Art Nouveau

On this cast

• Smooth renderStone at street level, smooth plaster above: a quiet surface that lets the curves do the talking.
• Wavy gableThe roofline undulates like a wave or a flower petal instead of a straight cornice.
• Floral panelA sunflower in the gable, its stems spreading over the wall. Nature, not antiquity, is the source book.
• Eyelid windowsAttic windows shaped like half-closed eyes, framed by a single bent moulding.
• Oriel windowA bay that projects from the upper floors without touching the ground, carried on a tapering corbel.
• Parabolic windowsOpenings with soft parabolic or horseshoe heads. Mouldings flow out of the frame and curl away.
• Wrought-iron balconyIron bent into whiplash curves: the material is shown, shaped and enjoyed.
• MascaronA carved woman's face with flowing hair, a favourite Art Nouveau keystone.
• Stone stemsVertical mouldings grow up the façade like plant stalks and burst into leaves.
• Organic portalThe door arch swells and tapers like a living form, with tendrils in the glazing.
• Glass canopyA fan of iron ribs and glass over the door, as on Guimard's Paris Métro entrances.
• Shop windowsWide arched shopfronts at street level with curving glazing bars.

How to spot it from the street

1. Long whiplash curves and plant motifs
2. Curved, parabolic or horseshoe windows
3. Decorative wrought iron and glass
4. Wavy gables and organic doorways

Where it came from

Victor Horta's Hôtel Tassel in Brussels (1892–93) is usually taken as the first Art Nouveau house: its iron columns sprout like stems and the curves run from the floor mosaic up the walls. Within a decade the style had a name in every city: Jugendstil in Germany, Secession in Vienna, Modernisme in Barcelona, Stile Liberty in Italy.

Instead of the orders, Art Nouveau drew on nature: flowers, stalks, insects and the long 'whiplash' curve. Iron and glass are bent and displayed, windows take parabolic or horseshoe shapes, and the façade is often asymmetric. It burned out fast, and by 1910 it already looked dated.