1890–1910 · France, Belgium, Spain, Austria
Art Nouveau
Also known as Jugendstil, Modernisme, Stile Liberty
A short-lived but radical style of flowing, organic line — whiplash curves, plant and vine motifs, and ornament fused with structure.
Photo: Teodoir, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Casa_Batll%C3%B3,_Barcelona.jpg
Across disciplines
- Graphic Design: Vienna Secession Graphics
- Graphic Design: Art Nouveau (Graphic)
- Industrial Design: Thonet Bentwood
- Industrial Design: Art Nouveau Product
- Interior Design: Art Nouveau Interior
About the style
Art Nouveau rejected the borrowed historical styles of the 19th century in favor of a new language drawn from nature: tendrils, flowers, insect wings, and the female form rendered as sinuous 'whiplash' curves. It dissolved the boundary between structure and ornament, with iron, glass, and stone bending into organic shapes. Total works of art — buildings, furniture, glass, and graphics designed as a unified whole — were the ideal. It burned brightly and briefly before the harder geometry of the new century took over.
Notable examples
- ▸Casa Batlló (Barcelona)
- ▸Hôtel Tassel (Brussels)
- ▸Paris Métro entrances (Paris)
Anatomy of Art Nouveau
The numbered markers call out the design elements that define this style. Hover or tap a marker to see its breakdown.
Photo: Teodoir, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Casa_Batll%C3%B3,_Barcelona.jpg
The roofline ripples like the scaly back of a dragon, tiled in iridescent ceramic — ornament and structure fused into one organic gesture.
The whole façade shimmers with trencadís — a mosaic of broken ceramic and glass — dissolving the wall into a field of colour and light.
Cast-iron balconies hang like carnival masks, their sinuous curves a hallmark of Art Nouveau's whiplash line.
At street level the stone is moulded into smooth, bone-like columns and wavy openings, abandoning the straight line almost entirely.
How Art Nouveau connects
Styles form a network, not a tree. Explore the direct neighbours below — click any to travel the map one hop at a time.
- Reaction against
- Parallel / cross-current
- Regional variant of
- Influenced by
Reaction against Beaux-Arts — rejected academic historicism in favor of organic, original form
Parallel / cross-current Vienna Secession Graphics — the Viennese, geometric wing of Art Nouveau in graphic form
Art Deco reaction against Art Nouveau — swapped organic curves for hard, confident geometry
Prairie School parallel / cross-current Art Nouveau — contemporaneous turn-of-century reform — organic, but geometric rather than curvilinear
Arts and Crafts parallel / cross-current Art Nouveau — shared a contemporaneous taste for stylised natural motifs and total design — a reciprocal relationship
Vienna Secession regional variant of Art Nouveau — the Austrian expression of Art Nouveau, more rectilinear and restrained than its French and Belgian counterparts
Expressionist Architecture influenced by Art Nouveau — inherited Art Nouveau's expressive plasticity and rejection of historicism, pushing it toward raw emotional drama
Amsterdam School influenced by Art Nouveau — drew on Art Nouveau's flowing lines and craft ideals, recast in plastic brick rather than iron and glass
De Stijl reaction against Art Nouveau — pared back the decorative excess of earlier movements, retaining only pure geometry
Italian Futurism (Architecture) influenced by Art Nouveau — reacted against Art Nouveau's organic ornament while inheriting its appetite for a total break with revival styles
Art Nouveau (Graphic) parallel / cross-current Art Nouveau — the same whiplash-line movement expressed in posters and print rather than buildings
Thonet Bentwood parallel / cross-current Art Nouveau — a shared turn-of-century taste for the sinuous curve — here in cheap bent wood rather than wrought iron
Art Nouveau Product parallel / cross-current Art Nouveau — the product and furniture expression of Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau Interior parallel / cross-current Art Nouveau — the Art Nouveau architecture it forms a whole with
Describe it like this
Prompt-ready vocabulary for describing or re-creating the Art Nouveau look.