Art Nouveau (Design)

Art Nouveau is a new style of art which started in the 1880s till the World War I (1914). The development of Art Nouveau happened in the Western Europe and the United States, but started in Belgium. Art Nouveau was being inspired by some aspects of nature. It influenced art, applied arts, architecture, graphic world and illustrations. Art Nouveau has different names in different countries such as ‘Sezession stil’ in Vienna/Austria, ‘Jugendstil’ in Germany, ‘Stile Liberty’ in Italy, ‘Modernista’ in Spain and more. Each country has its own style of Art Nouveau. “Sinuous lines and "whiplash" curves were derived, in part, from botanical studies and illustrations of deep-sea organisms such as those by German biologist Ernst Heinrich Haeckel (1834–1919) in Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature, 1899)”.

Short biography of Georges Fouquet:

Georges Fouquet was a French jeweller, in Paris. He was born in 1862 and died in 1957. He stared his job of a jeweller in 1891 with his father in a family business, then the company became his in 1895. In 1919 Fouquet’s son started to work for his company. Fouquet’s style was based on the Art Nouveau and the Art Deco movements. He was known that he worked with artist Alphonse Mucha to create jewellery from his designs for the Pavilion of Bosnia-Herzegovina at the 1900 World Fair, in Paris. Alphonse Mucha was an Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist.

Brooch 1898 - 1901
Materials used: Gold, pearls, mother of pearl, delicate pliqué à jour enamel. 

This brooch was designed by Georges Fouquet inspired from paphiopedilum lawrenceanum orchid and designed by Charles Desrosiers, Fouquet's main designer. the large middle pearl is very interesting and it is the main focus of this brooch. It has the charecteristics of Art Nouveau because it has those ''whiplash'' curved lines. It has an expensive look as it really is because it is made out of expensive materials. 


Bibliography:

Paul Greenhalgh, 2000, A New Style For A New Age. [online] Available at: <https://www.nga.gov/feature/nouveau/exhibit_intro.shtm> [Accessed 14 April 2014].

Cybele Gontar - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d., Art Nouveau. [online] Available at: <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/artn/hd_artn.htm> [Accessed 14 April 2014].

 Birmingham Museums and Art Galleries, n.d., Biography for Georges Fouquet. [online] Available at: <http://www.bmagic.org.uk/people/Georges+Fouquet> [Accessed 14 April 2014].

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, 2005, Jewellery. [online] Available at: http://www.scva.ac.uk/collections/anderson/index.php?collection=29&collection_object=29 [Accessed 14 April].