6 - The Late 19th Century - Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau directly developed from the Arts and Crafts movement that ended around 1910. It was known as one of the first commercial art movements, making beauty and industrial products look better, and it was one of the first styles to spread internationally, across Europe and to America.

Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi
Bridge and Atake - Hiroshige 1857
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Bridge in the Rain - Van Gogh - 1887
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This piece of art from Japan was one of many along with artefacts that were imported into many European countries in large quantities because of the fascination Europe had with anything Japanese. These items influenced many artists to create this style of work.

Many Western artists and designers created almost direct copies of this style of work including Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, as shown to the right in his painting 'Bridge in the Rain' which is incredibly similar to Hiroshige's 'Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi'. Van Gogh's was printed 30 years later.

Van Gogh was an impressionist, which was shown in his work through his swirling forms. This movement was also an inspiration to the start of Art Nouveau, and is shown as paintings and graphics simplified throughout the interchange of the two movements.

'Le Café-concert des Ambassadeurs' -
Edgar Degas - 1877
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Impressionism was somewhat detailed with its brush strokes, as shown in Edgar Degas's 'Le Café-concert des Ambassadeurs' - 1877, however this image still shows simplified figures and silhouettes compared to older impressionist paintings.

Poster for illustrated magazine
Pall Mall Budget - Maurice Greiffenhagen -
1896
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From here, the Art Nouveau movement because more and more simplified, and in turn, more abstract, like the image to the right, using only 3-4 colours and blending with woman's dress into the page, with her hands and scarf being part of the background colour.