How To Draw Like Alfons Mucha
I should disclaim, before I commencement, that I am not an art historian. I have never taken an Fine art History class in my life. (Or, well, I tried a form once to see if I'd sign up, just dropped information technology pretty quickly after falling asleep in ten minutes flat, which is a new record, particularly since I wasn't even tired.) Everything I know about this stuff I learned from days upon days of reading Wikipedia and educational websites. Crusade that'south how I roll/spend my leisure hours. Yup. I'1000 crawly.
(Or: Everything You E'er Wanted To Know About Art Nouveau But Didn't Know To Inquire Because No One Always Told You How Awesome It Was)
Chances are, you are request yourself right at present "what the fuck is Art Nouveau?" This is a very valid question. The reply is:
By Alphonse Mucha
That, at to the lowest degree superficially, is your answer. Of class, it's really more complicated than that.
Let'south have a trip back in time. It's the almost the turn of the century in Europe, and a lot is irresolute. The art globe is slowly shifting from the dreamy Impressionists to the bright colors and bold shapes of the Post-Impressionists. The world is in the heyday of the Industrial Revolution. Capitalism is rampant. The heart class is growing. More and more than people have access to education and therefore, the arts. More and more people are starting to have a fiddling flake of money to spend on frivolity and luxury. Travel is now more than possible than e'er, which means ideas are now coming in from all over the world. And in Europe, there are a agglomeration of dudes attempting to take reward of this past doing what old white dudes have done for centuries: sell shit for profit. Enter a hot immature lithographer by the proper name of Alphonse Mucha.
Alphonse Mucha was a beast. He did one committee - a poster for Sarah Bernhardt in Gismonda, and that lone started a frenzy. No ane had e'er seen anything like what this guy did. Fine art, before this time, was very... fine art-y. Mucha'south work was graphic. It was accessible. I hateful, call back nearly it. Monet's dandy and all, just can you imagine using his paintings of h2o lilies to get people to see a play? No. And thus, graphic blueprint was born.
The thing about Art Nouveau that makes it so amazing is that information technology's simply and so dissimilar from everything that came earlier information technology. It didn't actually leap up out of one place or in reaction to one movement. And it wasn't contained in the art world. It was an aesthetic that dominated every bit of European civilization for near xx years before information technology was kicked to the curb by Fine art Deco (which drew heavily from Art Nouveau, though went for more industrial, clean lines). It was the idea that there wasn't a line between the normal, unwashed masses and those who could capeesh art. Art belonged to anybody. Art was for everyone. Art was everywhere.
Most Art Nouveau is in the class of lithographs and/or woodcuts because they could be reproduced en masse. But like I said, Art Nouveau was everywhere, influencing jewelery, pottery, and all those pretty little things that are collectively referred to equally objects d'art because art historians are usually French and too, pretentious bastards. (If y'all desire to encounter adept examples of this, bank check out the work of René Lalique. I'm not a huge fan of his stuff - it's besides ornate and leans too into Art Deco for my tastes, but he was a pretty gifted dude. I personally prefer Louis Aucoc, just he wasn't nearly as famous.) Art Nouveau is, in fact, in your life, and you accept no thought. For example, if you've ever been to Paris, y'all've probably seen this:
That's a blueprint by Art Nouveau architect Hector Guimard. I wanted to do more than examples of Fine art Nouveau architecture, because its pretty, but it'south something that's hard to find pictures of - it sort of has to be experienced, I call up. But this wrought-fe natural curviness stuff? You see it all over Europe. (I believe the Galsgow School of Design was made in the Fine art Nouveau fashion?) If you're actually into Art Nouveau architechture, you should check out Victor Horta. He was a Belgian designer who went totally basics in the 1890'due south. His almost famous work is a building called the Hôtel Tassel in Brussels. I'm not certain what it was originally for, but it now hosts a museum dedicated to him. And it is abso-effing-loutely gorgeous.
I believe that experts refer to this as "the bomb diggity".
Just if, like me, you lot're American and non much into travel, there'south a really easy way to go encounter some Art Nouveau influence - wait at a lamp. More specifically, look at a Tiffany lamp:
These were made by a company full of glassworkers and Art Nouveau enthusiasts run by a guy named Louis Comfort Tiffany. He did non found the jewelry company you are thinking of. But he did make fine art every bit abode decor something that was of a sudden attainable to the growing population of upper middle class. (And, eventually, middle class - his original piece of work is hella expensive, but the more watered-downwardly versions his company fabricated and he didn't make personally you've probably seen in a house or five.) He also did a lot of really gorgeous stained glass work all over the due east coast of the U.s., but he's most famous for his totally kickass lamps.
Even so, if you lot are looking at Art Nouveau, 99% of the time that will mean you lot are looking at some sort of print. How do you know if a moving picture is Art Nouveau? Allow me to break information technology down for you.
Here is the basic breakdown of Art Nouveau. Note that, similar all art movements, there are artists that more than literally adhere to it and artists that don't. We'll explore the premises of that later. To count something as Art Nouveau I'd say y'all need about 75% of these markers to be checked off:
ONE: Await for copious use of the French bend. Y'all'll larn to recognize that bend from a mile abroad. And that's not the merely curve. See how there are about no straight lines in this piece? That's extremely typical and pretty much what separates Art Nouveau from Art Deco. Fine art Deco loves straight lines. Art Nouveau is all virtually the strong, sinuous black lines.
Ii: Y'all almost never see dudes in Fine art Nouveau. Pretty ladies sold stuff. Thus, nearly all Fine art Nouveau focuses on a sexy lady. It'due south extremely rare, in Art Nouveau, for there to exist more than one person to focus on. It's unremarkably 1 sexy lady wearing something decadent, diaphanous, and/or come across-through(if she's wearing anything at all).
THREE: And here is where Art Nouveau was considered utterly scandalous - in that location's no background. It's all abstractions. This, to people in the 1890's, was shocking. A PERSON IN AN ABSTRACT SPACE!?!?!? In that location MAY As well Be ANARCHY. Granted, this is very structured, geometric abstractions, merely they are abstractions however. And I'd say this abstract background happens in about 75% of Fine art Nouveau pieces. In that location are times when the setting of a place volition be somewhere natural, like a garden, but information technology'southward usually non a fully-realized space.
Now, the abstractions are where you really become to encounter the main influences of Art Nouveau, which is pretty much one part classic European designs, one part Japanese influence. The Japanese stuff we'll get into in the adjacent betoken, because it'south a little harder to see. But the European stuff is pretty easy to spot. There's the circle drawn around the subject in a halo (or "solar disc" if you lot're an fine art nerd), and a lot of the motifs are pretty much straight taken from medieval illuminated manuscripts:
Shit don't change too fast in Europe.
FOUR: Around the time Fine art Nouveau was happening, in that location was a big wave of this motility chosen Japonisme. Which I'm using the French of considering in English the give-and-take "Japonism" merely sounds so effing clunky. But basically, everyone was super-fascinated with Japan, which was but opening their doors to the W, and the Art Nouveau guys were similar the very first Weeaboos. A lot of Art Nouveau was lifted directly from the thriving world of Japanese printmaking. Notice:
Print by Katsuka Hokusai
Kanji of Gion Holding a Fan by Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Two Portraits by Toyohara Chikanobu
Now, evidently, I've purposefully selected prints that more blatantly reference Art Nouveau, but you lot encounter the similarities, right? The flat, abstract backgrounds, the focus on nature, the strong, curved lines, and most importantly, the colour?
Because color is super important in Fine art Nouveau. In fact, I accept fatigued upwards an approximate color chart of all the colors you will ever meet in an Art Nouveau print:
Art Nouveau focuses heavily on warm colors, with cool tones simply used to highlight or accent. Particularly, Art Nouveau artists loved yellow. Loved information technology in every shade. On elevation of that, you lot'll notice that none of these colors are super-saturated. They all look faded and dusty. When you add warm colors + lack of saturation, y'all become this very romantic, nostalgic, dreamy sort of feel to your piece, which was not only very referential to Japanese prints (which are all done on yellowed newspaper with no stark whites, similar to Art Nouveau), only was exactly the mood these artists were going for. Thy wanted to create a sort of fantastical place in their work. They wanted their posters to beckon to yous and say "buy what I am selling! If you practise, I volition take you to the sun-drenched world where everything is encrusted in jewels and the sun shines like gold and hot ladies are one-half-naked everywhere and you can run your fingers through their long, luscious hair!"
Isn't it nice to know advertising's changed then much in the final, oh, 125 years?
So that, my friends, is Art Nouveau in a nutshell. Congratulations! You are now able to place it, which ways we can get to the fun part: looking at actual pieces.
There are two types of artists who are considered Art Nouveau - there are the guys who are the dictionary definition, and in that location are the guys who were contemporaries and certainly heavily influenced by Art Nouveau, simply were also influenced by a lot of other stuff and did their own thing. These guys are the get-go category. They bank check off almost everything on the "Is Information technology Fine art Nouveau?" checklist.
If you're gonna talk well-nigh Fine art Nouveau, you're going to have to start with Alphonse Mucha. This guy is Art Nouveau. He created it. He's the dominate. Everyone afterwards him was basically measured against his sheer, overpowering awesome.
The Four Seasons Series
Lorenzaccio
Monaco Monte Carlo
Byzantine Heads
Trip the light fantastic toe
The Evening Series
Zodiac
The Precious Stones Serial
Moët & Chandon Crémant Impérial
Task Cigarettes
Thistle from the Sands and Heather from Clover Cliffs
Flirt
One of Mucha'south nigh dedicated copycats was Henri Privat-Livemont. Too having lots of images, the internet doesn't have much to say about him other than the fact that he almost entirely created fine art for advertisements. So I'm just going to assume he was a really boring person who made really pretty artwork. Also, that art historians are, much like many in the fine art globe, snobs who recollect that the but legitimate art is that which is completely commercially useless. (Don't even go me started on how in the art community the words "illustrator" or "designer" are dingy words. Practice Non Even GET ME STARTED. The bespeak is this guy clearly shows that fine art can exist created for all sorts of purposes.)
Berthon is another artist who no 1 has much to say about, probably because he made such minor contributions to Art Nouveau, merely I wanted to include him because I think he'south really, really adept at illustrating how much influence Fine art Nouveau has had on art through the years. And so, if y'all're like me and grew upward with hippie parents, you might have seen the artwork of Mary Azarian, or your parents might own a very famous book of (folky) songs for guitar called Rising Upwardly Singing, which was put together by a bunch of people, including Pete Seeger, and illustrated past an creative person named Kore Loy Whirter, whose simply artwork seems to exist that book. The point is, both of these people were heavily, heavily influenced by Art Nouveau, which had a large resurgence of popularity in the tardily sixties. I actually idea that Berthon's work was some sort of seventies revival Art Nouveau, but no, he was a contemporary of Mucha, and a pretty illustrative link between Fine art Nouveau so and how it's even so influential today.
Sainte Marie des Fleurs
L'Ermitage
Leçons de Violon
Withal another slow guy with pretty artwork.
So I'm not a fan of Aubery Beardsley. He's but non my matter. But this guy was a huge deal. He was the analogy side of the Art Nouveau movement. The super mega creepy side. He also didn't use color almost always, which is a downgrade in my book. But y'all know what, he's popular, and I take to give him his props for that.
The Peacock Skirt
While Art Nouveau was going on in the more commercial art globe, the finer art earth was deeply in the throes of Post-Impressionism. And usually, these two movements, while they respected each other, were pretty disperate. Art Nouveau stressed classicism and realism. Well, not when it came to their backgrounds, simply you'll detect the figures and the flowers tend to exist highly realistic. Post-Impressionism was all well-nigh color and shape and movement. Where the palette of Art Nouveau was dreamy, the Postal service-Impressionist palette was dreamy only if you were severely drugged. Both liked ruddy and yellow, simply Fine art Nouveau liked the softer shades, whereas in Post-Impressionism the more than blaringly red and xanthous you could make something, the better it was.
Post-Impressionists, however, had to make a buck so they could swallow and put a roof over their heads. (Or, in Tolouse-Lautrec's instance, he needed information technology for absinthe and hookers.) And for that, they turned to poster and advertising design, which was a realm entirely dominated Art Nouveau. The two almost famous to do so were the same Toulouse-Lautrec (whose piece of work I don't care for but is a highly entertaining and tragic figure who is worth reading the wikipedia page of) and Steinlen, who designed the extremely famous Conversation Noir poster below on the left. Both retained their Post-Impressionist abstraction, shapes that gave a sense of movement, and extremely strict color palette of red and yellowish that bordered on garish, only paid extremely healthy homage to their Art Nouveau buddies, which is why they're two people who are considered major artists in both movements.
This guy... oh, de Feure. He was only an independent spirit. He never went to art school, equally he considered information technology pointless. And he never really settled down in one way (he'south got some Symbolist stuff, some Mail service-Impressionist stuff, some Art Nouveau, some what the fuck is that style anyways) or i medium. He painted in oils, gauche, and watercolors. He did prints. He was a set designer for theater. He fabricated article of furniture. He worked for newspapers. He couldn't proceed mistresses or coin, let alone 1 style of artwork. When he did exercise Art Nouveau it was very pretty, but in that location isn't a whole lot of his piece of work to notice, and while a lot of it fits the Art Nouveau style, I say "fits" in the loosest sense of the word, since information technology fits a whole lot of other styles likewise.
Oh well, at that place's one of these in every group. Look at his work - you'll see what I mean. It'due south all clearly done by the same guy, merely the guy in question is i who gets bored really, really easily.
Color Study
Swan Lake
The Vox of Evil
Fine art Nouveau Women Examining Flowers Series
Before there were hippies, before there were communes, the art world had roughly the same matter - The Vienna Secession. They rejected "the man" (aka, the conservative master art gallery in Vienna, the Künstlerhaus). They were all "you know what, we'll first our own club of ~free spirits~". And they did! Of course, their social club, unlike other clubs, was defined by the utter lack of cohesiveness. They were all close and supportive of each other, and none of them had anything in common. They were united in their uniqueness.
Gustav Klimt is both the nigh famous of the Secessionists and likewise considered to exist an Art Nouveau creative person, which is fucking ridiculous. Clearly, he was influenced by Art Nouveau (namely, the abstract backgrounds and sinuous lines), but he clung to his autonomy, and it worked for him. He did do some Art Nouveau posters that are almost impossible to find online because they're awful. He'southward famous for his other stuff, and for skillful reason. Nosotros'll end on him because he'southward probably the all-time span that exists between the classicism of Art Nouveau and the abstract eras that were most to follow.
Also because I honey him. And his dear for redheads.
Water Serpents 2
Nuda Veritas
Danae
Judith I
Judith II
Adele Bloch-Bauer
The Kiss
Source: https://chibirhm.livejournal.com/519432.html
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