"This is a gorgeous book, ideal for any lover of Art Nouveau." —bookaddiction Dover's extensive library of Art Nouveau graphic art and typography serves as the source for this comprehensive volume, which features hundreds of magnificent full-color and black-and-white illustrations. Images by virtually every key artist of the Art Nouveau movement include the work of Alphonse Mucha, E. A. Seguy, Aubrey Beardsley, Koloman Moser, Max Benirschke, and M. P. Verneuil. Selections from rare books and portfolios of the period include works never reprinted since their initial publication. This book also reprints material from the major Art Nouveau periodicals, including Jugend, The Studio, Dekorative Vorbilder, and The Keramic Studio. Detailed bibliographical information concerning every source ― including biographical details of each artist ― makes this collection a vital reference tool as well as a stunning compendium of significant and beautiful Art Nouveau graphics. Students of graphic art, typography, and illustration, as well as graphic designers and advertising professionals, will prize this remarkable resource. Graphic artist Carol Belanger Grafton has edited and designed over 250 books for Dover, including Art Nouveau and Art Deco graphics, vintage commercial and advertising art, historic engravings from the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries, old-time postcards and collections of historic paintings, historic fashion illustrations and designs, and many other subjects. Art Nouveau The Essential Reference By Carol Belanger Grafton Dover Publications, Inc. Copyright © 2015 Dover Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-486-79983-4 Contents France, 1, Czechoslovakia, 41, Germany, 53, England, 83, Austria, 95, Switzerland, 117, United States, 121, The Art Nouveau Poster, 125, Index of Artists, 135, Source Information, 137, INTRODUCTION On December 26, 1895, Siegfried Bing, a successful German art dealer based in Paris opened a new gallery at 22 rue de Provence which he called the Maison de l'Art Nouveau ("House o f New Art"). The new gallery was devoted to what was then considered modern art, including works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and artifacts in glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany. A few years later at a Parisian World's F air, the 1900 Exposition Universelle, Bing expanded his reach by displaying complete installations featuring furniture, textiles, and other objects of all kinds created in this new and modern style by his substantial roster of artists and designers. Because of its central role in popularizing this new movement, the name of Bing's gallery became the name of the style it featured, and what we now simply call Art Nouveau left its home on the rue de Provence and entered its peak years all over Europe and in parts of the world beyond. The artists and designers represented in this book were from France, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, England, and the United States. The intent of this book is to give the reader a sense of what Art Nouveau was about, what it looked like, who some of the people were who created and developed it, and especially — because news of Art Nouveau spread around the world in those early decades of the twentieth century mostly by means of the printed page — what their books and portfolios were about. Art Nouveau is a vast subject. The Art Nouveau style spread quickly throughout Europe, to Germany where it was named Jugendstil ("Youth Style") because of the central role played there by the Munich periodical Die Jugend, to Austria where it was named Sezessionstil ("Secession Style"), because many of the artists interested in this new style were members of the Vienna Secession, a group formed in 1897 by artists who were looking for something new and modern, different from the historical conservatism in which they had been brought up. In some other areas it became known, in different variations, simply as the "Modern" style. A single volume such as this one can only hit some of the high spots, but our hope is that provided here is some visual inspiration and information for the reader and researcher who would like to go further into this world, and details of some of the essential sources which could be, and should be, consulted in that quest. Art Nouveau might be difficult to define concisely, but it isn't hard to describe. Sinuous, long and flowing lines and curves; a fascination with adapting natural forms, plants and animals of all kinds, exotic as well as everyday, for stylized and decorative purposes; obsession with the female form and a new freedom in working with interpretations of that form. Above all, Art Nouveau meant elegance and energy and precision in the way anything and everything was presented, from bookplates and business cards, to huge opera posters and advertising placards. This collection features examples of Art Nouveau decorative art, geometric and other patterns, textile and wallpaper des