I'm not really a "fan" of most things Art Nouveau. Just as with the Rococo, which I also don't particularly admire, I certainly recognize and appreciate the artistry of it, applaud the wonderful, imaginative design and beautiful craftsmanship. It's just that I usually find the sinuous lines, the flowing forms just too "soft", somehow unstable, even slightly vulgar. These caught my eye, though, because of the clear influence of Japanese prints - decades earlier an inspiration for many of the Impressionists, and obviously still potent - the storytelling, and the sense of motion so deftly captured. But more than anything I was drawn to the elegant representation of - very au courant - period fashion. (With the stylistic consistency of the decorative elements of the ladies' toilettes, I feel fairly safe in assuming they were the work of the artist's imagination.)
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I will admit that when I was very much younger I was slightly more appreciative of both periods. During the height of my childhood craze for Marie Antoinette and all things Versailles, I'm sure I made little distinction between le style Louis XV and le style Louis XVI. And for some while I had a poster of this painting by de Feure on my apartment wall. I think I was twenty-one at the time.
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| La Voie du mal / The Path of Evil, 1895. |
