The Art Nouveau movement of architecture and design flourished in Paris from about 1895 to 1914, reaching its high point at the 1900 Paris International Exposition. with the Art Nouveau metro stations designed by Hector Guimard. It was characterized by a rejection of historicism and traditional architectural forms, and a flamboyant use of floral and vegetal designs, sinuous curving lines such as the whiplash line, and asymmetry. It was most prominent in architecture, appearing in department stores, apartment buildings, and churches, and in the decorative arts, particularly glassware, furniture, and jewelry. Besides Guimard, major artists included René Lalique in glassware, Louis Majorelle in furniture, and Alphonse Mucha in graphic arts, It spread quickly to other countries, but lost favor after 1910 and came to an end with the First World War.
History
The Maison de l'Art Nouveau (1895) Art Nouveau had first appeared in Brussels, in houses completed in 1893 by Victor Horta, Paul Hankar, and Henry van de Velde, but it quickly appeared in other forms in Paris. It was introduced by the Franco-German art dealer and publisher Siegfried Bing, who wished to break down the barriers between traditional museum art and decorative art. In 1891, he had founded a magazine devoted to the art of Japan, which helped publicize Japonism in Europe. In 1892, he organized an exhibit of seven artists, among them Pierre Bonnard, Félix Vallotton, Édouard Vuillard, Toulouse-Lautrec and Eugène Grasset which included both more traditional gallery paintings and paintings designed especially for decoration. The Swiss–French artist Grasset was already making early posters in the Art Nouveau style in 1893.
In 1895, Bing opened a new gallery at 22 rue de Provence in Paris, the Maison de l'Art Nouveau, devoted to works in both the fine and decorative arts. The interior and furniture of the gallery were designed by the Belgian architect Henry van de Velde. The Maison de l'Art Nouveau showed paintings by Georges Seurat, Paul Signac and Toulouse-Lautrec, glass from Louis Comfort Tiffany and Émile Gallé, jewelry by René Lalique, and posters by Aubrey Beardsley. Bing wrote in 1902, "Art Nouveau, at the time of its creation, did not aspire in any way to have the honor of becoming a generic term. It was simply the name of a house opened as a rallying point for all the young and ardent artists impatient to show the modernity of their tendencies."
A change in the municipal laws and the Facade competition (1898–1902) One great limitation on the architecture of Paris at the end of the 19th century was a law, dating to the 1607 but still in effect in 1900, limitling the height and ornament on the facades and forbidding any elements of architecture that protruded over the sidewalk below. This was done to allow greater light to the narrow streets and to prevent pieces of masonry falling on the street below. Exceptions were often made, but the law greatly limited the freedom of architects.
The second great limit imposed on architects was the design system put in place by the city planner Baron Haussmann, which was immediately relaxed upon his death in 1891.
In 1897, the Administration of Paris launched a competition, first for the Rue Réaumur and subsequently extending to the entire city in 1898, awarding prizes to the six most original facades, in the Concours de façades de la ville de Paris. One of the winners in 1898 was Hector Guimard's Castel Béranger, the first Art Nouveau residence in Paris. In 1902 the director of public works of Paris, Louis Bonnier, announced a reform of the law, which followed the model of other European cities. The new rules, put into effect in 1902, used proportionality as the standard; the wider the street, the higher the buildings could be, and the more variety of architecture and ornament the architects could use on the facade.
The Paris Universal Exposition (1900) The Paris Universal Exposition of 1900 marked the summit of Art Nouveau in Paris, bringing together many of the artists and designers who pioneered the style, and making the style known to the forty-eight million visitors to the Exposition. Art Nouveau architecture was highlighted in the interiors of the two major pavilions of fine arts, the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais. It was also prominent in the Palace of Decorative Arts, where works of Louis Majorelle and René Lalique, Daum, and other French designers were displayed. The Paris Métro, completed shortly after the Exposition opened, featured the Art Nouveau edicules designed for the stations by Hector Guimard.
Architecture Hector Guimard's residential buildings The residential architecture of Art Nouveau or Modern Style, as it was also known, was a reaction against the electric and historical styles that dominated Paris in the Belle Époque. A majority of the buildings in the new style were constructed in the wealthy 16th arrondissement. The first was the Castel Béranger (1895–98) by Hector Guimard, built shortly after he visited Brussels, met Paul Hankar and toured the Hôtel Tassel, the town house completed by Victor Horta in 1893, and which had a major impact on his style. Many of the details of the Castel Béranger were Neo-Gothic in inspiration, including the gable windows and rain gutters. It was assembled with a multitude of materials and colors, including stone, brick, and iron, and with a boldness of imagination, including curling vegetal and floral designs in wrought iron decoration around the doors and windows. The building won the competition for the best facade in Paris in 1898, and, along with his own astute marketing, launched Guimard's career. He became the most famous of Art Nouveau architects.Plum, Gilles, Paris Architectures de la Belle Epoque (2014), pg. 38
Late in the period, between 1909 and 1912, Guimard designed a residence and studio for himself, as well as a painting studio for his wife. the Hôtel Guimard at 122 Avenue Mozart (16th arrondissement). This building represented his less exuberant and more refined later style, as did the Hôtel Mezzara (1910), (60, rue de La Fontaine, (16th).
Other notable Guimard buildings in Paris include the early Hôtel Delfau (1895), at Rue Molitor (16th), and the later Hôtel Jassédé (1903–1905) at 142 Avenue de Versailles (16th), notable for its striking asymmetric angle on the corner. The Hôtel Mezzara, (1910) at 60 rue de La Fontaine ((16th) was more classical in style, but also had an interesting asymmetric wing and his characteristic curves, arches, and floral wrought iron designs. He also designed an Art Nouveau synagogue in 1913 (see religious buildings). He designed several other buildings just before and after World War I which were not in the Art Nouveau style.
Guimard's Métro stations Between 1896 and 1904, Hector Guimard designed the Paris Métro station entrances, using the sinuous floral and vegetal designs that became an emblem of the style. They were prefabricated for easier installation, and one hundred and forty coverings were put into place. Most were installed in 1900. Nearly all were removed a few years later, but many were recreated in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Only two of the original edicules from 1900 are still in use; one is Abbesses (Paris Métro) station. It was originally at Hôtel de Ville (Paris Métro) but was moved to its present location in the 1970s. The other is at Porte Dauphine (Paris Métro). It is the only edicule still in use and still at its original location.
Jules Lavirotte and Alfred Wagon – the Ceramic facade (1901) Next to Hector Guimard, the Paris architect most closely associated with Art Nouveau was Jules Lavirotte. He is best known for a group of several buildings in the 7th arrondissement, particularly the Lavirotte Building at 29 Avenue Rapp (7th arrondissement), completed in 1901, and a winner of the Paris facade competition in that same year. The particular feature of the building is the lavish ceramic sculptural ornament on the facade, which was intended as an advertisement for the Paris ceramics firm of Alexandre Bigot. Lavirotte made another extravagant facade in the same neighborhood, at 3 Square Rapp (7th arr.) and another, the so-called Ceramic Hotel on the other side of the Seine, at 34 Avenue de Wagram (8th around.) (1905) This building was a facade competition winner in 1905.
The exuberant style of Lavirotte was pushed even further by architect Alfred Wagon, who is best known for the building at 24 Place Étienne Pernet (15th arrondissement), made for a building contractor named Duroc, and covered with sculpted vegetation. It is considered one of the most extravagant examples of Art Nouveau in Paris.
Office buildings The architect Frantz Jourdain was best known for the La Samaritaine Department store, but also designed office buildings in the later, more moderate Art Nouveau style. It was often blended with neo-classicism and other Belle-Epoque styles. It was used by companies which wanted to show they were modern, but would not take any risks. One example is the La Semeuse Building (1912), Frantz Jourdain for the offices of La Semeuse de Paris, the financial institution that provided credit to the La Samritaine department store. Much of the building has been modernized, but the entrance features an Art Nouveau door and ironwork and stained glass windows by the architect's son.
Department stores and shops The Paris department stores were early showcases of the Art Nouveau style, particularly in their interior galleries. Since gas lighting risked fires, and the reliable tungsten filament for electric light bulbs was not available before 1902, The buildings ere illuminated by large glass skylights over circular courtyards, ringed by galleries open to the courtyard. The most famous example is the Galeries Lafayette department store on Boulevard Haussmann, built by architect Georges Chedanne and his pupil Ferdinand Chanut. The building was begun in 1895, and the central dome and Art Nouveau staircases accessing it we're completed in 1912. Two later interior courtyards were destroyed in earlier remodeling, but the central courtyard, with its colorful glass cupola, has been restored, along with the Art Nouveau stairways.
The department store La Samaritaine at 13 rue de la Monnaie (1st arr.) on the right bank of the Seine, was designed Frantz Jourdain and opened in 1905. It had a stylized Art Nouveau exterior and glass-covered interior court. A second building in Art Deco style by Henri Sauvage was added in 1926. The original building was entirely remodeled in 2018, while preserving the Art Nouveau facades and some of the elements of the interior.
The style was also used in a number of smaller Paris shops, though few survive in their original form. One shop, the jewelry shop of designer Georges Fouquet, with an interior by graphic artist Alphonse Mucha, is now found in the Carnavalet Museum of the history of Paris.
Churches Several churches were built in Paris which incorporated Art Nouveau features, usually combined with other styles, including neo-Gothic. The most notable example of Art Nouveau-Gothic is the Église Saint-Jean-de-Montmartre (1894). The architect was Anatole de Baudot, a follower of Viollet-le-Duc, a professor of French architecture at the School of Chaillot, which trained experts in historical restoration, and professor of medieval architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts. Following the ideas of Viollet-le-Duc, he used modern materials, including an iron frame interior, combined with sculpture by Pierre Roche and ceramic tiles by Alexandre Bigot, who tiles were used in the facades of many Art Nouveau buildings. The open interior with its iron columns and arches was a strikingly modern.
Furniture – Hector Guimard and the Nancy School