Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau was a decorative art style popular in Europe and north America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The style is characterised by its use of flowing organic lines, and was used a lot in architecture, interior design, and illustration. Art Nouveau rejected traditional Victorian culture in an attempt to create a style free from clutter and historical imagery. As this new style spread throughout Europe and America it started to take on a distinctive appearance depending on where the work was from.

Glasgow

 A unique type of Art Nouveau appeared in Scotland and was led by, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, his wife Margaret Macdonald, her sister Frances Macdonald, and her husband Herbert McNiar. This style  was local to the city of Glasgow so once it gained prominence, it was eventually given the name Glasgow style. Together these four artists created a new style of Art Nouveau which was more geometric, restrained in ornamentation, and curving vertical lines. compared to the other three variations of this style, Glasgow style appears a lot more bleak, using darker, more industrial colours. however, even though these darker colours are used, you can see that they maintain the natural shapes and imagery within their work. Even the illustrations use these bleak, muted colours compared to the colour palettes used by the other three styles.

Vienna

In Vienna architects of the Art Nouveau movement, Otto Wagner, and Adolf Loos, shaped its skyline as it is seen today. One notable similarity between each of these places has to be the used of plants, and especially flowers with illustrations, glass work and architecture. Even though all of these places use some form of plant or flower in their work, it is more noticeable in the work from Vienna, and Nancy. out of all the styles covered here this style has the lightest colour pallet, using a lot of white with pale green and gold accents. The gold used in their architecture stands out amongst the other styles, as every building has gold incorporated into, while the only other style that uses gold is the Glasgow style, which shows it briefly in illustrations.

Madrid 

One similarity between the Art Nouveau style in Madrid and Vienna, is how grandiose the architecture is. They both have highly intricate details on their buildings, which also true for Nancy, but not to the same extent. This version of the style also uses dark wood with white or light coloured architecture.

Nancy 

Art Nouveau spread through Nancy, after plans were made for an entire residential area to be designed in the style, with entire streets decorated with floral and leaf motifs. Eventually entrepreneurs and shopkeepers joined in with the trend, making an entire area in the twentieth century a building site. one very distinct feature of this style has to be the strong focus on plants within architecture. with the other style plants are featured in their work however, not to the same extent. With the other styles, they seem to use a mix of real and abstract, while this style uses a lot of real imagery over abstract. The colour pallet with this style seems to consist of a cool tones such as blue, with occasional warmer brown undertones.