Women and decoration
Who does not know about Mucha? One of the most famous Art Nouveau
artist that worked in Paris and popularized on his placards
an image of a distant woman with highly curved hair. His work for
Sarah
Bernardt is the most well known but his work for his nation
(he was
Czech) as a painter is also really great (Obecni dum in
Prague et the
painting of the "Czech epic")
Representation of woman is sometime mixed with
animals
in a way of a modern sphinx. Two examples : Lalique jewels with
woman-dragonfly jewels or the Engel Apotecke (see below))
The most frequent representation of woman on Art Nouveau
buildings is
just a head, like a kind of mask, popularized by
German jugendstil. But
woman representations on Art Nouveau buildings can be much richer using
sculpture (
bas
relief : see below
Praha
and
Montevecchio,
ceramic
: see below pictures of
Dannerbergplatz,
Zatecka,
Kohlmarkt),
frescoes
or
sgraffitos
(
bd
des combattants, Engel Apothecke, Schaerbeck, Bruxelles),
tiles
(
Casa Galimberti).
Gallery :
Women that counted for Art Nouveau :
Frances Mac Donald - Mackintosh
Frances is one of the very few Art Nouveau feminine artists. She
contributed largely to her husband's work.
Loïe Fuller
Loïe was an American dancer
who danced in Paris around 1900.
She danced playing with scarfs, turning them at high speed and playing
with light and transparency. Her show was so famous that she had her
own exhibition theater in the 1900 world fair in Paris. This building
by Henri Sauvage is another piece of Art Nouveau.
A lot of Art Nouveau sculptors were influenced by here aura. The most
famous representation of Loïe Fuller is by Raoul Larche.
Sarah Bernardt
Around 1900, Sarah is one of the most well known actress in the world (she is French but she played theater in Paris, Europe and even in the United States). She
is independent and lonesome which is very unusual at that time. She
played the most important roles of theater including male roles. In 1894, at Christmas time, Mucha was helping a friend artist to finish correction work by replacing him in a printer office.
When the office received an urgent order for a placard for the 'Gismonda' play to deliver for the new year, Mucha was the only artist available.
His design of Sarah Bernard standing while playing 'Gismonda' was so new that it created an enormous buzz... and the begining of an international carrier for Alphons Mucha.
With this success, Mucha became protected by Sarah Bernardt and later became friends. He designed 9 placards for Sarah as well as decors or costumes. The work of Mucha followed the international tours of Sarah.
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