ART NOUVEAU

IN GREAT BRITAIN
Lect. dr. va Szkely

Art Nouveau emerged at the end of the 19th c.

from the restless energies of the industrial
city. In the age of
DARWIN and
FREUD
It was fixated on:

NATURE
SEX
THE NEWLY LIBERATED WOMAN

1854: an American fleet of 7 ships sailed to

Nagasaki: Japanese goods started to flood
into Britain.

James Abbot McNeill Whistler (18341903)

Paints women in
kimonos hinting at the
sensuality beneath the
silk
A troublemaker with an
international agenda
Insists that art has no
moral agenda

Motifs of the Aesthetic

Movement

Sunflowers
Irises
Peacocks
Cranes
Ebonized furniture
Willow patterns

Aubrey Beardsley (18721898)

English illustrator and author; first

exponent of Art Nouveau in Britain
Joined Whistler and Oscar Wilde in
1894
An iconoclast brandishing a bold, new
art
Captured the Avant-garde spirit of
Paris and the sensuality of Japanese
design
His drawings in black ink, influenced
by the style of Japanese woodcuts,
emphasized :

THE GROTESQUE
THE DECADENT
THE EROTIC

I have one aim: the grotesque. If I am not

grotesque I am nothing. (A. Beardsley)

The Yellow Book (1894)

A journal celebrating
new writing and art
Beardsley: art editor

The Trial of Oscar Wilde

1895

Blights 2 brilliant
careers: Wildes and
Beardsleys
Traumatizes British
English culture:
transforms London
atmosphere and upsets
the entire nation

Beardsley was the first

representative of Art
Nouveau in Britain and his
signature was the whiplash
line. It became the dominant
feature in architecture and
design.
His shocking version of Art
Nouveau became the style
that dare not speak its name.
Yet, the whiplash curve got
under the skin of British
designers.

The Beginning of
British Art Nouveau
William Morris and the British Arts and
Crafts Movement: a lighter version of Art
Nouveau?

William Morris (1834-1896)

Craftsman
Poet
Publisher
Designer
Socialist
Victorian visionary
The driving force behind the Arts and Crafts
movement
In his quest for beauty he invoked the power of
nature and the English medieval past
His designs were a far cry from Beardsleys art.
His motifs were British ones: briars and
brambles, roses. He was inspired by the British
countryside
He dreamed and fought for a future in which
beauty would triumph over industry: one
wallpaper at a time
Was associated with the Pre Raphaelite
Brotherhood
Founded a design firm with Edward BurneJones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Helped to establish the modern fantasy genre
and was a direct influence on postwar authors,
such as J. R. Tolkien

Mary Watts (1849-1938)

Designer of the Watts Mortuary

Chapel (1895, Compton,
Surrey)
Wife of the celebrated
Victorian painter: George
Frederic Watts
Member of the Home Arts and
Industries Association
Held Thursday Evening
Terracotta classes for the
villagers to make the exterior
decorations of the chapel
After her husbands death
(1904) she established
Compton pottery

Watts Mortuary Chapel (18951904)

Arthur Lasenby Liberty

(1843-1917)

A London merchant and the founder of Liberty & Co.

The key figure in the mass production and the spread of
this British version of Art Nouveau
By the beginning of the 20th century the very name of
Liberty became a byword for the style
He was a mixed blessing: though he paid well the
designers that worked for him, he never acknowledged
them by name, for he sold their designs under his own
label.

Archibald
Knox
One of Libertys most
important artists and
designers whose work was
characterised by a Celtic twist
Liberty recognised his skill and
worked closely with him, but
never gave formal credit to his
work. So, A. Knox died
relatively unknown. The lines
on his tombstone read:
Archibald Knox: artist,
Humble servant of God
In the Ministry of the Beautiful

Follow-up to
Liberty
Other retailers wanted to cash
in on Libertys success: e.g.
Harrods.
The new retail experience
incorporated Art Nouveau.

Arcades had been built in Art

Nouveau style, e.g. Norwich.
Fashionable folks went to
these shopping areas and
bought Art Nouveau fabric or
Daltons ceramics to
redecorate their fireplaces.

Art Nouveau
in Scotland
Margaret McDonald: Silver
Apples of the Moon.
-an example of Scottcontinental Art Nouveau

Margaret MacDonald: The

White Rose and the Red Rose
-the painting changed auction
history. Estimated between
200,000 and 300,000 , it sold
for 1.7 million

The Glasgow Four:

prominent members of the
Glasgow school movement

Margaret MacDonald
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Frances MacDonald
Herbert MacNair

The so-called Glasgow style

was exhibited in Europe and
influenced the Viennese Art
Nouveau movement known as
Sezessionstil around 1900
The press did not favour their
style, and dubbed them the
Spook-school.

Charles Rennie Macintosh:

designer of Glasgow School
of Art

The house of the Macintosh

family in Glasgow