Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below the other posts in this series:
Art Nouveau (Part I)
Art Nouveau (Part II)
Art Nouveau (Part III)
Art Nouveau (Part IV)[1]
Edmond Aman-Jean (1860-1936)[1]
The French painter and graphic artist was a student of Eugéne Carriére, who together with Rodin founded in 1890 inter alia the "Société Nationale des Beaux Arts", the second Parisan Spring Salon and thus an association which wanted to create a middle ground between punters of the "Académie", whose art was benumbed and the restless avant-garde. Aman-Jean exhibited regularly in the Salon and quickly acquired a name for himself, such that he was immediately made a corresponding member from abroad when the Vienesse "Secession" was founded; his work was also represented regularly at their exhibitions. In "Ver Sacrum" in 1900 his "Visions of the Splendour of Life", influenced by Edgar Degas, was praised. His subdued collars are especially characteristic, in particular the use of pink and purple, indian yellow and jade green. Since the 1890s Aman-Jean had been devoting himself mainly to copperplate engravings, lithography and watercolor painting. He produced his numerous portraits of women, whose arabesque contours characterised the ladies of the Parisan salons very nicely, a monotonous world, a vacuum, a world of reveries, but also of sorrow as the illustration "Ophelia" shows (the title is not certain). Aman-Jean was the first painter in France to be strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites in Britain, from whose understanding of European Art Nouveau developed.
Title: Ophelia (undated).
Technique: Color lithograph.
Size: 34.3 x 26.5 cm.
Leon N. Bakst (1866 - 1924)[1]
In Leon Bakst we become acquainted with one of the most outstanding Russian representatives of Art Nouveau. Around the turn of the century two centres had formed in the country. The artists in Moscow drew their inspiration from Russian folklore (very typical for Wassily Kandinksky) determined by the rustic provinciality of their environment, and thus exerted a strong influence on the development of Western European Art. Quite different were the artists in St. Petersburg, the residence of the Tsar, and the center of rich intellectual, artistic and social life. Looking in keeping with tradition, to France and Germany, there was a particularly active German and French colony with theatre and opera productions, ballet performances and concerts. The artists in St Petersburg adopted the style of the Parisian fin-de-siécle and constructed a dream-world of stylized forms and colors. Bakst commuted between St Petersburg and Paris where he died. The French capital experienced from 1907 onwards a short but vehement surge in ballet. Sergei Diaghileff had founded there, with parts of the Imperial Ballet from St Petersburg, the Russian Ballet, which achieved world fame thanks to the efforts of its members and collaborators, and which re-established classical ballet. Abba Pawlowa and Nijnsky, among others, were members of the corps de ballet; Stravinsky, among others, composed the music; and Matisse and Bakst, among others, created the costumes and stage scenery. The image below shows the cover illustration of the program for the ballet, "L'Aprés-Midi d'un Faune" by Claude Debussy; Diaghileff had entrusted the task of producing costumes and fitments to Bakst. For months Bakst observed the rehearsals, Nijinsky stood at their center with his completely new type of choreography, which showed him marrying a veiled nymph - a performance which caused a scandal at the premiere because of the alleged immorality. The sculptor Auguste Rodin recognised, however, the sensational aspects of the portrayal. "Nijinsky possesses, to the highest degree possible, the merits of physical perfection and harmonious and elegant proportions. In "L'Aprés-Midi d'un Faune", he pushes forward the borders of the miraculous, without any great leaps or bounds, simply by means of the comportment and movement of a creature with a semi-conscious affinity to nature. The unison of the body and mime is perfect...It is the ideal model that painters and sculptors have been trying to achieve since time immemorial". Precisely this is mirrored in Bakst's lithograph, a work of genius.
Title: L'Aprés-Midi d'un Faune (1912).
Technique: Color lithograph.
Illustration for a theatre program.
Thomas Theodor Heine (1867 - 1948)[1]
T.T. Heine was a co-founder of the periodical 'Simplicissimus'. but he worked for other publications too, such as 'Die Insel' and 'Jugend'. Born in Leipzig, he lived in Munich from 1889 until his emigration in 1933. His numerous books and magazine illustrations bear the mark of Japanese wood-engravings and of Beardsley's use of line, but Heine reduced the number of lines severely, thus strengthening and sharpening the message of his pictures significantly. The illustration below shows the cover for a program of the Munich cabaret group, 'Die elf Scharfrichter' (The Eleven Executioners). Eleven sharped-tongued artists, including Frank Wedekind - painters, sculptors, musicians, architects and poets - came together in 1901 to attack and 'execute' the society of their time in their songs and short plays. The eleven wore hangman's hoods during each performance; these are replaced in the illusrtration below by devil's masks. Mary Delvard stole the show. Her figure made her seem born to be the trademark of the cabaret company, and this is expressed very nicely by Heine's illustration, which was in fact employed as a poster.
Cover for the program, Bühne und Brettl (The Stage and Cabaret) (1905).
Technique: Autotype.
Size: A3.
Peter Behrens (1868 - 1940)[1]
Behrens translated this leitmotif into reality in his artistic work with consistency rarely matched by another artist. Born in Hamburg, he co-founded the Munich, 'Secession', in 1893 and four years later, 'Vereinigten Werkstaetten für Kunst in Handwerk', there. He contributed to 'Pan' from 1898 onwards, the most important German periodical for art and literature at that time. In 1900, he went to Darmstadt to work on the creation of an artist colony on the 'Mathildenhoehe', an architectural complex in Art Nouveau style, which later became world-famous (and still is today). In this way he took the step in the direction of architecture, which was to be so important for the course of his life. From 1905 onwards, he received important commissions. In 1907 he was the artistic advisor of AEG (Allgemeaine Elektrizitaets-Gesellschaft i.e. the Electricity Board), for which he constructed numerous plants, thus providing an important model for modern industrial architecture (one of his students was Walter Gropius). He designed and furnished his home right down to the smallest detail, from the mosaic floor to the hollow tile, all in accordance with his concept of art as outlined above. Alongside such activity he created color wood engravings, book illustrations, posters and printed materials, and generally busied himself in various areas of the arts and crafts. His wood engraving, 'The Kiss', was to epitomise German Art Nouveau. The motif mentioned in the title, showing the profiles of two faces reminiscent of Japanese prints, almost disappears amid the great waves of hair of the two; these waves do not only form a most decorative frame they make themselves independent of the faces. The hair is a symbol of sexuality, and its surging waves hints at the rhythm of bodily union, like a whirlpool in which the lovers sink, swept away by their sexual passion.
Title: The Kiss (1898).
Published in the periodical, 'Pan', Vol.4. No 2.
Carl Otto Czeschka (1878 - 1960)[1]
Born in Vienna, Czeschka had studied at the Academy in his home town from 1894-99. He became a member of the 'Secession' in 1900 and in 1905, a teacher at the Viennese College of Commercial Art. From 1907-1943 he was a teacher at the College of Commercial Art in Hamburg where he also died. This incredible versatile artist (e.g. graphics, wood engravings, book illustrations, publications, stage scenery, interior design) - who also worked for the Viennese Workshop, where he designed famous postcards - was commissioned in 1907 to paint the setting for a production of Hebbel's 'Nibelungen' in the Raimund-Theatre in Vienna. The production did not take place in the end, but the 'Nibelungen' theme clearly fascinated Czeschka so much that he illustrated the Gerlach edition a year later. He was also a member of a group led by Gustav Klimt; we recognise the latter's influence in both illustrations, below, which are printed side by side just for that purpose. Czeschka has produced Byzantine-like art here, rich in ornament, which we know well from Klimt's work; characteristic is the use of gold. Despite the relatively small format, the pictures seem monumental, an effect determined by the large vacant black space which stands in clear contrast to the tiny, mosaic-like depictions which ascends and so reduces to what is essential; the tension between the two parts of the picture is great. Both illustrations show the beginning of the 'Nibelungen' poem. We see here a peak in terms of the quality of illustration of children's books at that time, a peak which was hardly ever reached again.
Title: Kriemhild's Dream (1908).
Technique: Color wood engravings.
Antonio Rizzi (1869 - 1941)[1]
It is astonishing how little impact Art Nouveau had in Italy. Further, the few who were inspired, had such diverse interpretations of it. Antonio Rizzi was a Professor at the Academy in Perugia. He contributed from time to time to the periodical 'Jugend' and created, besides graphic prints and illustrations, above all, works in the guise of historical, genre, portrait and scenery painting. The illustration below shows his affinity to the academic, historical Art Nouveau style, just as we know it from the works of Franz von Stuck.
Title: Novissimo (1902).
Technique: Illustration.
Size: 12.7 x 25.5 cm.
Julius Diez (1870 - 1957)[1]
It should be noted there is no evidence that the term 'Jugendstil' was taken from the title of the periodical 'Jugend', which appeared in Munich from 1896. This illustrated weekly with its focus on art and life, as the sub-title emphasised, did not follow a uniform 'new' style, but presented alongside each other such different artists as Wilhelm Busch, Loves Corinth, Franz von Defregger, Arnold Boecklin, Franz von Lenbach and Franz von Stuck. By 'Jugend' (youth) one meant more 'that which is new', 'that which shakes off old forms and styles' and this could also be achieved by artists who were no longer necessarily young in years. The periodical 'Jugend' was open to all possible stylistic directions, united in the aim of getting beyond Classicism and Historicism, toward a new unconventional life-style. This goal is mirrored in the published texts which were often satirical, and critical of their times. That these tentative steps often overshot their goal and later drowned in a flood of ornament, pompousness and kitsch, led to the term 'Jungendstil' (first used by Rudolf Alexander Schroeder in 1899, in another context) being understood as an abusive label for a long time, until researchers established around the middle of the twentieth century what is really meant by 'Jugendstil'.
One of these various tentative attempts, can be seen in the following illustration. Whereas, for example, French Art Nouveau consciously tried to get beyond styles and forms of the 19th Century, we find in Britain, and also in Art Nouveau Munich, a clear turning towards these; this so-called second rococo represents the last repetition of historical styles in the 19th century, but these are no longer taken seriously. The use of line and lettering is semi-classical, but the inclusion of a rococo cherub is ironic. Julius Diez studied at the College of Commercial Art and at the Academy of Munich, worked for 'Jugend' from the very beginning in 1896, taught from 1907 at the College in Munich, and was a Professor at the Academy and President of the 'Secession' from 1925.
The binding for the periodical 'Jugend' (1899).
Technique: Raised printing on linen.
Size: 29.3 x 23.3 cm.
Reference:
[1] P. Bramböck, Art Nouveau, Tiger Books Internation, London (1988).
For your convenience I have listed below the other posts in this series:
Art Nouveau (Part I)
Art Nouveau (Part II)
Art Nouveau (Part III)
Art Nouveau (Part IV)[1]
Edmond Aman-Jean (1860-1936)[1]
The French painter and graphic artist was a student of Eugéne Carriére, who together with Rodin founded in 1890 inter alia the "Société Nationale des Beaux Arts", the second Parisan Spring Salon and thus an association which wanted to create a middle ground between punters of the "Académie", whose art was benumbed and the restless avant-garde. Aman-Jean exhibited regularly in the Salon and quickly acquired a name for himself, such that he was immediately made a corresponding member from abroad when the Vienesse "Secession" was founded; his work was also represented regularly at their exhibitions. In "Ver Sacrum" in 1900 his "Visions of the Splendour of Life", influenced by Edgar Degas, was praised. His subdued collars are especially characteristic, in particular the use of pink and purple, indian yellow and jade green. Since the 1890s Aman-Jean had been devoting himself mainly to copperplate engravings, lithography and watercolor painting. He produced his numerous portraits of women, whose arabesque contours characterised the ladies of the Parisan salons very nicely, a monotonous world, a vacuum, a world of reveries, but also of sorrow as the illustration "Ophelia" shows (the title is not certain). Aman-Jean was the first painter in France to be strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites in Britain, from whose understanding of European Art Nouveau developed.
Technique: Color lithograph.
Size: 34.3 x 26.5 cm.
Leon N. Bakst (1866 - 1924)[1]
In Leon Bakst we become acquainted with one of the most outstanding Russian representatives of Art Nouveau. Around the turn of the century two centres had formed in the country. The artists in Moscow drew their inspiration from Russian folklore (very typical for Wassily Kandinksky) determined by the rustic provinciality of their environment, and thus exerted a strong influence on the development of Western European Art. Quite different were the artists in St. Petersburg, the residence of the Tsar, and the center of rich intellectual, artistic and social life. Looking in keeping with tradition, to France and Germany, there was a particularly active German and French colony with theatre and opera productions, ballet performances and concerts. The artists in St Petersburg adopted the style of the Parisian fin-de-siécle and constructed a dream-world of stylized forms and colors. Bakst commuted between St Petersburg and Paris where he died. The French capital experienced from 1907 onwards a short but vehement surge in ballet. Sergei Diaghileff had founded there, with parts of the Imperial Ballet from St Petersburg, the Russian Ballet, which achieved world fame thanks to the efforts of its members and collaborators, and which re-established classical ballet. Abba Pawlowa and Nijnsky, among others, were members of the corps de ballet; Stravinsky, among others, composed the music; and Matisse and Bakst, among others, created the costumes and stage scenery. The image below shows the cover illustration of the program for the ballet, "L'Aprés-Midi d'un Faune" by Claude Debussy; Diaghileff had entrusted the task of producing costumes and fitments to Bakst. For months Bakst observed the rehearsals, Nijinsky stood at their center with his completely new type of choreography, which showed him marrying a veiled nymph - a performance which caused a scandal at the premiere because of the alleged immorality. The sculptor Auguste Rodin recognised, however, the sensational aspects of the portrayal. "Nijinsky possesses, to the highest degree possible, the merits of physical perfection and harmonious and elegant proportions. In "L'Aprés-Midi d'un Faune", he pushes forward the borders of the miraculous, without any great leaps or bounds, simply by means of the comportment and movement of a creature with a semi-conscious affinity to nature. The unison of the body and mime is perfect...It is the ideal model that painters and sculptors have been trying to achieve since time immemorial". Precisely this is mirrored in Bakst's lithograph, a work of genius.
Technique: Color lithograph.
Illustration for a theatre program.
Thomas Theodor Heine (1867 - 1948)[1]
T.T. Heine was a co-founder of the periodical 'Simplicissimus'. but he worked for other publications too, such as 'Die Insel' and 'Jugend'. Born in Leipzig, he lived in Munich from 1889 until his emigration in 1933. His numerous books and magazine illustrations bear the mark of Japanese wood-engravings and of Beardsley's use of line, but Heine reduced the number of lines severely, thus strengthening and sharpening the message of his pictures significantly. The illustration below shows the cover for a program of the Munich cabaret group, 'Die elf Scharfrichter' (The Eleven Executioners). Eleven sharped-tongued artists, including Frank Wedekind - painters, sculptors, musicians, architects and poets - came together in 1901 to attack and 'execute' the society of their time in their songs and short plays. The eleven wore hangman's hoods during each performance; these are replaced in the illusrtration below by devil's masks. Mary Delvard stole the show. Her figure made her seem born to be the trademark of the cabaret company, and this is expressed very nicely by Heine's illustration, which was in fact employed as a poster.
Technique: Autotype.
Size: A3.
Peter Behrens (1868 - 1940)[1]
Behrens translated this leitmotif into reality in his artistic work with consistency rarely matched by another artist. Born in Hamburg, he co-founded the Munich, 'Secession', in 1893 and four years later, 'Vereinigten Werkstaetten für Kunst in Handwerk', there. He contributed to 'Pan' from 1898 onwards, the most important German periodical for art and literature at that time. In 1900, he went to Darmstadt to work on the creation of an artist colony on the 'Mathildenhoehe', an architectural complex in Art Nouveau style, which later became world-famous (and still is today). In this way he took the step in the direction of architecture, which was to be so important for the course of his life. From 1905 onwards, he received important commissions. In 1907 he was the artistic advisor of AEG (Allgemeaine Elektrizitaets-Gesellschaft i.e. the Electricity Board), for which he constructed numerous plants, thus providing an important model for modern industrial architecture (one of his students was Walter Gropius). He designed and furnished his home right down to the smallest detail, from the mosaic floor to the hollow tile, all in accordance with his concept of art as outlined above. Alongside such activity he created color wood engravings, book illustrations, posters and printed materials, and generally busied himself in various areas of the arts and crafts. His wood engraving, 'The Kiss', was to epitomise German Art Nouveau. The motif mentioned in the title, showing the profiles of two faces reminiscent of Japanese prints, almost disappears amid the great waves of hair of the two; these waves do not only form a most decorative frame they make themselves independent of the faces. The hair is a symbol of sexuality, and its surging waves hints at the rhythm of bodily union, like a whirlpool in which the lovers sink, swept away by their sexual passion.
Published in the periodical, 'Pan', Vol.4. No 2.
Carl Otto Czeschka (1878 - 1960)[1]
Born in Vienna, Czeschka had studied at the Academy in his home town from 1894-99. He became a member of the 'Secession' in 1900 and in 1905, a teacher at the Viennese College of Commercial Art. From 1907-1943 he was a teacher at the College of Commercial Art in Hamburg where he also died. This incredible versatile artist (e.g. graphics, wood engravings, book illustrations, publications, stage scenery, interior design) - who also worked for the Viennese Workshop, where he designed famous postcards - was commissioned in 1907 to paint the setting for a production of Hebbel's 'Nibelungen' in the Raimund-Theatre in Vienna. The production did not take place in the end, but the 'Nibelungen' theme clearly fascinated Czeschka so much that he illustrated the Gerlach edition a year later. He was also a member of a group led by Gustav Klimt; we recognise the latter's influence in both illustrations, below, which are printed side by side just for that purpose. Czeschka has produced Byzantine-like art here, rich in ornament, which we know well from Klimt's work; characteristic is the use of gold. Despite the relatively small format, the pictures seem monumental, an effect determined by the large vacant black space which stands in clear contrast to the tiny, mosaic-like depictions which ascends and so reduces to what is essential; the tension between the two parts of the picture is great. Both illustrations show the beginning of the 'Nibelungen' poem. We see here a peak in terms of the quality of illustration of children's books at that time, a peak which was hardly ever reached again.
Technique: Color wood engravings.
Antonio Rizzi (1869 - 1941)[1]
It is astonishing how little impact Art Nouveau had in Italy. Further, the few who were inspired, had such diverse interpretations of it. Antonio Rizzi was a Professor at the Academy in Perugia. He contributed from time to time to the periodical 'Jugend' and created, besides graphic prints and illustrations, above all, works in the guise of historical, genre, portrait and scenery painting. The illustration below shows his affinity to the academic, historical Art Nouveau style, just as we know it from the works of Franz von Stuck.
Technique: Illustration.
Size: 12.7 x 25.5 cm.
Julius Diez (1870 - 1957)[1]
It should be noted there is no evidence that the term 'Jugendstil' was taken from the title of the periodical 'Jugend', which appeared in Munich from 1896. This illustrated weekly with its focus on art and life, as the sub-title emphasised, did not follow a uniform 'new' style, but presented alongside each other such different artists as Wilhelm Busch, Loves Corinth, Franz von Defregger, Arnold Boecklin, Franz von Lenbach and Franz von Stuck. By 'Jugend' (youth) one meant more 'that which is new', 'that which shakes off old forms and styles' and this could also be achieved by artists who were no longer necessarily young in years. The periodical 'Jugend' was open to all possible stylistic directions, united in the aim of getting beyond Classicism and Historicism, toward a new unconventional life-style. This goal is mirrored in the published texts which were often satirical, and critical of their times. That these tentative steps often overshot their goal and later drowned in a flood of ornament, pompousness and kitsch, led to the term 'Jungendstil' (first used by Rudolf Alexander Schroeder in 1899, in another context) being understood as an abusive label for a long time, until researchers established around the middle of the twentieth century what is really meant by 'Jugendstil'.
One of these various tentative attempts, can be seen in the following illustration. Whereas, for example, French Art Nouveau consciously tried to get beyond styles and forms of the 19th Century, we find in Britain, and also in Art Nouveau Munich, a clear turning towards these; this so-called second rococo represents the last repetition of historical styles in the 19th century, but these are no longer taken seriously. The use of line and lettering is semi-classical, but the inclusion of a rococo cherub is ironic. Julius Diez studied at the College of Commercial Art and at the Academy of Munich, worked for 'Jugend' from the very beginning in 1896, taught from 1907 at the College in Munich, and was a Professor at the Academy and President of the 'Secession' from 1925.
Technique: Raised printing on linen.
Size: 29.3 x 23.3 cm.
Reference:
[1] P. Bramböck, Art Nouveau, Tiger Books Internation, London (1988).
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