Art Nouveau took place mostly in Paris France during the
end of the nineteenth century. It brought about a huge change in lifestyle and the way people acted. Design in general was very different from the previous times; it was inspired all from nature and was very sensual.
At that time, big changes in lifestyle were happening in Paris. The population increased from half a million to two and a half million in a very short period of
time. Automatically big changes in the city lifestyle were happening. The city became
overcrowded and full of energy. People started socializing and partying a lot. They
used to spend most of their time in bars and theatres. They starting spending a
lot of money on entertaining. The woman
became a huge figure in society and that’s from where the artists got most of
their inspiration from: her figure, her curves and her pride. With the complete
change in life, a new style of design was born.
Alphonse Mucha was a
fine artist of this time. He was still very young in the business when he
designed his big hit poster for Sarah Bernhardt who was a very famous stage
girl in Paris. Before become famous Mucha was passing through bad times struggling as an artist. He designed Bernhardt poster in a venture just to help out a friend. The poster that he made, became so popular that
people starting selling stickers and objects with the same design on it.
Bernhardt immediately liked his work and hired him with her with a contract of six
years. This design was liked mostly because the artist managed to
depict her exactly how she felt and how she wanted herself to be seen. In the poster, he depicted the figure very long and feminine. He crowned Sarah with flowers in a particular style. Light pastel colours were used for the whole poster. There is a lot of
flower detailing on her clothes that make her look very beautiful. Mucha, like
all artists from Art Nouveau inspired himself from nature and organic and human
forms. With this poster he became popular overnight.
Before Art Nouveau, jewellery was very bold and big, it was all
about the bling and about who has the most expensive diamond. Rene Lalic was a
great jewel maker in Paris during Art Nouveau. He came out with different style in jewellery. He did not heed the big stones and the expensiveness of the jewellery. His jewellery was all about design. In his designs there was importance to the
perfection of material, colour and the right texture. He was not fond of
expensive material. He created dramatic jewellery for glamourous and
elegant women. He used cheap material but had designs that were dramatic and were
used mostly for nightlife.
Above, are two designs of Lalic. They both have a lot of details. The snakes skin, on the left looks so realistic and their open mouths are so dramatic. The two pearls inside the snakes' mouth makes the design so elegant. If there weren't the pearls, it wouldn't look as feminine and pleasing as it is. The chain chosen for the pendant is very simple, yet there's a pleasing way of combination with the pendant. On the right is a complete different design, the shape of the whole pendant reminds me of the shape of a leaf and the diamond pattern looks like its veins. The roots of the trees are printed at the bottom with some very beautiful light blue. A naked couple is engraved in the middle of the whole design. It is a very organic and sensual design. It is very elegant and graceful design. The woman who wore this must have been a high class woman.
Bibliography
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/artn/hd_artn.htm
http://www.alfonsmucha.org/
All searched on the 2nd Nov 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment