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Art Nouveau: The Furniture. Season 2, Episode 36. image

Art Nouveau: The Furniture. Season 2, Episode 36.

S2 E36 · The American Craftsman Podcast
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Let's take a look at some Art Nouveau furniture.

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Transcript

Introduction and Sponsorship

00:00:21
Speaker
All right everybody, welcome back to the show. Yeah. Coming back with the second episode of the Art Nouveau period. Should take this opportunity to thank our sponsor Bits and Bits.
00:00:37
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Defining Art Nouveau

00:01:49
Speaker
Yeah. Which is a hell of a combo. Yeah.
00:01:51
Speaker
And expanding line of white side bits range from spiral flush trim bits to round overs, chamfers, rabbeting bits and more. And they're also a Festool dealer stocking many router and domino related accessories and consumables. So,
00:02:11
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You know, check it out, support the podcast. Yeah, support a good company, Bits and Bits. Save some dough. Yeah, 15%. It's a really good deal. You know, great router bits, not the crap that you find at Home Depot that's going to burn up after one cut. Oh, God, no. These things last forever. They're really good. They can be sharpened. You know, it's a quality, quality tool. Bits and Bits. Thanks a lot, Bits and Bits. Let's get into the show.
00:02:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'm thinking we're going to spend two episodes talking about the furniture and furniture created in the Art Nouveau style. It was prominent from the beginning of the 1890s to the beginning of WW1 in 1914. Oh, look at that. We had our answer right there in episode two. And I wrote that and didn't remember it.
00:03:12
Speaker
What are you going to do? Art Nouveau furniture characteristically use forms based on nature, such as vines, flowers, water lilies, get wrapped up in a hot vine. Oh yeah. Ain't it better? They feature curving and undulating lines, sometimes known as the whiplash line.
00:03:39
Speaker
both in the form and the decoration. As I said at the end of the last episode, other common characteristics were asymmetry and polychromy achieved by inlaying different colored woods. So this is a big departure.
00:04:01
Speaker
maybe not the use of different colored woods. That was certainly happening previous this, but the asymmetry wasn't a lot of that going on. At least not what we've been looking at.
00:04:18
Speaker
The style was named for Siegfried Bing's Maison de la Nouveau gallery and shop in Paris, which opened in 1895. And originally, the furniture was usually made by hand. It had a fine polished finish.
00:04:39
Speaker
They use luxurious veneers, which usually meant like exotic veneers. We talked about them sourcing woods from Africa, Belgium, Congo. Again, at this time, we're talking about imperialism and colonialism from Europe

Art Nouveau vs. Arts and Crafts

00:04:56
Speaker
in Africa. So they're discovering all these African hardwoods and bringing them back and creating these really nice veneers.
00:05:09
Speaker
And of course it took a lot of craftsmanship to produce these original pieces. Um, in the early years of the art of the style Art Nouveau, architects often designed the furniture to match the style of their houses. Uh, this makes me think of Green Brothers. Yeah. Frank Lloyd Wright. Yep. Makes sense. Yeah. These architects included Charles Rennie McIntosh. We've heard of him.
00:05:39
Speaker
Um, he was, uh, involved in the arts and crafts movement. Uh, and Tony Goudy, Victor Horta, Hector Guimard, and Henry van der Velde. And delay industries. Well, you know, what's funny was in August. That's true.
00:06:06
Speaker
It's been a while since we made a Seinfeld reference. Yeah. I think he was also an author. It's a beat Nick author down in the village.
00:06:17
Speaker
After 1900, particularly in the furniture designed for the Vienna secession and the German Jungestil, the young style, the forms became simpler, more functional and more geometric, and some could be produced on assembly lines. No. We'll back up and talk about the Vienna secession in a little while.
00:06:41
Speaker
So what influenced arts and crafts and not arts and crafts art nouveau furniture? Particularly the British arts and crafts movement Because of its emphasis on fine craftsmanship This is a reaction to the Victorian era Like cheap, you know
00:07:05
Speaker
manufacturing. I think we started seeing more of those furniture shops, the separation of design and producer. What's the phrase I'm reaching for? Division of labor, where one person just makes a furniture leg all day, every day.
00:07:32
Speaker
So, but unlike furniture made by the British arts and crafts movement from which it emerged in stylistic respects, most art nouveau furniture was produced in factories by normal manufacturing techniques, which led to tensions with arts and crafts figures in England who criticized continental art nouveau furniture for not being honestly constructed.
00:07:58
Speaker
like the continent of europe that's yeah coming from the guys who couldn't really sell their stuff because it was too damn expensive everybody's a critic yeah you know it's funny all the hypocrisy isn't it yes we learned at the you know at the end of the arts and crafts period uh sessions that
00:08:26
Speaker
No, people couldn't afford it. Yeah. The English arts and crafts places couldn't, they weren't sustainable because nobody could buy it. Um, you know, that's kind of the line that we have to balance ourselves upon each and every day. Yeah. Um, you know, we're not factory, of course, it's just two guys, but we have, we have machines, we have machinery, we have, uh,

Influences on Art Nouveau

00:08:52
Speaker
different, um, choices in
00:08:55
Speaker
uh, fabrication styles and things like that. And we always have to balance between, um, you know, our craft and, and where our heart and mind is and making a saleable, uh, piece of furniture, a cabinet. Um,
00:09:17
Speaker
And in the shop right now, we have two distinct examples, don't we? We have a big unit that's solid walnut construction, glued up panels. So where you might see in a production shop that just being a plywood caucus, we built it entirely out of walnut.
00:09:40
Speaker
and it takes a different knowledge base. You have to take into account wood grain and movement and matching it and all these other things, as opposed to just gluing and biscuiting apply wood box together, which is faster, easier, cheaper, but it's a totally different aesthetic. And even though you can kind of, I don't want to say hide it, but
00:10:11
Speaker
to most consumers, they don't, they have to be shown the difference. You know, you could edge band that plywood and most people are going to look at it and go, Oh, walnut. Right. Whereas you and I and you know, other folks like us, we're going to go, uh, no, well not fly with. Um,
00:10:39
Speaker
So those guys, I don't know if they, they dealt with it. They just sort of, you know, chose to, to be produced in the factory. Art Nouveau furniture also tended to be expensive.
00:10:58
Speaker
So that's kind of another knock against it as far as it emerging from the arts and crafts movement, although they found themselves in that very same boat. I think on paper they wanted to appeal to the masses.
00:11:18
Speaker
That furniture or art nouveau furniture had a fine, usually polished finish or varnished. It was regarded as essential and the designs coming from continental Europe were really complex. Curved shapes and it was expensive to make. You know, we know all about that.
00:11:43
Speaker
France and Belgium furniture designers, I should say French and Belgian furniture designers took up the style with more enthusiasm than those of most countries. So what can we say? France and Belgium are sort of the center points for Art Nouveau furniture.

Revival of Art Nouveau in the 60s

00:12:07
Speaker
Starts off as a
00:12:10
Speaker
You know, it's some of the same, uh, points of contention as the British arts and crafts movement, but it doesn't, doesn't last. The ties are quickly severed. Um, you know, if you look at McIntosh's furniture, um, his stuff was austere. It was geometrical, uh, right angles, certainly symmetrical.
00:12:38
Speaker
And, uh, that wasn't the case for the art nouveau stuff. Um, so we, uh, let's see, we, we've listed in the past, uh, couple of designers and architects, um, who are well known in case you missed last episode, but, uh, uh, Macintosh also known in the arts and crafts arena.
00:13:02
Speaker
And I suppose a couple of Frenchman, Anthony Goudy and Umar Porta, these guys were all Art Nouveau designers.
00:13:15
Speaker
Again, the continental designs elaborate, lots of curved shapes, both in the basic shape of the piece and what they applied to it. So it wasn't sort of like a rectangle with stuff, curves stuck on it. It was, you know, no holds barred.
00:13:37
Speaker
So Art Nouveau furniture also adapted certain features from other earlier historical styles, particularly the curling lines of Rococo,
00:13:50
Speaker
Again, Japanese furniture design, which featured light and sort of fragile forms and marquetry. This influenced art nouveau furniture and the Japanese style had become popular in Europe in 1890s.

Regional Adaptations of Art Nouveau

00:14:12
Speaker
Thanks again to Samuel Bing and the Liberty & Company store in London and Milan.
00:14:21
Speaker
I got a little note here about Sigfried, Samuel Sigfried Bing, because his store did give name to the Art Nouveau style. This is great. People don't name their kids like this anymore. Samuel Sigfried Bing. Not to be confused with his brother, Samuel Otto Bing.
00:14:49
Speaker
What do you think? I'm just guessing. I don't know for sure. What do you think their dad's name was Samuel? He was a German French art dealer who lived in Paris and as an adult helped introduce Japanese art and art works to the West and was a factor in the development of the art nouveau style during the late 19th century. Um,
00:15:18
Speaker
There's some of the more prominent or Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie McIntosh, who specialize in predominantly geometric lines and particularly influenced by the Austrian secessionist movement. I won't even attempt to say that in German. The secession style. Yeah. If you click on McIntosh,
00:15:50
Speaker
Oh, that's, that's nothing. Oh, there we go. You could see that is very Art Nouveau. Um, but that was about it. You know, there's this furniture.
00:16:15
Speaker
It's, it's, it doesn't, uh, it doesn't lend itself to the art nouveau at all. Yeah. Definitely a rehashing of an older style, but you know, he's got these intricate curves here. Yeah. Yeah. Um,
00:16:39
Speaker
Actually, one of those... Oh, this says Unknown Philadelphia Craftsman. 1730-40. Yeah. There's some sort of... I don't think that was all Macintosh. Whatever that article. Oh. This is very Art Nouveau.
00:17:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That's a cat. Are those the doors right there on that cabinet? This? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty interesting. Yeah. I'm waiting to get to this bed frame. Um,
00:17:29
Speaker
Belgian architects Henry van der Velde and oh, they were they were Belgian and Victor Horta who's extremely sinuous and delicate structures influence the French architect Guma and Gomada and another important figs figure Glassmaker Lewis comfort Tiffany
00:17:54
Speaker
What's the, I think I, I think I left those blue links. I thought I left them as links to see some examples of their work, but I could be wrong. I could have sworn that furniture and iron designer, Louis Majorel,
00:18:22
Speaker
Uh, this is terrible. They might just be artifacts of, uh, uh, patients stuff in. Well, there's this iron stuff, but, uh, yeah, if you back up a little bit, one more right there. No, this is an advertisement.
00:18:47
Speaker
Because if I'm not mistaken, he did like the gates at like a big Parisian train station. There was a Czech graphic designer, an artist, Alphonse Muka. Yeah, these are all just Britannica links.
00:19:07
Speaker
French glass and jewelry designer Rene Lalique. Lalique and Tiffany I'd heard of. And Sullivan, of course, because he's got some famous stuff in Chicago. American architect Louis Henry Sullivan, he used plant-like art nouveau ironwork to decorate his traditionally structured buildings.
00:19:31
Speaker
And the Spanish architect and sculptor Antonio Gaudi, perhaps the most original artist of the movement, went beyond dependence online to transform buildings into curving bulbous, brightly colored, organic constructions. Interesting.
00:19:51
Speaker
Yeah. After 1910 Art Nouveau appeared old fashioned and limited and was generally abandoned as a distinct decorative style. Yeah. It was very fleeting in the sixties. However, the style was rehabilitated in part by
00:20:09
Speaker
major exhibitions organized at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Musée Nationale d'Art Modern, as well as by large-scale retrospective on Beardsley, held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 66. The exhibitions elevated the status of the movement, which had often been viewed by critics as a passing trend. Well, that's kind of how it feels, doesn't it? Yeah.
00:20:40
Speaker
Excuse me. But it did elevate it to the level of other major modern art movements to the late 19th century. And I guess that's why it appears as one of the 12 major movements, periods in American furniture. Currents of the movement were then revitalized in pop and op art.
00:21:06
Speaker
OPPAR, also called optical art, is a branch of mid-20th century geometric abstract art that deals with optical illusion. Interesting. Who's the famous guy with the staircase? That's what I was thinking of. I can't remember the guy's name. Callers, call in now and tell us.
00:21:31
Speaker
the name that we're missing. But everybody knows that, that guy. I wonder, you ever see the stuff like stare at this and see if you could see, like it's got, it doesn't look like something. It looks like just a bunch of like squares and then there's a picture in there. Those were big when I was a kid. Yeah.
00:21:56
Speaker
I never could see the other thing. Like you're supposed to stare at it for like 20 seconds and yeah, like really close and then back up. Yeah, I can never get it. Sometimes I could. And then there's the one where you could, do you see the old lady or the young man or something like that? Um,
00:22:17
Speaker
In the popular domain, the flowery organic lines of Art Nouveau were revived as new psychedelic style in the fashion and in the topography used on rock and pop album covers and in commercial advertising. Uh, so I, uh, I must've had that deep in this, you know, the corners of my mind when I was reading it the last episode.
00:22:44
Speaker
So Britain, I think in this little section, we're going to go through the regional schools of the Art Nouveau. In Britain, you had Arts and Crafts and the Glasgow. Did you say Glasgow or Glasgow?
00:23:06
Speaker
I think it's Glasgow and the Glasgow school.

Notable Art Nouveau Designers

00:23:10
Speaker
So as we discussed in last month's series, Britain's arts and crafts movement launched early in the 1880s and advocated finely crafted handmade furniture in the reaction against factory made mass produced furniture.
00:23:35
Speaker
I try to make it easy on myself and I still can't do it. You know, cause you know, there's a difference between like typing up something is like you're writing a report and then I got a real, and then I realized I have to read this.
00:23:56
Speaker
It's not that easy. By the 1890s, Glasgow was a major seaport and prosperous industrial center, and it aspired to have a distinct cultural identity. So two former students of Glasgow School of Art, the designers, Charles Rennie McIntosh and his wife, Margaret McDonald McIntosh, helped establish that identity.
00:24:24
Speaker
Imagine being like that person, like.
00:24:29
Speaker
you know, like you're that influential. Like we're, you know, cobbling together our furniture and then it's like two furniture designers, Jeff and Rob formed a, you know, blah, blah, blah became so influential that their style helped create an identity in central New Jersey. We see the influencers these days.
00:24:58
Speaker
Yeah, that is one slippery slope to go into the influencer. Influencing to the lowest common denominator. Yeah, yeah.
00:25:14
Speaker
because like these guys, they, they inspired designers and stuff like that. And, and typically the people who contact us that are designers, they're, you know, more bottom line focused, you know, they're not really like looking to be inspired by design.
00:25:32
Speaker
Um, which is a shame. Uh, they want you to build the thing and shut up. Yeah. Do it for cheap. Yeah. Kind of makes you a wishful of, of a time like this, I guess. I wonder if it was that, if it was that good. Probably not. Yeah.
00:25:49
Speaker
The furniture Macintosh design was inspired by arts and crafts. It was austere, geometrical, long straight lines, right angles, to which he and his wife added touches of art nouveau decoration. They used painted wood, marquetry of enamel and stained glass, and fabrics such as painted silk.
00:26:16
Speaker
All right, sounds cool. His major project commission in 1897 was a remaking of the school building and its interiors, which the two Macintosh has created the architecture, decoration and furniture. Wow, that would be pretty cool.
00:26:37
Speaker
The furniture and decor of Willow Tea Room of the school became a popular symbol of the Glasgow style. It influenced artists of other schools, particularly the Vienna secession, which invited McIntosh to exhibit his work. All right. Thank you, Rob, for actually putting some links in there. Wow. Check out those chairs. This is the tea room, the Willow Tea Room in the school in Scotland.
00:27:05
Speaker
Yeah, see, I would associate this with Art Deco. Yeah. But I guess that Glasgow style was more rectilinear than most Art Nouveau. I definitely see some Frank Lloyd Wright in these super tall back dining chairs. Yeah. Or vice versa, because this creates a look at the glass.
00:27:34
Speaker
That's what I mean. I didn't say it correctly, but it looks like Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by this work. Yeah. Big time. What's going on here? Are they missing a piece of glass? Yeah. Yeah. Who's going to fix that? So it's this really tall narrow back dining chair. These are very austere. This could be like the cafeteria in some kind of
00:28:03
Speaker
you know dystopian future like I'm reading Brave New World right now. I could see this be in the lunchroom in the you know, like the birthing building but it's got style. I mean, oh, yeah, it's definitely cool. So they got a dishes glass on the tables, but yeah, I'm sure that's a modern. Yeah. I wonder what the tables look like underneath. Put this tablecloth on there.
00:28:27
Speaker
because it's a modern photo and the tables are covered with a tablecloth and a big thick piece of tempered glass. I won't even notice. I know. So these chairs, I mean, it's like
00:28:42
Speaker
Shoulder height, almost the backs, right? I don't know. That's like head height. Head height. Like top of your head. Yeah. Oh, I meant if I was standing up. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's got to be 60 inches tall. Yeah. Because this is if that's 30.
00:29:00
Speaker
And it's got that cool kind of the backslat is solid, but it curves in between the straight lines of the frame. Yeah. It's got like these. It's got nine little square glass inlaid windows like little windows. Very cool. Got like a little gentle curve here. Yeah. Yeah.
00:29:28
Speaker
It's an interesting design. I haven't seen anything really like the, especially if you include like the base of the chair, it's pretty unique. And then the upholstery looks like it's, it's in some of the chairs and not in others, right? Look, the one in the, in the foreground doesn't look like it has upholstery on it. Where?
00:29:54
Speaker
One that we're looking at, or is that the... This one? Yo, is that the back? Oh, I see. It's at this table. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So the upholstery is like applied to the back. Yeah. With like a padding on it. Yep. Yeah. Very interesting. I don't know what's up with this chair. It moves. Creeps its way back over to the... Trying to keep my,

Criticism and Evolution of Art Nouveau

00:30:20
Speaker
uh, got my feet... Feet out of the screen. Trying to keep them out of the screen.
00:30:25
Speaker
So that's the will achieve room. Uh, here's a Macintosh cabinet. Is this going to be that? Uh, yeah, there it is. So this is very, very interesting. So this is a painted old cabinet. I thought these were people holding something. Yeah. It's really, I mean, those it's this is wild. Yeah. Um, how
00:30:51
Speaker
I can't even begin to describe it. Um, yeah, it's like, uh, looks like something out of like Dune. Yeah. It's really kind of weirdly futuristic. Yeah. And the painting or, and if that's marketry with the glass inlay or something like that to make those figures. Yeah. It's like a,
00:31:19
Speaker
a turbaned person holding a giant ball of yarn with an eye in the middle of it or something. And they're shaped kind of like they have like a big wing or shell on their back, like a beetle almost. And and those those purple inlays. I mean, the cabinets painted white oak. Yeah.
00:31:44
Speaker
Um, the interior of the doors are like green. Is that fabric? I don't know. I thought maybe it was like velvet. Yeah. Kind of looks like it doesn't look like it. This side does, but I don't know. Could be, uh, some kind of metal that's got patina on it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So it's an interesting mix of materials, shape, um, color. Yeah.
00:32:15
Speaker
I wouldn't have thought Macintosh would be associated with something like that. Very different than the chairs we just saw. Yeah. All right. So in Belgium.
00:32:31
Speaker
The first Art Nouveau houses appeared in Brussels in 1893, including the Hotel Tasselle, designed by Victor Horta. Horta designed not only the house and decor, but he also designed the furniture, which featured the same nature-inspired curling whiplash lines.
00:32:55
Speaker
which were featured in the architecture, raw iron, balcony, and stairway railings, uh, ceramic floors and door handles. Let's see. Oh yeah. There's that staircase. I remember that. That's wild, right? Yeah. Well these very vine, uh, vine, like,
00:33:18
Speaker
That's the the whiplash. That the art nouveau movement is synonymous with. Yeah, it's almost like an acanthus kind of. Mm hmm. Like an exaggerated acanthus. Yeah. And you see like where the balusters should go. Is that a shadow on the wall being cast by the this balusters or is that something else? Well, this. Yeah, I think it's like a like a mural kind of thing. Yeah.
00:34:02
Speaker
So what's this guy's name again? Porta. So his lines were particularly inspired by long curling stems of plants. You could definitely see that in the staircase. His furniture had a minimum of decoration and the decoration and form merged into a seamless unit.
00:34:17
Speaker
Hmm. Um.
00:34:25
Speaker
Here's an example of Horta's whiplash lines. Oh, this is the staircase. So I have a real link there. Another Belgian architect and furniture designer was Paul Hongkar, who designed one of the first Art Nouveau houses in Brussels, and like Horta, used the curving whiplash lines in his furniture. Now let's check out a Paul Hongkar stool.
00:34:55
Speaker
I kind of like that. Yeah. Very asymmetrical. Yeah. So you could see the repeating pattern, um, sort of from right to left. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And these are, you know, this one curves that way. And this one curves, you know, this is going left and this is going backwards. And the same thing with the... Right. It's just like railroaded.
00:35:25
Speaker
That's interesting. Um, that's an idea to steal, but my, um, ignorance of the art nouveau movement
00:35:38
Speaker
if you would have shown this to me and said, what, you know, where is this categorized? It's like a wacky arts and crafts project. Right. I wouldn't have been able to cut the quarter. The quarter dough is through tenons wedge. You know, it's got a it's if if these just went opposite and had a simple stretcher, it would be arts and crafts. But it's got this very intricate. I guess whiplash, you would call it.
00:36:08
Speaker
I like at the top. Look at that little dish out. It's got, Oh yeah. Is that a stain from something or is that a little hollow? I like that. Yeah. You know, so it's like a square top on the stool, but it's got a perfect circle sort of relieved at the top with gentle edges. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah.
00:36:39
Speaker
Uh, another notable Belgian furniture designer of the early art nouveau was Gustave Surière Beauvie, who adapted the natural curving forms and added more decoration, applying small brass ornaments in whiplash lines to his mahogany armoise. Let's check out Beauvie's. Hmm.
00:37:06
Speaker
Again, to me, it looks art deco. Yeah. That's coming from, you know, this, this, I like a lot. Yeah. Yeah. These hinges are crazy. Small brass decoration. So how would, how would we just, is that, is it tapering in or is that just the angle? Back up.
00:37:30
Speaker
No, I think it's just has that feeling because of these and this. So this looks about the size of a piece of furniture we might be asked to make. Yeah. Six feet wide, seven feet tall or something like that. Yeah. Eighteen inches deep. And look, it's got, you know, I didn't notice it the first time, but it's got a simple frame and panel side. Yeah.
00:37:57
Speaker
which is really straight out of the arts and crafts. And then the two large doors, the feet. Yeah. Yeah. All right. You can see there's an angle on them. Yeah. And a radius here. Ah, very good. Yeah, this is cool.
00:38:18
Speaker
I love the frame and panel design of the front doors. Save that to the desktop. Um, where it's sort of like, uh, almost like, uh, go save this too. Like a half of an, an eye shape. Yeah.
00:38:38
Speaker
divided, you know, by the center line of the two doors. This has a little curve to it. Yeah. This little downturn here at the top, really. Yeah. It really kind of makes it, doesn't it? Um, you know, that, um, that door that we were sending a picture of. Yeah. God, I'm going to ignore that email.
00:39:01
Speaker
that is like a rudimentary take on this. You see how much style this has? Yeah. And what a lack of style that drawing in. Yes. It sort of just like, eh, let's, let's stick a circle and a rectangle together. Yeah. This is close enough. You know, um, what that kind of, you know,
00:39:24
Speaker
emphasizes to me is that it's it's the small amount of extra effort and imagination that that make these things just so outstanding compared to the pedestrian design. Yeah and it's hard like I find it hard on commissioned work because like

Conclusion and Listener Support

00:39:45
Speaker
This is not a first draft. You know, it's not because of how well composed it is. But with commission work, it's like you send over your first draft. And a lot of times it's just met with, OK, that's good. So there's no need to revise it, you know, like.
00:40:02
Speaker
There's nobody pushing back. Right. Saying be better. Yeah. Um, it's like if, if we were to just build this as a spec piece, you know, then you would have, you would go back and work on the design and change it. And you know, with commission work, it's like, as soon as it's acceptable from the client, that's when it's done. Because I mean, that's what we do. We build what the client wants. So if they don't want any more than the design is done really. Right. Um,
00:40:32
Speaker
I mean, well, you could see like that mid, the curving mid, mid rail. It's like wider up there at the section where it's reaching up towards the top of the corner of the door. Right. Oh, this year. Yeah. It's like it's blaring out there. Um, it, it's really, really nice. Um, I guess, I mean, those are probably veneered panels. I don't know.
00:41:03
Speaker
Hard to say this looks like a flitch. Yeah. See here.
00:41:15
Speaker
So who's the, who's the designer of this? It's S-E-R-R-U-I-E-R. U-R-I-E-R. U-R-I-E-R. Sorry. B-O-V-Y. So he's got a hyphenated last name. It's, it's really nice. You should look it up. He's a Belgian. So I guess French Belgian.
00:41:43
Speaker
Another influential Belgian furniture designer with a very different art nouveau style was Henry van der Velde and he had designed furniture for his own house. Bloemanwurf near Brussels in a style influenced by the British arts and crafts movement.
00:42:05
Speaker
He decorated the Art Nouveau style of Samuel Bing in Paris in 1896 and founded his own workshops in Brussels in 1898. His furniture featured the curving line but was less exuberant. In 1897, he moved to Germany and became founding member of the German Werkbund.
00:42:29
Speaker
and an influential force in German furniture design. So, Vanderbilt's a name we should kind of know. Yeah. What do you think of that Vanderbilt chair? Almost looks like a Duncan Fife design. Hey, there you go. I'll be honest, I'm not a real big fan of it. I don't like the way the seat is bigger than the
00:42:57
Speaker
where the front legs come in. Yeah, I'm not into the like the rattan. Yeah. And the oak and these miters. This looks a little kind of knock need. Yeah.
00:43:16
Speaker
But he's an important designer. Yeah, I could appreciate where he was going with it. But for me, I don't know the personal taste. Yeah. The color on this oak is don't know if it was it was fumed and now it kind of looks more brown, but. I don't know. Looks like like it could be from like the 19 like early 1980s or something. Yeah. We're like 70s. Yeah, 70s.
00:43:48
Speaker
You know, that's when that jute and everything was coming into style. Do you have a stopping point on here or a natural one or? I don't think so. I think we're just rocking through these guys. You want to see, we'll take a little look at what we've got. Got another lens.
00:44:12
Speaker
There's I know we talk about the Nancy school and the via the secession Vienna secession. We think I'm going to keep going or who's next. The Netherlands.
00:44:42
Speaker
What kind of, do we have any pictures for them from the Netherlands? Not really. So, I mean, we could discuss a little bit if, what's, I don't know. No, I mean, we're fine on time. I'm just, we only got, there's only 12, not eight pages left.
00:44:58
Speaker
That's amazing. We got to 18 pages. Yeah. This might only be a three, uh, three episode thing. Yeah. Yes. We better, we better kind of wrap it up. Yeah. So yeah. Next week we're going to get into, uh, other countries. We just did Belgium.
00:45:16
Speaker
All right. So we thank everybody for listening. Yeah. Thanks for tuning in. Uh, you want back to work. Yeah. You want to support the podcast. You can join our Patrion. You can leave us a review. Uh, you can tell your friends, you can go get yourself some bits and bits, bits, or some vesting finish using coupon code American craftsman. And yeah, keep on tuning in. Yeah. I agree. Tune in.
00:45:43
Speaker
Yeah. So we'll, we'll see you again next week and we'll, we'll wrap up the art nouveau. We'll get into some more locations where things were happening and some of these schools. Yeah. We're going to talk about the Nancy school and Nancy boys tune in next week.
00:46:12
Speaker
Ain't no shame, but there's been a chain