Illustration, 1902. From a Novissima annual, Milan 1902. Lithograph, 12 x 26 cm.

Antonio Rizzi
Born 1869 in Cremona Italy, Died 1941, Florence.
Italian painter and graphic artist. Rizzi was professor of graphic art at the Academy in Perugia and a contributor to the Munich periodical Jugend. His work has a general resemblance to Munich Art Nouveau, in particular the work of Franz von Stuck. As a painter, he produced historical and genre paintings, portraits and sets. (Gabriele Fahr-Becker)

Peter Behrens

Peter Behrens
Design for a poster advertising an AEG metal filament light, 1907. color lithograph, 67 x 52 cm. AEG company archives, Frankfurt/Main.


1868, Hamburg - 1940, Berlin.
Behrens was a German architect, painter, graphic artist, industrial designer, applied artist, typeface designer, and book artist. He studied painting in Karlsruhe, Dusseldorf, Munich and with the luministes in Netherlands from 1885-19=892. from 1899-1903 he was a member of the Darmstadt artists' colony, where he designed furniture and furnishings (wallpapers, textiles, decorative glass) as well as theatre sets , and where he first turned is attention to architecture. From 1903-07 he was head of the School of Arts and Crafts in Dusseldorf. His buildings from this period are characterized by simple cubic forms with a linear ornament.


From 1907-14 he was a member of the AEG artistic advisory committee in Berlin, in which capacity he designed - alongside all AEG's factories and office buildings- typefaces, advertising material, and electrical goods (including domestic appliances and lighting).


In his graphic works, which reveal the strong influence of van de Velde, he fused classical motifs with abstract Jugendstil ornament. He also created 2 new typefaces: Behrens Italic and Behrens Roman. He is one of the founders of the Munich Secession. (1892) (Gabriele Fahr-Becker)

Night Herons

Otto Eckmann. Night Herons - Three Philosophers, 1896. Color woodcut, printed in watercolor on Japanese vellum, 26.5 x 46 cm.

"With Eckmann, sentimentality in ornament was perhaps extinguished for good. He was, if not its final mainstay, nevertheless the one who lent ornament enough attraction to arouse the desire to preserve it... He always made me think of Chopin. Neither of them troubled themselves with the pure line of construction... His fingers quiver on the line like those of a violinist on the strings." (Henry van de Velde - from Gabriele Fahr-Becker's Art Nouveau).

Vignettes

Decorative and margin ornamentation on the printed page. Alternatively, a picture with irregular edges and no frame, that shades away at the sides. (Gabriele Fahr-Becker)

Olaf Gulbransson

The actress Elenora Duse, 1905 by Olaf Gulbransson. From Beruhmte Zeitgenossen, Verlag Albert Langen, Munich.

Olaf Gulbransson: 1873-1958. Born in Oslo, Norway. Norwegian painter and graphic artist. He is one of the most important caricaturists of the 20th century. In his ironically naive, powerfully expressive drawings, he communicated the essential characteristics of his subject using only the most economic means, and later simply by use of outline. His major works include Beruhmte Zeitgenossen (famous contemporaries, 1905), Aus meiner Schublade (From my drawer, 1911) and his autobiography Es war einmal (Once upon a time, 1934). (Gabriele Fahr-Becker).

Chien Yao

2 Vases (1895-1910) by Emil Arnold Krog and Knud Valdemar Engelhardt. Porcelain, multicolored underglaze and crystal glaze. Made by Den Kongelige Porcelainsfabrik, Copenhagen.

Chien Yao: Shallow Japanese tea dishes that in earlier times were produced in China. Their glaze recalls rabbit fur, bird's feathers, turtle shells or oil spots. The predominant color tones of dark blue, brown, and green pan out from the center or form cloud-like patches. The glaze is applied in several layers which are fired several times. The result is that, as the light striking the surface varies, the color apparently keeps changing. (Gabriele Fahr-Becker)

These vases are made by Danish designers of the Art Nouveau period who were inspired and influenced by Asian ceramics and techniques.

Fernand Khnopff

I lock my door upon myself, 1891. Oil on canvas, Bavarian National Art Collections, Neue Pinakothek, Munich.

This painting is based on a line from a poem called, "Who shall deliver me?" by Christina Rossetti. Khnopff's sister was the model for this and most of his paintings. Her name was Marguerite, 'In whom he depicted himself as androgynous.' Look at those eyes, quite haunting!

Here's a small bio:

Fernand Khnopff: 1858-1912. Belgian painter and graphic artist. Having completed his law studies, in 1878, he began a painting course at the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and later became a pupil of Jules Lefebvre in Paris. Khnopff was the principal Belgian representative of Belgian Symbolism. Influenced by the English Pre-Raphaelites and Gustave Moreau, he painted pictures with mystic and allegorical subject matter. His oeuvre includes landscapes, etchings, and book illustrations. (Gabriele Fahr-Becker)

Applique on wool by Armas Eliel Lindgren

Liturgical vestment (detail), 1904. 185 x 189 cm. Taideteollisuumuseo, Helsinki.

This Art Nouveau piece has such interesting subject matter. Used in a religious setting, this cloth has what looks like a heart or root of some kind at the top, encased in lines of thorns with a set of 'bulbs' or circles off to the side and blooming flowers at the bottom followed by drops of blood. Very symbolic of Christ's crown of thorns and blood of his body, etc. It is beautifully translated into a visual metaphor.

Armas Lindgren born 1874- 1929, Finnish architect. A famed architect with the firm Gesellius, Lindgren & Saarinen, known as GLS. The international fame of the 3 architects was based on the Finnish Pavilion which they designed for the Paris World Expo of 1900. In 1905 Lindgren left the firm to work with Wivi Lonn, one of Finland's first woman architects. GLS was dissolved in 1907. Lindgren chiefly built private houses and churches. The works which he designed in collaboration with Gesellius and Saarinen include the Villa Suur-Merijoki in Viipuri (1903) and the "fortified" Hvittorp House in Kirkkonummi (1901-04). (Gabriele Fahr-Becker)

Les Nabis

The Stitch, 1893, Edouard Vuillard. Oil on canvas. Yale University Art Gallery.

Sunlit Interior: Madame Vuillard's Room at La Closerie Des Genets, 1912-1922, Edouard Vuillard. Distemper on paper mounted on canvas. Tate Gallery.

The Vision after the Sermon or Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, 1888 by Paul Gauguin. Oil on canvas. National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh.

(Hebrew 'prophets') group of French artists, active in the 1890s in Paris, united in their admiration of Paul Gauguin - the mystic content of his work, the surface pattern, and intense color. In practice their work was decorative and influenced Art Nouveau. Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard and Paul Serusier (1864-1927) were leading members. (Brockhampton)

The Milky Way - tapestry, 1898

The Milky Way, tapestry, 1898 by Frida Hansen. Wool, cotton, silk, transparent weaving technique. 260 x 330 cm. Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany.

Frida Hansen (aka frederikke Bolette) was a Norwegian textile designer - 1855-1931. In the 1870's she studied painting, winning a prize at the World's Columbian Expo in Chicago in 1893 which enabled her to study textile design in Cologne in 1894 and in 1895 to study under Pierre Cecile Puvis de Chavannes in Paris. In 1900 she became a member of the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts and was represented at the Paris World Expo by her famous tapestry The Milky Way. Hansen perfected the technique of transparent weaving, which lends her figures an almost ghost-like quality. She was influenced both by Japonisme and the Pre-Raphaelites, and stood squarely within the Art Nouveau tradition in her thematic material. (Gabriele Fahr-Becker)

Ephraim Mose Lilien

Illustration to Gensis 1:1-6 in Die Bucher der Bibel, Berlin and Vienna 1908.

I was facinated by this book page and had to post it. Love the layout and swirling stars and night sky in this illustration. Lilien was much inspired by English book illustrations.

"Lilien was a Polish painter, graphic artist, and illustrator. After an apprenticeship as a signpainter, he studied under the history painter Jan Matejko (1838-93) at the Krakow School of Art. In 1894 he won an honorary diploma in a competition in his hometown. He founded the Jewish Press in Berlin and was also the editor, publisher and illustrator. He followed in the footsteps of English Art Nouveau, but his work was a bit "tighter". He was one of the great Jewish artists." (Gabriele Fahr-Becker)

Serpentine Dance - Loie Fuller 1894 , William H. Bradley

Loie Fuller (pronounce Low-ee) was quite a prominent muse for the Art Nouveau movement. Toulouse-Lautrec and Francois-Raoul Larche (sculptor) both did paintings and sculpture of her. She was an American dancer (1862-1928) and was most famous for her Dance of the Veils.

"Loie Fuller did everything to fan the flames. She shrouded herself in exquisitely thin veils, and developed a sophisticated choreography involving colored light, thereby turning herself into "total art"... She inspired Stephane Mallarme' who dedicated numerous poems to her and Claude Debussy, who decided that his music was never more perfectly interpreted than through her. She was also a friend of husband-and-wife physicist team Pierre and Marie Curie." (Gabriele Fahr-Becker)

An old art professor of mine told me that Loie Fuller was portrayed in the movie Chocolat (starring Juliette Binoche). In the very last scene, there is a dancer wearing in a white, billowing dress, doing the serpentine dance. It is a bit inaccurate since she died in 1928 and I believe the film was set in the 1940's or 1950's but it is a beautiful scene... check it out!

Etagere

A popular item of Art Nouveau furniture consisting usually of three tiered shelves of different sizes and used for displaying small objects. The shelves are carried by slender supports. Also known as a 'whatnot'. (Gabriele Fahr-Becker)

I promise to add a photographic example of an Etagere next week. Who could be without a piece of furniture dubbed a 'whatnot'?!