees this matrix as remaining
his book Unity in Variety. Deduced from the Veg- encountered an unadorned formalism that even Benton, however, for it is based solely on a small in effect at least into the years of the First World
etable Kingdom in London. On the very first today is still considered “classically” modern. number of superficial decorative elements.9 In the War. Later chapters will attempt to show why I
page can be found the sentence quoted in the The new aesthetic, to which a different nomen- field of painting, long before Kandinsky, experi- share this view.
epigraph above, which ultimately relates all clature was applied in each country, is considered ments conducted with ornamental abstraction in
individual forms of vegetation back to essential by some art historians to be the last unified style the style of Henry van de Velde’s image Abstract
“lines of life.” since the Baroque; by others, however, it is seen as Plants (Abstrakte Pflanzenkomposition) of 1893 (fig.
It was just this clinging to plant-based orna- a “non-style,” since allegedly any common design right) had been considered incunabula of the new
ment by the English applied arts that became the criteria manifested themselves only in architecture style. While researchers generally date its begin-
subject of criticism by German art writer Julius and the applied arts, but not in painting or sculpture. nings to the 1890s, the chronology of its closing
Meier-Graefe on page 77 of volume 1, book 2 Klaus-Jürgen Sembach wrote in 1990 that Art Nou- stages presents significant problems.
of the magazine Dekorative Kunst. To his mind, veau expressed itself only in the field of the applied
the dominance of the “flower” obstructed the arts and that to transfer the stylistic term to painting Laird M. Easton postulates three formal prem-
forward-looking path of the “pure” line, freed was to obscure matters, since the spokesmen of ises of Art Nouveau. These consist, first, in the
from mimetic functions. What Meier-Graefe the time no longer sought a “high art” but rather its rejection of the spatial illusionism that was an
might have meant in 1896 by linear “emancipa- abolition.6 This was diametrically opposed to the essential formal tool of the academic art of the
tion” can be seen in a dust jacket designed three view of someone like Peter Behrens, who in 1900, nineteenth century; second, in ornament as a
years earlier by Henry van de Velde for a volume phrased it as follows: “For this reason we will have replacement for naturalistic representational
of Max Elskamp poems entitled Salutations, dont a new style, our own style in everything we create. elements: with the help of complex rhythms,
d’angéliques (fig. bottom). A comparison of its The style of an era does not refer to specific forms in the ornamental principle is suffused by sym-
decoration with that of a dust jacket designed by some specific type of art. ... The style ... symbolizes metrically arranged and frieze-like sequences,
Aubrey Beardsley in 1893/94 for Le Morte d’ Arthur the total feeling, the entire attitude to life of an era even in the case of subject matter with an
(fig. bottom) makes it clear that, although van de and manifests itself only in the universe of all the unavoidably object-like quality; and third, in
Velde too draws upon natural models, the Belgian arts.”7 the dictates of the line, which, in extreme cases,

16

HENRY VAN DE VELDE

ABSTRACT PLANTS, 1893
MIXED MEDIA
RIJKSMUSEUM KRÖLLER-MÜLLER, OTTERLO
HENRY VAN DE VELDE
DUST JACKET FOR “SALUTATIONS, DONT CARLO BUGATTI
D’ANGÉLIQUES,” BY MAX ELSKAMP, 1893 CHAIR, TABLE, AND
LWL-LANDESMUSEUM FÜR KUNST UND KULTUR- “THRONE” CHAIR, c. 1900
GESCHICHTE, MÜNSTER PAINTED WOOD, EMBOSSED BRASS
FITTINGS, AND METAL INLAYS
AUBREY BEARDSLEY CHAIR HEIGHT: 86.5 CM, TABLE HEIGHT:
COVER FOR “LE MORTE D’ARTHUR,” 1893/94 76.5 CM, “THRONE” CHAIR HEIGHT: 154.5 CM
MUSEUM FÜR KUNST UND GEWERBE, HAMBURG SOTHEBY’S, LONDON
 PLANTS ARE ORGANIZED artist sees the flow of line as the formal echo of a
non-objective, poetical sentiment and as a result
Harry Graf Kessler, too, at the end of the
nineteenth century, deemed the cooperation
led to organic or zoomorphic “growths” as in
the work of Antoni Gaudí (compare pp. 52/53
17

BEINGS, POSSESSED OF abstracts it much more severely. between “high” and “applied” art as a gain for the and 168ff.). The playfully flamboyant version,
A POWER OF GROWTH. Henry van de Velde was one of the most impor-
latter: Now, he enthusiastically stated, “for the first
time, the applied arts [participate] in the mystical
Easton believed, invited parody, thus prompt-
ing its imminent demise. Easton thus concurs
Christopher Dresser, 1859 tant representatives of a new style, one that radiance that has always transfigured the great with those authors who place the death of Art
understood itself as the beacon of a new cultural art, architecture, sculpture, and painting. While Nouveau in the first decade of the twentieth
era. In 1902 it made its impressive collective insurmountable obstacles kept them [the cultural century. Following upon floral Art Nouveau, a
WHAT IMPEDES THE ENGLISH appearance on the international stage: With its
motto “Le Arti Decorative Internazionali Del Nuovo
pioneers; N. W.] for the time being away from the
design of practical life …, in art the adaptation
movement emerged that was liberated from
the stream of ornament, and was practiced by
IS THEIR INABILITY TO FREE Secolo,” the great decorative arts show in Turin to the new feeling for life met with the weakest artists such as Henry van de Velde, Charles Ren-
THEMSELVES FROM THE brought together products from America, Eng-
land, Belgium, Germany, Austria, France, Den-
resistance. For this reason, it was there that the
profound transformation from old to new human
nie Mackintosh, and Josef Hoffmann.10 But with
this, Easton claims, Art Nouveau had reached
FLOWER. mark, Holland, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Hun- being first manifested itself.”8 its conclusion, for now began a radically “orna-
gary, and the host country Italy.5 The exponents Clearly then, the amount of avant-garde ment-free” and technical design, which, via Otto
Julius Meyer-Graefe, 1896 represented all possible design options, ones that power one attributes to the new style—and Wagner, Adolf Loos, Peter Behrens, and others,
would have pleased someone like Meier-Graefe as which kind of power—is a function of what one led to the German Bauhaus or, in the US, to the
well as ones that abandoned themselves unreserv- discursively subsumes under it or “expects” from Functionalist building style of Louis Henry Sul-
edly to a horror vacui of floral ornament. Self-cel- it. Henry Wilson’s design for the Ladbroke Grove livan and Frank Lloyd Wright.11
The English designer Christopher Dresser4 began ebratory ostentation, which carried forward the Free Library in London in 1890–91 has been A minority of scholars sees the formal con-
teaching at the design school of London’s South bourgeois historicism and exoticism of the previ- described by several architectural historians as trast just described as arising genetically from Art
Kensington Museum, today’s Victoria and Albert ous years clothed in a new “stylistic dress”—and the earliest example of the new style—of Art Nou- Nouveau, as two sides of one and the same coin,
Museum, in 1859. That same year he published that not infrequently crossed the line into kitsch— veau—in Europe, an assessment rejected by Tim so to speak, and sees this matrix as remaining
his book Unity in Variety. Deduced from the Veg- encountered an unadorned formalism that even Benton, however, for it is based solely on a small in effect at least into the years of the First World
etable Kingdom in London. On the very first today is still considered “classically” modern. number of superficial decorative elements.9 In the War. Later chapters will attempt to show why I
page can be found the sentence quoted in the The new aesthetic, to which a different nomen- field of painting, long before Kandinsky, experi- share this view.
epigraph above, which ultimately relates all clature was applied in each country, is considered ments conducted with ornamental abstraction in
individual forms of vegetation back to essential by some art historians to be the last unified style the style of Henry van de Velde’s image Abstract
“lines of life.” since the Baroque; by others, however, it is seen as Plants (Abstrakte Pflanzenkomposition) of 1893 (fig.
It was just this clinging to plant-based orna- a “non-style,” since allegedly any common design right) had been considered incunabula of the new
ment by the English applied arts that became the criteria manifested themselves only in architecture style. While researchers generally date its begin-
subject of criticism by German art writer Julius and the applied arts, but not in painting or sculpture. nings to the 1890s, the chronology of its closing
Meier-Graefe on page 77 of volume 1, book 2 Klaus-Jürgen Sembach wrote in 1990 that Art Nou- stages presents significant problems.
of the magazine Dekorative Kunst. To his mind, veau expressed itself only in the field of the applied
the dominance of the “flower” obstructed the arts and that to transfer the stylistic term to painting Laird M. Easton postulates three formal prem-
forward-looking path of the “pure” line, freed was to obscure matters, since the spokesmen of ises of Art Nouveau. These consist, first, in the
from mimetic functions. What Meier-Graefe the time no longer sought a “high art” but rather its rejection of the spatial illusionism that was an
might have meant in 1896 by linear “emancipa- abolition.6 This was diametrically opposed to the essential formal tool of the academic art of the
tion” can be seen in a dust jacket designed three view of someone like Peter Behrens, who in 1900, nineteenth century; second, in ornament as a
years earlier by Henry van de Velde for a volume phrased it as follows: “For this reason we will have replacement for naturalistic representational
of Max Elskamp poems entitled Salutations, dont a new style, our own style in everything we create. elements: with the help of complex rhythms,
d’angéliques (fig. bottom). A comparison of its The style of an era does not refer to specific forms in the ornamental principle is suffused by sym-
decoration with that of a dust jacket designed by some specific type of art. ... The style ... symbolizes metrically arranged and frieze-like sequences,
Aubrey Beardsley in 1893/94 for Le Morte d’ Arthur the total feeling, the entire attitude to life of an era even in the case of subject matter with an
(fig. bottom) makes it clear that, although van de and manifests itself only in the universe of all the unavoidably object-like quality; and third, in
Velde too draws upon natural models, the Belgian arts.”7 the dictates of the line, which, in extreme cases,

16

HENRY VAN DE VELDE

ABSTRACT PLANTS, 1893
MIXED MEDIA
RIJKSMUSEUM KRÖLLER-MÜLLER, OTTERLO
HENRY VAN DE VELDE
DUST JACKET FOR “SALUTATIONS, DONT CARLO BUGATTI
D’ANGÉLIQUES,” BY MAX ELSKAMP, 1893 CHAIR, TABLE, AND
LWL-LANDESMUSEUM FÜR KUNST UND KULTUR- “THRONE” CHAIR, c. 1900
GESCHICHTE, MÜNSTER PAINTED WOOD, EMBOSSED BRASS
FITTINGS, AND METAL INLAYS
AUBREY BEARDSLEY CHAIR HEIGHT: 86.5 CM, TABLE HEIGHT:
COVER FOR “LE MORTE D’ARTHUR,” 1893/94 76.5 CM, “THRONE” CHAIR HEIGHT: 154.5 CM
MUSEUM FÜR KUNST UND GEWERBE, HAMBURG SOTHEBY’S, LONDON
ART LUXURY
In his opening address at the Turin exhibition in true substrata of modernity: technology and com-
1902, which presented the most complete exhibi- merce. And this at a time when, in addition to
tion of Art Nouveau worldwide, the Italian minis- its technological achievements, it was precisely
ter of education and cultural affairs Nunzio Nasi this commercial character of modernity that was

LUXURY ART
acclaimed the new style as an art that would be becoming increasingly irrefutable—seen against
democratic, in order to elevate the aesthetic taste this background the decorative-fantastical flour-
of the masses to a previously unknown height, ishes on the Villa Ruggeri in Pesaro (figs opposite
and at the same time to create new jobs.12 The and bottom), for example, completed in 1902,
emotionalism of his choice of words scarcely parallel to the Turin exhibition, are indeed akin to
conceals the mercantile essence of the statement, atavistic mannerisms.
which also makes clear why in Italy the new style Benjamin inserted the sentence about Art
was generally referred to as “lo Stile Liberty” after Nouveau into the “exposé,” or exposition, to the
the Art Nouveau department store Liberty in Arcades Project, which he entitled “Paris, the Capi-
London. Arthur Lasenby Liberty, a cunning entre- tal of the Nineteenth Century.” Like the art of Art
preneur, opened his department store in London’s Nouveau, he saw the arcades—which had been
West End in 1875; there, in addition to goods built in the French metropolis in the decades after
imported from the Near and Far East, he sold a 1822 but by the time of his writing had already
collection of Orientalizing fabrics and wallpapers. disappeared or become nostalgic enclaves in the
Among the designers was the Christopher Dresser cityscape—as “quintessential forms” of the Mod-
mentioned above. Liberty products were soon ern.
available worldwide: textiles, embroidery, carpets, Nineteenth-century tourists’ travel guides
furniture and fashion, silver, tin, and decorative to Paris extolled these passageways—covered
objects. “The Liberty style” availed itself of no by iron and glass constructions and paneled in 19
single design norm, but rather a design strategy marble, cutting through entire quarters of the
aimed at exquisite products with a restrainedly city—as shopping centers of industrial luxury and
modernist appearance. as objects of longing for sophisticated consumer
desire. On both sides of these passageways and
The interpretation of Art Nouveau in Walter connecting corridors, which “are both house
Benjamin’s Arcades Project stands in only appar- and street,”14 one elegant store followed the
ent contradiction to the “commodities fetishism” next under muted light from above. The arcades
of the “stile Liberty.” Benjamin worked on this developed their greatest “radiance,” of course, in
philosophy of the history of the nineteenth cen- the evening, in artificial light: first gas then later
tury from 1927 until his death in 1940; it was never electric. At night, what “was fascinating was the
completed. Art Nouveau makes its appearance fabric of the brilliance of the light, the brilliance
in this work as a paradigmatic conflict phenom- of the commodities, and the mass of people in
enon of modernity: “The transfiguration of the motion. ‘A labyrinth of brightly colored, glittering
solitary soul seems to be its goal. Individuality is arcades like a collection of rainbow bridges in an
its theory... It represents the final attempted foray ocean of light. A completely fairy-tale world.’”15
of an art besieged in its ivory tower by technol- Like the boulevards, the arcades, too, developed
ogy. It mobilizes all the reserves of inwardness. into places of pleasure and strolling. “In the per-
They find their expression in the mediumistic son of the flâneur, intelligence takes to the market,
language of lines, in the blossom as the symbol of intending to look at it, and in reality, neverthe-
naked, vegetative nature, opposing a technologi- less, to find a buyer. In this intermediary state … it
cally armed environment [...].”13 In Art Nouveau, appears as a Bohemian.”16
for Benjamin, established art carried out a futile Admittedly, neither the arcades with their
rearguard action, a final attempt to ennoble the offerings of luxury goods, nor the strolling, nor

GIUSEPPE BREGA
VILLINO RUGGERI, 1902–07
PESARO
ART LUXURY
In his opening address at the Turin exhibition in true substrata of modernity: technology and com-
1902, which presented the most complete exhibi- merce. And this at a time when, in addition to
tion of Art Nouveau worldwide, the Italian minis- its technological achievements, it was precisely
ter of education and cultural affairs Nunzio Nasi this commercial character of modernity that was

LUXURY ART
acclaimed the new style as an art that would be becoming increasingly irrefutable—seen against
democratic, in order to elevate the aesthetic taste this background the decorative-fantastical flour-
of the masses to a previously unknown height, ishes on the Villa Ruggeri in Pesaro (figs opposite
and at the same time to create new jobs.12 The and bottom), for example, completed in 1902,
emotionalism of his choice of words scarcely parallel to the Turin exhibition, are indeed akin to
conceals the mercantile essence of the statement, atavistic mannerisms.
which also makes clear why in Italy the new style Benjamin inserted the sentence about Art
was generally referred to as “lo Stile Liberty” after Nouveau into the “exposé,” or exposition, to the
the Art Nouveau department store Liberty in Arcades Project, which he entitled “Paris, the Capi-
London. Arthur Lasenby Liberty, a cunning entre- tal of the Nineteenth Century.” Like the art of Art
preneur, opened his department store in London’s Nouveau, he saw the arcades—which had been
West End in 1875; there, in addition to goods built in the French metropolis in the decades after
imported from the Near and Far East, he sold a 1822 but by the time of his writing had already
collection of Orientalizing fabrics and wallpapers. disappeared or become nostalgic enclaves in the
Among the designers was the Christopher Dresser cityscape—as “quintessential forms” of the Mod-
mentioned above. Liberty products were soon ern.
available worldwide: textiles, embroidery, carpets, Nineteenth-century tourists’ travel guides
furniture and fashion, silver, tin, and decorative to Paris extolled these passageways—covered
objects. “The Liberty style” availed itself of no by iron and glass constructions and paneled in 19
single design norm, but rather a design strategy marble, cutting through entire quarters of the
aimed at exquisite products with a restrainedly city—as shopping centers of industrial luxury and
modernist appearance. as objects of longing for sophisticated consumer
desire. On both sides of these passageways and
The interpretation of Art Nouveau in Walter connecting corridors, which “are both house
Benjamin’s Arcades Project stands in only appar- and street,”14 one elegant store followed the
ent contradiction to the “commodities fetishism” next under muted light from above. The arcades
of the “stile Liberty.” Benjamin worked on this developed their greatest “radiance,” of course, in
philosophy of the history of the nineteenth cen- the evening, in artificial light: first gas then later
tury from 1927 until his death in 1940; it was never electric. At night, what “was fascinating was the
completed. Art Nouveau makes its appearance fabric of the brilliance of the light, the brilliance
in this work as a paradigmatic conflict phenom- of the commodities, and the mass of people in
enon of modernity: “The transfiguration of the motion. ‘A labyrinth of brightly colored, glittering
solitary soul seems to be its goal. Individuality is arcades like a collection of rainbow bridges in an
its theory... It represents the final attempted foray ocean of light. A completely fairy-tale world.’”15
of an art besieged in its ivory tower by technol- Like the boulevards, the arcades, too, developed
ogy. It mobilizes all the reserves of inwardness. into places of pleasure and strolling. “In the per-
They find their expression in the mediumistic son of the flâneur, intelligence takes to the market,
language of lines, in the blossom as the symbol of intending to look at it, and in reality, neverthe-
naked, vegetative nature, opposing a technologi- less, to find a buyer. In this intermediary state … it
cally armed environment [...].”13 In Art Nouveau, appears as a Bohemian.”16
for Benjamin, established art carried out a futile Admittedly, neither the arcades with their
rearguard action, a final attempt to ennoble the offerings of luxury goods, nor the strolling, nor

GIUSEPPE BREGA
VILLINO RUGGERI, 1902–07
PESARO
 the artificial light are “products” of Art Nouveau. printing techniques offered new design possi-
The phenomena arose somewhat earlier and bilities. Color lithography (chromolithography),
as they culminated in the late nineteenth cen- patented in 1837, captured the market with the
tury, they characterized the cultural cocktail of emergence of the lithographic printing press
the Belle Époque and the fin de siècle in all their beginning in 1852, and in 1891 Henri de Toulouse-
nuances of taste. But Art Nouveau (at least a Lautrec hazarded the step from the graphic arts
good part of it) readily embraced these options. to advertising art with his earliest poster Moulin
The Galerie Bing can be cited as a representative Rouge. La Goulue (fig. opposite), revolutionizing
example.17 poster design in the process and anticipating
Frequently described in the literature as an many aspects of Art Nouveau. The artistically
impresario of Art Nouveau, Siegfried Bing, a refined poster pitched anything and everything:
native of Hamburg who became a French citi- bicycles, medications, nightclubs. Moreover, it
zen in 1876, was an expert in East Asian art. On was hoped that “courting” the visitors expected at
December 26, 1895—in the bustling Paris street the 1900 Paris world’s fair would boost sales of the
Rue de Provence, rather than an arcade—he products on display. And the presence of the new
opened a gallery and art dealership under the style was already obligatory at that same exposi-
business name La Maison Bing, L’Art Nouveau. tion universelle; Samuel Bing designed a pavilion
And with this he created the French catchphrase that housed a large model home consisting of six
for those works of art that distanced themselves furnished and decorated rooms.
from the established taste of the salons and the Under the influence of Toulouse-Lautrec and
bourgeoisie. Bing functioned not least as the Pari- Jules Chéret (on the latter, see p. 95), the artistic
sian representative for Louis Comfort Tiffany, who poster also made its appearance in England in
in turn represented Bing’s business interests in 1894. During this year, for example, Dudley Hardy
New York. Surrounded by noble design, in Bing’s designed the poster for the operetta A Gaiety Girl for
gallery the well-heeled public open to the avant- the Prince of Wales Theatre. But it was the Brothers
garde could buy modern bronzes and images by Beggarstaff (a self-ironic reference to their limited
the Nabis (see p. 128ff.) as well as ceramics, jew- income)—the Scotsman James Pryde and the Lon-
elry, textiles, and glass from the product line of his don painter and woodcut artist Sir William Nich-
American business partner, and, in keeping with olson—who brought the Art Nouveau poster to its
sophisticated contemporary taste, there was also high point in England. The two had trained in Paris
an abundant offering of Japanese antiquities. and worked together until 1899.18
Unsurprisingly, the art of the poster prospered
not only in Paris and London but in all the large
European cities, such as Berlin, where, starting in
THE MATTER OF ADVERTISING 1901, to mention one final name, Lucian Bernhard
(actually Emil Kahn) emerged as the “creator of
Art Nouveau artists, at least the representatives the modern Sachplakat, or object poster.”19
of the applied arts, generally had no fear of con- Aesthetically sophisticated advertising was not
tact with commerce and modern trade. The role infrequently reproduced in the art magazines of
played by the design of advertising media in the the time and thus additionally “ennobled.” Henry
entire “Stilkunst” or “style art” of around 1900 is van de Velde, for example, was commissioned
sufficient evidence of this. by Eberhard von Bodenhausen to design all the
Advertising kiosks had been in existence since advertising materials (until 1900) for the recently
1855. They demanded striking advertising posters founded Tropon plant, a foodstuffs firm in
rather than the provisional bills formerly posted Cologne Mühlheim. This included a poster (inci-
on house walls and street corners. Improved dentally the only one van de Velde ever made),

20

HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC
POSTER, “MOULIN ROUGE. LA GOULUE,” 1891
COLOR LITHOGRAPH, 84 X 122 CM
PRIVATE COLLECTION
 the artificial light are “products” of Art Nouveau. printing techniques offered new design possi-
The phenomena arose somewhat earlier and bilities. Color lithography (chromolithography),
as they culminated in the late nineteenth cen- patented in 1837, captured the market with the
tury, they characterized the cultural cocktail of emergence of the lithographic printing press
the Belle Époque and the fin de siècle in all their beginning in 1852, and in 1891 Henri de Toulouse-
nuances of taste. But Art Nouveau (at least a Lautrec hazarded the step from the graphic arts
good part of it) readily embraced these options. to advertising art with his earliest poster Moulin
The Galerie Bing can be cited as a representative Rouge. La Goulue (fig. opposite), revolutionizing
example.17 poster design in the process and anticipating
Frequently described in the literature as an many aspects of Art Nouveau. The artistically
impresario of Art Nouveau, Siegfried Bing, a refined poster pitched anything and everything:
native of Hamburg who became a French citi- bicycles, medications, nightclubs. Moreover, it
zen in 1876, was an expert in East Asian art. On was hoped that “courting” the visitors expected at
December 26, 1895—in the bustling Paris street the 1900 Paris world’s fair would boost sales of the
Rue de Provence, rather than an arcade—he products on display. And the presence of the new
opened a gallery and art dealership under the style was already obligatory at that same exposi-
business name La Maison Bing, L’Art Nouveau. tion universelle; Samuel Bing designed a pavilion
And with this he created the French catchphrase that housed a large model home consisting of six
for those works of art that distanced themselves furnished and decorated rooms.
from the established taste of the salons and the Under the influence of Toulouse-Lautrec and
bourgeoisie. Bing functioned not least as the Pari- Jules Chéret (on the latter, see p. 95), the artistic
sian representative for Louis Comfort Tiffany, who poster also made its appearance in England in
in turn represented Bing’s business interests in 1894. During this year, for example, Dudley Hardy
New York. Surrounded by noble design, in Bing’s designed the poster for the operetta A Gaiety Girl for
gallery the well-heeled public open to the avant- the Prince of Wales Theatre. But it was the Brothers
garde could buy modern bronzes and images by Beggarstaff (a self-ironic reference to their limited
the Nabis (see p. 128ff.) as well as ceramics, jew- income)—the Scotsman James Pryde and the Lon-
elry, textiles, and glass from the product line of his don painter and woodcut artist Sir William Nich-
American business partner, and, in keeping with olson—who brought the Art Nouveau poster to its
sophisticated contemporary taste, there was also high point in England. The two had trained in Paris
an abundant offering of Japanese antiquities. and worked together until 1899.18
Unsurprisingly, the art of the poster prospered
not only in Paris and London but in all the large
European cities, such as Berlin, where, starting in
THE MATTER OF ADVERTISING 1901, to mention one final name, Lucian Bernhard
(actually Emil Kahn) emerged as the “creator of
Art Nouveau artists, at least the representatives the modern Sachplakat, or object poster.”19
of the applied arts, generally had no fear of con- Aesthetically sophisticated advertising was not
tact with commerce and modern trade. The role infrequently reproduced in the art magazines of
played by the design of advertising media in the the time and thus additionally “ennobled.” Henry
entire “Stilkunst” or “style art” of around 1900 is van de Velde, for example, was commissioned
sufficient evidence of this. by Eberhard von Bodenhausen to design all the
Advertising kiosks had been in existence since advertising materials (until 1900) for the recently
1855. They demanded striking advertising posters founded Tropon plant, a foodstuffs firm in
rather than the provisional bills formerly posted Cologne Mühlheim. This included a poster (inci-
on house walls and street corners. Improved dentally the only one van de Velde ever made),

20

HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC
POSTER, “MOULIN ROUGE. LA GOULUE,” 1891
COLOR LITHOGRAPH, 84 X 122 CM
PRIVATE COLLECTION
brochures, labels, and folding boxes. Bodenhau- But more worthy of consideration in our context 23
sen’s friend, Harry Graf Kessler, together with is a statement concerning posters and advertising
Julius Meier-Graefe, took on the job of printed made by Karl Hauer in 1907 in the Fackel, edited
propaganda. The poster of 1898 (fig. opposite) by Karl Kraus: “… I am very inclined to see the
received special attention. Its abstract ornamenta- artistic poster as far more pernicious and sinister
tion, typographical tension between dynamism than the non-artistic one. For the fine arts ... are
and geometry, and the symbiosis of artistic aspi- being usurped by the manufacturers’ need for
ration and industrial promotion, of individual advertising. The fine artists, of whom there are
expression and matter-of-fact information, was far too many today and who all want to live, earn
seen as positively revolutionary.20 Because of its faster and better by designing advertising mate-
artistic value, the poster was published in reduced rials than by creating mature works of art. The
size as a color lithograph in Pan, the most luxuri- baron of industry today pays better and more eas-
ous German art magazine of the time; but it also ily than court, church, noble, or art dealer. So, the
appeared in the periodicals Dekorative Kunst painter draws up posters, advertising sheets, and
and, in October of 1898, in L’ Art Décoratif. Van de picture postcards …”23
Velde’s poster was unanimously acclaimed a high- Whereas Benjamin reproached the visual arts
point in the history of the medium. for playing the sorcerer’s apprentice who tries to
Visual motifs from the Munich painter Franz instrumentalize the “broom” of modern means of
von Stuck were frequently quoted in the German production but is unable to do so, Hauer conversely
advertising of the early nineteenth century. The saw the danger that the modern world of commodi-
industrial product Odol, a tooth and mouth care ties and advertising could degrade genuine artistic
product produced by the Lingner firm, copiously value into trivial commercialized formulas..
instrumentalized Stuck’s mythical worlds for its
advertisements in the magazine Die Jugend.21 The
fact that this was so easily possible, according to a THE NEW AESTHETIC OF LIGHT
biting remark by Meier-Graefe, was due to the fact
that Stuck’s sphinxes looked “like waitresses at the In its symbiosis with electric lighting, one of Art
Munich Hofbrauhaus.”22 A certain awkwardness Nouveau’s “Promethian” central concerns—the aes-
inherent within Stuck’s combinations of naturalis- theticization of innovative technologies—yielded
tic and symbolic elements cannot be disregarded. an exemplary result.

HENRY VAN DE VELDE

POSTER, “TROPON,” 1898
COLOR LITHOGRAPH ON PAPER
CALMANN & KING, LONDON

LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY

TIFFANY STUDIOS TEN-LIGHT
LILY TABLE LAMP, c. 1900
PRIVATE COLLECTION
brochures, labels, and folding boxes. Bodenhau- But more worthy of consideration in our context 23
sen’s friend, Harry Graf Kessler, together with is a statement concerning posters and advertising
Julius Meier-Graefe, took on the job of printed made by Karl Hauer in 1907 in the Fackel, edited
propaganda. The poster of 1898 (fig. opposite) by Karl Kraus: “… I am very inclined to see the
received special attention. Its abstract ornamenta- artistic poster as far more pernicious and sinister
tion, typographical tension between dynamism than the non-artistic one. For the fine arts ... are
and geometry, and the symbiosis of artistic aspi- being usurped by the manufacturers’ need for
ration and industrial promotion, of individual advertising. The fine artists, of whom there are
expression and matter-of-fact information, was far too many today and who all want to live, earn
seen as positively revolutionary.20 Because of its faster and better by designing advertising mate-
artistic value, the poster was published in reduced rials than by creating mature works of art. The
size as a color lithograph in Pan, the most luxuri- baron of industry today pays better and more eas-
ous German art magazine of the time; but it also ily than court, church, noble, or art dealer. So, the
appeared in the periodicals Dekorative Kunst painter draws up posters, advertising sheets, and
and, in October of 1898, in L’ Art Décoratif. Van de picture postcards …”23
Velde’s poster was unanimously acclaimed a high- Whereas Benjamin reproached the visual arts
point in the history of the medium. for playing the sorcerer’s apprentice who tries to
Visual motifs from the Munich painter Franz instrumentalize the “broom” of modern means of
von Stuck were frequently quoted in the German production but is unable to do so, Hauer conversely
advertising of the early nineteenth century. The saw the danger that the modern world of commodi-
industrial product Odol, a tooth and mouth care ties and advertising could degrade genuine artistic
product produced by the Lingner firm, copiously value into trivial commercialized formulas..
instrumentalized Stuck’s mythical worlds for its
advertisements in the magazine Die Jugend.21 The
fact that this was so easily possible, according to a THE NEW AESTHETIC OF LIGHT
biting remark by Meier-Graefe, was due to the fact
that Stuck’s sphinxes looked “like waitresses at the In its symbiosis with electric lighting, one of Art
Munich Hofbrauhaus.”22 A certain awkwardness Nouveau’s “Promethian” central concerns—the aes-
inherent within Stuck’s combinations of naturalis- theticization of innovative technologies—yielded
tic and symbolic elements cannot be disregarded. an exemplary result.

HENRY VAN DE VELDE

POSTER, “TROPON,” 1898
COLOR LITHOGRAPH ON PAPER
CALMANN & KING, LONDON

LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY

TIFFANY STUDIOS TEN-LIGHT
LILY TABLE LAMP, c. 1900
PRIVATE COLLECTION
After Edison’s crucial improvements to the electric ics extolled the glass landscape scenes in the high-
incandescent bulb in 1879, the first central elec- est tones. The window met with the same hymnic
tric stations in London and New York went into resonance at the Pan-American Exhibition in
operation in 1882.24 The “new” light of the light bulb Buffalo in 1901 and the International Applied Arts
demanded new lighting fixtures. Art Nouveau was exhibition in Turin in 1902. Tiffany later disassem-
ready to assist, above all the Tiffany company (fig. p. bled the window into four parts and in 1905 had
23). But as solitary objects in collections and muse- it built into his country estate Laurelton Hall on
ums—which is how these lamps are usually expe- Long Island. Today the segments are part of the
rienced—they are robbed of their original context holdings of the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum
and thus their intended effect. Their aim—typical (figs opposite and bottom).
of the time—of reforming the “aura” of an interior
by means of light and the transparency of glass as
a material, and of setting luminous accents within LUXURY FASHION
that interior, has been taken from them.
Louis Bell, the author of the first, in the words
AND REFORM DRESS
of Schivelbusch, “light-dramaturgical treatise” (The Fashion, too—and this meant primarily women’s
Art of Illumination, 1902), explained that for aes- fashion—captured the attention of Art Nouveau
thetic reasons it could be appropriate to soften the artists around 1900. Henry van de Velde, a trail-
lighting to a gentle yellow glow by decorating the blazer in so many areas, thought about the ques-
lampshades accordingly. In the 1890s Tiffany imple- tion of how the clothing of the inhabitants could
mented this principle to perfection by means of spe- be matched to the interiors he had designed. In
cific colorations and calculated irregularities in the his autobiography, he retroactively (and also
material structure. “By pushing the masses together euphemistically) appraised his programmatic
before cooling, these fabulously colored glass speech of August 1900 about an “ideal” (mean-
fluxes—which shimmer in all the colors of the spec- ing timeless) clothing as the “first fundamental
trum and give the most delicate nuances of color— encounter between qualified representatives
obtain a wavy and irregular surface so that they of the industrial arts and an artist.” The speech,
permit the light to penetrate to different degrees, entitled “Zur künstlerischen Hebung der Frauen-
and soon denser and lighter places appear in the tracht” (On the Artistic Improvement of Women’s
mass. Other effects are obtained by striking pieces Costume), was delivered during an exhibition
out of large blocks of glass; their irregular fracture of modern women’s dresses created after artists’
sites generate various plays of light.” (Zeitschrift für designs; the director of the new local museum,
Beleuchtungswesen, 1898, no. 1, p. 9).25 Friedrich Deneken, had organized the exhibi-
Tiffany glass was also used for windows, to tion on the occasion of the German Dressmakers’
mute the daylight penetrating intrusively from the Show in the Krefeld Stadthalle. On display there
street into the private sphere, in a manner similar were reform dresses that van de Velde, together
to muting the “raw” electric light. An additional with colleagues, had designed after English and
goal was filling the aesthetically unsatisfying emp- Scandinavian models.
tiness of the window with the help of colored light, The reform dress, first advocated by doctors
in order to let the interior function as a whole, in the 1880s and then later by the feminist move-
harmonized within itself. ment as well, functioned as a foil to French haute
When Tiffany sent his window The Four Sea- couture, which around 1900 still dictated the
sons to the world’s fair in Paris in 1900, the Euro- body-deforming silhouette of wasp waist and pro-
peans immediately admired these opalescent, truding bustle. The reform dress countered this
lead-mounted faeries on the border between style with a loosely falling cut and dispensed with
banal exterior world and auratic inner world. Crit- the lace-up corset; the decoration of the haute 25

LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY

“SPRING,” FROM THE STAINED-GLASS
WINDOW “THE FOUR SEASONS,” c. 1899/1900
THE CHARLES HOSMER MORSE MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART,
WINTER PARK, FLORIDA
After Edison’s crucial improvements to the electric ics extolled the glass landscape scenes in the high-
incandescent bulb in 1879, the first central elec- est tones. The window met with the same hymnic
tric stations in London and New York went into resonance at the Pan-American Exhibition in
operation in 1882.24 The “new” light of the light bulb Buffalo in 1901 and the International Applied Arts
demanded new lighting fixtures. Art Nouveau was exhibition in Turin in 1902. Tiffany later disassem-
ready to assist, above all the Tiffany company (fig. p. bled the window into four parts and in 1905 had
23). But as solitary objects in collections and muse- it built into his country estate Laurelton Hall on
ums—which is how these lamps are usually expe- Long Island. Today the segments are part of the
rienced—they are robbed of their original context holdings of the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum
and thus their intended effect. Their aim—typical (figs opposite and bottom).
of the time—of reforming the “aura” of an interior
by means of light and the transparency of glass as
a material, and of setting luminous accents within LUXURY FASHION
that interior, has been taken from them.
Louis Bell, the author of the first, in the words
AND REFORM DRESS
of Schivelbusch, “light-dramaturgical treatise” (The Fashion, too—and this meant primarily women’s
Art of Illumination, 1902), explained that for aes- fashion—captured the attention of Art Nouveau
thetic reasons it could be appropriate to soften the artists around 1900. Henry van de Velde, a trail-
lighting to a gentle yellow glow by decorating the blazer in so many areas, thought about the ques-
lampshades accordingly. In the 1890s Tiffany imple- tion of how the clothing of the inhabitants could
mented this principle to perfection by means of spe- be matched to the interiors he had designed. In
cific colorations and calculated irregularities in the his autobiography, he retroactively (and also
material structure. “By pushing the masses together euphemistically) appraised his programmatic
before cooling, these fabulously colored glass speech of August 1900 about an “ideal” (mean-
fluxes—which shimmer in all the colors of the spec- ing timeless) clothing as the “first fundamental
trum and give the most delicate nuances of color— encounter between qualified representatives
obtain a wavy and irregular surface so that they of the industrial arts and an artist.” The speech,
permit the light to penetrate to different degrees, entitled “Zur künstlerischen Hebung der Frauen-
and soon denser and lighter places appear in the tracht” (On the Artistic Improvement of Women’s
mass. Other effects are obtained by striking pieces Costume), was delivered during an exhibition
out of large blocks of glass; their irregular fracture of modern women’s dresses created after artists’
sites generate various plays of light.” (Zeitschrift für designs; the director of the new local museum,
Beleuchtungswesen, 1898, no. 1, p. 9).25 Friedrich Deneken, had organized the exhibi-
Tiffany glass was also used for windows, to tion on the occasion of the German Dressmakers’
mute the daylight penetrating intrusively from the Show in the Krefeld Stadthalle. On display there
street into the private sphere, in a manner similar were reform dresses that van de Velde, together
to muting the “raw” electric light. An additional with colleagues, had designed after English and
goal was filling the aesthetically unsatisfying emp- Scandinavian models.
tiness of the window with the help of colored light, The reform dress, first advocated by doctors
in order to let the interior function as a whole, in the 1880s and then later by the feminist move-
harmonized within itself. ment as well, functioned as a foil to French haute
When Tiffany sent his window The Four Sea- couture, which around 1900 still dictated the
sons to the world’s fair in Paris in 1900, the Euro- body-deforming silhouette of wasp waist and pro-
peans immediately admired these opalescent, truding bustle. The reform dress countered this
lead-mounted faeries on the border between style with a loosely falling cut and dispensed with
banal exterior world and auratic inner world. Crit- the lace-up corset; the decoration of the haute 25

LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY

“SPRING,” FROM THE STAINED-GLASS
WINDOW “THE FOUR SEASONS,” c. 1899/1900
THE CHARLES HOSMER MORSE MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART,
WINTER PARK, FLORIDA
 couture dress, with its ruffles, sequins, and bows workshop from which Vienna now exerted a lasting on his designs for women’s dresses, which, due to
à la Paris, contrasted with the reform dress’s sub- influence on Paris, especially the fashion creations their timeless elegance, their fine fabrics, and conse-
dued decorative style drawn from Art Nouveau of Paul Poiret. In 1917 Otto Lendecke, who had quently their immense price, were intended exclu-
ornament. The reform dress sought to encourage trained with Poiret, launched the fashion maga- sively to appeal to the sure sense of taste of women
the woman’s natural freedom of movement as zine Die Damenwelt. Although a mere five issues clients from European and American high society.
well as bring her outfit into harmony with the aes- appeared, these became an exquisite testimony to The greatest success was enjoyed by his Delphos
thetic appearance of the environment.26 the Viennese fashion of the time. Even Gustav Klimt gowns (fig. right)—made of precious silk, caress-
Aside from the fact that the textile industry— took part in designing the title pages. The style of ing the body in a free fall of fine pleats, and often
which depended on changes in fashion—was not dress, after designs by more than eighty artists, was combined with a tunic or wrap, they drew, as the
exactly enthusiastic about the “timeless” dress, distinguished by a forced individuality; the designs, reference to Delphi in their name implies, upon the
it was for other reasons that the reform dress whether hand-printed or produced by machine, basic form of the ancient Greek chiton. Moreover
never caught on in Germany. Even if the product sparkled with an incredible richness of invention; all they were splendidly colored and printed with Ori-
originally had a certain appeal—like the dress the fabrics were produced in their own workshops.29 ental or Renaissance ornament in the style of artists
designed around 1900 by Hugo Höppener, known Only the dresses from the atelier of a designer like William Morris (compare figs p. 122f.). Fortuny
as Fidus, for his wife (fig. bottom left)27—its “Ger- like Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo could compete, if essentially retained this type—an overwhelmingly
man” plainness, if not to say lack of imagina- not in the range of products then certainly in the beautiful reform dress, as it were—unchanged, so
tion, was soon made use of polemically against exquisiteness of their appearance. that it is scarcely possible to date them.
the erotic refinement of Parisian haute couture. Fortuny came from a renowned family of Span-
Nationalist groups that entered the fray compared ish artists; his parents moved to Venice in 1889. He These dresses and fabrics cannot without reserva-
the free fall of the sturdy fabric to the fluid garb received his artistic training in Paris with Giovanni tion be classified as Art Nouveau products, and
worn by the high Gothic sculpture of Uta in the Boldini, among others . He was a painter, photogra- yet they are close to its ideal of beauty. They were
donor’s choir of Naumburg Cathedral. “Not the pher, inventor, and passionate devotee of Richard celebrated in writing by Gabriele D’Annunzio
thrill, the tyranny of the frou-frou must form the Wagner as well as an exclusive fashion designer. and Marcel Proust, and worn by Isadora Duncan
basis of women’s clothing, but chaste simplicity.”28 From 1899 his atelier was in Venice, in the Palazzo and Ruth St. Denis (see p. 93 ff.) at several of their
Pesaro degli Orfei (today the Museo Fortuny). He dance performances. They remained cult objects
Not in terms of beauty, but certainly in terms of the first garnered international attention for his stage for decades and it was de rigueur for someone
fashion’s commercial usefulness, the productions sets, complete with elaborate projection effects, like Peggy Guggenheim, like so many Hollywood
of the Wiener Werkstätte (see p. 189) must also be which he developed for a production of Tristan starlets interested in art, to have herself photo-
regarded as a dead end: Eduard Josef Wimmer- and Isolde at the Scala in Milan in 1900.30 Beginning graphed in an outrageously expensive Delphos
Wisgrill (fig. bottom right) founded the fashion around 1907, however, his fame rested above all robe from the Atelier Fortuny.

26

MARIANO FORTUNY Y MADRAZO

HUGO HÖPPENER, KNOWN AS FIDUS “DELPHOS GOWN,” c. 1920
REFORM DRESS, c. 1900 SILK
WHITE LINEN, BLACK EMBROIDERY KUNSTGEWERBEMUSEUM,
COLLECTION HALLERISCHES FAMILIENARCHIV, STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN
BERLIN
FOLLOWING PAGES:
EDUARD JOSEF WIMMER-WISGRILL WIENER WERKSTÄTTE
HOUSECOAT MADE FROM A SILK PAIR OF LADIES‘ SHOES, c. 1914
BY DAGOBERT PECHE, c. 1920/21 COLORED SILK REP, LEATHER
MAK-AUSTRIAN MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS/ HISTORISCHES MUSEUM DER STADT WIEN,
CONTEMPORARY ART VIENNA
 couture dress, with its ruffles, sequins, and bows workshop from which Vienna now exerted a lasting on his designs for women’s dresses, which, due to
à la Paris, contrasted with the reform dress’s sub- influence on Paris, especially the fashion creations their timeless elegance, their fine fabrics, and conse-
dued decorative style drawn from Art Nouveau of Paul Poiret. In 1917 Otto Lendecke, who had quently their immense price, were intended exclu-
ornament. The reform dress sought to encourage trained with Poiret, launched the fashion maga- sively to appeal to the sure sense of taste of women
the woman’s natural freedom of movement as zine Die Damenwelt. Although a mere five issues clients from European and American high society.
well as bring her outfit into harmony with the aes- appeared, these became an exquisite testimony to The greatest success was enjoyed by his Delphos
thetic appearance of the environment.26 the Viennese fashion of the time. Even Gustav Klimt gowns (fig. right)—made of precious silk, caress-
Aside from the fact that the textile industry— took part in designing the title pages. The style of ing the body in a free fall of fine pleats, and often
which depended on changes in fashion—was not dress, after designs by more than eighty artists, was combined with a tunic or wrap, they drew, as the
exactly enthusiastic about the “timeless” dress, distinguished by a forced individuality; the designs, reference to Delphi in their name implies, upon the
it was for other reasons that the reform dress whether hand-printed or produced by machine, basic form of the ancient Greek chiton. Moreover
never caught on in Germany. Even if the product sparkled with an incredible richness of invention; all they were splendidly colored and printed with Ori-
originally had a certain appeal—like the dress the fabrics were produced in their own workshops.29 ental or Renaissance ornament in the style of artists
designed around 1900 by Hugo Höppener, known Only the dresses from the atelier of a designer like William Morris (compare figs p. 122f.). Fortuny
as Fidus, for his wife (fig. bottom left)27—its “Ger- like Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo could compete, if essentially retained this type—an overwhelmingly
man” plainness, if not to say lack of imagina- not in the range of products then certainly in the beautiful reform dress, as it were—unchanged, so
tion, was soon made use of polemically against exquisiteness of their appearance. that it is scarcely possible to date them.
the erotic refinement of Parisian haute couture. Fortuny came from a renowned family of Span-
Nationalist groups that entered the fray compared ish artists; his parents moved to Venice in 1889. He These dresses and fabrics cannot without reserva-
the free fall of the sturdy fabric to the fluid garb received his artistic training in Paris with Giovanni tion be classified as Art Nouveau products, and
worn by the high Gothic sculpture of Uta in the Boldini, among others . He was a painter, photogra- yet they are close to its ideal of beauty. They were
donor’s choir of Naumburg Cathedral. “Not the pher, inventor, and passionate devotee of Richard celebrated in writing by Gabriele D’Annunzio
thrill, the tyranny of the frou-frou must form the Wagner as well as an exclusive fashion designer. and Marcel Proust, and worn by Isadora Duncan
basis of women’s clothing, but chaste simplicity.”28 From 1899 his atelier was in Venice, in the Palazzo and Ruth St. Denis (see p. 93 ff.) at several of their
Pesaro degli Orfei (today the Museo Fortuny). He dance performances. They remained cult objects
Not in terms of beauty, but certainly in terms of the first garnered international attention for his stage for decades and it was de rigueur for someone
fashion’s commercial usefulness, the productions sets, complete with elaborate projection effects, like Peggy Guggenheim, like so many Hollywood
of the Wiener Werkstätte (see p. 189) must also be which he developed for a production of Tristan starlets interested in art, to have herself photo-
regarded as a dead end: Eduard Josef Wimmer- and Isolde at the Scala in Milan in 1900.30 Beginning graphed in an outrageously expensive Delphos
Wisgrill (fig. bottom right) founded the fashion around 1907, however, his fame rested above all robe from the Atelier Fortuny.

26

MARIANO FORTUNY Y MADRAZO

HUGO HÖPPENER, KNOWN AS FIDUS “DELPHOS GOWN,” c. 1920
REFORM DRESS, c. 1900 SILK
WHITE LINEN, BLACK EMBROIDERY KUNSTGEWERBEMUSEUM,
COLLECTION HALLERISCHES FAMILIENARCHIV, STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN
BERLIN
FOLLOWING PAGES:
EDUARD JOSEF WIMMER-WISGRILL WIENER WERKSTÄTTE
HOUSECOAT MADE FROM A SILK PAIR OF LADIES‘ SHOES, c. 1914
BY DAGOBERT PECHE, c. 1920/21 COLORED SILK REP, LEATHER
MAK-AUSTRIAN MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS/ HISTORISCHES MUSEUM DER STADT WIEN,
CONTEMPORARY ART VIENNA
 “MOBILIZING INWARDNESS” demands from the interior that it sustain his illu-
sions. … The phantasmagoria of the interior arises
(fig. right), then it seems we must concur with
Benjamin: nothing here indicates a concern
OR THE BREAK WITH THE from this; to the private man it represents the with access to mass transit. Rather than sober,
STATUS QUO universe.” Around the turn of the century, accord- functional forms in keeping with their techni-
ing to Benjamin, the “culmination of the interior” cal task, here artistic “autism” has taken up
Today the term avant-garde generally functions as reached its conclusion, that inward transfiguration residence: stalks of cast iron painted leek-green,
a synonym for processes that radically broke down of the “solitary soul” mentioned above, a “mobili- and sweeping electrical orchid-lamps: a fantasti-
or break down the status quo in art. In contrast to zation of inwardness”—the room turns out to be cal metamorphosis of architecture and nature,
this, Peter Bürger reserves the term for the specific a “sanctuary of art” and consequently a signifier of which even inspired the occasional reference
early twentieth-century attitude that opposed the its inhabitant.32 to French Art Nouveau as the “Style Métro.” In
autonomy of art and art’s resulting lack of social Indeed—as we should not forget—the inte- the “art capital” of the time, the transition from
consequences, an attitude that sought to convert rior spaces enclosed by colored Art Nouveau technologized subterranean space to the grand
art into life praxis. But the aspirations of the avant- windows did obstruct any perspective upon the facades above apparently demanded artistic
garde movements of the time toward this goal outer world, the street, the square, the daily life flamboyance.33
were ultimately unsuccessful; they were not able of the city. Due to their colorful “lack of trans-
to bring art into immediate contact with everyday parency” the gaze rebounds inwards, into the One could also interpret the technology of the
reality and to functionalize their works as social hermeticism of the interior, the place in which dome shell with which Joseph Maria Olbrich
works.31 inwardness is “mobilized.” This would thus crowned the Secession Building in Vienna in 1898
constitute evidence of Art Nouveau’s failure to as a capitulation before the demands of an art that
Let us imagine once again, bearing the discourse produce an identity of art and life, evidence that shaped its objects exuberantly, even excessively.
of the avant-garde in mind, one of those interiors it succeeded merely in conjuring up an illusory Its perforated structure, the filigree interweaving
whose windows were filled with opalescent Tif- world of l’art pour l’art—art for art’s sake—and of the wrought laurel leaves, fire-gilded on the
fany glass. As mentioned above, the aura of the of self-satisfied aesthetic artificiality: for one final outside and shimmering delicate green on the
filtered daylight, transformed into color, shut out time in Western art. It would be confirmation inside (fig. opposite), is an aesthetic manifesto
the banality of the external world. Walter Benja- of the claim made by Benjamin in the Arcades merged with symbolic elements as well. Another
min commented on this phenomenon as well. He Project that, in Art Nouveau, “high art” futilely attempt, if we want to follow Benjamin, on the
begins his reflections with a consideration of the slaves away at the essential conditions of a new part of “high” art to triumph over the functionality
living space of the mid-nineteenth century and era. If we consider a further example in this of the Modern.
its contrast to the world of business: “The private light, namely the above-ground Paris Métro sta- In contrast, however, it is the functional and
man who accommodates reality in the office tions designed by Hector Guimard around 1900 technical moment that dominates when, in 1908,
Olbrich uses a violet-black brick face (compare
figs p. 180f.) on the crown of the Hochzeitsturm
30 in Darmstadt, which reflects the sunlight fall-
ing on the stepped gables in a golden glow. “He
binds the splendor of gold—since time immemo-
rial a symbol of both earthly and spiritual power,
now immaterial with his sun collectors—to the
tower of the crown, thus using modern methods
to realize his goal of a sublime architecture, in
the best sense.”34 The scholarly literature univer-
sally considers the Olbrich of the Vienna Seces-
sion building to be an Art Nouveau artist; but the
essential question in the comparison I have just
drawn is whether the Olbrich of the Darmstadt
Hochzeitsturm can be considered just as much of
one.

JOSEPH MARIA OLBRICH

DOME SHELL OF THE VIENNA
SECESSION BUILDING, 1897/98
VIENNA

HECTOR GUIMARD
ENTRANCE TO THE MÉTRO STATION
PORTE DAUPHINE, c. 1900 31
PARIS