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The Essence of Art Nouveau

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From the outset, Paul Greenhalgh does what other art historians often fail to do, by placing the design style into historical context for the general reader. "Imagine a world," he writes, "in which virtually every aspect of life has undergone, in a single life-span, a complete physical transformation. Art Nouveau arrived in a world such as this." Using side-by-side comparisons, the author shows the direct stylistic impact of other artistic traditions and objects, such as Rococo sculpture, Japanese prints and Islamic decorative arts. Although the Minoan influences on later works are curiously absent, Greenhalgh effectively illustrates how, for example, "Islamic culture exuded a heavy sensuality for Europeans whose sense of the Orient was based upon the myth of the Eastern woman ..." One sees this Orientalist resonance in the sensuous glassware of Louis Comfort Tiffany and in Theodore Riviere's erotically charged sculpture, Carthage or Salammbo chez Matho. Interestingly, Greenhalgh attributes the demise of Art Nouveau to precisely what it celebrated, an "eclectic range of sources". Unusual in a book of this size, there is a substantial chronology with key moments in Art Nouveau listed by year and country of origin.