Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

synthesize all the arts in a determined attempt to create art based on
natural forms that could be mass-produced for a large audience. The
Art Nouveau style adapted the twining-plant form to the needs of
architecture, painting, sculpture, and all of the decorative arts.

VICTOR HORTAThe mature Art Nouveau style of the 1890s ap-

pears in the houses the Belgian architect Victor Horta(1861–1947)

designed. The staircase (FIG. 31-36) in the Van Eetvelde House,

which Horta built in Brussels in 1895, is a characteristic example.

Every detail functions as part of a living whole.

Furniture, drapery folds, veining in the lavish

stone paneling, and the patterning of the door

moldings join with real plants to provide grace-

ful counterpoints for the twining-plant theme.

Metallic tendrils curl around the railings and

posts, delicate metal tracery fills the glass dome,

and floral and leaf motifs spread across the fab-

ric panels of the screen.

The Art Nouveau style reflects several in-

fluences. In addition to the rich, foliated two-

dimensional ornament of Arts and Crafts design

and that movement’s respect for materials, the

sinuous whiplash curve of Japanese print designs

(FIG. 28-13) inspired Art Nouveau artists. Art

Nouveau also borrowed from the expressively pat-

terned styles of van Gogh (FIGS. 31-16and 31-17),

Gauguin (FIGS. 31-18and 31-19), and their Post-

Impressionist and Symbolist contemporaries.

31-35Charles Rennie Mackintosh

and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh,

reconstruction (1992–1995) of Ladies

Luncheon Room, Ingram Street Tea Room,

Glasgow, Scotland, 1900–1912. Glasgow Art

Galleries and Museum, Glasgow.

Charles Mackintosh’s Ladies Luncheon

Room features functional and exquisitely

designed decor, including stained-glass

windows and pristinely geometric furnish-

ings by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh.

31-36Victor Horta,staircase in the Van

Eetvelde House, Brussels, Belgium, 1895.

The Art Nouveau movement was an attempt to

create art and architecture based on natural forms.

In this room, every detail conforms to the theme of

the twining plant and functions as part of a living

whole.

Architecture and Decorative Arts 847

31-36AHORTA,

Tassel House,

Brussels,

1892–1893.