In the later years of the nineteenth century there was a lot happening such as the Japanese where invited to exhibit at the 1862 international exhibition in London. This was the first time many had seen work like this, today when we see a Japanese print or wood cuts we take it for granted, we've seen it all before but back then it was all new and was named japonisme.
Another movement was the emergence of arts and craft in England which incorporated art into everyday items.
From japonisme and art and crafts came Art Nouveau, which blended the two main movements of design into one beautiful period in time.
The name Art Nouveau came from a shop in Paris owned by the art dealer Samuel Bing, who was looking to relaunch his business with a new name. He named it "L'Art nouveau" and invited all the big names of the time to his art gallery to exhibit.
The main feature of most designs of Art Nouveau is what's called the whiplash. This is the free flowing line in a design used to show movement, it was best seen in a revival of Celtic design in England which at its heart has knots, circles and squares all intertwined.
The woman's hair in this brooch is an example of whiplash
Art nouveau covered many areas of design but it is jewellery I'm most interested in and was first drawn to this period through. The jewellery normally has some kind of insect, animal or mythical being interpreted on and there are various uses for enamelling used. It was the enamelling that first caught by eye. I, as you probably already know if you read my blog a lot, use jewel enamels in my own designs. It's a different kind of enamel to the kind used in the art nouveau period but it still gives the same beautiful lustre to a piece like the genuine article. One use for enamel used time and time again in this period is to decorate the wings of a beetle, it's something that's definitely on my to do list for future project!
Before art nouveau came the Victorian era, which for all it's wonders and developments was also a little bit reversed when it came to human form in all it's glory. So art nouveau came as something of a shock to purest Victorians who had hardly even seen a woman's ankle never mind her whole body laid bare in the form of a brooch or other adornment. One of my favourite jewellers of the time was Rene Lalique who also became known for his pieces of jewellery showing the female body. Personally I like some of his others more then the trademark pieces. In next weeks Thursday throwback I'll be going into more detail about the man behind the jewellery and more pictures to show you of the beautiful pieces he made.
Another favourite of mine from the period was a company what is still around today, Tiffany and Co. They set out with the aim to make one of a kind pieces usually with unusual gems, pearls and incorporated the flowing lines and motifs of the time into each piece.
Unfortunately as with all good things it had to end somewhere. With war in Europe looming art nouveau shrank back and it wasn't until after the war some of the design elements of this fabulous period where picked up again in a new movement called modernist in the 1930s.
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