Art Nouveau

For those who know me, Art Nouveau is my period. I am particularly well read in it, and have had several hundred desktop pieces glorifying my abodes. Dover has published countless little books on and with elements of Art Nouveau design, from cloth to wallpaper to glass and everything in between. They have been enormously useful to artists and designers looking for inspiration or outright theft, and anything to leverage the most pleasant ambience provided by Art Nouveau is welcome.

This new offering from Dover is a little different, because it takes graphic designs from other Dover books on Art Nouveau. It’s sort of a meta collection. The book is sectioned by country, so you can see how (very) different each one’s Art Nouveau was. Typically, some major artist set the tone and style, and derivations bloomed. Mackintosh in Scotland, Beardsley in England, Moser in Austria, Hoffmann in Germany, …. The whole period lasted from the mid 1890s to the early 1920s, and was subsumed by Art Deco, whose seeds are clearly evident, particularly in Austrian and German Art Nouveau (Jugendstil).

Approx. 140 pages of eye-catching art. However, the sections on Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, and the U.S. are relatively short in comparison to France, Germany and England. Also, although there is information on each artist, it is only a paragraph or so...enough to peak one's curiosity, but not satisfy it.

As with most of Dover's book this is a great source book for Art Nouveau designs. The selections are drawn from Art Nouveau periodicals, posters, textile and wallpaper designs, bookplates, jewellery and stained glass. Many of the designs are taken from previously published Dover source books, so it acts as a best of/basic introduction.

However Art Nouveau officiando's take note. It only covers examples from France, Germany, Austria, Czechoslavakia (exclusively Mucha), England, Switzerland and the US, with the first 3 countries offering the largest examples. It has a biographical index to the artists, but this contains very cursory biographical detail. I would also question the assertion that it contains "images by virtually every key artist of the Art Nouveau movement". There are no examples by Klimt, Mackintosh. Tiffany, Lalique or Gaudi so there are major ommissions.

As a source book, it offers some beautiful examples of the genre, but it is by no means an exhaustive survey.

I received a review copy via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Nice pictures of Art Nouveau divided by their Country of Origin.

Belle immagini dell'Art Nouveau divisi per paese di origine.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND DOVER PUBLICATIONS FOR THE PREVIEW!

Thank you Net Galley. A beautiful book, extremely attractive visually. A fairly good selection and introduction to art nouveau designs. However, I wish it had more descriptions of the works reproduced and a little more biographical material on the artists.

Art Nouveau may not have the the glam of "impressionism" or "realism" or any of the other "-isms" the work from the art nouveau is just plain beautiful and amazing the work still resonates more than a century later featuring samples of : wallpaper ; commercial art work ; store signs ; and two of my favorite artists Alphonse Mucha & Toulouse Lautrec a beautiful book showing the impact of one of my favorite art periods on everyday life

Art Nouveau: The Essential Reference is a mainly illustrative book about the Art Nouveau movement. The book is divided into countries. I found it interesting to see how each country had its own style and design. At the end of the book was a short paragraph on each of the various works included. The only drawback of the book is it was too short. I wanted to see more text and examples. But it is a good short course in artists for the art style.

Art Nouveau: The Essential Reference By Carol Belanger Grafton Published by Dover Publications, October 2015

This is a lovely book, filled with delights for anyone interested in art or graphic design and who wants to learn more about Art Nouveau. It is a pleasure to look through it and use it as a source book for ideas, but.......

In my opinion, it is more of an introduction rather than an essential reference book. The biographical information about the artists is of the bare bones variety and although this book includes super pictures of works from the US, Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland and England, only Mucha is included from Czechoslovakia, which is a real shame.

A great introductory volume, but not as comprehensive as I would have hoped.

This was extremely lovely, even in digital form.

I will admit up-front that I am not exactly known for my vast repertoire of artistic knowledge. However, if you live with one long enough, you pick up some stuff by osmosis, and the Art Nouveau movement has always interested me stylistically. Or, to boil it down to the basics I probably ought to be using when discussing art, I think it's pretty. :)

I'm not quite sure I would consider this the essential reference. It might perhaps work as such for those that are more familiar with the artists included, but I was a bit disappointed with the lack of biographical info on the art and the artists themselves that had been promised. The little blurbs at the end were nowhere near enough information to do anything other than perhaps remind someone who already knew who the person was.

I can't speak as to the completeness of the art and artists included except to say that there were quite a few I had certainly never seen before and I was impressed with the breadth of the movement. I liked that it was separated by country of origin, and the fact that not simply paintings but jewelry and even wallpaper. It certainly gave the reader a taste of the period, which I thought was fun and useful.

This book was provided to me for free via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Exactly what it says it is – an essential Art Nouveau reference book. Packed with black and white and colour illustrations, and covering all the countries where Art Nouveau flourished, it’s a delight from start to finish and a very valuable resource.

Art Nouveau is a vast subject because it's one of the first periods in art to embrace mass distribution seriously. That means there is a wealth of printed material available for us. The publisher, Dover Books, has done a marvelous job of making this available to us.

This book, from Carol Belanger Grafton, draws from this resource to give us a lovely graphic overview of the period, organized by country. A selection of designs from each country is presented, taken from various Dover Books.

The first plate from each book has a box on it that gives information about both the original source and the Dover publication that reprints it. This book name is also printed at the bottom of the other pages from the book.

The vast majority of these plates are color and the sources include stencils, wall paper, stained glass, fabrics, and more. Many of the pages have full-page plates. The choices really give a feel of this period.

One of the treasures of the book is Grafton's two-page introduction. While short, it gives a good overview of the history, importance, and characteristics of the movement.

In a world where art books are generally quite expensive, this book serves as both a great introduction and a wonderful overview.

A lovely introduction to art nouveau, with nods to some of the most famous artists of the movement, including Mucha and Steinlen (my person favourite!). One I'll be keeping to refer back to for inspiration!

This book is a collection of ornamental Art Nouveau, mostly from previous Dover publications, figuring printed materials, textile and wallpaper designs, some jewellery and stained glass, but no architecture. Quite all the book is illustration, with very little text: short introduction, index of artists and bibliography. The material is divided by countries: France, England, Germany, Austria, Checoslovakia, Switzerland, USA. No nordic countries, no Spain, no Russia, no Hungary, which I consider a big omission.. Also no works from Gaudì, Tiffany Lalique, Klimt, no Faberge eggs, nothing of the famous Zsolnay porcelains, there is only one poster from Toulouse-Lautrec, while the Mucha section is a bit richer. It's good as a general reference of Art Nouveau ornamental motifs (I appreciated especially those with animals), but it is far from complete.

This is a beautiful book. I never realized the differences between the countries until I saw the images divided by country. There are too many body parts for it to work in my library (I know—art nouveau—I should have figured.) However, I would definitely recommend it to any public library, and any college library with an art, architecture, textile, theatre or any similar program.

This is a gorgeous book, ideal for any lover of Art Nouveau. It has a short introduction about the romantic art style with its sinuous curves, floral patterns, and designs based on the natural world which is interesting, but it is really worth getting for the beautiful pictures of tiles, posters and ceramics. Artists include Seguy and Mucha.

I received this free ebook from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Perhaps an "inspirational" rather than "essential" reference. A handy source for artists and designers, but the brief introduction and basic artist biographies allow for only a basic understanding of the movement. As a Mucha fan, I did love the inclusion of many of his works.

I know little about art, but I enjoyed this book, especially the posters section. I liked seeing work that was unfamiliar to me.

This is a beautiful collection, better suited to inspire than to use as reference source as it does lack a number of significant artists and works. However, for aficionados of Art Nouveau it will be a lovely read, and a good introduction for those just getting interested.

Gorgeous! A great introduction to Art Nouveau that includes stencils, ceramics, some jewelry, illustrations, wallpaper, stained glass and posters, most in color. It's not extensive but will give the reader a great place to start research. I received a free copy of the ebook from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

'Art Nouveau: The Essential Reference' by Carol Belanger Grafton is a pictorial selection of examples of gorgeous Art Nouveau replicas.

The book begins with an interesting prologue that talks a bit about Dover's large catalog of this kind of work and where it came from. The book is sectioned by country and works in the pages give notes as to what other Dover collections they came from. The last chapter is a collection of Art Nouveau posters. There is not much text. The book is mostly reproductions of borders and signage and even the occasional dish pattern. There are the occasional stained glass window design and these are my favorites.

It's a good collection for reference, but maybe only really "essential" for an art or design student. It is good in the way it divides out the work by country so that the viewer can see the subtle differences. I like the Dover art collections and I like Art Nouveau design, so I enjoyed looking through this collection.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Dover Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.