The Depictions of Women in Poster Art During the Art Nouveau Period

Women'due south roles and status in society developed significantly during the late 19th century (as we explored in our 2016 exhibition Faces of Europe). Women became more than independent and a growing number of metropolitan center-class women enjoyed a dispensable income. During the same period, (predominantly male) Art Nouveau artists and designers depicted women in highly idealised, feminine and seductive forms. Slender, attractive - and often naked - women with flowing hair featured heavily in Fine art Nouveau jewellery, paintings and printed works.

Ad played an influential office in determining how the public perceived women and, just as today, they used the female body to sell lifestyles and products to consumers.

Many Fine art Nouveau artists used eroticism in their work, none more profitably than the Czech painter and decorative artist Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939). Every bit a versatile designer of wallpapers, textiles, silverware and jewellery, Mucha'south work is instantly recognisable and was widely emulated later on two volumes of his graphic designs were published in 1902.

Mucha's advertizement for the Task cigarette visitor, shown on the left, illustrates the idea that "sex sells": a voluptuous woman holds a lit cigarette, as her closed eyes and parted lips suggested ecstasy. The very fact that this woman is smoking could be seen as scandalous, as few respectable women of the time would smoke in public.

The personal life of French phase and film actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) was as dramatic as her acting career. She was an icon of Art Nouveau style whose paradigm endorsed a multifariousness of products including cosmetics, wearable and nutrient items similar Lefèvre-Utile biscuits.

Bernhardt inspired and deputed several works from Alphonse Mucha, such as Gismonda, and she commissioned jewellery, porcelain and other pieces from artists such as René-Jules Lalique.

Female celebrities like Bernhardt were of import muses for many artists and there was great interest in artistes like the nightclub performer Jane Avril and the dancer Loie Fuller.

Often regarded every bit the personification of Fine art Nouveau, Fuller made her Paris phase debut in 1892 on the stage of the Folies Bergère. An early free dance practitioner, she developed a serial of routines in which she whirled effectually the phase to the music of Debussy, Chopin and Schubert, illuminated by bright lighting furnishings.

Hither is a brusque motion-picture show of Fuller's famous Danse Serpentine, 1891, made by the Lumière Brothers in 1896. The dancer in the movie is thought to be Caroline Hipple Holpin, known as Papinta "The Flame Dancer", rather than Loïe Fuller herself.

During this catamenia, women's fashion changed every bit the dress reform motion gathered momentum. Art Nouveau fashion designers developed female clothing with less restrictive, lighter and easier to vesture designs. Soft gauzy fabrics and sinuous lines in modern shades were worn and, after 1900, a new corset way created an Southward-shape silhouette.

Sportswear, beachwear and cycle clothing for women appeared on the market place. Shoes featured Art Nouveau motifs with stylistic detailing on heels. The latest fashions featured in fashion journals, newspapers and department stores, rapidly spreading across Europe.

Explore our specially curated Pinterest lath of Art Nouveau manner (c.1890-c.1910), shown below.

In tune with contemporary artistic developments, many artists working in the Art Nouveau style portrayed women mystically and symbolically. European civilisation's fascination with psychology and symbolism at this time had its origins in decadent verse and literature, and the writings of Sigmund Freud. Freud'southward theories of the unconscious and the estimation of dreams offered visual artists exciting new subjects to explore. Many artists rejected the constraints of realism and turned instead to inner worlds.

The notion of Woman as the embodiment of purity, or its contrary, was a common theme in art and literature of the fin de siecle period. Women were often portrayed as ethereal, seductive and deadly beings like Medusa and Salome. Franz von Stuck'due south 1895 painting The Kiss of the Sphinx (illustrated higher up) depicts a female creature passionately kissing a man whilst overpowering him with her panthera leo'southward talons.

The Austrian painter and Vienna Secession fellow member Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was one of the virtually famous artists of the Art Nouveau era. Klimt'due south piece of work, such as the Danae of 1907-08 shown beneath, oftentimes depicted the female nude in a highly decorative and sensual manner. Klimt's incorporated nudes with precious materials, such as gold and silver, to create brilliant mosaic-similar surfaces.

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Source: https://www.europeana.eu/en/exhibitions/art-nouveau-a-universal-style/women-in-art-nouveau

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