Plants, flowers, insects and the human figure supplied motifs for posters, jewellery, furniture, architecture and decorative objects. Artists sought relationships between image, lettering and the designed environment. Regional variants developed across Europe and beyond, with different balances of natural form and geometric organisation.
A botanical subject alone is not enough to identify Art Nouveau. Look for how line and ornament organise the whole design. Its flowing compositions offer a useful comparison with the more geometric tendencies of Art Deco.
Also known as: Art Nouvou
Characteristics
Art Nouveau uses line and ornament to join image, object and surrounding space. Sinuous curves, plant-like growth, insects and flowing hair are familiar motifs, but some regional versions favour disciplined geometry. The movement crossed painting, illustration, jewellery, glass, furniture and architecture, often challenging a strict hierarchy between fine art and applied design.
In a poster, contour can organise a figure and its lettering into one decorative surface. In an interior, a stair rail or door handle may continue the same visual rhythm as the architecture. This integration matters as much as any individual floral motif. Regional names such as Jugendstil and Secessionstil reflect related but distinct practices; Glasgow designers developed particularly strong combinations of geometry and organic form. Art Nouveau also drew on contemporary print culture and international exchanges. Its relationship with Symbolism can be close, especially where decorative figures carry ambiguous meanings. A late nineteenth-century source work and a new image inspired by its curves should retain separate dates and attributions.
Notable artists & makers
Alphonse Mucha — Known for posters that integrate figure, lettering and ornamental frame.
Aubrey Beardsley — An illustrator whose black-and-white designs use line and negative space with unusual intensity.
Gustav Klimt — A Vienna Secession artist whose work joins pattern, figure and symbolic suggestion.
Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh — A Glasgow artist and designer associated with distinctive figurative and decorative panels.
Notable works
Historical examples for context. Where a print is available in our collection, the work links to its product page.
The Climax — Aubrey Beardsley — A graphic image whose dramatic silhouettes are central to its decorative impact.
Tropon poster, 1898 — Henry van de Velde — A commercial design in which curving forms create a highly organised pattern.
Explore Art Nouveau Art in the collection
Historical art prints are modern reproductions. Dates and attributions describe the original artworks.
