Impressionist artists were moved by the artistic tradition of Japanese woodblock printmaking, and Japonisme - a term used to describe the appetite for Japanese art and culture in Europe at the time - greatly informed Art Nouveau.

The visual vocabulary of Art Nouveau was particularly influenced by the soft colors and abstract images of nature seen in Japanese art prints, which arrived in large numbers in the West after open trade was forced upon Japan in the 1860s. The latter’s signature motif is the 'whiplash' curve - a deep, narrow, dynamic parabola that appears as an element in everything from chair arms to cabinetry and mirror frames.

Although Art Deco and Art Nouveau were both in the forefront of turn-of-the-20th-century design, they are very different styles - Art Deco is marked by bold, geometric shapes while Art Nouveau incorporates dreamlike, floral motifs.

Use of hardwoods such as oak, mahogany and rosewoodĪrt Nouveau - which spanned furniture, architecture, jewelry and graphic design - can be easily identified by its lush, flowing forms suggested by flowers and plants, as well as the lissome tendrils of sea life.

Decorative inlays and ornate carvings of natural-world motifs such as insects and animals.

Forms that mimic flowers and plant life.

Informed by Rococo, Pre-Raphaelite art, Japanese art (and Japonisme), Arts and Crafts influenced modernism, BauhausĬHARACTERISTICS OF ART NOUVEAU FURNITURE DESIGN.

Originated in France and Britain but variants materialized elsewhere.

Popularity of style declined in the early 20th century.

Art Nouveau was a modernizing movement in the decorative arts that developed in France and Britain in the early 1880s and quickly became a dominant aesthetic style in Western Europe and the United States. In its sinuous lines and flamboyant curves inspired by the natural world, antique Art Nouveau furniture reflects a desire for freedom from the stuffy social and artistic strictures of the Victorian era.

Art deco console tables