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As the 19th century was
drawing to a close,
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a luxurious, new style was taking
Europe by storm.
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00:00:27,180 --> 00:00:30,340
This was the fin de siecle,
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00:00:30,340 --> 00:00:35,980
the glamorous, decadent but also
anxious end to the 19th century,
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00:00:35,980 --> 00:00:40,140
and the style was Art Nouveau.
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00:00:40,140 --> 00:00:41,420
Merci.
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00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:49,940
Art Nouveau grew out of the dark,
restless energies
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00:00:49,940 --> 00:00:51,700
of the industrial city.
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00:00:51,700 --> 00:00:55,180
In the age of Darwin and Freud,
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it was fixated with nature,
sensuality and sex.
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00:01:02,500 --> 00:01:05,260
In the space of a decade or so,
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Art Nouveau went from being
nowhere to everywhere.
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Lapped up by the burgeoning
middle classes of Europe,
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it was mimicked and mass produced.
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00:01:16,100 --> 00:01:20,740
What began as a revolution in the
name of truth, beauty and nature,
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00:01:20,740 --> 00:01:24,500
ended in derision,
decadence and decay.
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00:01:26,660 --> 00:01:30,900
In this series, I'll be visiting
the great cities of Europe,
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where the work of visionaries
like Emile Galle,
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artists like Gustav Klimt and
entrepreneurs like Arthur Liberty
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00:01:38,620 --> 00:01:40,740
blossomed all too briefly.
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Paris at the end
of the 19th century
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loved its bullet-straight
boulevards,
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00:02:02,020 --> 00:02:07,460
its imposing monuments and
classically inspired architecture.
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00:02:10,380 --> 00:02:14,180
But beyond the grandeur,
the population had exploded
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from half a million
to 2.5 million people by 1900.
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00:02:23,300 --> 00:02:27,580
Those elegant boulevards
were gridlocked with horses,
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carriages and crowds.
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Things needed to change.
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The city planners came up with
a radical solution.
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Le Metro, ladies and gentlemen!
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Typically Paris,
typically Art Nouveau.
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The good citizens of Paris
were shocked.
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Entrances like bat wings,
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sinuous metals, sensuous curves.
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It was a bold declaration
of the new art for the new century.
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The first Metro entrances
appeared just in time
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for a massive celebration in Paris,
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the World Fair of 1900.
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00:03:18,940 --> 00:03:22,820
It was when the city would show off
its cutting-edge new style.
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00:03:23,900 --> 00:03:27,260
At the heart of the fair were
two huge buildings,
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standing opposite each other, the
Grand Palais and the Petit Palais.
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This is Le Grand Palais.
It's exquisite, isn't it?
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It's beautiful, substantial,
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one of the biggest and best
exhibition spaces
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you'll find anywhere in the world,
never mind Paris.
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You'd love it.
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Unfortunately, I'm not going there.
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I'm going to Le Petit Palais,
the small palace over here.
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Perhaps they were boasting
to their foreign visitors.
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"In France, this,
all 16,000 square metres of it,
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"is what we call small."
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Bonjour. Monsieur Chazal,
je m'appelle Stephen.
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Merci, monsieur.
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'Gilles Chazal is director
of the Petit Palais.'
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00:04:21,300 --> 00:04:25,420
Can you give me some idea of the
sheer size of the exhibition
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00:04:25,420 --> 00:04:28,580
in terms of Paris? It was a great,
big event, wasn't it?
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It was an international exhibition.
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It was of course a very,
very famous event.
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It was from this place to La Tour
Eiffel... To the Eiffel Tower.
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00:04:36,740 --> 00:04:40,060
Yes, yes and along the River Seine.
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It was absolutely incredible and it
was a discovery for the public,
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to look after artworks,
but also engines and so on.
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00:04:53,340 --> 00:04:57,620
Also, it was a change of century,
so it was a very great moment.
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00:05:01,980 --> 00:05:06,300
Designed to showcase the very best
of modern art and industry,
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00:05:06,300 --> 00:05:11,420
the World Fair was France's
manifesto for the 20th century.
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There were moving walkways
and a grand electricity hall.
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Over 60 countries exhibited
and 50 million people visited.
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It was the party to end all parties,
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and Art Nouveau was
the guest of honour.
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00:05:32,900 --> 00:05:38,940
Around the city, the dramatic
jewellery of Rene Lalique,
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00:05:38,940 --> 00:05:43,700
the organic forms of
Emile Galle's glass
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and the alluring femme fatales
of Alfonse Mucha
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dazzled the Paris crowds.
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00:05:51,380 --> 00:05:57,220
With all its marble
and mosaics and gilt and glass,
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this was an opulent luxury
showroom for Art Nouveau,
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00:06:01,620 --> 00:06:04,460
but it was much more than that.
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It also held up a dazzling mirror
to French hopes and fears
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at the turn of the 20th century.
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Paris was overcrowded, filthy
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and simmering with anti-Semitic
tensions.
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At the World Fair, Art Nouveau
was at the height of its popularity,
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and for a brief moment it
seemed like an antidote
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to the ugliness of the modern age.
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But on the cusp of the 20th century,
how did this upstart new style
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threaten to upstage the conservative
ranks of traditional French design?
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00:06:50,020 --> 00:06:54,180
It was only five years
before the 1900 World Fair
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that Art Nouveau had begun to emerge
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from the licentious
bohemian quarter of the city.
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In 1895, Montmartre,
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the playground on the edge
of the French capital,
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had become a magnet for artists
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00:07:18,660 --> 00:07:21,820
looking for inspiration
and excitement.
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Degas and Toulouse Lautrec painted
the local prostitutes and dancers,
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and they became emblems
of the city's sexual freedom.
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Decadent, licentious, drug-fuelled,
absinthe-soaked -
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there was a downside, as well,
of course,
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but it was here in Montmartre
that the artists of the day,
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the avant-garde artists
earned their stripes.
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Of all the artists who set the scene
for Art Nouveau,
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00:08:19,100 --> 00:08:22,540
Charles Baudelaire was
the most subversive.
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In 1857 he shocked Paris
to its breeches
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with his first volume of poetry,
Les Fleurs Du Mal.
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It's all there in the title,
really, isn't it?
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The Flowers Of Evil.
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He was fascinated
by the dark side of nature...
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..and human nature.
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Sex, death, vampires, lesbians,
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and all this at the same time
as Anthony Trollope
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was writing Barchester Towers.
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00:09:24,420 --> 00:09:29,220
It was in the back-street drinking
dens and hash joints of Paris
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that Baudelaire's ideas
about nature and art
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00:09:32,780 --> 00:09:36,580
were handed down to
Art Nouveau designers.
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00:09:36,580 --> 00:09:40,580
Louise, what is Baudelaire
telling us about nature?
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He embraces all that's
artificial, you know,
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he vaunts the merit of
artificiality over nature,
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00:09:47,980 --> 00:09:51,420
and that's the beginnings of
decadentism, if you like,
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a rejection of naturalism
and of its values.
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Is that because science
and industry was giving us so much,
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00:09:58,460 --> 00:10:01,460
one day we could tweak nature
if it suited us?
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00:10:01,460 --> 00:10:04,460
Yeah, there's a desire
to improve on nature.
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To take it, to work on it,
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and to do something better
and something different.
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00:10:08,740 --> 00:10:11,660
And this leads us into decadence,
it leads us into Art Nouveau.
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00:10:13,380 --> 00:10:18,500
The dancers and performers
from Paris' nocturnal world
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embodied these dangerous new ideas.
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Like moths to a flame, Art Nouveau
designers were drawn to these women.
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And none was more nocturnal
than the divine Sarah Bernhardt.
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She was Art Nouveau's ultimate muse.
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Bernhardt was celebrated
as the greatest actress of her day,
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as much by herself as anyone else.
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The word bohemian could almost
have been invented for her.
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Amongst her many lovers
she counted crowned heads of Europe.
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00:10:57,420 --> 00:11:00,260
It's even said she slept
in a coffin,
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00:11:00,260 --> 00:11:04,260
believing that playing dead
might improve her tragic roles.
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00:11:04,260 --> 00:11:06,460
Baudelaire would have
been proud of her.
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00:11:09,380 --> 00:11:14,060
Just look at Sarah there, reclining
on her chaise longue with her fan,
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her eyes imploring, no, demanding,
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00:11:17,220 --> 00:11:20,140
that you give her
your full attention.
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00:11:20,140 --> 00:11:24,860
And that dog at her feet represents
fashionable Parisian society,
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writers, poets, artists
for whom Sarah was a muse.
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00:11:30,100 --> 00:11:33,140
But look deep into Fido's eyes.
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I think he's seen things
in the boudoir
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no animal should be exposed to.
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Sarah was about to play a new role
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in the Paris debut of Art Nouveau.
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It was Christmas Day 1894.
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Sarah needed a poster to advertise
her new play, Gismonda.
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But who to turn to?
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Alfonse Mucha was a Moravian artist
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00:12:08,340 --> 00:12:12,140
who'd worked his way across Europe
to study art in Paris.
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He really wanted to be
a fine artist, not a commercial one,
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but he was living hand to mouth.
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Then he was approached to create
the Gismonda poster.
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He put his ambitions on hold
and got to work.
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This is Mucha later in life,
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but today it's his grandson John
and John's wife Sarah
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who take up the story.
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The first poster of Art Nouveau.
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Well, it's the first poster that
Mucha did for Sarah Bernhardt, yes.
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This is indirectly the first step
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to actually make art available
to the general public,
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you no longer have to be rich.
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How did it come about?
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It came about
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in a most extraordinary way,
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because what happened
was that Mucha,
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who was a struggling artist
at the time,
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was doing a favour for a friend,
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he was correcting some proofs
at the printers,
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and it was at Christmas time so
everybody else was off on holiday,
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00:13:17,900 --> 00:13:20,780
and suddenly the manager
of the printers came rushing in.
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00:13:20,780 --> 00:13:24,260
Sarah Bernhardt had said
she had to have a new poster
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for her re-presentation
of Gismonda in the new year
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and she wanted it now.
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So there was no-one else to ask,
so Mucha got the ask.
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So the printer went on holiday,
came back from holiday
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and said "Where's the poster?"
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And Alphonse presented this
and the printer had a fit.
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00:13:42,780 --> 00:13:44,700
Why did he have a fit, John?
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00:13:44,700 --> 00:13:47,740
He'd never seen anything
like this, nothing.
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Sarah Bernhardt wanted to see it,
so it was rolled up
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and the printer took it
to Sarah Bernhardt.
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00:13:52,860 --> 00:13:55,140
Alphonse was depressed
because, you know,
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he thought he'd made
a terrible mistake.
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Almost immediately, a message
came back from Sarah Bernhardt
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that she wanted to see Mucha,
so he went to her boudoir,
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00:14:04,260 --> 00:14:05,980
with a very heavy heart,
188
00:14:05,980 --> 00:14:09,340
because he thought he was
going to get a bollocking,
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00:14:09,340 --> 00:14:13,380
and this is in Alphonse's own words,
I mean, true historical fact,
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she got up, embraced him and said,
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00:14:15,900 --> 00:14:18,740
"Mr Mucha,
you have made me immortal."
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00:14:18,740 --> 00:14:21,460
You know, she might have been
in her 50s
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00:14:21,460 --> 00:14:25,180
and have done all sorts of things,
but when she was on stage,
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she was this woman with a vision,
with a purity in her heart.
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What Mucha did was that
he saw Sarah Bernhardt
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00:14:33,940 --> 00:14:38,580
and he made her look the way
she felt and wanted to be seen.
197
00:14:38,580 --> 00:14:41,060
And that's what he's communicating,
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00:14:41,060 --> 00:14:44,140
is who she saw herself as.
199
00:14:44,140 --> 00:14:46,980
Then she immediately signed him up
for a six-year contract.
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00:14:48,180 --> 00:14:50,500
This was like a lightning
from blue sky.
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Mucha's Gismonda
captured the moment.
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00:15:05,620 --> 00:15:08,140
The nouvelle woman was born.
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He crowns the divine Sarah
with stylised flowers.
204
00:15:16,620 --> 00:15:21,100
Using pale muted shades rather
than bold primary colours,
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00:15:21,100 --> 00:15:24,300
he revolutionised poster design.
206
00:15:28,940 --> 00:15:32,260
The poster appeared
on the 1st January 1895
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00:15:32,260 --> 00:15:34,620
on the streets of Paris.
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00:15:34,620 --> 00:15:37,540
It caused a sensation
from the get-go.
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00:15:37,540 --> 00:15:40,540
This was the first public
declaration of the new art
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00:15:40,540 --> 00:15:43,460
in the French capital.
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00:15:43,460 --> 00:15:46,780
The public went wild for the poster.
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00:15:46,780 --> 00:15:51,100
As quickly as Gismonda was put up,
she was taken down again.
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00:15:51,100 --> 00:15:55,180
Bill stickers were followed
and bribed to hand her over.
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00:15:55,180 --> 00:15:58,180
Mucha became an overnight success.
215
00:15:59,340 --> 00:16:02,300
He moved to a swanky new studio,
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00:16:02,300 --> 00:16:05,660
where he experimented with
the new art of photography.
217
00:16:06,740 --> 00:16:11,060
And he took this wonderful series
of photographs of his models.
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00:16:12,700 --> 00:16:17,380
His new women have definitely
burnt their corsets, haven't they?
219
00:16:17,380 --> 00:16:22,820
They stare back at you,
brazen and proud of their bodies.
220
00:16:26,060 --> 00:16:29,780
He produced this book,
Documents Decoratifs,
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00:16:29,780 --> 00:16:35,660
a bible which later spread Mucha's
style around France and Europe.
222
00:16:38,180 --> 00:16:41,940
Well, these are a bit more candid
than those Sarah Bernhardt pictures.
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00:16:41,940 --> 00:16:47,060
They're beautiful, graphically
ahead of their time,
224
00:16:47,060 --> 00:16:53,700
and also, I suppose one has to say,
quite risque for the 1890s.
225
00:16:53,700 --> 00:16:56,180
Some of these girls are very demure,
226
00:16:56,180 --> 00:17:01,420
they seem to merge with the wildlife
they're pictured alongside,
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00:17:01,420 --> 00:17:05,900
the flowers, but others, like this,
dare I say it, hussy here,
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00:17:05,900 --> 00:17:11,180
definitely have a bit of "come into
the garden, Claude," about them.
229
00:17:14,180 --> 00:17:17,220
What my mother might have called
a bit forward.
230
00:17:28,860 --> 00:17:31,300
Champagne,
231
00:17:31,300 --> 00:17:33,540
cigarettes,
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00:17:33,540 --> 00:17:37,580
Mucha discovered that sex
could sell anything.
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00:17:37,580 --> 00:17:42,260
It could even sell holidays
on the newly-developed Riviera.
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00:17:43,380 --> 00:17:46,340
And the selling point
was the nouvelle woman,
235
00:17:46,340 --> 00:17:48,580
the icon of Art Nouveau.
236
00:18:04,900 --> 00:18:08,380
The growing middle class was
learning to love spending its money
237
00:18:08,380 --> 00:18:10,540
in bars and restaurants
238
00:18:10,540 --> 00:18:13,340
and the new department stores
that were springing up everywhere.
239
00:18:13,340 --> 00:18:15,620
It was spend, spend, spend.
240
00:18:15,620 --> 00:18:19,060
There was a plethora of new products
on the market,
241
00:18:19,060 --> 00:18:21,980
and every one of them
needed to be advertised.
242
00:18:23,820 --> 00:18:27,820
In the new age of mass advertising,
mass production
243
00:18:27,820 --> 00:18:32,340
and mass consumption, Art Nouveau
was itself mass produced.
244
00:18:36,100 --> 00:18:41,380
Mucha made Art Nouveau de rigueur,
fantastique, formidable.
245
00:18:50,340 --> 00:18:53,420
Wow, or even, mon dieu!
246
00:18:53,420 --> 00:18:55,700
What about this place?
247
00:18:59,380 --> 00:19:01,500
When Georges Fouquet inherited
248
00:19:01,500 --> 00:19:05,660
his father's exclusive
jewellery business in 1895,
249
00:19:05,660 --> 00:19:08,380
he wanted some of that Mucha magic.
250
00:19:08,380 --> 00:19:11,260
He started designing jewellery
with him,
251
00:19:11,260 --> 00:19:14,300
and commissioned Mucha
to create a shop
252
00:19:14,300 --> 00:19:17,780
that would indulge his clients'
taste for Art Nouveau luxury.
253
00:19:21,300 --> 00:19:22,620
Can we go back in time?
254
00:19:22,620 --> 00:19:27,340
It's Paris, you're a man of means,
you've got a few bob, or francs,
255
00:19:27,340 --> 00:19:30,740
and you want to impress
that special person in your life.
256
00:19:30,740 --> 00:19:33,900
Well, this is where you come,
this jewellery shop,
257
00:19:33,900 --> 00:19:37,860
for that piece, that rock,
for a special occasion.
258
00:19:37,860 --> 00:19:42,140
Maybe a birthday, a Valentine,
an anniversary.
259
00:19:42,140 --> 00:19:45,300
But over the decades,
what is quite clear
260
00:19:45,300 --> 00:19:49,340
is that the shop itself,
the jewellery shop, is the true gem.
261
00:19:50,740 --> 00:19:52,700
It's the gift that goes on giving.
262
00:19:53,780 --> 00:19:59,020
In this shop, Mucha used
the full Art Nouveau palette,
263
00:19:59,020 --> 00:20:02,220
curves inspired
by the natural world,
264
00:20:02,220 --> 00:20:06,020
feathers, gilt, finery.
265
00:20:06,020 --> 00:20:10,740
Every inch of it
decorative and sensual.
266
00:20:10,740 --> 00:20:15,900
Sex and Art Nouveau were intimate,
promiscuous bedfellows.
267
00:20:15,900 --> 00:20:17,860
Look at the figure up here.
268
00:20:17,860 --> 00:20:22,580
A beautiful, almost classical pose
at first, but then notice,
269
00:20:22,580 --> 00:20:28,020
her arms are behind her head,
emphasising her splendid bust,
270
00:20:28,020 --> 00:20:31,060
and even a modern haircut.
271
00:20:31,060 --> 00:20:36,540
She is the femme fatale,
a classic symbol of Art Nouveau.
272
00:20:36,540 --> 00:20:41,260
And imagine presenting your femme
fatale with this Fouquet brooch.
273
00:20:41,260 --> 00:20:43,580
Now, that would put a smile
on her face.
274
00:20:56,140 --> 00:20:59,500
In its early days, Art Nouveau
was still the preserve
275
00:20:59,500 --> 00:21:02,860
of the rich bohemian elite
of the city.
276
00:21:04,180 --> 00:21:08,460
Amongst them was an ambitious
and talented young designer
277
00:21:08,460 --> 00:21:13,300
who would embrace the new style
and revolutionise jewellery design.
278
00:21:15,580 --> 00:21:18,340
When the great society jeweller
Rene Lalique
279
00:21:18,340 --> 00:21:21,900
was beginning his career in Paris
in the 1870s,
280
00:21:21,900 --> 00:21:23,940
jewellery wasn't about design.
281
00:21:23,940 --> 00:21:26,980
It was all about the bling,
about the rocks.
282
00:21:26,980 --> 00:21:29,700
And not just any rocks - diamonds.
283
00:21:29,700 --> 00:21:32,460
Diamonds as big as the Ritz
in Paris.
284
00:21:35,380 --> 00:21:37,660
Lalique changed all that.
285
00:21:39,020 --> 00:21:42,380
He's probably better known today
for his glass designs,
286
00:21:42,380 --> 00:21:44,420
but he trained as a goldsmith
287
00:21:44,420 --> 00:21:49,380
and built his reputation on his
pioneering Art Nouveau jewellery.
288
00:21:49,380 --> 00:21:53,940
These days, you have to go to
museums to see his precious pieces.
289
00:22:00,660 --> 00:22:04,700
'Philippe Thiebault is curator
in chief at the Musee d'Orsay,
290
00:22:04,700 --> 00:22:08,740
'and he has the key
to the Lalique jewel box.'
291
00:22:08,740 --> 00:22:11,340
Hello, Philippe, I'm Stephen.
Nice to meet you.
292
00:22:11,340 --> 00:22:12,660
Very nice to meet you.
293
00:22:12,660 --> 00:22:14,900
I see you have an interesting
object in your hand.
294
00:22:14,900 --> 00:22:20,060
'Before Lalique, valuable
jewellery was produced by artisans
295
00:22:20,060 --> 00:22:22,380
'from precious metals and gemstones.
296
00:22:22,380 --> 00:22:27,060
'The bigger the rocks, the more
desirable and valuable the piece.
297
00:22:27,060 --> 00:22:29,660
'Lalique turned all that
on its head.'
298
00:22:37,380 --> 00:22:41,500
So it's a piece by Lalique,
it's a hairpin in horn.
299
00:22:41,500 --> 00:22:43,940
Horn? So that's cheap...
300
00:22:43,940 --> 00:22:45,540
It's very, very cheap,
301
00:22:45,540 --> 00:22:49,780
and it's a characteristic
of the art of Lalique,
302
00:22:49,780 --> 00:22:55,700
because Lalique was
not very fond of expensive material.
303
00:22:55,700 --> 00:22:59,980
When he chose materials, it was
not for the price of the material,
304
00:22:59,980 --> 00:23:03,020
but for the colour,
the texture of the material.
305
00:23:03,020 --> 00:23:06,860
So with Lalique, it wasn't
the gemstones in the jewellery,
306
00:23:06,860 --> 00:23:09,980
it was the design,
that's what added the value.
307
00:23:09,980 --> 00:23:13,180
Yes, yes. It's a very naturalistic
piece, you know.
308
00:23:13,180 --> 00:23:18,060
It is engraved to imitate,
to suggest, the angelica.
309
00:23:18,060 --> 00:23:19,660
It's a plant, you know.
310
00:23:19,660 --> 00:23:23,580
And here you have little diamonds
311
00:23:23,580 --> 00:23:29,380
to suggest the reflections
of the sun on the plant.
312
00:23:29,380 --> 00:23:31,780
Right. It's a very lovely piece.
313
00:23:31,780 --> 00:23:35,140
And the gentleman who bought this
from Lalique,
314
00:23:35,140 --> 00:23:36,780
he would be buying this
for his wife?
315
00:23:36,780 --> 00:23:40,780
Maybe not, maybe not.
Well, this is Paris.
316
00:23:40,780 --> 00:23:45,780
Many men went to Lalique,
317
00:23:45,780 --> 00:23:53,220
and they asked for jewels for a lady.
318
00:23:53,220 --> 00:23:56,660
"Can you make something for my
special friend," that kind of thing?
319
00:23:56,660 --> 00:23:58,060
Yes, yes.
320
00:23:58,060 --> 00:24:01,500
What about Lalique,
how did he feel about women himself?
321
00:24:01,500 --> 00:24:03,420
Lalique, I think...
322
00:24:03,420 --> 00:24:09,660
We know that Lalique did love
many women during his life,
323
00:24:09,660 --> 00:24:14,380
had many mistresses in Paris
and London, everywhere,
324
00:24:14,380 --> 00:24:19,820
and it's the reason why he
is a good designer of jewels,
325
00:24:19,820 --> 00:24:23,420
because I think he loved
very much women.
326
00:24:23,420 --> 00:24:27,660
Some of his pieces are erotic.
327
00:24:27,660 --> 00:24:32,580
We have a box, and you will see
at the centre, a naked woman,
328
00:24:32,580 --> 00:24:35,460
and she opens her cloak...
329
00:24:35,460 --> 00:24:37,700
Her cloak? Yes.
330
00:24:37,700 --> 00:24:43,060
And so around her,
you have young men, also naked.
331
00:24:43,060 --> 00:24:47,020
They are completely dazzled
by the nudity.
332
00:24:47,020 --> 00:24:49,860
Are they? They're falling away,
the shock, thrilled.
333
00:24:49,860 --> 00:24:51,780
It's like a goddess, you know.
334
00:24:51,780 --> 00:24:57,100
She is like a butterfly,
or maybe like a bat.
335
00:24:57,100 --> 00:25:00,020
Because bats and butterflies
were very appreciated
336
00:25:00,020 --> 00:25:01,700
by the artists of Art Nouveau.
337
00:25:06,780 --> 00:25:12,420
Lalique created dramatic jewellery
about women, for women.
338
00:25:16,500 --> 00:25:22,700
His world, like so much of
Art Nouveau, is a no-man's land,
339
00:25:22,700 --> 00:25:25,500
where the woman reigns supreme.
340
00:25:28,060 --> 00:25:32,460
Lalique's fascination with natural
forms of all kinds wasn't unusual.
341
00:25:34,780 --> 00:25:39,460
Collecting and categorising nature
was the great obsession of the time.
342
00:25:45,540 --> 00:25:50,380
To study insects close-up,
Lalique came here to Deyrolle,
343
00:25:50,380 --> 00:25:54,900
the cabinet of curiosities,
in the St Germain district of Paris.
344
00:25:57,300 --> 00:26:01,300
This extraordinary bestiary
is really a trophy cabinet
345
00:26:01,300 --> 00:26:04,540
of what was going on
in the late 19th century.
346
00:26:04,540 --> 00:26:07,700
There was an explosion
in international travel,
347
00:26:07,700 --> 00:26:11,540
in collecting, in taxidermy,
in botany.
348
00:26:11,540 --> 00:26:16,140
This kind of stuff was brought home
by gentlemen in their swag bags.
349
00:26:17,620 --> 00:26:20,220
In the middle of the 19th century,
350
00:26:20,220 --> 00:26:23,100
Darwin's radical new theories
about evolution
351
00:26:23,100 --> 00:26:26,140
and man's place
in the natural world
352
00:26:26,140 --> 00:26:29,180
exploded established beliefs.
353
00:26:35,300 --> 00:26:39,740
Nature, savage nature,
red in tooth and claw.
354
00:26:39,740 --> 00:26:43,220
This was a new battleground
between religion on the one hand
355
00:26:43,220 --> 00:26:45,220
and science on the other.
356
00:26:45,220 --> 00:26:48,460
For designers,
it was a badge of modernity,
357
00:26:48,460 --> 00:26:50,820
a new way of understanding
the world.
358
00:26:52,140 --> 00:26:55,380
They brought nature into Paris.
359
00:26:56,380 --> 00:26:59,180
But they did so on new terms.
360
00:27:00,380 --> 00:27:05,940
For designers like Lalique,
nature was there to be embellished.
361
00:27:05,940 --> 00:27:08,820
The lily was there to be gilded.
362
00:27:28,900 --> 00:27:34,660
Swarms of insects,
clouds of butterflies, birds, bats,
363
00:27:34,660 --> 00:27:37,940
they all buzzed and flapped
around Lalique's work.
364
00:27:37,940 --> 00:27:40,980
In fact, if it hadn't
all looked so beautiful,
365
00:27:40,980 --> 00:27:43,220
it might have been
like a Hitchcock film.
366
00:27:45,780 --> 00:27:49,820
This is the art of metamorphosis.
367
00:27:49,820 --> 00:27:55,380
Birds, insects and women dissolve
in and out of each other
368
00:27:55,380 --> 00:27:56,860
in weird and wonderful ways.
369
00:27:58,340 --> 00:28:02,020
Nature's sensuous, but sinister.
370
00:28:02,020 --> 00:28:05,260
It's blue skies
and bumblebees one minute,
371
00:28:05,260 --> 00:28:07,380
and bats at bed-time the next.
372
00:28:16,860 --> 00:28:19,580
Lalique may have used cheap
materials,
373
00:28:19,580 --> 00:28:23,340
but his jewellery was lavish
and dramatic -
374
00:28:23,340 --> 00:28:26,540
perfectly designed
for the dim electric lights
375
00:28:26,540 --> 00:28:29,180
of Paris' nocturnal world.
376
00:28:30,860 --> 00:28:34,620
This is the world-famous
restaurant Maxim's.
377
00:28:34,620 --> 00:28:37,220
Sarah Bernhardt
and the literary crowd
378
00:28:37,220 --> 00:28:40,500
partied here till the early hours.
379
00:28:40,500 --> 00:28:44,620
Entrepreneur Eugene Cornuche
redesigned it in Art Nouveau style
380
00:28:44,620 --> 00:28:48,660
in 1899 for the World Fair.
381
00:28:48,660 --> 00:28:51,900
He knew that Art Nouveau,
famous artists
382
00:28:51,900 --> 00:28:57,100
and a ready supply of courtesans
could turn his investment into gold.
383
00:28:57,100 --> 00:29:01,780
Today it has the feel
of an upmarket bordello.
384
00:29:01,780 --> 00:29:05,860
They say every man who came here
arrived with a woman,
385
00:29:05,860 --> 00:29:07,660
but it was never his wife.
386
00:29:12,900 --> 00:29:16,580
You can practically hear the violins
soaring away,
387
00:29:16,580 --> 00:29:20,260
the booming laughter and gossip
of the politicians
388
00:29:20,260 --> 00:29:24,340
and the artists and actors
and painters who came here,
389
00:29:24,340 --> 00:29:29,380
and the tinkling laughter
of their new muses or courtesans.
390
00:29:37,380 --> 00:29:40,700
Pierre Andre, thank you so much
for letting me see Maxim's.
391
00:29:40,700 --> 00:29:43,460
You are very welcome
in this incredible place.
392
00:29:43,460 --> 00:29:45,620
It is incredible, isn't it? It is.
393
00:29:45,620 --> 00:29:49,260
With its mirrors and gilt,
394
00:29:49,260 --> 00:29:52,140
the spiral staircase.
395
00:29:52,140 --> 00:29:55,380
It is a symbol of what we call
in France La Belle Epoque.
396
00:29:56,980 --> 00:30:00,380
It really represents
397
00:30:00,380 --> 00:30:05,020
such a dream in people's minds
398
00:30:05,020 --> 00:30:09,660
that it stays from that time,
399
00:30:09,660 --> 00:30:12,300
and it's still today the same.
400
00:30:12,300 --> 00:30:14,660
Maxim's was Art Nouveau.
401
00:30:15,900 --> 00:30:20,380
Is there a sense that
the normal rules didn't apply?
402
00:30:20,380 --> 00:30:23,700
Once you stepped over the doorway
of Maxim's... Absolutely.
403
00:30:24,980 --> 00:30:30,060
The only rules correct
in such a place
404
00:30:30,060 --> 00:30:34,940
was elegance and glamour.
405
00:30:34,940 --> 00:30:39,980
In Maxim's, many times
we had writers, novelists...
406
00:30:39,980 --> 00:30:42,740
Like Marcel Proust,
did he come here?
407
00:30:42,740 --> 00:30:45,500
Of course, he came many, many,
many times. Sarah Bernhardt?
408
00:30:45,500 --> 00:30:49,340
And Sarah Bernhardt, who was
one of our best clients.
409
00:30:49,340 --> 00:30:53,380
It was really the place where you
had to come to see and be seen.
410
00:30:53,380 --> 00:30:59,820
It showed exactly all the taste
they had at that period,
411
00:30:59,820 --> 00:31:04,820
and the best was all around
Art Nouveau.
412
00:31:09,020 --> 00:31:11,540
Maxim's sensuous curves
413
00:31:11,540 --> 00:31:14,980
and women in their gardens of Eden -
414
00:31:14,980 --> 00:31:20,380
they play on the idea of innocence,
purity, and, of course sin.
415
00:31:21,500 --> 00:31:24,540
There are mirrors absolutely
everywhere in here.
416
00:31:24,540 --> 00:31:28,220
It's like a hall of mirrors
from a circus.
417
00:31:28,220 --> 00:31:31,540
Or maybe something a bit seedier,
a bit kinkier,
418
00:31:31,540 --> 00:31:33,500
a little bit more sinister.
419
00:31:38,900 --> 00:31:41,180
In 1899, Maxim's typified
420
00:31:41,180 --> 00:31:45,420
much of the Art Nouveau
that was being created.
421
00:31:45,420 --> 00:31:48,100
Fashionable and extravagant,
422
00:31:48,100 --> 00:31:53,180
it had come to represent
fin-de-siecle decadence and excess.
423
00:31:57,420 --> 00:32:00,980
But there is another side
to this story.
424
00:32:03,540 --> 00:32:05,700
If you think that Art Nouveau
425
00:32:05,700 --> 00:32:10,140
is all exquisite vases
and curly furniture,
426
00:32:10,140 --> 00:32:12,380
well, you couldn't be more wrong.
427
00:32:14,900 --> 00:32:19,060
Amongst the Art Nouveau designers
at the 1900 World Fair,
428
00:32:19,060 --> 00:32:23,460
at least one felt that the new style
had a more serious mission.
429
00:32:27,020 --> 00:32:30,180
His stand featured
a working furnace,
430
00:32:30,180 --> 00:32:34,220
and surrounding it,
a display of glass vases.
431
00:32:34,220 --> 00:32:36,660
They were all dedicated to a cause
432
00:32:36,660 --> 00:32:40,060
which exposed a seismic rift
in French society.
433
00:32:41,260 --> 00:32:45,220
The designer behind this display
was Emile Galle.
434
00:32:51,180 --> 00:32:55,020
Emile Galle was the troubled
genius of Art Nouveau,
435
00:32:55,020 --> 00:32:59,060
he was creative, an innovator,
an entrepreneur.
436
00:32:59,060 --> 00:33:04,540
He was also a passionate believer
and campaigner for social justice.
437
00:33:04,540 --> 00:33:07,620
That, in the end,
would cost him dearly.
438
00:33:10,900 --> 00:33:14,540
Emile Galle is one of the most
fascinating characters to emerge
439
00:33:14,540 --> 00:33:18,500
in the story of the French arts in
the latter part of the 19th century.
440
00:33:18,500 --> 00:33:23,980
He was absolutely a man of his time,
and in that respect,
441
00:33:23,980 --> 00:33:26,460
is a key figure in the story
of Art Nouveau.
442
00:33:26,460 --> 00:33:30,460
Philippe,
what sort of a man was Galle?
443
00:33:30,460 --> 00:33:32,340
Very complex personality,
444
00:33:32,340 --> 00:33:35,740
a poet, one might say,
a philosopher, a dreamer,
445
00:33:35,740 --> 00:33:39,460
who found his medium,
particularly in glass.
446
00:33:39,460 --> 00:33:43,500
A man with very diverse interests,
447
00:33:43,500 --> 00:33:49,380
he was a great botanist,
he had a strong political agenda,
448
00:33:49,380 --> 00:33:53,460
he was a liberal
with a tremendous social conscience.
449
00:33:53,460 --> 00:33:57,020
Emile Galle was also
an industrialist,
450
00:33:57,020 --> 00:34:00,580
who built from an
inherited family business
451
00:34:00,580 --> 00:34:04,660
a very substantial and successful
452
00:34:04,660 --> 00:34:08,460
glass, furniture
and ceramics factory.
453
00:34:12,260 --> 00:34:17,180
With his master craftsmen,
Galle created stunning prototypes,
454
00:34:17,180 --> 00:34:20,820
while on the workshop floor,
designs were mass produced
455
00:34:20,820 --> 00:34:23,540
for a hungry market across France.
456
00:34:23,540 --> 00:34:26,620
Art and industry went hand in hand.
457
00:34:35,900 --> 00:34:39,820
So he was experimenting to develop
different techniques,
458
00:34:39,820 --> 00:34:42,020
colouring and texturing the glass,
459
00:34:42,020 --> 00:34:44,540
creating effects
within the mass of the glass,
460
00:34:44,540 --> 00:34:49,300
layering colours
and cutting back with acid
461
00:34:49,300 --> 00:34:53,860
or engraving to achieve cameo
and other effects.
462
00:34:53,860 --> 00:35:00,140
He ended up really being capable
of making pieces of glass
463
00:35:00,140 --> 00:35:03,460
of a technical complexity
that had never been achieved before.
464
00:35:11,500 --> 00:35:14,900
Engraved with quotations
and dedications,
465
00:35:14,900 --> 00:35:19,380
his exhibition pieces go
way beyond the purely decorative.
466
00:35:21,740 --> 00:35:28,380
The magic of them is that as well as
being virtuosities of glassmaking,
467
00:35:28,380 --> 00:35:35,020
they are always imbued with
this magical poetic quality
468
00:35:35,020 --> 00:35:37,500
which is his signature.
469
00:35:42,580 --> 00:35:45,900
He would evoke nature,
he would evoke the cycle of life.
470
00:35:50,540 --> 00:35:53,900
He would draw you
into a piece of glass
471
00:35:53,900 --> 00:35:57,780
and somehow you could
become lost in it.
472
00:36:02,020 --> 00:36:06,860
And you would be as enthralled as
if you were looking up at the stars.
473
00:36:06,860 --> 00:36:10,540
You sort of lose a sense of scale
within his pieces.
474
00:36:10,540 --> 00:36:15,460
He was truly an artist.
475
00:36:30,740 --> 00:36:36,380
Galle's view of nature was a complex
but also a very honest one.
476
00:36:36,380 --> 00:36:39,460
Yes, he could do blue skies
and dragonflies,
477
00:36:39,460 --> 00:36:44,940
but he also appreciated what
was rank, decaying, dying.
478
00:36:44,940 --> 00:36:49,220
He'd have been just as happy here
on an overcast autumn afternoon
479
00:36:49,220 --> 00:36:52,700
as he would have been
at the height of summer.
480
00:36:56,940 --> 00:37:01,420
Like Baudelaire, Galle was trying
to find a new language
481
00:37:01,420 --> 00:37:05,340
that could express the realities
of modern life and death.
482
00:37:10,540 --> 00:37:14,940
I've come to the Ecole de Nancy
museum in Galle's home town.
483
00:37:17,420 --> 00:37:19,460
At the end of the 19th century,
484
00:37:19,460 --> 00:37:23,660
Nancy became a power house
of Art Nouveau design.
485
00:37:26,620 --> 00:37:30,580
In 1901, Galle formed
an association of local designers.
486
00:37:30,580 --> 00:37:35,300
They included the furniture designer
Louis Majorelle
487
00:37:35,300 --> 00:37:40,020
and glass designers
Antonin and Auguste Daum.
488
00:37:40,020 --> 00:37:42,740
Today they're big names
in their own right,
489
00:37:42,740 --> 00:37:45,900
but Galle was the true visionary.
490
00:37:55,180 --> 00:37:57,780
Now, this is your real Galle McCoy.
491
00:37:57,780 --> 00:38:02,060
This is the stuff that everybody
loved, his lamps.
492
00:38:02,060 --> 00:38:06,020
Obviously echoing the flowers
in the field, the bloom up here,
493
00:38:06,020 --> 00:38:10,300
but what's very interesting about it
is he was trying to show nature
494
00:38:10,300 --> 00:38:14,340
as she really was,
not just spring, not just bounty,
495
00:38:14,340 --> 00:38:18,380
but also autumn
when everything dies and dries up.
496
00:38:18,380 --> 00:38:22,020
So beneath these buds of poppies
about to burst,
497
00:38:22,020 --> 00:38:27,260
at the bottom of the plant, these
tendrils, these withered pieces
498
00:38:27,260 --> 00:38:31,860
of the plant, the leaves clinging
to it, won't be here much longer,
499
00:38:31,860 --> 00:38:33,540
soon to be blown away.
500
00:38:39,140 --> 00:38:43,500
One of the vases that Galle
exhibited at the 1900 World Fair
501
00:38:43,500 --> 00:38:45,020
is here at the museum.
502
00:38:48,780 --> 00:38:52,220
It is called Les Hommes Noirs,
The Dark Men.
503
00:38:53,540 --> 00:38:56,700
A collaboration with the artist
Victor Prouve,
504
00:38:56,700 --> 00:39:00,780
it tells a story of injustice
that threatened to destabilise
505
00:39:00,780 --> 00:39:03,900
the government and the country's
fragile peace
506
00:39:03,900 --> 00:39:05,660
at the turn of the century.
507
00:39:07,820 --> 00:39:12,540
This vase was dedicated to one man,
Alfred Dreyfus.
508
00:39:28,340 --> 00:39:32,220
In 1895, Dreyfus,
a Jewish army officer,
509
00:39:32,220 --> 00:39:36,140
was sentenced to life imprisonment
for treason on the basis
510
00:39:36,140 --> 00:39:38,660
of documents that had been faked.
511
00:39:42,820 --> 00:39:48,860
In a humiliating ritual, his badges
of rank were torn from him
512
00:39:48,860 --> 00:39:51,300
and his sword was broken.
513
00:39:55,980 --> 00:39:58,820
Dreyfus, we know that he screamed,
"I am innocent,"
514
00:39:58,820 --> 00:40:02,300
but it was so loud nobody
could hear him, you know.
515
00:40:02,300 --> 00:40:06,540
So this small man was just
standing alone against
516
00:40:06,540 --> 00:40:11,260
all the anti-Semitic screams,
you know, "Death to Dreyfus,"
517
00:40:11,260 --> 00:40:15,300
"Death to the spy, death to
the traitor, death to the Jew."
518
00:40:15,300 --> 00:40:19,140
It was really a very, very violent
moment he had to go through.
519
00:40:23,860 --> 00:40:28,060
The anti-Semitism that had been
simmering for decades in Paris
520
00:40:28,060 --> 00:40:29,660
now exploded.
521
00:40:31,380 --> 00:40:36,980
The daily anti-Semitic paper
La France Juive stoked the hatred.
522
00:40:36,980 --> 00:40:41,340
This whole Dreyfus affair
cast a very long shadow here
in France, didn't it?
523
00:40:41,340 --> 00:40:42,540
Yes, it did.
524
00:40:42,540 --> 00:40:45,580
The concern was the Dreyfus affair
came to such a point
525
00:40:45,580 --> 00:40:48,620
that they thought France
would be threatened,
526
00:40:48,620 --> 00:40:51,860
the republic, the democracy,
or the republic...
527
00:40:51,860 --> 00:40:54,540
Really? It could bring down
the whole government?
528
00:40:54,540 --> 00:40:58,980
Exactly. It came to such a climax
of anger and passion.
529
00:40:58,980 --> 00:41:02,980
The streets in Paris became very
animated with the Dreyfus case.
530
00:41:02,980 --> 00:41:04,340
So it really divided everybody.
531
00:41:04,340 --> 00:41:06,300
It split the whole country.
532
00:41:06,300 --> 00:41:09,740
Some artists took a stand.
533
00:41:09,740 --> 00:41:13,260
The novelist Emile Zola famously
attacked the government
534
00:41:13,260 --> 00:41:15,820
with his open letter, J'Accuse.
535
00:41:17,580 --> 00:41:21,660
Les Hommes Noirs was Galle's
J'Accuse in glass.
536
00:41:23,020 --> 00:41:27,020
The dark men symbolise
French hypocrisy and injustice.
537
00:41:31,220 --> 00:41:36,460
The words on the case ask,
"From where do you come?"
538
00:41:36,460 --> 00:41:39,380
"We come from beneath the earth."
539
00:41:48,140 --> 00:41:52,540
When Galle returned to Nancy
after the 1900 World Fair,
540
00:41:52,540 --> 00:41:56,460
he paid a high price
for his defence of Dreyfus.
541
00:41:56,460 --> 00:41:59,900
He was ostracised by his neighbours
and friends,
542
00:41:59,900 --> 00:42:02,140
and his business suffered.
543
00:42:02,140 --> 00:42:08,340
He was defending an innocent
against the army, against the church
544
00:42:08,340 --> 00:42:10,700
and against the justice.
545
00:42:10,700 --> 00:42:14,420
Since he was involved
in this Dreyfus affair,
546
00:42:14,420 --> 00:42:20,420
he had lost a lot of customers, the
business was not working very well,
547
00:42:20,420 --> 00:42:25,660
so maybe he was a bit upset
about the future for his wife
548
00:42:25,660 --> 00:42:28,580
and his daughters,
and the future of the factory.
549
00:42:28,580 --> 00:42:34,860
As he was the only one who was
designing for his factory,
550
00:42:34,860 --> 00:42:37,180
what would happen next?
551
00:42:37,180 --> 00:42:38,940
What would become of Galle?
552
00:42:40,500 --> 00:42:44,700
Do you think, later in his life,
Galle regretted the position
553
00:42:44,700 --> 00:42:47,260
he took over the whole
Dreyfus affair?
554
00:42:47,260 --> 00:42:52,340
It's hard to tell, but he was
so deeply always involved
555
00:42:52,340 --> 00:42:55,980
in those cases
that he was defending.
556
00:42:55,980 --> 00:43:00,820
So I think he regretted it
only on the commercial side
557
00:43:00,820 --> 00:43:04,740
because of the lack of orders,
of commands,
558
00:43:04,740 --> 00:43:08,980
that came after
the Great Exhibition in 1900.
559
00:43:08,980 --> 00:43:12,180
But when he was quoting authors
like Victor Hugo,
560
00:43:12,180 --> 00:43:19,100
he said, "Art is like a weapon
to defend your ideas."
561
00:43:21,500 --> 00:43:24,780
Soon after the World Fair,
Galle found out
562
00:43:24,780 --> 00:43:26,860
that he had another battle to fight.
563
00:43:29,900 --> 00:43:32,940
Galle was about to die,
he knew he was dying,
564
00:43:32,940 --> 00:43:36,620
so he put a lot of this sadness,
565
00:43:36,620 --> 00:43:39,700
this melancholia,
in all his creations.
566
00:43:39,700 --> 00:43:43,540
This is the very last piece of
furniture that he produced
567
00:43:43,540 --> 00:43:48,380
in his factory before he died, and
it made really a very strong effect
568
00:43:48,380 --> 00:43:49,900
on the people here.
569
00:43:49,900 --> 00:43:53,540
What do you think he's
trying to say in this?
570
00:43:53,540 --> 00:43:59,300
It's dawn and it's night-time,
the bed, but you could look at it
571
00:43:59,300 --> 00:44:02,180
particularly as the work
of a dying man,
572
00:44:02,180 --> 00:44:04,620
as about life and death, in fact.
573
00:44:04,620 --> 00:44:06,100
Yes, that's it, exactly.
574
00:44:06,100 --> 00:44:10,060
Galle used the symbols
of the butterflies
575
00:44:10,060 --> 00:44:15,020
and they represent, with the central
egg, they represent birth,
576
00:44:15,020 --> 00:44:18,380
the beginning,
and they are full of hopes.
577
00:44:18,380 --> 00:44:22,140
But then at the end of the day,
they are dead.
578
00:44:22,140 --> 00:44:26,100
And on your back,
you can see just above your head,
579
00:44:26,100 --> 00:44:29,980
this night butterfly, the sphinx,
580
00:44:29,980 --> 00:44:35,100
which is slowly falling above you,
and it means death.
581
00:44:35,100 --> 00:44:39,380
He is dying and his wings
are closing on your head.
582
00:44:39,380 --> 00:44:43,900
It has to make you think of what
you make of your life, I think.
583
00:44:50,100 --> 00:44:55,300
Tragically, Galle didn't live
to see Dreyfus exonerated in 1906.
584
00:44:57,460 --> 00:45:01,260
He died two years earlier,
but in the last years of his life
585
00:45:01,260 --> 00:45:05,700
he'd created some of his most
powerful and moving pieces.
586
00:45:13,220 --> 00:45:15,620
Galle had exposed a fault line
in French life
587
00:45:15,620 --> 00:45:18,940
at the turn of the century,
588
00:45:18,940 --> 00:45:21,140
but there was a lot more
where that came from.
589
00:45:23,060 --> 00:45:29,300
With the population explosion came
crime, overcrowding, poverty.
590
00:45:34,500 --> 00:45:36,660
There was disquiet
on the streets of Paris,
591
00:45:36,660 --> 00:45:40,540
and the city needed to find
new solutions.
592
00:45:46,780 --> 00:45:51,100
For a young architect who was out
to make a bit of a name for himself,
593
00:45:51,100 --> 00:45:57,180
a bit of a splash,
the time was ripe for trying
something utterly different.
594
00:45:59,940 --> 00:46:05,340
Hector Guimard was a young architect
with an ego as big as his talent.
595
00:46:05,340 --> 00:46:09,820
Important projects came his way
when he was still in his 20s,
596
00:46:09,820 --> 00:46:15,460
and in 1896, when Guimard was not
yet 30, he designed the building
597
00:46:15,460 --> 00:46:21,100
that would cement his reputation
for bravura, style and ambition.
598
00:46:21,100 --> 00:46:24,540
His mission was to create
not just a radically different
599
00:46:24,540 --> 00:46:29,260
sort of building, but a template
for a new form of communal living.
600
00:46:37,660 --> 00:46:41,260
Sebastien Cord
is an architect himself
601
00:46:41,260 --> 00:46:47,060
and a resident of Castel Beranger,
Guimard's most celebrated building.
602
00:46:47,060 --> 00:46:50,900
To see the real Guimard magic you
have to get inside the curly gates
603
00:46:50,900 --> 00:46:54,460
to the communal courtyard within.
604
00:46:54,460 --> 00:46:56,900
So you see the courtyard?
Stunning, yeah.
605
00:46:56,900 --> 00:47:00,460
Guimard was really young
when he built this.
606
00:47:02,420 --> 00:47:04,980
Security code? Yeah.
607
00:47:08,060 --> 00:47:10,220
How long have you lived here?
608
00:47:10,220 --> 00:47:12,860
About five years.
609
00:47:12,860 --> 00:47:16,380
Must be fantastic, since you're
in the business of architecture,
610
00:47:16,380 --> 00:47:19,060
to live here. Look at that!
611
00:47:20,460 --> 00:47:23,580
From here you can see
the building is asymmetrical,
612
00:47:23,580 --> 00:47:27,900
a crime against architecture
in classically proportioned Paris.
613
00:47:28,980 --> 00:47:31,020
Your eye doesn't get bored of it
614
00:47:31,020 --> 00:47:33,380
because there are different
contours to it.
615
00:47:33,380 --> 00:47:37,740
That's interesting
in the work of Guimard.
616
00:47:37,740 --> 00:47:40,860
It's architecture and art
with curving lines.
617
00:47:40,860 --> 00:47:43,980
And the glass up there
is beautiful, isn't it?
618
00:47:43,980 --> 00:47:45,660
Is that all original?
619
00:47:45,660 --> 00:47:46,780
Yes.
620
00:47:46,780 --> 00:47:50,140
'Guimard said the logic of nature
is impeccable,
621
00:47:50,140 --> 00:47:53,860
'and at Beranger,
his visual language is the sea.
622
00:47:53,860 --> 00:47:58,860
'The windows repeated on every floor
are stained into voluptuous waves.'
623
00:47:59,980 --> 00:48:02,980
I love these kind of sponge-like
bits of stone,
624
00:48:02,980 --> 00:48:07,100
they look like sea sponges,
don't they? Is that the idea?
625
00:48:07,100 --> 00:48:09,820
We call it mouliere in French.
626
00:48:13,700 --> 00:48:16,780
'Red brick,
anathema to traditionalists,
627
00:48:16,780 --> 00:48:21,740
'butts up against whole stones
and engineered stone too.'
628
00:48:23,540 --> 00:48:27,620
Very different to the other
buildings I've been seeing in Paris,
629
00:48:27,620 --> 00:48:30,220
the kind of Haussmann buildings,
isn't it?
630
00:48:30,220 --> 00:48:31,540
Yes.
631
00:48:31,540 --> 00:48:34,620
'It's Guimard's signature ironwork
that gives the building
632
00:48:34,620 --> 00:48:37,620
'its Art Nouveau character and wit.'
633
00:48:38,660 --> 00:48:39,900
It's incredible.
634
00:48:39,900 --> 00:48:41,860
'Why the long face?
635
00:48:41,860 --> 00:48:46,020
'These sea horses press their noses
to the walls for good reason.'
636
00:48:47,060 --> 00:48:50,060
It has a structural function also.
637
00:48:50,060 --> 00:48:53,900
Does it? It's holding the wall up.
Yes. That's good to know.
638
00:48:57,260 --> 00:49:01,660
I believe another unusual thing
is that all the apartments
639
00:49:01,660 --> 00:49:03,580
are roughly the same size?
640
00:49:03,580 --> 00:49:06,220
It wasn't big apartments
for the rich. Exactly.
641
00:49:06,220 --> 00:49:10,340
Every level have the same height.
642
00:49:10,340 --> 00:49:14,180
You don't have the rich
at the first level
643
00:49:14,180 --> 00:49:17,740
and the poor people at the top.
644
00:49:20,100 --> 00:49:23,780
'Really breaking with tradition,
Guimard dared to create
645
00:49:23,780 --> 00:49:27,820
'an apartment block that ignored
the social hierarchy of Paris.
646
00:49:30,660 --> 00:49:34,660
'At first, the neighbours
called this Castel Deranger,
647
00:49:34,660 --> 00:49:38,940
'and when you step in to
the building's vestibule,
you can kind of see why.'
648
00:49:38,940 --> 00:49:43,460
That's incredible.
It's really like a cave, isn't it?
649
00:49:43,460 --> 00:49:45,940
Yes, it's designed like a grotto.
650
00:49:45,940 --> 00:49:50,580
It's a masterpiece of the building
made by Guimard.
651
00:49:50,580 --> 00:49:53,420
Just the gateway is remarkable.
652
00:49:53,420 --> 00:49:56,660
It's marvellous.
Really original, in fact.
653
00:49:56,660 --> 00:49:58,500
It's like a harp.
654
00:49:58,500 --> 00:50:00,260
A harp?
655
00:50:00,260 --> 00:50:04,780
These are the strings
and you can kind of pluck them.
656
00:50:04,780 --> 00:50:06,700
That's rather beautiful, isn't it?
657
00:50:06,700 --> 00:50:08,980
Maybe not the way I'm doing it,
but it could be.
658
00:50:11,180 --> 00:50:14,900
'All the geometry of the structure
is submerged in iron curves
659
00:50:14,900 --> 00:50:20,900
'and undulating plaster, as if the
building itself were made of water.'
660
00:50:22,620 --> 00:50:25,500
So these are meant to look
a bit like trees, are they?
661
00:50:25,500 --> 00:50:28,860
Yeah, it's like trees
going from the grotto.
662
00:50:28,860 --> 00:50:32,700
It's like a piece of a garden
but also with water...
663
00:50:32,700 --> 00:50:36,220
Like an undersea garden.
664
00:50:36,220 --> 00:50:38,220
It's quite strange.
665
00:50:38,220 --> 00:50:40,940
Yes, it's like Neptune's garden.
Yes.
666
00:50:40,940 --> 00:50:45,180
'For many years, the full beauty
of this weirdly wonderful entrance
667
00:50:45,180 --> 00:50:49,820
'was hidden under countless
coats of gloss paint.
668
00:50:49,820 --> 00:50:53,580
'Sebastian's just completed
the painstaking task of returning
669
00:50:53,580 --> 00:50:57,340
'Castel Beranger to how Guimard
intended it to be.'
670
00:50:58,900 --> 00:51:02,860
That's great, isn't it? Yes.
671
00:51:04,340 --> 00:51:08,940
It's a pleasant way
to enter in the building.
672
00:51:08,940 --> 00:51:10,580
It is.
673
00:51:20,540 --> 00:51:22,100
Pardon, monsieur.
674
00:51:22,100 --> 00:51:24,900
'As the space where residents would
meet and greet each other,
675
00:51:24,900 --> 00:51:29,580
'it's the heart of Guimard's
masterplan for convivial
urban living.'
676
00:51:29,580 --> 00:51:31,420
Here she is with her French bread.
677
00:51:38,500 --> 00:51:40,220
That's what we should have done.
678
00:51:40,220 --> 00:51:42,940
I didn't kiss you. Maybe later!
679
00:51:42,940 --> 00:51:44,820
Let's see how things go. After!
680
00:51:44,820 --> 00:51:47,380
OK, after you.
681
00:51:47,380 --> 00:51:51,620
'Guimard moved in here himself,
enjoying his bachelor lifestyle
682
00:51:51,620 --> 00:51:54,140
'and his celebrity.
683
00:51:54,140 --> 00:51:57,180
'A tireless self-publicist,
684
00:51:57,180 --> 00:52:01,980
'he sent out postcards of himself at
home with his watery Art Nouveau.'
685
00:52:06,740 --> 00:52:11,700
With an award under his belt
for Beranger, Paris was his oyster.
686
00:52:14,620 --> 00:52:18,620
As the city was preparing
for the 1900 World Fair,
687
00:52:18,620 --> 00:52:22,100
he landed the commission
that would make him immortal.
688
00:52:23,700 --> 00:52:26,220
The city was in gridlock.
689
00:52:26,220 --> 00:52:30,300
The Metro, a new railway fit
for a new century was being built -
690
00:52:30,300 --> 00:52:31,820
under the ground.
691
00:52:31,820 --> 00:52:36,100
And Guimard was asked to design
the Metro entrances
692
00:52:36,100 --> 00:52:41,260
to add a final decorative flourish
to this fantastic new-fangled way
693
00:52:41,260 --> 00:52:42,580
of getting about.
694
00:52:45,700 --> 00:52:48,180
He was a controversial choice,
695
00:52:48,180 --> 00:52:54,780
but in time, Parisians warmed to his
flamboyant version of Art Nouveau.
696
00:53:20,900 --> 00:53:26,700
This is Port Dauphine, Guimard's
finest surviving Metro station.
697
00:53:26,700 --> 00:53:29,420
It's en route to
the Bois de Boulogne,
698
00:53:29,420 --> 00:53:33,860
the woods on the outskirts of Paris,
and that seems rather appropriate,
699
00:53:33,860 --> 00:53:39,300
because emerging from the station
is like leaving a thicket
of iron trees.
700
00:53:40,620 --> 00:53:45,340
Guimard brought nature and art into
the very heart of the modern city.
701
00:53:46,660 --> 00:53:49,660
Salvador Dali described
his designs as
702
00:53:49,660 --> 00:53:55,220
"those divine entrances to the Metro
by grace of which one can descend
703
00:53:55,220 --> 00:53:57,540
"into the region
of the subconscious."
704
00:54:04,100 --> 00:54:09,580
Guimard's station, which is actually
metallic and dense and brittle,
705
00:54:09,580 --> 00:54:15,700
in this wooded setting, shape-shifts
into a giant moth or bug
706
00:54:15,700 --> 00:54:20,340
with its gossamer wings,
its many, spindly limbs
707
00:54:20,340 --> 00:54:24,780
and those questing,
probing antennae.
708
00:54:28,340 --> 00:54:34,540
He chose cast iron to create
drooping stalks and rising branches.
709
00:54:34,540 --> 00:54:39,580
And glass, a vulnerable material
for a busy urban structure,
710
00:54:39,580 --> 00:54:43,060
seems to be draped over
the iron skeleton.
711
00:54:46,260 --> 00:54:50,340
Guimard designed 141
station entrances,
712
00:54:50,340 --> 00:54:55,140
each on a variation
of four basic templates,
713
00:54:55,140 --> 00:55:00,020
as well as a loose interpretation
of the letter "M" for Metro.
714
00:55:03,540 --> 00:55:06,940
The Metro entrances,
redefining the city,
715
00:55:06,940 --> 00:55:10,340
seemed like the portals
to the future.
716
00:55:10,340 --> 00:55:18,100
But when the 1900 exhibition
was all packed up, the harsh light
of the 20th century started todawn.
717
00:55:30,420 --> 00:55:35,340
This dining room was designed for
an apartment in Nancy in 1902
718
00:55:35,340 --> 00:55:39,220
by Eugene Vallin,
an associate of Emile Galle.
719
00:55:40,500 --> 00:55:43,260
I've got a theory that
this wasn't made by men.
720
00:55:43,260 --> 00:55:47,660
I think it's the work of a species
of hyper-evolved bee.
721
00:55:47,660 --> 00:55:49,980
I mean, look at the curves
everywhere.
722
00:55:49,980 --> 00:55:53,380
It's as though they looked at what
we did with metal and straight lines
723
00:55:53,380 --> 00:55:57,500
and rejected it and everything
was masticated out of royal jelly.
724
00:55:59,060 --> 00:56:02,180
Bit freaky for you?
Bit acid trippy?
725
00:56:02,180 --> 00:56:06,140
Well, consider, it would be lovely
to come here to dinner once,
726
00:56:06,140 --> 00:56:07,620
maybe for a week.
727
00:56:07,620 --> 00:56:11,340
But every day?
You would start to feel like Kafka,
728
00:56:11,340 --> 00:56:15,860
who, shortly after this was created,
would pen Metamorphoses.
729
00:56:23,540 --> 00:56:27,540
And that was the problem -
it was too curly, too decorative,
730
00:56:27,540 --> 00:56:30,380
too dark, too much.
731
00:56:30,380 --> 00:56:33,180
When it arrived in the dining rooms
of the middle classes,
732
00:56:33,180 --> 00:56:36,420
the Bohemian elite
lost their taste for it.
733
00:56:36,420 --> 00:56:41,420
Like all fashions, Art Nouveau
became a victim of its own success.
734
00:56:45,980 --> 00:56:50,900
Like a fickle lover, the city that
had once embraced the style
735
00:56:50,900 --> 00:56:53,940
turned against it in the 1920s.
736
00:56:53,940 --> 00:56:57,140
The wonderful Fouquet jewellery shop
was dismantled,
737
00:56:57,140 --> 00:57:01,100
and was reconstructed
in the Musee Carnivalet in Paris
738
00:57:01,100 --> 00:57:02,420
just 23 years ago.
739
00:57:04,460 --> 00:57:08,300
Even the iconic Metro entrances
didn't escape the cull.
740
00:57:10,780 --> 00:57:15,260
Port Dauphine is one of just three
glass entrances that have survived.
741
00:57:17,740 --> 00:57:21,700
Sadly, when Art Nouveau dramatically
fell out of fashion,
742
00:57:21,700 --> 00:57:24,780
all the others were
ruthlessly hacked down.
743
00:57:28,780 --> 00:57:33,420
79 original Guimard designs
have been lost,
744
00:57:33,420 --> 00:57:36,300
and Art Nouveau was forgotten
until the last decades
745
00:57:36,300 --> 00:57:37,660
of the 20th century.
746
00:57:39,780 --> 00:57:44,460
Today the Metro
and Paris go hand in hand again
747
00:57:44,460 --> 00:57:47,900
and the city treasures
its Art Nouveau heritage.
748
00:57:51,260 --> 00:57:54,220
The old love affair
has been rekindled.
749
00:58:00,420 --> 00:58:05,660
Next time, the roots and hidden gems
of Art Nouveau in British cities,
750
00:58:05,660 --> 00:58:08,540
set against a backdrop of scandal
and depression,
751
00:58:08,540 --> 00:58:11,940
when artists and designers
were on the front line
752
00:58:11,940 --> 00:58:14,660
of sexual and social change.
753
00:59:14,400 --> 00:59:18,000
It's sleek, geometrical.
754
00:59:18,000 --> 00:59:21,080
A vision of aluminium and glass.
755
00:59:21,080 --> 00:59:24,720
It's the last place you'd go
looking for Art Nouveau, isn't it?
756
00:59:24,720 --> 00:59:26,360
Isn't it?
757
00:59:31,000 --> 00:59:33,440
This is the Sainsbury Centre
for Visual Arts
758
00:59:33,440 --> 00:59:35,500
on the outskirts of Norwich.
759
00:59:35,500 --> 00:59:39,080
Home to the art collection
of the British retail dynasty,
760
00:59:39,080 --> 00:59:40,240
the Sainsbury family.
761
00:59:42,720 --> 00:59:46,640
It's also home to the
Anderson Collection of Art Nouveau,
762
00:59:46,640 --> 00:59:50,680
one of the largest and finest
private collections in Europe.
763
00:59:50,680 --> 00:59:54,600
Art Nouveau emerged
at the turn of the 19th century
764
00:59:54,600 --> 00:59:57,680
from the restless energies
of the industrial city.
765
00:59:58,960 --> 01:00:01,360
In the age of Darwin and Freud,
766
01:00:01,360 --> 01:00:04,680
it was fixated on nature, sex,
767
01:00:04,680 --> 01:00:07,160
and the newly-liberated woman.
768
01:00:09,200 --> 01:00:12,880
In less than a decade
it went from nowhere to everywhere.
769
01:00:15,280 --> 01:00:17,720
And then disappeared completely.
770
01:00:20,600 --> 01:00:23,360
This week I'm in Britain
where the decadence of Oscar Wilde
771
01:00:23,360 --> 01:00:26,840
and Aubrey Beardsley
scandalised the nation.
772
01:00:28,480 --> 01:00:32,800
Where the sensuality of exotic
foreign influences met the genius
773
01:00:32,800 --> 01:00:38,480
of British craftsmanship to create
a wholly unique moment in design.
774
01:00:38,480 --> 01:00:41,720
And as brand names
such as Liberty's went global,
775
01:00:41,720 --> 01:00:46,920
an extraordinary hidden gem took
shape in the crook of a Surrey hill.
776
01:01:08,400 --> 01:01:11,160
Imagine this, the Thames,
in the 19th century.
777
01:01:11,160 --> 01:01:15,680
Steam ships take our products
all over the world and return
778
01:01:15,680 --> 01:01:20,680
with treasure troves of art and
design from the Empire and beyond.
779
01:01:20,680 --> 01:01:24,160
It was a dazzling time,
full of progress and change,
780
01:01:24,160 --> 01:01:27,240
but there were also
more ominous undercurrents.
781
01:01:27,240 --> 01:01:32,800
Not for nothing is Joseph Conrad's
Heart Of Darkness, published 1899,
782
01:01:32,800 --> 01:01:37,680
opening on the waters of this river,
foul and pestilential.
783
01:01:37,680 --> 01:01:41,440
These days, the river banks are
the preserve of hedge fund managers
784
01:01:41,440 --> 01:01:44,800
but back then only artists
could be persuaded
785
01:01:44,800 --> 01:01:48,040
to find their accommodation
along its shores.
786
01:01:49,480 --> 01:01:53,640
They believed that our burgeoning
industrial cities could be reformed
787
01:01:53,640 --> 01:01:55,960
by a beauty revolution.
788
01:01:55,960 --> 01:01:59,040
For Art Nouveau designers,
that began with an event
789
01:01:59,040 --> 01:02:02,520
that changed the story of
19th century British design.
790
01:02:05,680 --> 01:02:10,760
In 1854, an American fleet
of seven ships and 2,000 men
791
01:02:10,760 --> 01:02:13,280
sailed into the harbour of Nagasaki.
792
01:02:16,120 --> 01:02:18,280
After centuries of isolation,
793
01:02:18,280 --> 01:02:21,040
Japan was forced
to open her borders to trade
794
01:02:21,040 --> 01:02:24,200
and Japanese goods
started flooding into Britain.
795
01:02:32,720 --> 01:02:34,880
Collected avidly by artists,
796
01:02:34,880 --> 01:02:38,280
these goods inspired a new approach
to British design.
797
01:02:40,360 --> 01:02:46,400
New patterns, flowers, plants,
birds adorned their work.
798
01:02:48,360 --> 01:02:52,440
There was a new delicacy,
a new sensuality.
799
01:02:57,760 --> 01:03:01,000
Japan was seen as everything
that the West was not.
800
01:03:01,000 --> 01:03:04,320
Exotic, sensual, uninhibited.
801
01:03:06,480 --> 01:03:10,360
In London, James Abbott McNeil
Whistler painted women in kimonos
802
01:03:10,360 --> 01:03:14,000
hinting at the sensuality
beneath the silk.
803
01:03:16,960 --> 01:03:20,360
An American who had lived
in France and Russia,
804
01:03:20,360 --> 01:03:23,840
Whistler was a troublemaker
with a modern international agenda.
805
01:03:25,400 --> 01:03:28,680
He harnessed Japanese style
to a movement that insisted that
806
01:03:28,680 --> 01:03:32,240
art had no social or moral agenda.
807
01:03:32,240 --> 01:03:34,440
Art was for art's sake.
808
01:03:34,440 --> 01:03:36,640
A new cult of beauty was born.
809
01:03:38,360 --> 01:03:40,320
There was a whole new style
of sensuousness
810
01:03:40,320 --> 01:03:42,320
amongst the Avant Garde.
811
01:03:42,320 --> 01:03:44,360
It was called the Aesthetic Movement
812
01:03:44,360 --> 01:03:47,760
and I've come to find out about it,
where else,
813
01:03:47,760 --> 01:03:51,600
but on the sun-kissed boulevards
of Shepherds Bush, West London.
814
01:03:53,200 --> 01:03:55,080
Mmm, they're nice!
815
01:03:58,880 --> 01:04:02,920
Hello, Peter. Wow. Do you like
my flowers? Lovely. I'm Stephen.
816
01:04:02,920 --> 01:04:04,440
Hi, how do you do?
These are for you.
817
01:04:04,440 --> 01:04:06,720
Thank you very much.
They're beautiful.
818
01:04:06,720 --> 01:04:09,480
'Design historian Peter Fiell
has spent years
819
01:04:09,480 --> 01:04:12,920
'lovingly reconstructing a room
in the Aesthetic style.'
820
01:04:16,440 --> 01:04:20,840
Oh, this is fun, isn't it?
This is great, Peter.
821
01:04:20,840 --> 01:04:23,200
I feel we should both
slip into some kimonos.
822
01:04:23,200 --> 01:04:25,520
Don't know how you feel about that.
I only just met you.
823
01:04:25,520 --> 01:04:28,880
We've got sunflowers.
I suppose we have. Fantastic place.
824
01:04:28,880 --> 01:04:33,360
I notice there are some sunflowers
here, like the ones I brought you.
825
01:04:33,360 --> 01:04:35,800
Yes, well,
as you probably gathered,
826
01:04:35,800 --> 01:04:38,160
having gifted me
those beautiful sunflowers,
827
01:04:38,160 --> 01:04:43,160
one of major motifs, you know, of the
Aesthetic Movement is the sunflower
828
01:04:43,160 --> 01:04:48,040
and it literally represents
the sun and warmth and...
829
01:04:48,040 --> 01:04:50,200
Beauty? Beauty.
830
01:04:50,200 --> 01:04:54,600
And you see these motifs recurring
time and time again.
831
01:04:56,360 --> 01:04:59,520
'With their exotic sunflowers
and irises,
832
01:04:59,520 --> 01:05:01,520
'peacocks and cranes,
833
01:05:01,520 --> 01:05:06,320
'ebonised furniture and willow
patterns, the Aesthetes made a break
834
01:05:06,320 --> 01:05:11,240
'with the dense briars and brambles
of traditional British design.'
835
01:05:17,520 --> 01:05:19,360
This is what Oscar Wilde meant
836
01:05:19,360 --> 01:05:22,800
when he talked about
the house beautiful, wasn't it?
837
01:05:22,800 --> 01:05:26,480
It was critical to be seen
as a connoisseur of beauty
838
01:05:26,480 --> 01:05:32,040
and, ultimately, as someone
who had refined good taste.
839
01:05:34,200 --> 01:05:37,920
'Whistler and his friend,
the poet and playwright Oscar Wilde,
840
01:05:37,920 --> 01:05:41,920
'held court in Japanese-inspired
rooms like this one,
841
01:05:41,920 --> 01:05:44,360
'also sharing other foreign ideas
842
01:05:44,360 --> 01:05:49,080
'that they brought back from their
frequent trips to bohemian Paris.
843
01:05:49,080 --> 01:05:54,320
'Their scandalous ideas about sex,
death and art were beyond the pale
844
01:05:54,320 --> 01:05:57,000
'of God-fearing Victorian society.'
845
01:05:58,280 --> 01:06:01,880
Thank you for these flowers again.
It's my pleasure. They look nice.
846
01:06:01,880 --> 01:06:04,960
Tell you what, it needed something
in here, didn't it? Yes!
847
01:06:04,960 --> 01:06:07,800
I'll put them right behind you here.
That's the perfect spot.
848
01:06:07,800 --> 01:06:11,840
'In 1894, a new disciple joined
the ranks of these Aesthetes.'
849
01:06:13,960 --> 01:06:17,600
An iconoclast,
brandishing a bold new art,
850
01:06:17,600 --> 01:06:21,320
he captured the avant garde spirit
of Paris
851
01:06:21,320 --> 01:06:23,960
and the sensuality
of Japanese design.
852
01:06:27,640 --> 01:06:29,640
The illustrator Aubrey Beardsley
853
01:06:29,640 --> 01:06:32,880
was the first exponent
of Art Nouveau in Britain.
854
01:06:32,880 --> 01:06:35,080
He was one of the first anywhere.
855
01:06:35,080 --> 01:06:39,800
He burst on to the London scene
at the tender age of 19.
856
01:06:39,800 --> 01:06:45,520
His career would be meteoric,
dazzling, uncontrollable,
857
01:06:45,520 --> 01:06:47,280
and over far too soon.
858
01:06:52,040 --> 01:06:55,040
The teenage Beardsley heard
that Wilde was writing a play
859
01:06:55,040 --> 01:06:58,040
about the biblical temptress Salome.
860
01:06:59,160 --> 01:07:01,880
He produced an illustration on spec
861
01:07:01,880 --> 01:07:05,200
in the hope that he might
impress Oscar and his publisher.
862
01:07:07,240 --> 01:07:11,240
In it, Beardsley transforms
the sinful Salome
863
01:07:11,240 --> 01:07:15,080
with whiplash curves
into a femme fatale.
864
01:07:15,080 --> 01:07:20,240
Here she is clasping the severed
head of saintly John the Baptist.
865
01:07:20,240 --> 01:07:23,880
The blatant sensuality
and amorality of this image
866
01:07:23,880 --> 01:07:26,280
rivalled anything
from bohemian Paris.
867
01:07:30,200 --> 01:07:33,640
Wilde was duly impressed
and Beardsley was commissioned
868
01:07:33,640 --> 01:07:38,640
to illustrate the first English
edition of Salome in 1894.
869
01:07:38,640 --> 01:07:41,800
His drawings were startlingly new.
870
01:07:41,800 --> 01:07:45,200
They were sensuous.
They were international.
871
01:07:45,200 --> 01:07:46,720
They were Art Nouveau.
872
01:07:49,880 --> 01:07:53,640
Beardsley is, I suppose,
the most distinctive,
873
01:07:53,640 --> 01:07:58,200
most extraordinary young illustrator
that we've ever had in England.
874
01:07:58,200 --> 01:08:01,080
This is called the Peacock Skirt
875
01:08:01,080 --> 01:08:06,520
and it's probably the most celebrated
from Beardsley's set of designs.
876
01:08:06,520 --> 01:08:10,240
People would have thought
this was very shocking at the time.
877
01:08:10,240 --> 01:08:14,520
It absolutely exemplifies
the way in which he'd found
878
01:08:14,520 --> 01:08:18,120
a new way of representing
a literary subject.
879
01:08:18,120 --> 01:08:20,120
There's no suggestion
of the background.
880
01:08:20,120 --> 01:08:23,400
He cuts to the chase, as it were.
It's just about the figures.
881
01:08:23,400 --> 01:08:26,320
That's the sort of thing he learnt
from looking at Japanese prints.
882
01:08:26,320 --> 01:08:32,040
It's also, in a way, stylistically
what we now call Art Nouveau,
883
01:08:32,040 --> 01:08:38,520
except that Beardsley was not trying
to do exactly the same sort of thing.
884
01:08:38,520 --> 01:08:41,680
He knew what was going on on the
continent but he was, actually,
885
01:08:41,680 --> 01:08:44,920
to a great degree, ploughing
his own furrow here in England.
886
01:08:46,840 --> 01:08:50,280
'Beardsley's whiplash curves
came to define his unique
887
01:08:50,280 --> 01:08:52,800
'Japanesque version of Art Nouveau.'
888
01:08:55,400 --> 01:08:59,880
And this famous whiplash line here,
apart from anything else,
889
01:08:59,880 --> 01:09:02,800
that's extraordinarily difficult
to do, isn't it, I would imagine?
890
01:09:02,800 --> 01:09:06,640
Just to have the elan and the
confidence just to dash that off.
891
01:09:06,640 --> 01:09:08,880
This is something he excels at,
892
01:09:08,880 --> 01:09:12,480
which is this kind of extraordinary
calligraphic energy.
893
01:09:12,480 --> 01:09:15,560
He is the great master
of drawing with a pen.
894
01:09:15,560 --> 01:09:17,840
And for people who haven't
done that themselves,
895
01:09:17,840 --> 01:09:19,640
that's no mean feat, is it?
896
01:09:19,640 --> 01:09:22,440
You don't just produce
one of these swirls.
897
01:09:22,440 --> 01:09:26,040
It is actually very difficult
to create a drawing
898
01:09:26,040 --> 01:09:28,840
of this kind of faultless technique.
899
01:09:28,840 --> 01:09:32,320
Beardsley's penmanship, if you like,
the actual craftsmanship
900
01:09:32,320 --> 01:09:36,520
of working with, remember,
a spluttering pen dipped in ink...
901
01:09:38,960 --> 01:09:43,440
'In the finely-drawn
decorative details of his work,
902
01:09:43,440 --> 01:09:47,280
'Beardsley's mischief
and subversion plays out.
903
01:09:47,280 --> 01:09:49,440
'The devil is
certainly in his details.'
904
01:09:53,040 --> 01:09:55,200
Look closely at those candlesticks.
905
01:09:55,200 --> 01:09:58,080
Yes, they are
what you think they are.
906
01:10:01,160 --> 01:10:02,960
The publishers actually jokingly said
907
01:10:02,960 --> 01:10:06,240
you had to look at everything through
a microscope and upside down
908
01:10:06,240 --> 01:10:11,080
in order to make sure he hadn't
smuggled in some kind of indecencies.
909
01:10:11,080 --> 01:10:15,320
Is it the art of a young man? As you
get older, do you get more cautious?
910
01:10:15,320 --> 01:10:21,040
I think he moved in a circle of
youngish, quite revolutionary
911
01:10:21,040 --> 01:10:24,760
artists and writers
who enjoyed teasing the public.
912
01:10:24,760 --> 01:10:27,040
Cocking a snook, if that's
the phrase I'm looking for.
913
01:10:27,040 --> 01:10:28,800
Absolutely. It is exactly the word.
914
01:10:30,040 --> 01:10:32,800
'To the London arts establishment
915
01:10:32,800 --> 01:10:36,840
'he was the amoral, alien
enfant terrible of his day.'
916
01:10:40,120 --> 01:10:41,840
The Studio Magazine,
917
01:10:41,840 --> 01:10:47,680
the international bible for avant
garde design founded in 1893,
918
01:10:47,680 --> 01:10:51,680
featured Beardsley's work and
reproduced his Salome illustrations.
919
01:10:51,680 --> 01:10:55,080
His Japanesque figures
and decorative curves,
920
01:10:55,080 --> 01:10:57,800
distributed all over the world
in the magazine,
921
01:10:57,800 --> 01:11:02,920
were absorbed into Art Nouveau
as it emerged on the continent.
922
01:11:02,920 --> 01:11:04,760
Beardsley had arrived.
923
01:11:06,520 --> 01:11:08,600
This was the age of the dandy.
924
01:11:08,600 --> 01:11:13,440
It was the time when what you said,
the cut of your jib,
925
01:11:13,440 --> 01:11:17,520
the colour of your button hole,
the name of your tailor,
926
01:11:17,520 --> 01:11:20,680
all these things counted
for at least as much
927
01:11:20,680 --> 01:11:23,080
as what you actually DID in life.
928
01:11:25,400 --> 01:11:29,280
'Matthew Sturgiss
is Beardsley's biographer.'
929
01:11:29,280 --> 01:11:32,360
Hello, you must be Matthew.
I'm Stephen. How are you?
930
01:11:32,360 --> 01:11:34,920
Very well, thanks. Fancy a haircut?
Well, why not?
931
01:11:38,200 --> 01:11:42,040
Matthew, how important
was image to Aubrey?
932
01:11:42,040 --> 01:11:44,880
Was image crucial to him?
933
01:11:44,880 --> 01:11:47,200
Hugely important.
934
01:11:47,200 --> 01:11:52,720
Really both as a reflection
and a projection of his art.
935
01:11:52,720 --> 01:11:56,920
He delighted in witty bon mots.
936
01:11:56,920 --> 01:11:58,880
He dressed beautifully.
937
01:11:58,880 --> 01:12:02,360
He was conscious too,
of his extraordinary physique
938
01:12:02,360 --> 01:12:06,040
and that became
part of his public persona.
939
01:12:06,040 --> 01:12:10,320
'Beardsley's strange haircut
and dandified garb
940
01:12:10,320 --> 01:12:14,360
'were cultivated for effect
but it wasn't all artifice.
941
01:12:14,360 --> 01:12:18,200
'His gauntness was the result
of incurable tuberculosis,
942
01:12:18,200 --> 01:12:20,840
'though not even the gravity
of that condition
943
01:12:20,840 --> 01:12:23,760
'stopped his searing humour.'
944
01:12:23,760 --> 01:12:27,000
He once said that, you know,
I'm so affected,
945
01:12:27,000 --> 01:12:28,960
even my lungs are affected.
946
01:12:28,960 --> 01:12:33,400
But he knew he didn't have long,
so he had to make an impact?
947
01:12:33,400 --> 01:12:37,000
Yes, I mean, from childhood
948
01:12:37,000 --> 01:12:40,000
he'd suffered with tuberculosis
949
01:12:40,000 --> 01:12:44,200
and he realised that time
was likely to be short.
950
01:12:44,200 --> 01:12:48,320
I think that did lend an intensity
to his work
951
01:12:48,320 --> 01:12:49,960
and the way he worked.
952
01:12:52,200 --> 01:12:56,800
'Beardsley's intense ambition,
mischief and hunger for attention
953
01:12:56,800 --> 01:12:58,760
'were a lethal combination.'
954
01:13:04,000 --> 01:13:07,040
Matthew and I have come to
the Cadogan in West London,
955
01:13:07,040 --> 01:13:10,960
a hotel that would play
a crucial part in the unravelling
956
01:13:10,960 --> 01:13:13,560
of Beardsley's brilliant career.
957
01:13:18,320 --> 01:13:21,360
Would Wilde and Beardsley
have taken tea together?
958
01:13:21,360 --> 01:13:22,880
Were they friendly?
959
01:13:22,880 --> 01:13:25,640
What was the nature of their
relationship, would you say?
960
01:13:25,640 --> 01:13:28,800
Wilde was the older figure.
961
01:13:28,800 --> 01:13:32,120
He was some 20 years
Beardsley's senior.
962
01:13:32,120 --> 01:13:35,320
He was the great artistic
personality of the age,
963
01:13:35,320 --> 01:13:38,960
and Beardsley was ever an iconoclast
964
01:13:38,960 --> 01:13:41,240
and although he admired Wilde
enormously,
965
01:13:41,240 --> 01:13:43,120
he also enjoyed poking fun at him,
966
01:13:43,120 --> 01:13:46,720
undermining him,
pricking his pretensions.
967
01:13:46,720 --> 01:13:49,600
It's extraordinary. You know,
at first sight what you have here
968
01:13:49,600 --> 01:13:52,120
is a fantastic draughtsmanship,
969
01:13:52,120 --> 01:13:55,720
and, at the same time,
the sensibility of Viz magazine.
970
01:13:55,720 --> 01:13:57,040
Is that fair?
971
01:13:57,040 --> 01:13:59,840
There is certainly
an element of that.
972
01:13:59,840 --> 01:14:04,840
I mean, Wilde complained that
some of the details were like
973
01:14:04,840 --> 01:14:07,640
the naughty doodles
that schoolboys introduced
974
01:14:07,640 --> 01:14:09,840
into the margins of their copybooks.
975
01:14:09,840 --> 01:14:13,600
Wilde had good cause
to be suspicious.
976
01:14:13,600 --> 01:14:15,240
In his play, Salome,
977
01:14:15,240 --> 01:14:19,920
Wilde had compared the moon to
a fat, pleasure-seeking old woman.
978
01:14:19,920 --> 01:14:22,520
But in one of Beardsley's
illustrations,
979
01:14:22,520 --> 01:14:26,240
he gives the moon Wilde's features.
980
01:14:26,240 --> 01:14:31,160
Beardsley, as being someone in the
inner cultural circle of the time,
981
01:14:31,160 --> 01:14:35,520
would have known rumours circulating
about Wilde's double life,
982
01:14:35,520 --> 01:14:39,000
his attraction
to the homosexual milieu,
983
01:14:39,000 --> 01:14:43,880
and so the notion of him being
a bad drunken woman
984
01:14:43,880 --> 01:14:45,600
searching everywhere for lovers
985
01:14:45,600 --> 01:14:47,960
would have carried
a certain sort of resonance.
986
01:14:47,960 --> 01:14:52,200
And in a way, that was dangerous
information to be being leaked out.
987
01:14:53,600 --> 01:14:59,280
In 1894, Beardsley co-founded an
arts journal called The Yellow Book
988
01:14:59,280 --> 01:15:01,640
to celebrate new writing and art.
989
01:15:03,760 --> 01:15:07,840
As art editor, he had the freedom
to develop his unique style.
990
01:15:11,040 --> 01:15:14,720
Tragically, this startling talent
was about to be eclipsed
991
01:15:14,720 --> 01:15:19,920
by a scandal that traumatised
19th-century Britain and Europe.
992
01:15:22,720 --> 01:15:24,120
For nearly four years,
993
01:15:24,120 --> 01:15:27,520
Wilde had been having an affair
with Lord Alfred Douglas
994
01:15:27,520 --> 01:15:29,920
who was 16 years his junior.
995
01:15:29,920 --> 01:15:35,360
In 1895, Douglas' father,
the Marquess of Queensbury,
996
01:15:35,360 --> 01:15:38,880
left a card at Wilde's club
calling him a sodomite.
997
01:15:40,080 --> 01:15:43,960
Wilde sued Queensbury for libel,
but it backfired.
998
01:15:43,960 --> 01:15:46,040
Queensbury's allegation was upheld
999
01:15:46,040 --> 01:15:49,360
and Wilde was charged with
gross indecency.
1000
01:15:49,360 --> 01:15:54,120
Now, Oscar Wilde's room
is down here, 118.
1001
01:15:57,280 --> 01:16:00,880
This is where he had
his exquisite collar felt
1002
01:16:00,880 --> 01:16:04,080
the day the rozzers came to
pick him up on charges of indecency.
1003
01:16:04,080 --> 01:16:08,160
Beardsley's Yellow Book
comes back into the story here,
1004
01:16:08,160 --> 01:16:10,440
with tragic consequences.
1005
01:16:13,840 --> 01:16:17,360
Everybody wanted to be in it
and most of them were,
1006
01:16:17,360 --> 01:16:19,920
with the notable exception
of Oscar Wilde.
1007
01:16:19,920 --> 01:16:22,400
The Yellow Book
was consciously modelled
1008
01:16:22,400 --> 01:16:25,320
on the most provocative French
fiction of the day -
1009
01:16:25,320 --> 01:16:30,440
cheeky novels coming in from
the continent in yellow wrappers.
1010
01:16:34,560 --> 01:16:41,080
On 5 April 1895, two arresting
officers led Wilde out of the hotel.
1011
01:16:41,080 --> 01:16:43,480
Under his arm was a yellow book.
1012
01:16:43,480 --> 01:16:47,920
It was actually a copy of one
of the aforesaid French novels
1013
01:16:47,920 --> 01:16:50,040
but nobody noticed or cared.
1014
01:16:50,040 --> 01:16:52,680
Journalists reported
that Wilde had left the hotel
1015
01:16:52,680 --> 01:16:54,800
with a copy of
Beardsley's Yellow Book.
1016
01:16:57,600 --> 01:16:59,720
The loathing for Wilde
was so intense
1017
01:16:59,720 --> 01:17:01,840
that a crowd took it upon themselves
1018
01:17:01,840 --> 01:17:05,640
to go round to Beardsley's
publishers and put the windows out.
1019
01:17:05,640 --> 01:17:08,600
His boss, in a panic, fired him.
1020
01:17:08,600 --> 01:17:11,920
Not one but two great careers
and lives were blighted.
1021
01:17:13,880 --> 01:17:17,080
Wilde was sentenced
to two years hard labour.
1022
01:17:18,440 --> 01:17:21,720
The fallout from the scandal
across Britain was devastating.
1023
01:17:29,400 --> 01:17:32,000
And how important
was the Wilde trial?
1024
01:17:32,000 --> 01:17:34,480
We hear in the news
that such-and-such a case
1025
01:17:34,480 --> 01:17:37,320
is the trial of the year,
the trial of the century,
1026
01:17:37,320 --> 01:17:40,920
but that really was
a huge case, wasn't it?
1027
01:17:40,920 --> 01:17:45,200
I would say that it's probably
not possible to exaggerate
1028
01:17:45,200 --> 01:17:48,320
the importance of
the Oscar Wilde trial in 1895.
1029
01:17:48,320 --> 01:17:52,640
It traumatised British
and specifically English culture,
1030
01:17:52,640 --> 01:17:58,160
transformed the atmosphere in London
and really did jump out at the time.
1031
01:17:58,160 --> 01:18:02,720
It upset the entire nation.
And I would say, in effect,
1032
01:18:02,720 --> 01:18:06,120
made practicing as an advanced
or an Avant Garde
1033
01:18:06,120 --> 01:18:08,480
and Art Nouveau designer or artist
1034
01:18:08,480 --> 01:18:11,760
extremely difficult in England
after that time,
1035
01:18:11,760 --> 01:18:16,360
because Wilde was loosely and
broadly associated with that world.
1036
01:18:16,360 --> 01:18:18,960
How influential was Beardsley?
1037
01:18:18,960 --> 01:18:22,000
How deep did it go?
How pervasive was it?
1038
01:18:22,000 --> 01:18:25,240
Well, we would say that Beardsley
was probably absolutely key
1039
01:18:25,240 --> 01:18:27,080
for the style, paramount in fact.
1040
01:18:27,080 --> 01:18:29,360
There are lots of English
movements around
1041
01:18:29,360 --> 01:18:31,440
in the last quarter
of the 19th century
1042
01:18:31,440 --> 01:18:34,240
and Beardsley pulls everything
together to create
1043
01:18:34,240 --> 01:18:38,120
what is going to become Art Nouveau.
He is the first one to do that.
1044
01:18:38,120 --> 01:18:41,640
And the key - the signature,
I suppose - is the whiplash line.
1045
01:18:41,640 --> 01:18:44,480
That strange tensile shape
1046
01:18:44,480 --> 01:18:46,960
that everybody picks up on
incredibly quickly
1047
01:18:46,960 --> 01:18:50,160
and becomes the dominant image
of the late 19th century
1048
01:18:50,160 --> 01:18:52,240
in architecture and design.
1049
01:18:52,240 --> 01:18:55,920
Despite his wit and bravura style,
1050
01:18:55,920 --> 01:18:59,800
Beardsley had crossed a line
that he couldn't come back from.
1051
01:18:59,800 --> 01:19:02,520
After the Wilde scandal,
he was vilified
1052
01:19:02,520 --> 01:19:05,280
and his art
forced under the counter.
1053
01:19:05,280 --> 01:19:07,800
He worked for Leonard Smithers,
1054
01:19:07,800 --> 01:19:11,080
an infamous publisher
of literary erotica.
1055
01:19:11,080 --> 01:19:15,560
Smithers commissioned Beardsley
to illustrate Aristophanes' play,
1056
01:19:15,560 --> 01:19:18,480
Lysistrata,
about a community of women
1057
01:19:18,480 --> 01:19:21,680
who deny their husbands
their conjugal rights.
1058
01:19:21,680 --> 01:19:25,120
Beardsley had nothing to lose.
1059
01:19:25,120 --> 01:19:28,440
But then, just three years
after the Wilde scandal,
1060
01:19:28,440 --> 01:19:31,640
tuberculosis finally claimed him.
1061
01:19:31,640 --> 01:19:34,800
Beardsley was just 25 years old.
1062
01:19:37,880 --> 01:19:40,600
His shocking version of Art Nouveau
had become
1063
01:19:40,600 --> 01:19:43,280
the style that dare not
speak its name.
1064
01:19:43,280 --> 01:19:47,000
But that didn't mean it had gone
altogether. On the contrary.
1065
01:19:47,000 --> 01:19:51,120
The whiplash curve had got under
the skin of British designers.
1066
01:19:51,120 --> 01:19:52,880
So they took those curves...
1067
01:19:52,880 --> 01:19:55,080
and then added
something of their own.
1068
01:19:55,080 --> 01:19:59,960
A spray of Celtic mist,
just a hint of medieval mystery
1069
01:19:59,960 --> 01:20:04,400
to create a version of Art Nouveau
that was uniquely British.
1070
01:20:12,520 --> 01:20:16,920
While Beardsley had looked to Japan
and France for his ideas,
1071
01:20:16,920 --> 01:20:19,520
this more polite version
of Art Nouveau
1072
01:20:19,520 --> 01:20:22,960
drew on British craft traditions
1073
01:20:22,960 --> 01:20:25,880
and on the influence of one man
in particular.
1074
01:20:26,960 --> 01:20:31,440
William Morris - craftsman,
poet, publisher, designer,
1075
01:20:31,440 --> 01:20:34,920
socialist,
all-round Victorian visionary.
1076
01:20:34,920 --> 01:20:38,520
He was the driving force
behind Arts and Crafts,
1077
01:20:38,520 --> 01:20:43,040
one of the most influential
movements in all European design.
1078
01:20:43,040 --> 01:20:45,240
In his quest for beauty,
1079
01:20:45,240 --> 01:20:50,960
Morris invoked the power of nature
and our medieval past.
1080
01:20:53,160 --> 01:20:57,000
Arts and Crafts may have been
inspired by British history,
1081
01:20:57,000 --> 01:20:59,840
but Morris was fighting
for a brave new future,
1082
01:20:59,840 --> 01:21:03,480
one in which beauty
triumphed over industry.
1083
01:21:05,800 --> 01:21:09,560
It's hard to believe now,
but back in Morris's day,
1084
01:21:09,560 --> 01:21:13,880
even here, in Hammersmith,
the Thames was polluted and ugly.
1085
01:21:13,880 --> 01:21:17,600
In fact, it's one of the things
that Morris and his cohorts
1086
01:21:17,600 --> 01:21:20,960
wanted to change, because
their art, their design
1087
01:21:20,960 --> 01:21:23,560
wasn't just about
prettifying houses.
1088
01:21:23,560 --> 01:21:25,920
It was also about revolution.
1089
01:21:25,920 --> 01:21:29,720
It was changing the world
one wallpaper at a time.
1090
01:21:32,000 --> 01:21:35,880
In the 1890s,
the middle-aged Morris
1091
01:21:35,880 --> 01:21:39,600
used to take his daily
constitutional here along the Thames
1092
01:21:39,600 --> 01:21:42,920
to visit his close friend
and fellow socialist,
1093
01:21:42,920 --> 01:21:44,880
the publisher Emery Walker.
1094
01:21:46,520 --> 01:21:50,080
Hello, are you Helen? I am, yes.
I'm Stephen, very nice to meet you.
1095
01:21:50,080 --> 01:21:52,400
Do come through.
Thank you, I'd love to.
1096
01:21:52,400 --> 01:21:56,480
'Helen Elletson
is the curator of Walker's house.
1097
01:21:56,480 --> 01:22:00,360
'Full of Morris's designs,
it's still a testament
1098
01:22:00,360 --> 01:22:02,920
'to the Arts and Crafts vision.'
1099
01:22:02,920 --> 01:22:06,080
And this is just as it was, is it?
It is, yes, just as it was
1100
01:22:06,080 --> 01:22:08,360
in the Walkers' day.
1101
01:22:08,360 --> 01:22:11,520
There's a real sense of peace
in here, isn't there?
1102
01:22:16,480 --> 01:22:18,040
It's incredible.
1103
01:22:20,320 --> 01:22:23,720
What's really striking as a visitor,
and what I really like,
1104
01:22:23,720 --> 01:22:27,080
is I expected a lot of it
1105
01:22:27,080 --> 01:22:32,000
to be behind glass and velvet rope
and "do not touch".
1106
01:22:32,000 --> 01:22:33,600
It's not like that at all.
1107
01:22:33,600 --> 01:22:37,760
It has more the feel of a private
home, a time capsule, actually.
1108
01:22:37,760 --> 01:22:41,280
It is a family home,
it was lived in until 1999,
1109
01:22:41,280 --> 01:22:44,280
unchanged since the Walker family
lived here.
1110
01:22:44,280 --> 01:22:47,720
They were great friends and
William Morris in fact said his day
1111
01:22:47,720 --> 01:22:51,320
wasn't complete without
a sight of Emery Walker.
1112
01:22:51,320 --> 01:22:55,240
That's a lovely tribute from one man
to another, isn't it? Definitely.
1113
01:22:55,240 --> 01:22:57,720
Yes, they used to meet
each other regularly
1114
01:22:57,720 --> 01:23:01,600
to talk about printing,
their shared interest in politics,
1115
01:23:01,600 --> 01:23:04,160
literature,
so they were very close together.
1116
01:23:04,160 --> 01:23:09,120
Morris's hand-printed designs,
with their roses,
1117
01:23:09,120 --> 01:23:13,040
briars and brambles,
celebrate an historic England,
1118
01:23:13,040 --> 01:23:17,240
a far cry from Beardsley's
exotic whiplash curves.
1119
01:23:17,240 --> 01:23:20,880
Morris was very much inspired
by the English countryside.
1120
01:23:20,880 --> 01:23:23,320
He wanted to go back to the way
things were done properly,
1121
01:23:23,320 --> 01:23:25,800
the traditional craft methods.
1122
01:23:25,800 --> 01:23:27,840
Because, going back
to his social beliefs,
1123
01:23:27,840 --> 01:23:30,240
he really felt that
if you had something beautiful
1124
01:23:30,240 --> 01:23:33,680
in your home it would
influence your quality of life.
1125
01:23:33,680 --> 01:23:37,240
Was he a bit of a champagne
socialist, as we might say today?
1126
01:23:37,240 --> 01:23:42,360
Or maybe it's a mead socialist,
harking back to medieval times?
1127
01:23:42,360 --> 01:23:45,000
In the sense that,
he was all about giving
1128
01:23:45,000 --> 01:23:48,280
beautiful quality products
to everybody,
1129
01:23:48,280 --> 01:23:51,600
but in practise it was only the
middle classes who could afford it?
1130
01:23:51,600 --> 01:23:53,480
There is that contradiction
with Morris
1131
01:23:53,480 --> 01:23:55,400
and he had the best people
working for him
1132
01:23:55,400 --> 01:23:58,200
and the best materials that
went into making the items.
1133
01:23:58,200 --> 01:24:01,480
The only way of bringing down
the price was to bring in
1134
01:24:01,480 --> 01:24:04,520
some form of mass production
and factories and machines,
1135
01:24:04,520 --> 01:24:06,520
and that was
what Morris was against.
1136
01:24:06,520 --> 01:24:08,600
He disliked the Industrial Revolution
1137
01:24:08,600 --> 01:24:10,960
and what it was doing
to people's lives.
1138
01:24:20,520 --> 01:24:23,720
Morris's vision was
a potent force in British design
1139
01:24:23,720 --> 01:24:28,480
at the turn of the century,
especially in the south of England.
1140
01:24:28,480 --> 01:24:33,000
When the work ethic and historicism
of Arts and Crafts met
1141
01:24:33,000 --> 01:24:37,000
the sensual curves of Art Nouveau,
something magical happened.
1142
01:24:40,240 --> 01:24:44,520
You won't find this extraordinary
chapel in art history tomes,
1143
01:24:44,520 --> 01:24:47,760
but it's a hidden gem
created by Mary Watts,
1144
01:24:47,760 --> 01:24:52,040
one of the unsung heroines
of British Art Nouveau design.
1145
01:24:54,480 --> 01:24:57,280
It's screened by these beech trees
1146
01:24:57,280 --> 01:24:59,720
and tucked in the crook
of a Surrey hill,
1147
01:24:59,720 --> 01:25:02,760
but you can just hear the motorway,
you'd never know it was here.
1148
01:25:02,760 --> 01:25:05,240
It's like a Victorian mausoleum
1149
01:25:05,240 --> 01:25:08,920
to the legendary, immemorial
figures of Albion.
1150
01:25:08,920 --> 01:25:12,800
You half-expect that bell
to start tolling at any minute,
1151
01:25:12,800 --> 01:25:15,760
and for these incredible,
half-true figures
1152
01:25:15,760 --> 01:25:18,680
to rise up and answer
the call of their nation.
1153
01:25:21,280 --> 01:25:25,320
You get a sense here in this
churchyard of the sleep of England,
1154
01:25:25,320 --> 01:25:26,920
the spirit of England.
1155
01:25:32,400 --> 01:25:35,440
Mary designed this extraordinary
chapel in 1895
1156
01:25:35,440 --> 01:25:38,480
when she moved here
from London with her husband,
1157
01:25:38,480 --> 01:25:42,240
the celebrated Victorian painter
George Frederick Watts,
1158
01:25:42,240 --> 01:25:44,120
who was 32 years her senior.
1159
01:25:44,120 --> 01:25:47,880
Mary had been his student.
1160
01:25:47,880 --> 01:25:50,520
She idolised him,
calling him "signor"
1161
01:25:50,520 --> 01:25:53,360
as a mark of respect
and deference.
1162
01:25:53,360 --> 01:25:55,800
For the first
years of their marriage
1163
01:25:55,800 --> 01:25:59,400
she lived in his shadow in the
society of London's great and good,
1164
01:25:59,400 --> 01:26:02,880
but when the couple built a house
just down the road from here
1165
01:26:02,880 --> 01:26:06,800
in Compton, Surrey,
she really came into her own.
1166
01:26:11,320 --> 01:26:16,600
Look at this lovely sun-dappled,
enchanted and enchanting frieze
1167
01:26:16,600 --> 01:26:18,800
on the front of the chapel.
1168
01:26:18,800 --> 01:26:23,680
Look at these very English-looking
maidens got up as angels
1169
01:26:23,680 --> 01:26:28,240
and it's a light slumber
as they preside over classic
1170
01:26:28,240 --> 01:26:33,880
Christian and British virtues
of courage and patience.
1171
01:26:33,880 --> 01:26:36,240
But everywhere the scene is enfolded
1172
01:26:36,240 --> 01:26:40,080
by this riot of Art Nouveau motifs.
1173
01:26:40,080 --> 01:26:44,400
They're enclosed in this thicket
of curvy, sinuous lines.
1174
01:26:44,400 --> 01:26:47,280
The peacock is displaying
his feathers,
1175
01:26:47,280 --> 01:26:51,480
a great chain mail behind him,
and there are these knotted vines
1176
01:26:51,480 --> 01:26:55,320
which veer off in all directions,
their arrow-headed points.
1177
01:27:00,760 --> 01:27:02,600
Mary was a member of something
1178
01:27:02,600 --> 01:27:05,680
called the Home Arts
and Industries Association
1179
01:27:05,680 --> 01:27:08,720
that was founded
on the Arts and Crafts principle
1180
01:27:08,720 --> 01:27:11,560
that anybody could learn
our ancient craft skills.
1181
01:27:13,320 --> 01:27:16,560
She held Thursday evening
terracotta classes
1182
01:27:16,560 --> 01:27:21,520
for the local villagers to make the
exterior decorations of the chapel,
1183
01:27:21,520 --> 01:27:24,560
finally completing them in 1898.
1184
01:27:28,720 --> 01:27:32,480
This is an early form of socialism,
if you like, set in clay,
1185
01:27:32,480 --> 01:27:36,280
because Mary Watts, although she
was the guiding artistic brain
1186
01:27:36,280 --> 01:27:39,080
behind this and did
a lot of the work herself,
1187
01:27:39,080 --> 01:27:43,680
was leading the common people, the
everyday folk of Compton in Surrey,
1188
01:27:43,680 --> 01:27:46,560
guiding their hands
through the process.
1189
01:27:46,560 --> 01:27:50,280
So what you see here
is an Arts and Crafts sensibility
1190
01:27:50,280 --> 01:27:54,120
but the languishing sensuality
of Art Nouveau.
1191
01:27:56,840 --> 01:28:00,880
And if you think the outside's
impressive, prepare yourself...
1192
01:28:18,200 --> 01:28:21,960
This is dumb-striking.
It's not what I expected at all.
1193
01:28:21,960 --> 01:28:26,320
It's a kind of fairy grotto
or secret cave,
1194
01:28:26,320 --> 01:28:32,840
as if some strange druid Celtic sect
had been walled in here
1195
01:28:32,840 --> 01:28:35,440
and these were their folk memories
1196
01:28:35,440 --> 01:28:38,520
that they were implanting
on the walls.
1197
01:28:38,520 --> 01:28:44,400
At the same time it's like a crazy
prog-rock version of heaven.
1198
01:28:44,400 --> 01:28:47,600
If you had all the early Genesis LPs
1199
01:28:47,600 --> 01:28:52,200
and your time was up,
this is your Nirvana, to mix bands.
1200
01:28:53,160 --> 01:28:56,640
Just this splendid explosion
1201
01:28:56,640 --> 01:29:03,160
of vines and drapes and fronds.
1202
01:29:03,160 --> 01:29:07,280
It's also got this great sensuality,
these writhing plants.
1203
01:29:07,280 --> 01:29:09,080
What could be more earthy?
1204
01:29:09,080 --> 01:29:14,040
It's a Christian mortuary chapel,
but there's something almost pagan
1205
01:29:14,040 --> 01:29:17,360
and pre-Christian about it.
1206
01:29:17,360 --> 01:29:19,120
I don't know whether
to light a candle
1207
01:29:19,120 --> 01:29:21,800
or cover myself in woad
and dance naked.
1208
01:29:27,200 --> 01:29:29,920
Hello, Rebecca, how are you?
I'm Stephen.
1209
01:29:29,920 --> 01:29:33,000
Do come in and join me.
It's chilly, isn't it? It is, yes.
1210
01:29:33,000 --> 01:29:35,920
Very nice to meet you.
Now, what have you got there?
1211
01:29:35,920 --> 01:29:40,720
I've got a photograph of my
great-grandmother. May I handle it?
1212
01:29:40,720 --> 01:29:45,280
You may, yes. This is my
great-grandmother, Alice Jacobs.
1213
01:29:45,280 --> 01:29:47,640
So that must be Mary?
1214
01:29:47,640 --> 01:29:51,040
That's Mary,
the designer of the chapel.
1215
01:29:51,040 --> 01:29:54,360
So this place has a special family
connection for you, doesn't it?
1216
01:29:54,360 --> 01:29:56,920
It does, yes. I've been
coming up here all my life.
1217
01:29:56,920 --> 01:30:01,400
And because it's so extraordinary
and a little bit secluded,
1218
01:30:01,400 --> 01:30:04,360
it could almost be as if
your great-grandmother
1219
01:30:04,360 --> 01:30:07,280
had just stepped away from here.
Do you have that sense?
1220
01:30:07,280 --> 01:30:11,360
Absolutely, yes. Definitely. It
just hasn't changed over the years.
1221
01:30:11,360 --> 01:30:13,640
You can come in here
and definitely feel
1222
01:30:13,640 --> 01:30:15,400
like you were here 100 years ago.
1223
01:30:15,400 --> 01:30:18,240
I love it.
1224
01:30:18,240 --> 01:30:21,000
And I actually think
it's quite life-affirming.
1225
01:30:22,680 --> 01:30:26,480
Which is odd, considering
it's a chapel of rest, isn't it?
1226
01:30:26,480 --> 01:30:30,760
Yes, but I don't think the Watts
saw death as a bad thing.
1227
01:30:30,760 --> 01:30:35,760
Watts painted pictures
of death as a young woman,
1228
01:30:35,760 --> 01:30:39,760
not as a scary old crone.
1229
01:30:39,760 --> 01:30:41,520
After years of hard work,
1230
01:30:41,520 --> 01:30:44,840
the chapel interior was finally
completed in 1904,
1231
01:30:44,840 --> 01:30:48,440
the year Signor GF Watts died.
1232
01:30:50,760 --> 01:30:54,000
Mary survived him
by another 34 years
1233
01:30:54,000 --> 01:30:57,000
and went on to establish
the Compton Pottery
1234
01:30:57,000 --> 01:30:59,280
with her local craftsmen.
1235
01:30:59,280 --> 01:31:01,720
The chapel was little known
in her time,
1236
01:31:01,720 --> 01:31:03,880
but with these terracotta pots,
1237
01:31:03,880 --> 01:31:08,560
Mary's unique version of Art Nouveau
reached a much wider audience.
1238
01:31:08,560 --> 01:31:11,400
They were admired
and sold to the masses
1239
01:31:11,400 --> 01:31:16,480
by an influential family friend,
Arthur Lasenby Liberty.
1240
01:31:17,640 --> 01:31:20,640
Liberty, who'd built a global empire
of department stores
1241
01:31:20,640 --> 01:31:22,920
at the end of the 19th Century,
1242
01:31:22,920 --> 01:31:26,720
was the key figure
in the mass production and spread
1243
01:31:26,720 --> 01:31:29,760
of this British version
of Art Nouveau.
1244
01:31:29,760 --> 01:31:31,960
By the beginning
of the 20th Century,
1245
01:31:31,960 --> 01:31:35,680
the very name Liberty had become
a byword for the style.
1246
01:31:37,400 --> 01:31:41,560
This is Liberty's department store
in the West End of London.
1247
01:31:41,560 --> 01:31:44,360
With its half-timbered
Tudor-bethan facade,
1248
01:31:44,360 --> 01:31:47,640
it's managed to persuade
tourists and shoppers alike
1249
01:31:47,640 --> 01:31:51,680
that it's quintessentially English
and that it's been here forever.
1250
01:31:51,680 --> 01:31:53,720
That's wrong on both counts.
1251
01:31:58,520 --> 01:32:01,280
Liberty was
a humble warehouse manager
1252
01:32:01,280 --> 01:32:07,720
when he opened his own shop in 1875
using a loan from his father.
1253
01:32:07,720 --> 01:32:11,280
With his canny knack
for spotting a cultural trend,
1254
01:32:11,280 --> 01:32:14,720
he became the art lover's retailer.
1255
01:32:14,720 --> 01:32:17,400
First an importer
of exotic decorative arts,
1256
01:32:17,400 --> 01:32:20,680
he soon began retailing the work
of British designers
1257
01:32:20,680 --> 01:32:23,000
under his own name.
1258
01:32:23,000 --> 01:32:26,720
The famous Liberty peacock print
is still popular today.
1259
01:32:28,280 --> 01:32:32,920
Selling silks, clothes, rugs,
jewellery and furniture,
1260
01:32:32,920 --> 01:32:36,000
Liberty's empire quickly expanded.
1261
01:32:36,000 --> 01:32:40,320
Anna, it feels as though
we're in an Eastern bazaar here.
1262
01:32:40,320 --> 01:32:42,680
We're not, though. Where are we?
1263
01:32:42,680 --> 01:32:45,720
We're in the Liberty
carpet department,
1264
01:32:45,720 --> 01:32:47,960
but, actually, that's
one of the departments
1265
01:32:47,960 --> 01:32:49,960
that very much reflects
1266
01:32:49,960 --> 01:32:53,720
Liberty's origins
as an oriental importer
1267
01:32:53,720 --> 01:32:57,600
when he first started in 1875.
Liberty was an entrepreneur.
1268
01:32:57,600 --> 01:33:02,080
He knew that he couldn't
stay in the same style.
1269
01:33:02,080 --> 01:33:06,120
He needed to grow his business,
and he was one of the early people
1270
01:33:06,120 --> 01:33:10,360
to sell products that we would
now describe as Art Nouveau.
1271
01:33:10,360 --> 01:33:12,960
So what do we have here
in your book of swatches?
1272
01:33:12,960 --> 01:33:15,960
Well, let's have a look and see.
1273
01:33:15,960 --> 01:33:20,360
Here we've got a very typical
Art Nouveau Liberty style.
1274
01:33:20,360 --> 01:33:23,920
Why is that Art Nouveau?
1275
01:33:23,920 --> 01:33:27,080
The stylised flowers.
1276
01:33:27,080 --> 01:33:29,800
There is that sort of...
You can't quite see it on here,
1277
01:33:29,800 --> 01:33:33,280
but I know that the repeat
has that sort of movement.
1278
01:33:33,280 --> 01:33:36,160
The famous wavy lines?
Yes, which is very Art Nouveau.
1279
01:33:36,160 --> 01:33:38,960
And it has that sort of feel
of hand block printing,
1280
01:33:38,960 --> 01:33:41,800
to look as if it's been done by hand.
1281
01:33:41,800 --> 01:33:45,640
We have another one,
which is quite weird, I think.
1282
01:33:45,640 --> 01:33:48,480
That's quite different,
at first sight, to the last one,
1283
01:33:48,480 --> 01:33:50,400
but this is still Art Nouveau
you'd say?
1284
01:33:50,400 --> 01:33:52,360
I think that's still Art Nouveau,
1285
01:33:52,360 --> 01:33:54,600
and it's still doing that
sort of shape.
1286
01:33:54,600 --> 01:34:00,080
These Art Nouveau fabrics with their
Arts and Crafts handmade look
1287
01:34:00,080 --> 01:34:03,320
became the pinnacle
of bohemian taste.
1288
01:34:03,320 --> 01:34:07,120
With Liberty, you could have
the Art Nouveau dress, the rug,
1289
01:34:07,120 --> 01:34:10,200
the chairs, even the garden pots.
1290
01:34:10,200 --> 01:34:15,760
Liberty actually got all
the top designers to design for him.
1291
01:34:15,760 --> 01:34:18,240
That, I think, shows what
a charming person he was
1292
01:34:18,240 --> 01:34:19,960
because he didn't credit them.
1293
01:34:19,960 --> 01:34:22,400
He paid them,
but he wouldn't have credited them,
1294
01:34:22,400 --> 01:34:25,440
because he sold his designs
as Liberty designs.
1295
01:34:25,440 --> 01:34:27,320
He was an entrepreneur.
1296
01:34:27,320 --> 01:34:29,120
That's a mixed blessing for them.
1297
01:34:29,120 --> 01:34:31,280
They're getting the pay,
but not the credit.
1298
01:34:31,280 --> 01:34:33,720
History has forgotten them, rather.
1299
01:34:33,720 --> 01:34:37,160
Well, I have no idea
who's designed this,
1300
01:34:37,160 --> 01:34:39,320
because, yes, that's gone,
that history.
1301
01:34:39,320 --> 01:34:41,160
Which is frustrating for you?
1302
01:34:41,160 --> 01:34:43,800
Very frustrating for me.
It must have been rather frustrating
1303
01:34:43,800 --> 01:34:45,200
for the person who designed it!
1304
01:34:46,240 --> 01:34:49,720
One of Liberty's most important
anonymous designers
1305
01:34:49,720 --> 01:34:52,840
was the painter and teacher
Archibald Knox.
1306
01:34:54,800 --> 01:34:58,040
'Patch Rogers, a guardian
of the Liberty legacy,
1307
01:34:58,040 --> 01:35:00,400
'has some Knox treasures
to show me.'
1308
01:35:00,400 --> 01:35:04,280
And you've brought somebody to look
after it? That's very serious.
1309
01:35:04,280 --> 01:35:06,880
Hello, I'm Stephen.
Very nice to meet you. Hello, sir.
1310
01:35:06,880 --> 01:35:09,320
How are you? Good.
1311
01:35:09,320 --> 01:35:11,120
'Knox grew
up on the Isle of Man,
1312
01:35:11,120 --> 01:35:14,240
'a tiny island in the Irish sea.'
1313
01:35:16,120 --> 01:35:18,920
Inspired by its ancient
Celtic crosses,
1314
01:35:18,920 --> 01:35:22,800
he designed Art Nouveau silver
and pewterware for Liberty
1315
01:35:22,800 --> 01:35:26,600
that was characterised
by a Celtic twist.
1316
01:35:26,600 --> 01:35:28,880
So what about this clock, Patch?
1317
01:35:28,880 --> 01:35:31,760
It's got a playful quality,
hasn't it?
1318
01:35:31,760 --> 01:35:35,960
It has. It's got that slightly
kind of animated look,
1319
01:35:35,960 --> 01:35:41,360
I think, and I think Knox was
drawing inspiration very much
1320
01:35:41,360 --> 01:35:44,520
from his Celtic origin.
1321
01:35:44,520 --> 01:35:47,640
Being on the Isle of Man, he would
have studied the Celtic crosses
1322
01:35:47,640 --> 01:35:49,600
in the cemeteries and churchyards
1323
01:35:49,600 --> 01:35:52,880
and was drawing inspiration from
that. I mean, it looks like a cross.
1324
01:35:54,360 --> 01:35:56,520
With his marketing nouse,
1325
01:35:56,520 --> 01:35:59,680
Liberty gave these designs
faux historical names -
1326
01:35:59,680 --> 01:36:02,880
Cymric silver and Tudric pewter.
1327
01:36:04,240 --> 01:36:06,000
Other designers worked
on the ranges,
1328
01:36:06,000 --> 01:36:09,160
but Liberty spotted Knox's
outstanding talent
1329
01:36:09,160 --> 01:36:11,280
and worked closely with him.
1330
01:36:12,520 --> 01:36:16,640
This is the earliest piece,
this is about 1899.
1331
01:36:16,640 --> 01:36:18,680
You have the sort
of cleanness of the silver
1332
01:36:18,680 --> 01:36:23,200
and then you have these applied
handles, in a very organic,
1333
01:36:23,200 --> 01:36:29,600
sinuous line, giving you that
very much Art Nouveau feel.
1334
01:36:29,600 --> 01:36:33,640
You also had the rivets, which was
a way of showing craftsmanship.
1335
01:36:38,080 --> 01:36:41,840
The silver pieces were handmade,
but not by Knox himself.
1336
01:36:41,840 --> 01:36:46,640
The pewter, designed by Knox
to mimic the handmade look,
1337
01:36:46,640 --> 01:36:51,520
were actually machine-made, a crime
against Arts and Crafts principles.
1338
01:36:51,520 --> 01:36:55,280
But with his lower production costs
and a big retail market,
1339
01:36:55,280 --> 01:36:57,800
Liberty was laughing
all the way to the bank.
1340
01:36:59,840 --> 01:37:03,080
How did he market them?
Through mail order, catalogues.
1341
01:37:03,080 --> 01:37:05,360
Obviously through the store,
1342
01:37:05,360 --> 01:37:08,360
but at the time,
you had stores in Paris
1343
01:37:08,360 --> 01:37:11,760
and other places as well. I think
there was one in Buenos Aires.
1344
01:37:11,760 --> 01:37:15,280
Right, so the mail order was the
internet of its day? Absolutely.
1345
01:37:16,880 --> 01:37:18,520
As the catalogue says,
1346
01:37:18,520 --> 01:37:21,960
"Designed and worked exclusively
by Liberty & Co."
1347
01:37:21,960 --> 01:37:24,160
Smart.
1348
01:37:24,160 --> 01:37:26,720
The ranges were so successful
that in Italy
1349
01:37:26,720 --> 01:37:28,840
Art Nouveau became
known as Stile Liberte.
1350
01:37:30,400 --> 01:37:34,840
Knox's career, not surprisingly,
took a different course.
1351
01:37:36,680 --> 01:37:40,600
He stayed friends with the Liberty
family, but he was a retiring man.
1352
01:37:40,600 --> 01:37:44,480
Never publicly credited
for his designs in his lifetime,
1353
01:37:44,480 --> 01:37:47,760
he ended his days unknown,
back on the Isle of Man,
1354
01:37:47,760 --> 01:37:49,760
painting watercolours.
1355
01:37:51,320 --> 01:37:54,880
His tombstone reads
"Archibald Knox, artist,
1356
01:37:54,880 --> 01:37:58,840
"humble servant of God
in the ministry of the beautiful."
1357
01:37:58,840 --> 01:38:00,960
I'll raise a pewter tankard to that.
1358
01:38:09,280 --> 01:38:13,120
Other retailers wanted to cash in
on Liberty's Art Nouveau success.
1359
01:38:14,720 --> 01:38:17,160
When Harrods was redesigned in 1902,
1360
01:38:17,160 --> 01:38:20,280
the owners hired
a fashionable young ceramicist
1361
01:38:20,280 --> 01:38:22,560
to give their meat hall
the new look.
1362
01:38:22,560 --> 01:38:26,160
Born in Barnsley
and trained as an architect,
1363
01:38:26,160 --> 01:38:28,600
William Neatby worked
with Doulton's tiles
1364
01:38:28,600 --> 01:38:33,280
and borrowed from the medieval
churches of his Northern childhood
1365
01:38:33,280 --> 01:38:36,120
to create this extraordinary frieze.
1366
01:38:36,120 --> 01:38:40,080
This is a kind of idyllic scene
of an Arcadian Albion
1367
01:38:40,080 --> 01:38:41,800
that never quite was,
1368
01:38:41,800 --> 01:38:45,600
a 19th-Century view
back to medieval England.
1369
01:38:45,600 --> 01:38:49,520
It's almost like the storyboard
for a panto
1370
01:38:49,520 --> 01:38:52,040
because they have
this 19th-century view
1371
01:38:52,040 --> 01:38:55,000
of how the medieval Briton dressed,
1372
01:38:55,000 --> 01:38:59,200
its doublet and hose,
nice dinky little pixie boots,
1373
01:38:59,200 --> 01:39:02,400
lovely hats, but they're
all spotless and pristine.
1374
01:39:03,560 --> 01:39:07,200
You have to love the whimsy
and nonsense of this.
1375
01:39:07,200 --> 01:39:12,760
In Neatby's panto of rural life, the
happy hunter always bags his duck.
1376
01:39:13,880 --> 01:39:18,360
Neatby's brilliance lay
in the graphic quality of his work
1377
01:39:18,360 --> 01:39:23,440
which complimented its surroundings
rather than competed with them.
1378
01:39:23,440 --> 01:39:26,680
Neatby spares us the horror
of Bambi's death scene
1379
01:39:26,680 --> 01:39:30,560
so we don't have that distasteful
thought in our heads as we stand
1380
01:39:30,560 --> 01:39:33,160
at the counter and pay for
the weekend joint.
1381
01:39:35,320 --> 01:39:39,680
Morris and Beardsley must be
chuckling in their graves.
1382
01:39:39,680 --> 01:39:41,400
Chicken anyone?
1383
01:39:44,640 --> 01:39:48,120
Many shopping arcades were thrown
up at the end of the 19th century
1384
01:39:48,120 --> 01:39:51,760
and Neatby's colourful ceramic
schemes became a popular
1385
01:39:51,760 --> 01:39:55,600
cutting-edge adornment
to the new retail experience,
1386
01:39:55,600 --> 01:39:58,040
as here in Norwich.
1387
01:39:58,040 --> 01:40:02,280
If you were part of Norfolk's
fashionable society then this arcade
1388
01:40:02,280 --> 01:40:07,280
was the place to see and be seen
and maybe splash the cash.
1389
01:40:07,280 --> 01:40:11,120
You wanted something to attest
to your taste, to your sense of
1390
01:40:11,120 --> 01:40:15,200
what was hip and happening so why
not pick up Art Nouveau fabrics,
1391
01:40:15,200 --> 01:40:19,360
perhaps a nice piece of
silverware from Liberty's
1392
01:40:19,360 --> 01:40:21,960
or maybe even get
the fireplace tiled
1393
01:40:21,960 --> 01:40:25,800
with Doulton's finest ceramics,
that was the thing to do.
1394
01:40:25,800 --> 01:40:29,920
Neatby was head of architectural
tiles at Doulton's ceramics
1395
01:40:29,920 --> 01:40:34,320
when its Art Nouveau ranges
were selling like hotcakes.
1396
01:40:34,320 --> 01:40:38,600
Most of them have been torn down
from fireplaces and doorways now,
1397
01:40:38,600 --> 01:40:41,840
but this arcade
preserves some of that legacy.
1398
01:40:43,640 --> 01:40:46,320
Today, Art Nouveau remains
highly collectable
1399
01:40:46,320 --> 01:40:48,960
and can secure huge
prices at auction.
1400
01:40:50,640 --> 01:40:54,240
I've come to central London to visit
auctioneers Christie's
1401
01:40:54,240 --> 01:40:56,480
who are putting on a sale.
1402
01:40:56,480 --> 01:40:59,160
There are more fancy goods
in these parts
1403
01:40:59,160 --> 01:41:02,000
than you can shake
a silver-topped cane at.
1404
01:41:02,000 --> 01:41:05,720
Small wonder the antiques trade,
as practised around here,
1405
01:41:05,720 --> 01:41:10,240
is at its most luxuriant,
its most subtle, its most refined.
1406
01:41:10,240 --> 01:41:11,400
Hello, Colin.
1407
01:41:11,400 --> 01:41:12,840
Good afternoon, Mr Smith.
1408
01:41:14,080 --> 01:41:16,760
Here's a fine range of Knox pieces
1409
01:41:16,760 --> 01:41:19,640
with their Celtic Art Nouveau
swirls.
1410
01:41:23,080 --> 01:41:26,920
And glass by the great French
designer Emile Galle.
1411
01:41:31,440 --> 01:41:35,240
But the Art Nouveau story
also played out in Scotland.
1412
01:41:35,240 --> 01:41:39,400
Silver Apples of the Moon
by the Glasgow-based artist
1413
01:41:39,400 --> 01:41:43,560
Margaret MacDonald
was created around 1912.
1414
01:41:43,560 --> 01:41:49,240
It's a example of what's been called
"Scotto-continental" Art Nouveau.
1415
01:41:49,240 --> 01:41:51,160
Catchy.
1416
01:41:52,560 --> 01:41:55,600
It's a lot that I personally
am passionately in love with.
1417
01:41:55,600 --> 01:41:58,320
If I could take it home I would,
I absolutely love it.
1418
01:41:58,320 --> 01:42:03,440
What can you tell me about the
Art Nouveau quality of this work?
1419
01:42:03,440 --> 01:42:07,400
Very much,
we have a fascination with nature
1420
01:42:07,400 --> 01:42:10,800
and the human relationship
with nature.
1421
01:42:10,800 --> 01:42:16,880
The woman metamorphoses from a berry
to a trout, to a woman,
1422
01:42:16,880 --> 01:42:19,560
then dissipates into nature again.
1423
01:42:20,680 --> 01:42:27,240
Also, there's a deep underlying
mystery about the work.
1424
01:42:27,240 --> 01:42:31,480
But also we have this
sense of the bejewelled maiden,
1425
01:42:31,480 --> 01:42:35,920
but actually, very much, she's
the femme fatale at the same time,
1426
01:42:35,920 --> 01:42:40,680
which you can pick up
in the slightly spooky hands.
1427
01:42:40,680 --> 01:42:42,480
Very spooky actually.
1428
01:42:42,480 --> 01:42:46,520
They're very skeletal and elongated
1429
01:42:46,520 --> 01:42:50,520
and just the positioning of them
is quite... Quite haunting.
1430
01:42:50,520 --> 01:42:51,640
Yes.
1431
01:42:51,640 --> 01:42:57,120
And there's a good reason why this
lot is raising pulses at Christie's.
1432
01:42:57,120 --> 01:43:00,720
MacDonald's work is actually rather
rare and the last time a piece
1433
01:43:00,720 --> 01:43:04,160
of hers came to sale,
it changed auction history.
1434
01:43:05,240 --> 01:43:09,840
The White Rose and
the Red Rose was estimated
1435
01:43:09,840 --> 01:43:12,360
at between £200-300,000.
1436
01:43:12,360 --> 01:43:18,040
But actually on the day the bidding
war was fierce and very exciting.
1437
01:43:18,040 --> 01:43:22,480
The sale room held its breath
and The White Rose And The Red Rose
1438
01:43:22,480 --> 01:43:24,960
finally realised 1.7 million,
1439
01:43:24,960 --> 01:43:27,400
which was very, very exciting...
That's extraordinary!
1440
01:43:27,400 --> 01:43:28,600
..and a world record.
1441
01:43:31,880 --> 01:43:34,520
During her lifetime,
Margaret MacDonald
1442
01:43:34,520 --> 01:43:38,840
was derided in Britain far more
than she was appreciated.
1443
01:43:38,840 --> 01:43:42,840
She worked in the shadow of
her more famous husband,
1444
01:43:42,840 --> 01:43:47,040
the Art Nouveau architect and
designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
1445
01:43:48,320 --> 01:43:50,760
They met
when they were both studying
1446
01:43:50,760 --> 01:43:53,520
at the old Glasgow School of Art
in the 1890s.
1447
01:43:55,040 --> 01:43:58,440
Along with her sister, Frances,
and her husband, Herbert MacNair,
1448
01:43:58,440 --> 01:44:00,280
they were known as "The Four".
1449
01:44:02,480 --> 01:44:05,480
This is the Hunterian Art Gallery
in Glasgow -
1450
01:44:05,480 --> 01:44:09,080
during a period of
intense collaboration in the 1890s,
1451
01:44:09,080 --> 01:44:11,360
The Four designed these posters.
1452
01:44:13,280 --> 01:44:15,040
The long, stylised figures
1453
01:44:15,040 --> 01:44:18,320
were inspired by Aubrey Beardsley
illustrations,
1454
01:44:18,320 --> 01:44:20,640
which they'd seen
in The Studio Magazine.
1455
01:44:20,640 --> 01:44:23,080
But the press
went in with their hatchets,
1456
01:44:23,080 --> 01:44:28,120
dubbing their strange new style
"the Spook School", and it was
1457
01:44:28,120 --> 01:44:32,640
the two women, Margaret and Frances,
who got most of the stick.
1458
01:44:34,200 --> 01:44:36,840
One pundit even wrote
a witty verse about them.
1459
01:44:38,880 --> 01:44:43,600
"Would you witness a conception of
the woman "really" new
1460
01:44:43,600 --> 01:44:47,760
"without the least deception
from the artist's point of view.
1461
01:44:47,760 --> 01:44:52,400
"See the Art School exhibition
in the Rue de Sauchiehall,
1462
01:44:52,400 --> 01:44:57,040
"They don't charge you for admission
for they haven't got the gall."
1463
01:45:00,640 --> 01:45:04,640
Margaret and Frances struggled to
get work but Charles and Herbert
1464
01:45:04,640 --> 01:45:08,760
had day jobs with
a local firm of architects.
1465
01:45:11,000 --> 01:45:14,920
Charles started work on the design
that would immortalise him -
1466
01:45:14,920 --> 01:45:17,760
the Glasgow School of Art,
as we know it today.
1467
01:45:17,760 --> 01:45:20,160
Mackintosh's masterpiece,
1468
01:45:20,160 --> 01:45:24,320
and the pinnacle of what
we now know as the Glasgow Style.
1469
01:45:24,320 --> 01:45:28,520
Mackintosh, quite rightly,
takes the sole credit for
1470
01:45:28,520 --> 01:45:32,920
this astonishing building,
but the groundwork for the style had
1471
01:45:32,920 --> 01:45:35,560
been laid during his collaboration
with The Four.
1472
01:45:36,840 --> 01:45:40,040
Here are those long Japanese forms
again -
1473
01:45:40,040 --> 01:45:43,320
and Art Nouveau decorative
flourishes,
1474
01:45:43,320 --> 01:45:48,320
but Mackintosh elevates them to the
towering scale of a Scottish castle.
1475
01:45:52,680 --> 01:45:55,080
This is such a theatrical space,
1476
01:45:55,080 --> 01:45:58,160
with the gallery
and the lighting effects.
1477
01:45:58,160 --> 01:46:02,160
Rennie Mackintosh was
a real architectural impresario.
1478
01:46:02,160 --> 01:46:03,600
He cast such a shadow
1479
01:46:03,600 --> 01:46:06,840
it would be difficult for anyone
to emerge from it.
1480
01:46:08,120 --> 01:46:11,520
And Margaret never did
quite manage to.
1481
01:46:11,520 --> 01:46:13,480
After their marriage in 1900,
1482
01:46:13,480 --> 01:46:16,320
her collaboration with Charles
intensified.
1483
01:46:18,800 --> 01:46:21,760
They moved to a smart new town house
1484
01:46:21,760 --> 01:46:23,800
which they redesigned
in the Glasgow Style.
1485
01:46:25,160 --> 01:46:28,320
Today you can find it
at the Hunterian Art Gallery,
1486
01:46:28,320 --> 01:46:30,920
just as if the couple
had got up and left it
1487
01:46:30,920 --> 01:46:32,840
to go out
and buy some oatcakes.
1488
01:46:34,800 --> 01:46:37,080
Now, remember the art school,
and look at this...
1489
01:46:42,160 --> 01:46:44,240
Walking through this intimate space
1490
01:46:44,240 --> 01:46:46,560
I feel like Goldilocks
when the three bears were out.
1491
01:46:48,640 --> 01:46:52,560
I keep expecting the Mackintoshes
to come back with their groceries.
1492
01:46:54,200 --> 01:46:57,600
The couple created this
as a home in 1906,
1493
01:46:57,600 --> 01:46:59,880
but also as a showcase
for their style.
1494
01:47:01,280 --> 01:47:04,840
Here's that long Japonesque shape
again in the chairs
1495
01:47:04,840 --> 01:47:07,600
and the writing desk, but now
there's a new motif -
1496
01:47:07,600 --> 01:47:10,120
the Celtic rose that's become
1497
01:47:10,120 --> 01:47:14,400
an emblem of the Glasgow Style
and of the city itself.
1498
01:47:18,960 --> 01:47:23,480
It's tremendously pristine,
isn't it? And calm and minimalist
1499
01:47:23,480 --> 01:47:27,120
and rather soothing,
as if perhaps a fresh drift of snow
1500
01:47:27,120 --> 01:47:29,440
was banked up
against the windows.
1501
01:47:29,440 --> 01:47:30,960
But this was Glasgow,
1502
01:47:30,960 --> 01:47:34,280
one of the great industrial centres
of the world.
1503
01:47:34,280 --> 01:47:39,160
Within earshot, factory hooters were
going off, steam locomotives
1504
01:47:39,160 --> 01:47:43,480
hammering to and fro, and on
the Clyde, the noise of the rivets
1505
01:47:43,480 --> 01:47:45,960
being punched into the steel hulls
1506
01:47:45,960 --> 01:47:48,680
of the ships
that dominated the world.
1507
01:47:48,680 --> 01:47:52,240
But you'd never guess
any of that was going on
1508
01:47:52,240 --> 01:47:55,520
from the sanatorium hush
of this space.
1509
01:47:55,520 --> 01:48:00,360
For them, it was a refuge,
a spotless, germ-free environment
1510
01:48:00,360 --> 01:48:04,160
in which they could be together and
celebrate their love
1511
01:48:04,160 --> 01:48:07,160
and, as lovers have done through
all eternity,
1512
01:48:07,160 --> 01:48:09,160
shut out the rest of the world,
1513
01:48:09,160 --> 01:48:11,160
almost hermetically in this case.
1514
01:48:14,000 --> 01:48:16,640
Margaret worked in metals
and fabrics
1515
01:48:16,640 --> 01:48:18,800
but I've come to talk to
Pamela Robertson,
1516
01:48:18,800 --> 01:48:22,320
curator of the gallery,
about the panel above the fireplace.
1517
01:48:23,520 --> 01:48:25,160
Isn't this the panel
1518
01:48:25,160 --> 01:48:29,000
that went for nearly
two million quid not so long ago?
1519
01:48:29,000 --> 01:48:30,880
Well, actually it's not.
1520
01:48:30,880 --> 01:48:33,040
It's not? Oh.
It looks very like it,
1521
01:48:33,040 --> 01:48:37,880
but the one that was at auction is
a duplicate version of this one.
1522
01:48:37,880 --> 01:48:43,480
This one came to the university
through Margaret MacDonald's family.
1523
01:48:43,480 --> 01:48:44,920
And then the other version,
1524
01:48:44,920 --> 01:48:48,440
which was owned by a great Viennese
collector, Fritz Waerndorfer,
1525
01:48:48,440 --> 01:48:52,680
and went through his family
and then out into the open market,
1526
01:48:52,680 --> 01:48:55,720
and that was sold at auction
for that world record price.
1527
01:48:55,720 --> 01:48:57,480
What about this panel?
1528
01:48:57,480 --> 01:49:01,200
I mean, first of all is this how
Margaret intended us to see it?
1529
01:49:01,200 --> 01:49:03,320
Largely, yes.
1530
01:49:03,320 --> 01:49:06,080
I mean it's astonishing, given that
it's made of gesso,
1531
01:49:06,080 --> 01:49:08,240
a sort of plaster-based medium
and is very fragile,
1532
01:49:08,240 --> 01:49:11,240
that we see it pretty much intact.
1533
01:49:11,240 --> 01:49:15,440
'During her lifetime, Mary's
innovative decorative panels
1534
01:49:15,440 --> 01:49:18,320
'made a huge impact on
continental Art Nouveau.'
1535
01:49:20,600 --> 01:49:24,520
The May Queen, exhibited in Vienna
in 1900, impressed
1536
01:49:24,520 --> 01:49:28,960
the golden boy of Viennese Art
Nouveau, Gustav Klimt himself.
1537
01:49:30,400 --> 01:49:33,120
He struck up a friendship with
the Mackintoshes,
1538
01:49:33,120 --> 01:49:35,040
and particularly with Margaret.
1539
01:49:36,680 --> 01:49:39,320
And the unlettered eye might say
this reminds me
1540
01:49:39,320 --> 01:49:43,160
a lot of Klimt, but actually
the artistic boot's on
1541
01:49:43,160 --> 01:49:45,840
the other foot there really,
isn't it?
1542
01:49:45,840 --> 01:49:47,960
I mean she influenced him,
is that right?
1543
01:49:47,960 --> 01:49:50,960
There was a bit of a dialogue
but I think you can certainly say
1544
01:49:50,960 --> 01:49:53,080
it started with her
and Mackintosh's work
1545
01:49:53,080 --> 01:49:56,800
when they both exhibited large-scale
decorative gesso friezes
1546
01:49:56,800 --> 01:50:00,080
in Vienna at the
Eighth Vienna Secession Exhibition.
1547
01:50:00,080 --> 01:50:05,280
And that notion of large friezes
facing each other across a room,
1548
01:50:05,280 --> 01:50:07,360
decorative, as this panel is,
1549
01:50:07,360 --> 01:50:10,120
certainly had a profound influence
on Klimt
1550
01:50:10,120 --> 01:50:12,200
and his later decorative work.
1551
01:50:14,280 --> 01:50:18,880
Two years after The May Queen,
Klimt created the Beethoven Frieze,
1552
01:50:18,880 --> 01:50:21,360
the first of his
own decorative panels.
1553
01:50:23,200 --> 01:50:25,280
Despite her connection to Klimt,
1554
01:50:25,280 --> 01:50:28,040
one of the giants of
20th century Art Nouveau,
1555
01:50:28,040 --> 01:50:32,280
Margaret MacDonald is
still not widely appreciated
1556
01:50:32,280 --> 01:50:36,920
in Britain outside the gilded world
of art galleries and auctions.
1557
01:50:36,920 --> 01:50:40,720
Speaking of which,
it's the day of the Christie's sale.
1558
01:50:42,080 --> 01:50:45,080
Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh,
Silver Apples Of The Moon.
1559
01:50:45,080 --> 01:50:49,000
I point out that this is on vellum,
and not paper.
1560
01:50:49,000 --> 01:50:53,960
Lot 68 will open at £30,000...
1561
01:50:53,960 --> 01:50:56,080
The couple never received
1562
01:50:56,080 --> 01:50:59,560
the recognition in Glasgow that
they won on the continent.
1563
01:50:59,560 --> 01:51:05,880
Charles' last commission in
his home town was in 1906.
1564
01:51:05,880 --> 01:51:09,800
They moved to London in 1914
and then to France
1565
01:51:09,800 --> 01:51:12,200
but their fortunes never looked up.
1566
01:51:12,200 --> 01:51:14,960
Margaret didn't work after 1921
1567
01:51:14,960 --> 01:51:19,560
and when she died her entire estate
was worth only £88.
1568
01:51:19,560 --> 01:51:23,920
Any more? At 85, still with you.
1569
01:51:23,920 --> 01:51:25,360
90,000.
1570
01:51:25,360 --> 01:51:26,960
95,000.
1571
01:51:26,960 --> 01:51:30,600
And selling at £95,000.
1572
01:51:30,600 --> 01:51:34,480
No more? 95,000.
1573
01:51:34,480 --> 01:51:36,400
It's yours.
1574
01:51:36,400 --> 01:51:39,160
How times have changed.
1575
01:51:41,840 --> 01:51:47,680
After Margaret MacDonald's death
in 1933, it seemed like the last
1576
01:51:47,680 --> 01:51:50,560
of British Art Nouveau had gone
with her,
1577
01:51:50,560 --> 01:51:52,880
but our story doesn't end there.
1578
01:52:06,280 --> 01:52:12,080
It was 1966, Beatles,
Carnaby Street, Flower Power.
1579
01:52:12,080 --> 01:52:14,760
So who do you suppose
the V&A dedicated
1580
01:52:14,760 --> 01:52:17,000
a prestigious exhibition to?
1581
01:52:17,000 --> 01:52:20,800
None other than the pioneer of
Art Nouveau in this country,
1582
01:52:20,800 --> 01:52:22,760
Aubrey Beardsley himself.
1583
01:52:22,760 --> 01:52:27,880
That's right. He was reinstated as
an icon of trendy, happening London.
1584
01:52:30,960 --> 01:52:34,360
Victorian Britain associated
Beardsley's sensuous curves
1585
01:52:34,360 --> 01:52:39,000
with degeneracy, but in the sexually
liberated '60s, they chimed
1586
01:52:39,000 --> 01:52:43,240
with the swirling psychedelia
and with the hippie movement.
1587
01:52:45,400 --> 01:52:50,000
Gerald Scarfe, himself
a child of those days, is today
1588
01:52:50,000 --> 01:52:53,760
the celebrated political
caricaturist of The Sunday Times.
1589
01:52:53,760 --> 01:52:57,400
He acknowledges his own debt
to Beardsley,
1590
01:52:57,400 --> 01:52:59,560
the once defamed pioneer of
Art Nouveau.
1591
01:53:01,320 --> 01:53:04,480
This one I did for The Sunday Times
of Stalin here.
1592
01:53:04,480 --> 01:53:08,880
I picked up really on Beardsley's
ability to have these very,
1593
01:53:08,880 --> 01:53:14,920
very fine lines and these dramatic
blocks of colour which, you know,
1594
01:53:14,920 --> 01:53:16,600
picks that drawing up.
1595
01:53:16,600 --> 01:53:19,880
But this, I hope, does have
some sort of impact because he was
1596
01:53:19,880 --> 01:53:23,360
part of my consciousness at that
time and people compared me
1597
01:53:23,360 --> 01:53:27,840
to Beardsley, so I was extra
interested and wondered why.
1598
01:53:27,840 --> 01:53:31,960
So that whack of black
I sort of learned from him.
1599
01:53:31,960 --> 01:53:35,200
That was, you know,
a good way to do it.
1600
01:53:36,440 --> 01:53:40,520
'When Beardsley was
the talk of the town again in 1967,
1601
01:53:40,520 --> 01:53:43,600
'Scarfe was commissioned
by the New Statesman to create
1602
01:53:43,600 --> 01:53:48,680
'a caricature of the iconoclastic
illustrator, and this is where
1603
01:53:48,680 --> 01:53:53,280
'viewers of a sensitive disposition
should please avert their eyes.'
1604
01:53:53,280 --> 01:53:55,840
Well, I mean, in
true caricaturist style,
1605
01:53:55,840 --> 01:53:58,120
I have exaggerated everything.
1606
01:53:58,120 --> 01:54:01,800
I have exaggerated Beardsley's
exaggeration.
1607
01:54:01,800 --> 01:54:06,440
And I think, you know, that may have
to be censored for the BBC.
1608
01:54:07,520 --> 01:54:12,160
But, I am pretty certain that will
have to be, that bit there.
1609
01:54:16,880 --> 01:54:18,600
There we are, darling Aubrey.
1610
01:54:24,280 --> 01:54:27,040
When Scarfe was in
his Beardsley phase in the 1960s,
1611
01:54:27,040 --> 01:54:29,800
a wealthy and influential couple,
1612
01:54:29,800 --> 01:54:33,080
on the crest of this new wave
of Art Nouveau,
1613
01:54:33,080 --> 01:54:35,040
started a collection of their own.
1614
01:54:38,520 --> 01:54:40,160
At the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich,
1615
01:54:40,160 --> 01:54:41,840
the team is preparing to put it
on show.
1616
01:54:42,960 --> 01:54:45,640
It was collected by Sir Colin
Anderson and Lady Anderson
1617
01:54:45,640 --> 01:54:47,960
over a period of years,
starting in the '60s,
1618
01:54:47,960 --> 01:54:51,400
which classically is
when a lot of the contemporary,
1619
01:54:51,400 --> 01:54:54,760
the great Art Nouveau collections
started coming together.
1620
01:54:54,760 --> 01:54:56,960
There was a big revival then,
of interest?
1621
01:54:56,960 --> 01:55:00,480
Huge revival. I always think it's
based on the Beatles' lyrics.
1622
01:55:00,480 --> 01:55:03,480
A lot of the Beatles' album covers
used Art Nouveau.
1623
01:55:03,480 --> 01:55:05,520
It was big revival
alongside pop art.
1624
01:55:08,080 --> 01:55:10,400
And at the beginning
of the 21st century,
1625
01:55:10,400 --> 01:55:14,360
the significance of the style is
being reassessed again.
1626
01:55:19,200 --> 01:55:21,200
The main point, I think, in a way,
1627
01:55:21,200 --> 01:55:26,480
is to rescue Art Nouveau
from the 19th century and show it
1628
01:55:26,480 --> 01:55:31,640
as being the first modern style, the
first attempt self-consciously by
1629
01:55:31,640 --> 01:55:35,280
designers in England and in Europe
to make something modern -
1630
01:55:35,280 --> 01:55:38,280
the modern age really begins
with these designers
1631
01:55:38,280 --> 01:55:39,880
and what they were up to.
1632
01:55:45,320 --> 01:55:47,360
It's hard to exaggerate now
1633
01:55:47,360 --> 01:55:51,440
just how bold and ambitious
Art Nouveau was in its heyday
1634
01:55:51,440 --> 01:55:54,000
just over a century ago,
1635
01:55:54,000 --> 01:55:57,480
when a more insular society was
wary of anything
1636
01:55:57,480 --> 01:56:00,000
too cosmopolitan, too foreign.
1637
01:56:02,520 --> 01:56:05,880
Art Nouveau was the first
truly international style,
1638
01:56:05,880 --> 01:56:09,040
bridging the old century
and the new.
1639
01:56:09,040 --> 01:56:13,360
These days, we understand that for
a design movement to be successful
1640
01:56:13,360 --> 01:56:17,280
it has to be global,
it has to be international,
1641
01:56:17,280 --> 01:56:23,040
and we recognise that "foreign" and
"new" aren't dirty words.
1642
01:56:28,880 --> 01:56:30,880
Next time,
1643
01:56:30,880 --> 01:56:35,520
I'm in Vienna, where Gustav Klimt
and a gang of rebellious artists
1644
01:56:35,520 --> 01:56:39,200
won their artistic freedom
and transformed the city in
1645
01:56:39,200 --> 01:56:43,040
an art revolution that was sealed
with a kiss.
1646
01:57:21,000 --> 01:57:24,720
As the 19th century drew to a close,
1647
01:57:24,720 --> 01:57:26,600
a radical new style
swept across Europe.
1648
01:57:30,000 --> 01:57:33,600
Victorian rectitude
was washed away
1649
01:57:33,600 --> 01:57:38,600
as bohemian artists unleashed a wave
of curling, sexual, sensuous art.
1650
01:57:39,600 --> 01:57:44,120
Smog-filled cities were splashed
with colour and vitality
1651
01:57:44,120 --> 01:57:47,760
as idealistic architects put nature
at the heart of the metropolis.
1652
01:57:49,500 --> 01:57:51,520
And nymph-like women
were adored, adorned
1653
01:57:51,520 --> 01:57:55,000
and finally allowed
to let their hair down.
1654
01:57:55,000 --> 01:57:59,160
This revolutionary new style
was called Art Nouveau.
1655
01:57:59,160 --> 01:58:03,280
It blossomed when ideas met artists,
1656
01:58:03,280 --> 01:58:07,240
in Paris, London,
Brussels and Glasgow.
1657
01:58:07,240 --> 01:58:09,960
But it was the idealistic artists
of Vienna
1658
01:58:09,960 --> 01:58:12,480
who had the most intense
and passionate affair
1659
01:58:12,480 --> 01:58:14,640
with the new style.
1660
01:58:14,640 --> 01:58:18,560
This city was home
to an amazing combination of art,
1661
01:58:18,560 --> 01:58:21,280
ambition and intellectualism.
1662
01:58:21,280 --> 01:58:25,640
Its cafes and salons were a ferment
of radical politics,
1663
01:58:25,640 --> 01:58:29,200
sexual deviancy
and blasphemous ideas,
1664
01:58:29,200 --> 01:58:32,920
and in this hothouse bloomed
some of the most beautiful works
1665
01:58:32,920 --> 01:58:35,280
of Art Nouveau
the world has ever seen.
1666
01:58:50,120 --> 01:58:53,560
This story of Viennese Art Nouveau
1667
01:58:53,560 --> 01:58:56,760
is a story of beauty
in an ugly time.
1668
01:58:59,880 --> 01:59:02,240
A city that discovered psychology
1669
01:59:02,240 --> 01:59:05,240
just as it was having
a nervous breakdown.
1670
01:59:08,280 --> 01:59:09,960
An artistic rise and fall.
1671
01:59:12,320 --> 01:59:17,200
And what was meant to be a prelude
turned out to be a finale.
1672
01:59:27,960 --> 01:59:30,400
MUSIC: "Waltz No 2"
by Dmitri Shostakovich
1673
02:00:05,280 --> 02:00:07,960
You know, every year millions of us
come here to Vienna
1674
02:00:07,960 --> 02:00:11,720
to look at Klimt's The Kiss.
It's an absolute tourist must.
1675
02:00:13,760 --> 02:00:16,120
Do you like that? Yes.
Yeah, it's good.
1676
02:00:19,960 --> 02:00:22,880
For most
on the Viennese tourist trail,
1677
02:00:22,880 --> 02:00:24,920
it's all kiss and no tell.
1678
02:00:24,920 --> 02:00:27,040
But there's so much more than Klimt.
1679
02:00:29,280 --> 02:00:31,560
There was the architect,
Otto Wagner,
1680
02:00:31,560 --> 02:00:35,000
whose decorative buildings
transformed the city.
1681
02:00:35,000 --> 02:00:38,480
There was the designer,
Josef Hoffmann,
1682
02:00:38,480 --> 02:00:42,640
whose exquisite geometric patterns
redefined Art Nouveau.
1683
02:00:42,640 --> 02:00:47,400
And there was an eccentric
supporting cast of renegade artists.
1684
02:00:47,400 --> 02:00:50,680
Together, they dared
to take on the establishment
1685
02:00:50,680 --> 02:00:53,440
and won their creative freedom.
1686
02:00:57,120 --> 02:01:00,760
The whole world flocks to Vienna
to see the fabulous Art Nouveau,
1687
02:01:00,760 --> 02:01:03,920
and what's more, everybody gets
to take a little bit home
1688
02:01:03,920 --> 02:01:07,560
with them too, in the shape of
a fridge magnet, a dish towel
1689
02:01:07,560 --> 02:01:09,360
or some souvenir like that.
1690
02:01:10,720 --> 02:01:12,880
Klimt Barbie, anyone?
1691
02:01:12,880 --> 02:01:14,640
No?
1692
02:01:16,200 --> 02:01:18,920
But to go home with a deeper
understanding of the art
1693
02:01:18,920 --> 02:01:22,120
and the city, we have to leave
the gift shop behind,
1694
02:01:22,120 --> 02:01:26,120
and ask ourselves,
"Who were these eclectic artists?
1695
02:01:26,120 --> 02:01:31,320
"What caused an old European city
to embrace a radical new style?"
1696
02:01:31,320 --> 02:01:35,280
Well, the story begins with
a bizarre catalyst in the 1880s
1697
02:01:35,280 --> 02:01:37,120
When a terrible tragedy,
1698
02:01:37,120 --> 02:01:39,080
a right royal scandal,
1699
02:01:39,080 --> 02:01:42,280
forced the city to re-examine
its precious Viennese values.
1700
02:01:43,560 --> 02:01:46,480
Let me take you back to
the days of Old Vienna.
1701
02:01:57,680 --> 02:02:00,280
Once upon a time...
1702
02:02:00,280 --> 02:02:03,760
January 1899, to be precise...
1703
02:02:03,760 --> 02:02:09,040
Crown Prince Rudolf, heir to
the mighty Austro-Hungarian Empire,
1704
02:02:09,040 --> 02:02:13,040
went for a walk in these woods
with his lover.
1705
02:02:13,040 --> 02:02:14,640
They never came back.
1706
02:02:23,120 --> 02:02:26,080
It was complicated.
His lover wasn't his wife.
1707
02:02:26,080 --> 02:02:31,520
Rudolf was in an arranged
aristocratic marriage but unhappy.
1708
02:02:31,520 --> 02:02:35,440
No, she was the teenage Baroness,
Marie Vetsera,
1709
02:02:35,440 --> 02:02:37,360
who adored her Prince.
1710
02:02:37,360 --> 02:02:39,720
But their affair ended in horror.
1711
02:02:39,720 --> 02:02:42,760
He took out a gun
and murdered his mistress
1712
02:02:42,760 --> 02:02:45,200
before turning the weapon
on himself.
1713
02:02:45,200 --> 02:02:46,960
GUNSHOT
1714
02:02:49,000 --> 02:02:52,680
The death of the Crown Prince
triggered a cultural crisis.
1715
02:02:52,680 --> 02:02:55,960
Vienna was shocked to its very core.
1716
02:02:55,960 --> 02:02:59,720
Thinkers and artists,
like the designer Josef Hoffmann,
1717
02:02:59,720 --> 02:03:04,680
architect Otto Wagner and painter
Koloman Moser, met in the cafes
1718
02:03:04,680 --> 02:03:06,880
and bars and wondered
what had happened
1719
02:03:06,880 --> 02:03:09,320
to the city's moral compass.
1720
02:03:09,320 --> 02:03:13,080
It was a seismic scandal
in a turbulent time.
1721
02:03:13,080 --> 02:03:16,240
And the shockwaves made
the traditional Viennese values
1722
02:03:16,240 --> 02:03:19,320
look increasingly fragile
and old-fashioned.
1723
02:03:20,600 --> 02:03:23,080
There was a very stifling
conventionality,
1724
02:03:23,080 --> 02:03:27,880
a very, very stifling official
culture, this imperial rigidity.
1725
02:03:27,880 --> 02:03:32,240
The picture of the Emperor
everywhere, overlooking every room.
1726
02:03:32,240 --> 02:03:34,760
But at the same time, you know,
there were...
1727
02:03:34,760 --> 02:03:37,760
People simply exercised
their life choices,
1728
02:03:37,760 --> 02:03:41,200
but that had to be away
from what is admitted publicly.
1729
02:03:41,200 --> 02:03:43,920
You were not supposed to
touch your wife in public,
1730
02:03:43,920 --> 02:03:46,840
but you could
have a lover somewhere
1731
02:03:46,840 --> 02:03:50,680
installed in a little apartment,
as long as it didn't become public.
1732
02:03:52,120 --> 02:03:54,680
So there was a sort of
institutionalised hypocrisy.
1733
02:03:54,680 --> 02:03:57,920
The imperial identity
was very important,
1734
02:03:57,920 --> 02:04:02,160
but it was really a paste-on,
it was a facade, if you want.
1735
02:04:02,160 --> 02:04:04,800
You had to have the official facade
that was not questioned,
1736
02:04:04,800 --> 02:04:07,920
and what you did behind it was your
own business. It was up to you.
1737
02:04:10,720 --> 02:04:13,280
Behind the facades,
the city was daring
1738
02:04:13,280 --> 02:04:15,400
to question
its long-held assumptions.
1739
02:04:17,600 --> 02:04:20,280
Shouldn't Viennese art
be celebrating sensuality,
1740
02:04:20,280 --> 02:04:22,600
rather than denying it?
1741
02:04:22,600 --> 02:04:25,840
Should its artists not be
more honest about psychology,
1742
02:04:25,840 --> 02:04:27,360
sex and death?
1743
02:04:27,360 --> 02:04:29,800
After all,
in other European capitals,
1744
02:04:29,800 --> 02:04:32,800
artists were daring
to try something new.
1745
02:04:34,520 --> 02:04:36,960
La Belle Epoque-era Paris
1746
02:04:36,960 --> 02:04:39,840
was in the thrall of what
they called l'Art Nouveau.
1747
02:04:39,840 --> 02:04:42,840
In Glasgow,
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
1748
02:04:42,840 --> 02:04:45,360
was designing his inspirational
School Of Art.
1749
02:04:45,360 --> 02:04:47,680
And with new printing presses
rolling,
1750
02:04:47,680 --> 02:04:50,320
influential art journals
from across the continent
1751
02:04:50,320 --> 02:04:54,240
made their way back to the banks
of the Blue Danube.
1752
02:04:54,240 --> 02:04:58,880
Viennese artists were desperate
to waltz to a new beat.
1753
02:05:02,080 --> 02:05:06,480
C'mon people, get with
the programme. It's the 1890s.
1754
02:05:06,480 --> 02:05:10,280
The age of mass rail travel,
1755
02:05:10,280 --> 02:05:14,600
popular printing presses
and international exhibitions.
1756
02:05:14,600 --> 02:05:18,080
Do you come here often?
You're a lovely mover.
1757
02:05:18,080 --> 02:05:20,560
An idea could take off in Europe
1758
02:05:20,560 --> 02:05:24,240
and sweep through the continent
in literally months.
1759
02:05:32,880 --> 02:05:36,600
In many ways, Vienna's artists
were the last to arrive
1760
02:05:36,600 --> 02:05:38,400
at the Art Nouveau Ball.
1761
02:05:38,400 --> 02:05:42,600
Because there was one seemingly
insurmountable hurdle...
1762
02:05:42,600 --> 02:05:46,920
The all-powerful committee of the
Association of Austrian Artists.
1763
02:05:46,920 --> 02:05:51,480
Or as it was known locally,
Das Kunstlerhaus.
1764
02:05:51,480 --> 02:05:55,080
Such was the stranglehold
of the Kunstlerhaus over Vienna
1765
02:05:55,080 --> 02:05:57,280
in those days, that if you were
an artist,
1766
02:05:57,280 --> 02:06:00,280
you couldn't get your stuff
into an official exhibition
1767
02:06:00,280 --> 02:06:02,400
without their explicit say-so.
1768
02:06:05,320 --> 02:06:09,360
The Kunstlerhaus curated all
the major art shows in the city,
1769
02:06:09,360 --> 02:06:13,000
and always chose ceiling-to-floor
classic historic art
1770
02:06:13,000 --> 02:06:14,800
by Austrian artists.
1771
02:06:14,800 --> 02:06:16,920
Safe. Traditional.
1772
02:06:16,920 --> 02:06:18,200
Boring!
1773
02:06:18,200 --> 02:06:22,520
There was no room for experiments
and new styles were rejected.
1774
02:06:22,520 --> 02:06:25,880
In the coffee houses,
revolting young artists fumed
1775
02:06:25,880 --> 02:06:30,040
at the lack of freedom, and vowed to
storm the Conservative Kunstlerhaus.
1776
02:06:31,320 --> 02:06:36,240
This is where Art Nouveau was born
in Vienna, in April, 1897.
1777
02:06:36,240 --> 02:06:40,920
A group of harrumphing young artists
turned up here at the Kunstlerhaus.
1778
02:06:40,920 --> 02:06:43,880
And they said,
"We've had enough of your boring,
1779
02:06:43,880 --> 02:06:47,240
"stultifying establishment.
We're seceding from it."
1780
02:06:47,240 --> 02:06:49,720
And so begat the Secession.
1781
02:06:53,840 --> 02:06:56,920
It was a pivotal moment
for Viennese art.
1782
02:06:56,920 --> 02:07:00,160
The Secession would
change everything.
1783
02:07:00,160 --> 02:07:04,600
This famous photo shows
some of the original Secessionists.
1784
02:07:04,600 --> 02:07:06,760
They include Emil Orlik,
1785
02:07:06,760 --> 02:07:10,840
a graphic illustrator who'd worked
for the prestigious Pan magazine.
1786
02:07:10,840 --> 02:07:14,920
Carl Moll, who at this point
was an idealistic painter,
1787
02:07:14,920 --> 02:07:17,360
but would end up a fervent Nazi,
1788
02:07:17,360 --> 02:07:19,400
and Maximilian Kurzweil,
1789
02:07:19,400 --> 02:07:23,480
a painter who would later succumb to
the same fate as the Crown Prince,
1790
02:07:23,480 --> 02:07:25,880
when he shot his lover
and then himself.
1791
02:07:25,880 --> 02:07:27,920
They may have looked confident.
1792
02:07:27,920 --> 02:07:31,920
The picture makes them look like
some obscure, cool indie band.
1793
02:07:31,920 --> 02:07:34,960
But the Secession was a huge risk.
1794
02:07:34,960 --> 02:07:38,120
Without the Kunstlerhaus,
the Secessionists had nowhere
1795
02:07:38,120 --> 02:07:40,120
to exhibit, no commissions,
1796
02:07:40,120 --> 02:07:42,600
and risked artistic ridicule.
1797
02:07:42,600 --> 02:07:45,360
They desperately needed
a credible figurehead,
1798
02:07:45,360 --> 02:07:48,400
so they approached the rising star
of Viennese art
1799
02:07:48,400 --> 02:07:50,760
and asked him to act
as their president.
1800
02:07:54,440 --> 02:07:56,400
Gustav Klimt became the best known,
1801
02:07:56,400 --> 02:07:59,240
the most celebrated
painter in Art Nouveau,
1802
02:07:59,240 --> 02:08:04,160
but he began life as just another
late classic historical artist.
1803
02:08:04,160 --> 02:08:07,880
The young Klimt began painting
in the 1880s,
1804
02:08:07,880 --> 02:08:10,600
initially churning out
the sort of establishment art
1805
02:08:10,600 --> 02:08:12,720
cherished by the great and the good.
1806
02:08:12,720 --> 02:08:15,640
Like this ceiling panel
in the Burgtheater.
1807
02:08:15,640 --> 02:08:18,640
And by the way, check out the figure
towards the back,
1808
02:08:18,640 --> 02:08:20,160
in the beard and the ruff,
1809
02:08:20,160 --> 02:08:21,800
looking slightly off.
1810
02:08:21,800 --> 02:08:26,080
That's a rare self-portrait
of the young Gustav Klimt.
1811
02:08:26,080 --> 02:08:29,240
But in 1892, Klimt was traumatised
1812
02:08:29,240 --> 02:08:32,560
by the death of his beloved
brother and of his father.
1813
02:08:32,560 --> 02:08:37,920
He rejected conservative ideas
and began to explore a new style.
1814
02:08:37,920 --> 02:08:41,280
A couple of years later, he was
commissioned by Vienna University
1815
02:08:41,280 --> 02:08:44,760
to paint four inspiring
ceiling panels.
1816
02:08:44,760 --> 02:08:48,120
Sadly the original paintings
were destroyed by the Nazis,
1817
02:08:48,120 --> 02:08:51,800
and we're left with these
black and white copies.
1818
02:08:51,800 --> 02:08:56,320
But you can still see how radically
Klimt's style was changing,
1819
02:08:56,320 --> 02:09:00,560
infused with sex, death and
the European spirit of Art Nouveau.
1820
02:09:00,560 --> 02:09:03,560
The University hated them,
but Klimt didn't care.
1821
02:09:03,560 --> 02:09:05,040
He was up for the fight,
1822
02:09:05,040 --> 02:09:08,560
and agreed to become
president of the Secessionists.
1823
02:09:12,760 --> 02:09:14,960
In many ways,
Klimt was an odd choice.
1824
02:09:14,960 --> 02:09:17,000
He was notoriously taciturn,
1825
02:09:17,000 --> 02:09:20,520
not a man you'd turn to
to voice an opinion in public.
1826
02:09:20,520 --> 02:09:23,520
And he was making
a very comfortable living
1827
02:09:23,520 --> 02:09:27,280
with commissions from the Viennese
establishment and the state.
1828
02:09:27,280 --> 02:09:31,440
But this was different. This was
about art. It was about freedom.
1829
02:09:31,440 --> 02:09:35,640
And so taking a huge
professional and personal gamble,
1830
02:09:35,640 --> 02:09:37,960
he simply turned his back
on the establishment
1831
02:09:37,960 --> 02:09:40,400
and became
president of the Secessionists.
1832
02:09:52,960 --> 02:09:56,240
One of the first things
Klimt and the gang did
1833
02:09:56,240 --> 02:09:59,040
was to publish
their very own art journal.
1834
02:09:59,040 --> 02:10:03,480
It gave them a platform to air
their Secessionist principles,
1835
02:10:03,480 --> 02:10:05,800
their liberal views
1836
02:10:05,800 --> 02:10:09,200
and their breathtaking graphic work.
1837
02:10:09,200 --> 02:10:11,440
They called it Ver Sacrum.
1838
02:10:12,880 --> 02:10:18,080
Ver Sacrum - sacred spring.
It really means fountain of youth,
1839
02:10:18,080 --> 02:10:23,440
with all the connotations
of energy, youth,
1840
02:10:23,440 --> 02:10:27,400
vitality and sexuality
that that expresses.
1841
02:10:27,400 --> 02:10:30,560
And there's something of that
in the cover plate.
1842
02:10:30,560 --> 02:10:34,080
And what we have here
is a young plant,
1843
02:10:34,080 --> 02:10:38,080
bursting out of the pot
it's kept in.
1844
02:10:38,080 --> 02:10:42,120
And it's a way of saying, I suppose
quite a polite way of saying,
1845
02:10:42,120 --> 02:10:45,200
"Sod you lot.
We're doing our own thing from now,
1846
02:10:45,200 --> 02:10:49,520
"we won't be confined by what's gone
before and by what you're used to."
1847
02:10:51,080 --> 02:10:53,640
This is the closest thing
that the Secession,
1848
02:10:53,640 --> 02:10:57,840
the Viennese Art Nouveau,
had to a manifesto.
1849
02:10:57,840 --> 02:11:02,480
And the fact that the artists
and writers were donating their work
1850
02:11:02,480 --> 02:11:06,440
for nothing is all part
of the spirit of Ver Sacrum.
1851
02:11:06,440 --> 02:11:10,360
Art is what counts,
not bourgeois values like money.
1852
02:11:10,360 --> 02:11:14,040
Not putting things in the bank,
but things for eternity,
1853
02:11:14,040 --> 02:11:16,600
things of ethereal spiritual value.
1854
02:11:19,120 --> 02:11:22,320
And basically they were attracting
contributions
1855
02:11:22,320 --> 02:11:25,600
from the outstanding artists
and writers of the time,
1856
02:11:25,600 --> 02:11:29,200
and of course from Klimt,
a mainstay of Ver Sacrum.
1857
02:11:32,960 --> 02:11:36,800
And in the first ever edition,
they declared...
1858
02:11:36,800 --> 02:11:39,040
"We want to bring art
from abroad to Vienna,
1859
02:11:39,040 --> 02:11:43,080
"not for the sake of artists,
intellectuals and collectors alone,
1860
02:11:43,080 --> 02:11:45,160
"but to educate the great mass
of the people
1861
02:11:45,160 --> 02:11:47,040
"who are receptive to art.
1862
02:11:47,040 --> 02:11:50,840
"And for this we turn to you without
distinction of status or wealth.
1863
02:11:50,840 --> 02:11:55,960
"We do not recognise any distinction
between higher art and low art,
1864
02:11:55,960 --> 02:11:59,040
"between art of the rich
and art for the poor.
1865
02:11:59,040 --> 02:12:00,960
"Art is the property of everyone."
1866
02:12:00,960 --> 02:12:03,080
Some of the people who contributed
1867
02:12:03,080 --> 02:12:06,400
were still recognisably
in the historical tradition,
1868
02:12:06,400 --> 02:12:10,160
but there's no doubt that they were
all moving towards the Art Nouveau,
1869
02:12:10,160 --> 02:12:11,400
as we now understand it.
1870
02:12:11,400 --> 02:12:13,560
Except they didn't call it that.
1871
02:12:13,560 --> 02:12:19,320
Instead they co-opted a German word,
Jugendstil, meaning "youth style".
1872
02:12:29,120 --> 02:12:31,680
Jugendstil was Vienna's
unique contribution
1873
02:12:31,680 --> 02:12:33,840
to European Art Nouveau.
1874
02:12:33,840 --> 02:12:37,520
There were influences from Japan,
from France,
1875
02:12:37,520 --> 02:12:39,800
disparate elements
built upon one another.
1876
02:12:41,000 --> 02:12:45,640
Like all European Art Nouveau,
Jugendstil was sexual.
1877
02:12:45,640 --> 02:12:48,560
Dare I say it, even a little bit
playful and camp.
1878
02:12:50,040 --> 02:12:51,720
There was no hierarchy.
1879
02:12:51,720 --> 02:12:54,160
Craft and graphic art
were as important
1880
02:12:54,160 --> 02:12:57,200
as the painters and sculptors.
1881
02:12:57,200 --> 02:12:58,840
And in Vienna,
1882
02:12:58,840 --> 02:13:02,720
the curves owed as much
to geometry as they did to botany.
1883
02:13:02,720 --> 02:13:05,160
But ultimately there were
no rules or diktats,
1884
02:13:05,160 --> 02:13:09,960
as the Secession was founded on
the principles of artistic freedom.
1885
02:13:09,960 --> 02:13:13,680
I wanted to show you this special
one painting by Wilhelm Bernatzik.
1886
02:13:13,680 --> 02:13:15,720
He's one of the founding members.
1887
02:13:15,720 --> 02:13:18,800
So whilst works by artists
like Wilhelm Bernatzik
1888
02:13:18,800 --> 02:13:21,400
might look quite traditional
to the modern eye,
1889
02:13:21,400 --> 02:13:23,200
the dissent is in the detail.
1890
02:13:24,320 --> 02:13:25,960
And this painting represents
1891
02:13:25,960 --> 02:13:29,360
one aspect which was very important
to the Secessionists.
1892
02:13:29,360 --> 02:13:31,960
It was a new beginning in art,
1893
02:13:31,960 --> 02:13:34,520
and what they wanted to express
is inner feelings
1894
02:13:34,520 --> 02:13:37,200
which have been suppressed
very much.
1895
02:13:37,200 --> 02:13:39,080
So it's not a naturalistic depiction
1896
02:13:39,080 --> 02:13:43,400
of things which we can find
in the landscape,
1897
02:13:43,400 --> 02:13:47,720
but it's about the inner feeling
which comes out
1898
02:13:47,720 --> 02:13:49,440
when you contemplate this scene.
1899
02:13:49,440 --> 02:13:53,520
What kind of things would you say
the Secessionists had in common?
1900
02:13:53,520 --> 02:13:59,200
What united all the Secessionists
was the wish to educate the public.
1901
02:13:59,200 --> 02:14:04,440
What they wanted is to elevate
taste, elegance, so to say,
1902
02:14:04,440 --> 02:14:06,480
so they wanted to bring
in international art.
1903
02:14:06,480 --> 02:14:11,160
They tried to confront Austrian art
with international art,
1904
02:14:11,160 --> 02:14:14,640
which up to that point
hadn't been seen very much.
1905
02:14:14,640 --> 02:14:17,800
As Art Nouveau arrived
from across the continent,
1906
02:14:17,800 --> 02:14:21,320
artists like Koloman Moser,
who'd spent years debating
1907
02:14:21,320 --> 02:14:24,600
the merits of the style
with his fellow cafe conspirators,
1908
02:14:24,600 --> 02:14:29,720
finally had the chance to create
a distinctive Viennese version.
1909
02:14:29,720 --> 02:14:32,800
This painting over here,
by Kolo Moser...
1910
02:14:32,800 --> 02:14:36,800
And he was the multi-talent
of the Secession.
1911
02:14:36,800 --> 02:14:39,200
As you know,
he was a designer of furniture.
1912
02:14:39,200 --> 02:14:44,880
He was one of the greatest
graphic designers of the time.
1913
02:14:44,880 --> 02:14:48,960
He was one of the major figures
of Ver Sacrum, of the magazine.
1914
02:14:48,960 --> 02:14:52,200
And he was a painter.
Many of his paintings
1915
02:14:52,200 --> 02:14:56,320
in profile or very frontal,
very simple.
1916
02:14:56,320 --> 02:15:02,520
And this reduction is quite
a typical aspect of the Secession.
1917
02:15:02,520 --> 02:15:05,560
Another one would be
the square format,
1918
02:15:05,560 --> 02:15:09,680
the thin-framed...
aspects of elegance
1919
02:15:09,680 --> 02:15:12,360
which were important
to the Secessionists.
1920
02:15:12,360 --> 02:15:13,840
What else shall we see?
1921
02:15:13,840 --> 02:15:16,560
Let's go over to there. Why not?
1922
02:15:16,560 --> 02:15:19,840
Freed from a strict diet
of Austrian historic painting,
1923
02:15:19,840 --> 02:15:23,520
the Secessionists eagerly embraced
Art Nouveau.
1924
02:15:23,520 --> 02:15:27,840
They experimented with styles,
surface and symbolism
1925
02:15:27,840 --> 02:15:32,600
and they explored sexuality,
mortality and human frailty.
1926
02:15:32,600 --> 02:15:36,160
Jugendstil was a new art
for a new era.
1927
02:15:36,160 --> 02:15:39,160
And when the Secessionists
founded their new movement,
1928
02:15:39,160 --> 02:15:40,680
it was so important to them
1929
02:15:40,680 --> 02:15:42,960
that they could speak
with different voices.
1930
02:15:42,960 --> 02:15:46,600
And that's why you really have
a variety of expressions
1931
02:15:46,600 --> 02:15:49,360
in the first years of the Secession.
1932
02:15:49,360 --> 02:15:52,320
So, in this regard,
it was really a break
1933
02:15:52,320 --> 02:15:55,640
with things that had gone on before.
1934
02:15:56,880 --> 02:16:00,520
In 1898, just a year after
they'd seceded,
1935
02:16:00,520 --> 02:16:04,320
the artistic rebels, with the help
of a few wealthy patrons,
1936
02:16:04,320 --> 02:16:07,040
built a home for the Secession.
1937
02:16:07,040 --> 02:16:09,520
And the building was as radical
1938
02:16:09,520 --> 02:16:12,120
as the art
it was created to contain.
1939
02:16:21,960 --> 02:16:25,640
Significantly, the Secession
building is away from
1940
02:16:25,640 --> 02:16:29,520
grandiose establishment buildings
on Vienna's main Ringstrasse.
1941
02:16:29,520 --> 02:16:31,840
On the roof, there's a dome
1942
02:16:31,840 --> 02:16:36,120
decorated with
3,000 gold-plated laurel leaves.
1943
02:16:36,120 --> 02:16:38,800
But there are no windows
looking onto the street.
1944
02:16:38,800 --> 02:16:42,240
It's as if the gallery
invites you to step inside.
1945
02:16:42,240 --> 02:16:45,800
To look deeper.
To be introspective.
1946
02:16:45,800 --> 02:16:49,200
And maybe that's no surprise,
because the architect Joseph Olbrich
1947
02:16:49,200 --> 02:16:53,120
said he wanted to
erect a temple of art,
1948
02:16:53,120 --> 02:16:56,160
which would offer the art lover
a quiet, elegant place of refuge.
1949
02:16:57,280 --> 02:17:00,760
Inside, there was another shock
for visitors.
1950
02:17:06,720 --> 02:17:11,560
The Secession was one of the first
white cube gallery spaces,
1951
02:17:11,560 --> 02:17:15,560
a sparse layout that in 1898
was a dazzlingly new
1952
02:17:15,560 --> 02:17:18,240
and daringly modern idea.
1953
02:17:18,240 --> 02:17:23,120
To this day, the gallery is still
devoted to contemporary art.
1954
02:17:23,120 --> 02:17:26,160
But you can get a flavour of the
original Secession in the basement,
1955
02:17:26,160 --> 02:17:29,000
where Klimt's 1902 masterpiece
1956
02:17:29,000 --> 02:17:32,840
the Beethoven Frieze
is on permanent display.
1957
02:17:34,480 --> 02:17:38,840
The magnificent Beethoven Frieze is
meant to be read from left to right.
1958
02:17:38,840 --> 02:17:42,840
So in the first panel,
these lovely, leggy, ethereal ladies
1959
02:17:42,840 --> 02:17:46,840
represent the longing
for true happiness.
1960
02:17:46,840 --> 02:17:50,600
And you can see how far
Klimt's come from historicism.
1961
02:17:50,600 --> 02:17:54,120
Look at how delicate and sensuous
these women are.
1962
02:17:54,120 --> 02:17:56,920
The mood changes
a little further along.
1963
02:17:56,920 --> 02:18:02,080
These unclothed figures are
the sufferings of weak humanity
1964
02:18:02,080 --> 02:18:06,560
and they're petitioning the knight
in his wonderful golden chain mail,
1965
02:18:06,560 --> 02:18:08,680
his armour,
to take on their struggle.
1966
02:18:08,680 --> 02:18:10,560
But that's bad news
for him, in a way,
1967
02:18:10,560 --> 02:18:13,440
because he has to have
a bout with Typhus,
1968
02:18:13,440 --> 02:18:16,160
that King Kong figure in the corner.
1969
02:18:16,160 --> 02:18:20,200
And his seconds, if you like,
over there are the three gorgons...
1970
02:18:20,200 --> 02:18:22,080
Sickness, Madness and Death.
1971
02:18:26,840 --> 02:18:29,200
Typhus is also attended
1972
02:18:29,200 --> 02:18:32,160
by Licentiousness, Wantonness,
Intemperance.
1973
02:18:32,160 --> 02:18:33,960
What hope is there for us mortals
1974
02:18:33,960 --> 02:18:37,760
in this wretched, lousy world
Klimt is suggesting?
1975
02:18:37,760 --> 02:18:40,560
Well, here's a clue.
This beautiful woman in gold,
1976
02:18:40,560 --> 02:18:44,720
plucking at her lyre,
represents happiness through poetry.
1977
02:18:44,720 --> 02:18:48,960
And this is what he's building up to
with his closing finale here.
1978
02:18:48,960 --> 02:18:52,880
Our best hope of comfort
and fulfilment on this mortal coil
1979
02:18:52,880 --> 02:18:54,840
is in the arts.
1980
02:18:54,840 --> 02:18:59,360
Look at these beautiful women.
The gold, the chorus of angels.
1981
02:18:59,360 --> 02:19:02,800
And the finest fulfilment
of the arts yet known,
1982
02:19:02,800 --> 02:19:04,960
he's almost suggesting,
1983
02:19:04,960 --> 02:19:08,520
is the work of Beethoven
and the celestial Ode To Joy.
1984
02:19:12,040 --> 02:19:13,480
On the opening night,
1985
02:19:13,480 --> 02:19:16,800
Mahler put on a special rendition
of Ode To Joy,
1986
02:19:16,800 --> 02:19:20,920
and I can thoroughly recommend
a blast of the old LVB
1987
02:19:20,920 --> 02:19:23,600
as you're taking in the frieze.
1988
02:19:23,600 --> 02:19:26,800
It really starts to make sense.
Trust me.
1989
02:19:26,800 --> 02:19:29,280
MUSIC: "Ode To Joy" by Beethoven
1990
02:19:55,720 --> 02:19:57,520
Perhaps most tellingly,
1991
02:19:57,520 --> 02:20:00,400
the iconic building was emblazoned
with the most cherished belief
1992
02:20:00,400 --> 02:20:03,320
of the whole Secessionist project.
1993
02:20:03,320 --> 02:20:05,320
Above the door, in big gold letters,
1994
02:20:05,320 --> 02:20:11,160
it reads, "Der Zeit ihre Kunst.
Der Kunst ihre Freiheit,"
1995
02:20:11,160 --> 02:20:12,880
which of course translates as...
1996
02:20:12,880 --> 02:20:16,200
"To the age, its art.
To the art, its freedom."
1997
02:20:17,600 --> 02:20:19,400
So what's that all about, then?
1998
02:20:19,400 --> 02:20:21,520
Is it just a load of old guff?
1999
02:20:21,520 --> 02:20:23,320
"To the age, its art."
2000
02:20:23,320 --> 02:20:26,160
Well, here the young ones,
the Jugendstil, are saying,
2001
02:20:26,160 --> 02:20:28,560
"Move over, Daddio.
You've had your time.
2002
02:20:28,560 --> 02:20:32,280
"We refuse to be hidebound
by what's gone before."
2003
02:20:32,280 --> 02:20:35,480
"To the art, its freedom,"
develops that thought.
2004
02:20:35,480 --> 02:20:38,400
It says, "We reserve the right
to pick and choose
2005
02:20:38,400 --> 02:20:42,200
"from a smorgasbord of ideas,
new and old.
2006
02:20:42,200 --> 02:20:45,280
"This is a new art
for a new century."
2007
02:20:49,800 --> 02:20:52,120
Through the pages of Ver Sacrum
2008
02:20:52,120 --> 02:20:55,600
and the frequent
Secessionist exhibitions,
2009
02:20:55,600 --> 02:20:58,440
Viennese Jugendstil
grew in confidence.
2010
02:20:58,440 --> 02:21:01,760
Works by Klimt, Koloman Moser
and Carl Moll
2011
02:21:01,760 --> 02:21:04,880
were widely admired and celebrated.
2012
02:21:04,880 --> 02:21:06,560
But not everyone was delighted.
2013
02:21:06,560 --> 02:21:11,040
When Archduke Franz Ferdinand
visited the Secession exhibition,
2014
02:21:11,040 --> 02:21:15,440
he said, "Those rascals should have
every bone in their body broken."
2015
02:21:17,800 --> 02:21:21,200
But the Jugendstil kids
couldn't care less.
2016
02:21:21,200 --> 02:21:24,240
They were brash, confident
young Viennese artists,
2017
02:21:24,240 --> 02:21:27,080
and if the establishment
hated the YVAs,
2018
02:21:27,080 --> 02:21:29,280
that only proved
they were onto something.
2019
02:21:29,280 --> 02:21:33,560
Their first show pulled in
getting on for 60,000 people.
2020
02:21:33,560 --> 02:21:35,200
No wonder they were so bold.
2021
02:21:41,000 --> 02:21:43,080
The Viennese art revolution
coincided with
2022
02:21:43,080 --> 02:21:45,520
a social revolution in the city.
2023
02:21:48,120 --> 02:21:52,400
The population of Vienna
doubled between 1870 and 1900
2024
02:21:52,400 --> 02:21:53,840
and as the city expanded,
2025
02:21:53,840 --> 02:21:59,280
it gave the architects a chance
to get in on the Jugendstil action.
2026
02:21:59,280 --> 02:22:03,000
The most celebrated of them
in the city was Otto Wagner.
2027
02:22:04,240 --> 02:22:08,680
With years of experience, ol' Otto
was trusted by the authorities.
2028
02:22:08,680 --> 02:22:12,720
But he was also a teacher,
with a radical side to him.
2029
02:22:14,520 --> 02:22:17,160
His students included architects
like Josef Hoffmann,
2030
02:22:17,160 --> 02:22:20,120
and the man who designed
the Secessionist building,
2031
02:22:20,120 --> 02:22:21,880
Joseph Olbrich.
2032
02:22:21,880 --> 02:22:25,680
And they seemed to inspire him
as much as he inspired them.
2033
02:22:29,000 --> 02:22:33,080
Otto Wagner was known as
the Secessionists' Secessionist,
2034
02:22:33,080 --> 02:22:36,120
and when you look at his buildings,
you can see why.
2035
02:22:36,120 --> 02:22:40,080
Look at the design, that floral
motif, the ornament of it.
2036
02:22:40,080 --> 02:22:43,680
It could almost be a painting
by Klimt of a woman's dress.
2037
02:22:57,680 --> 02:23:00,920
The new art and new city
came together
2038
02:23:00,920 --> 02:23:03,520
when Otto Wagner designed
the spectacular stations
2039
02:23:03,520 --> 02:23:05,680
of the Viennese underground,
2040
02:23:05,680 --> 02:23:09,240
including a stop
built for the Emperor himself.
2041
02:23:12,720 --> 02:23:16,520
One admirer at the time
said Wagner's stations
2042
02:23:16,520 --> 02:23:18,880
were the highpoint of
"function and poetry,
2043
02:23:18,880 --> 02:23:22,320
"constructions and decoration."
2044
02:23:22,320 --> 02:23:24,680
Secessionist architecture,
2045
02:23:24,680 --> 02:23:29,120
with its modern geometric patterns,
was changing the face of Vienna.
2046
02:23:29,120 --> 02:23:31,200
But the artists and architects
2047
02:23:31,200 --> 02:23:33,880
weren't content
with superficial differences.
2048
02:23:33,880 --> 02:23:36,600
After all, they didn't want to
just replace the old facade
2049
02:23:36,600 --> 02:23:40,280
with a shiny new facade.
2050
02:23:40,280 --> 02:23:42,800
They wanted deeper change.
2051
02:23:42,800 --> 02:23:45,880
One word, and it's very good word,
you're going to love it,
2052
02:23:45,880 --> 02:23:48,400
sums up the entire
Secession aesthetic.
2053
02:23:48,400 --> 02:23:49,840
Are you ready?
2054
02:23:49,840 --> 02:23:52,640
Gesamtkunstwerk. Bless you.
2055
02:23:52,640 --> 02:23:56,720
It's a Wagnerian concept,
and it means "a total work of art".
2056
02:23:59,240 --> 02:24:03,880
Because it wasn't enough to gaze
at Klimt's beautiful paintings.
2057
02:24:03,880 --> 02:24:07,560
It wasn't enough to pop into
the Secession exhibitions.
2058
02:24:07,560 --> 02:24:10,000
It wasn't even enough
to live in a house
2059
02:24:10,000 --> 02:24:12,640
decorated and designed
by Otto Wagner.
2060
02:24:12,640 --> 02:24:14,920
No, for the true
Jugendstil experience,
2061
02:24:14,920 --> 02:24:17,800
you had to live a life immersed,
2062
02:24:17,800 --> 02:24:20,560
surrounded and improved by art.
2063
02:24:20,560 --> 02:24:24,080
You needed to live the life
Gesamtkunstwerk.
2064
02:24:24,080 --> 02:24:27,360
And that meant infusing your life
with the spirit of the Secession,
2065
02:24:27,360 --> 02:24:30,720
from the Beethoven Frieze
to the kitchen cupboard.
2066
02:24:30,720 --> 02:24:36,120
Christian, this looks
to my untutored eye
2067
02:24:36,120 --> 02:24:40,040
to be a fairly humdrum sort of item.
Why have we stopped here?
2068
02:24:40,040 --> 02:24:43,440
At the time it was really
revolutionary for people.
2069
02:24:43,440 --> 02:24:48,040
We have artist, which is
Josef Hoffmann, an architect,
2070
02:24:48,040 --> 02:24:53,040
who bothers to design a piece of
furniture for a second-class room,
2071
02:24:53,040 --> 02:24:54,480
which is the kitchen.
2072
02:24:54,480 --> 02:24:58,680
For us today, the kitchen has become
the most expensive room
2073
02:24:58,680 --> 02:25:02,960
of the apartment.
But then, no visitor would see.
2074
02:25:02,960 --> 02:25:05,400
Also, from a formal aspect,
2075
02:25:05,400 --> 02:25:10,520
it was revolutionary, because it has
no traditional decoration on it,
2076
02:25:10,520 --> 02:25:13,200
which would be carving or moulding.
2077
02:25:13,200 --> 02:25:16,280
So the function and the construction
2078
02:25:16,280 --> 02:25:19,040
produces the aesthetics
of the cabinet.
2079
02:25:19,040 --> 02:25:23,480
It's all about very subtle details.
2080
02:25:23,480 --> 02:25:26,600
Why to waste them
on a kitchen cupboard?
2081
02:25:26,600 --> 02:25:29,200
Well, why did they waste them
on a kitchen cupboard?
2082
02:25:29,200 --> 02:25:32,960
That's the basic idea
of the arts and crafts movement,
2083
02:25:32,960 --> 02:25:37,640
to give the people who were most
affected by the negative aspects
2084
02:25:37,640 --> 02:25:42,520
of the industrial revolution
a voice and a beautiful surrounding.
2085
02:25:44,240 --> 02:25:47,280
The cabinet was made
by the Wiener Werkstatte,
2086
02:25:47,280 --> 02:25:52,640
a collection of Vienna's finest
artists, artisans and craftsmen.
2087
02:25:52,640 --> 02:25:56,760
The Wiener Werkstatte - Vienna
Workshop - was founded in 1903
2088
02:25:56,760 --> 02:25:58,960
by two of
the original Secessionists.
2089
02:25:58,960 --> 02:26:04,240
The always impeccably dressed Josef
Hoffmann, an architect and designer
2090
02:26:04,240 --> 02:26:06,800
who began with big,
idealistic ideas
2091
02:26:06,800 --> 02:26:11,080
about kitchen cabinets
improving the lives of servants,
2092
02:26:11,080 --> 02:26:14,680
and his friend, Koloman Moser,
the great all-rounder
2093
02:26:14,680 --> 02:26:18,840
who painted for the Secession
and was instrumental in Ver Sacrum.
2094
02:26:18,840 --> 02:26:23,240
They wanted to get away from curvy,
botanically inspired Art Nouveau,
2095
02:26:23,240 --> 02:26:27,720
towards a distinctive
new geometric Viennese aesthetic.
2096
02:26:27,720 --> 02:26:31,720
In fact, Hoffmann's obsession
with grid-like patterns earned him
2097
02:26:31,720 --> 02:26:35,120
the perhaps uncool nickname
Little Square Hoffmann.
2098
02:26:36,520 --> 02:26:40,960
Together, Hoffmann and Moser
ran the Wiener Werkstatte,
2099
02:26:40,960 --> 02:26:44,240
infusing Jugendstil principles
into the furnishings and objects
2100
02:26:44,240 --> 02:26:46,400
of everyday life.
2101
02:26:46,400 --> 02:26:49,480
Now, this looks very different.
2102
02:26:49,480 --> 02:26:51,360
Can you tell me about this?
2103
02:26:51,360 --> 02:26:55,320
OK.
Indeed it is extremely different,
2104
02:26:55,320 --> 02:27:01,000
and it marks a period where all
the social idealism is gone,
2105
02:27:01,000 --> 02:27:04,480
and it's all about the artist
wanting to realise
2106
02:27:04,480 --> 02:27:07,080
his creative idea.
2107
02:27:07,080 --> 02:27:09,000
They could have carved this,
you know?
2108
02:27:09,000 --> 02:27:11,960
Or they could have made
the inlay out of flowers.
2109
02:27:11,960 --> 02:27:16,120
But they chose this very simple band.
2110
02:27:16,120 --> 02:27:18,800
And it's about honesty, simplicity.
2111
02:27:18,800 --> 02:27:21,240
It didn't matter
if the art was old or new.
2112
02:27:21,240 --> 02:27:23,720
They wanted artistic
expression again.
2113
02:27:26,600 --> 02:27:30,880
The Werkstatte was proud
of its perfectionism, declaring,
2114
02:27:30,880 --> 02:27:33,080
"Better to work ten days
on one product
2115
02:27:33,080 --> 02:27:36,120
"than to manufacture ten products
in one day."
2116
02:27:36,120 --> 02:27:40,840
Despite Hoffmann's early democratic
intentions, it soon became clear
2117
02:27:40,840 --> 02:27:44,120
that it was only the very rich
and the very adventurous
2118
02:27:44,120 --> 02:27:47,960
who could afford the Werkstatte's
stamp of perfection.
2119
02:27:47,960 --> 02:27:52,960
This egg cup
and the pepper caster...
2120
02:27:52,960 --> 02:27:56,280
one of the most
fantastic objects
2121
02:27:56,280 --> 02:27:58,920
the Wiener Werkstatte
ever produced.
2122
02:27:58,920 --> 02:28:00,240
Really?
2123
02:28:00,240 --> 02:28:03,320
Today, again, we take them
for granted,
2124
02:28:03,320 --> 02:28:06,000
this individuality of the shape,
2125
02:28:06,000 --> 02:28:09,080
but for people at the time,
they must have looked like aliens.
2126
02:28:09,080 --> 02:28:13,000
It looks like a flying saucer,
this egg cup,
2127
02:28:13,000 --> 02:28:17,800
and no ornamentation on it,
just the cut-out squares.
2128
02:28:17,800 --> 02:28:22,560
And this was
an extremely expensive luxury item.
2129
02:28:22,560 --> 02:28:25,520
If you bought this, you were
really making a statement
2130
02:28:25,520 --> 02:28:28,360
about yourself, or trying to,
is that right?
2131
02:28:28,360 --> 02:28:30,440
Yes.
2132
02:28:30,440 --> 02:28:36,120
You tried to tell society
that you exist, and that...
2133
02:28:36,120 --> 02:28:39,720
It's like what's happening
in New York today still,
2134
02:28:39,720 --> 02:28:45,440
that... You ask an interior
decorator to do your apartment,
2135
02:28:45,440 --> 02:28:50,280
to make an impact on society,
that you count.
2136
02:28:52,520 --> 02:28:56,600
But even for the Viennese
middle class desperate to show off,
2137
02:28:56,600 --> 02:29:01,280
exquisite Art Nouveau furnishings
were prohibitively expensive.
2138
02:29:01,280 --> 02:29:04,120
Fortunately for
the Wiener Werkstatte,
2139
02:29:04,120 --> 02:29:06,920
they had caught the eye
of a financier who had invested
2140
02:29:06,920 --> 02:29:08,160
in the Viennese railways,
2141
02:29:08,160 --> 02:29:11,440
a man called Adolphe Stoclet.
2142
02:29:11,440 --> 02:29:15,040
As a cultured, liberal European,
2143
02:29:15,040 --> 02:29:18,560
Stoclet was excited
by Vienna's Art Nouveau.
2144
02:29:18,560 --> 02:29:20,840
And he was also very...
2145
02:29:20,840 --> 02:29:23,760
very...rich.
2146
02:29:23,760 --> 02:29:27,880
When his father died,
Stoclet inherited a fortune.
2147
02:29:27,880 --> 02:29:30,720
He and his wife were already
keen on the Secession.
2148
02:29:30,720 --> 02:29:33,720
Here was a chance for them
to indulge their passion.
2149
02:29:33,720 --> 02:29:36,600
In 1904, they commissioned
Josef Hoffmann
2150
02:29:36,600 --> 02:29:38,880
to build them their dream house.
2151
02:29:38,880 --> 02:29:42,720
It would be themed and designed
right down to the egg cups.
2152
02:29:42,720 --> 02:29:46,520
That's right, it was going to be
a Gesamtkunstwerk.
2153
02:29:46,520 --> 02:29:49,480
For the Stoclets,
it was the opportunity
2154
02:29:49,480 --> 02:29:52,880
to show off their taste
and their modernity.
2155
02:29:52,880 --> 02:29:55,720
Viennese artists
couldn't believe their luck.
2156
02:29:55,720 --> 02:30:00,600
Here was a chance to indulge their
wildest excesses, money no object.
2157
02:30:00,600 --> 02:30:04,440
It was to be the finest Art Nouveau
building in all of...
2158
02:30:04,440 --> 02:30:06,800
TRAIN HORN BLARES
2159
02:30:08,040 --> 02:30:09,280
..Brussels.
2160
02:30:11,160 --> 02:30:15,480
Because Mr and Mrs Stoclet's dream
location, location, location
2161
02:30:15,480 --> 02:30:19,040
was in fact 570 miles from Vienna.
2162
02:30:23,440 --> 02:30:27,200
Believe it or not, Brussels was
one of the most exciting
2163
02:30:27,200 --> 02:30:30,200
artistic cities
of the fin de siecle.
2164
02:30:37,960 --> 02:30:42,440
They were creating the first
Art Nouveau buildings here in 1893,
2165
02:30:42,440 --> 02:30:46,120
four years before the Viennese
even plucked up the courage
2166
02:30:46,120 --> 02:30:47,920
to start their own Secession.
2167
02:30:47,920 --> 02:30:50,400
And just sauntering
through the city,
2168
02:30:50,400 --> 02:30:53,600
you see architectural gems
on every corner.
2169
02:31:03,560 --> 02:31:06,640
Brussels' Art Nouveau star
2170
02:31:06,640 --> 02:31:09,600
was Victor Horta,
whose innovate architecture
2171
02:31:09,600 --> 02:31:13,640
pioneered the use of organic curls
and swirls.
2172
02:31:17,480 --> 02:31:20,840
Horta designed houses
for nouveau riche Belgians,
2173
02:31:20,840 --> 02:31:24,480
with seaweed-like wrought iron.
2174
02:31:24,480 --> 02:31:28,240
And he was one of the first
architects to integrate
2175
02:31:28,240 --> 02:31:30,800
all-new electric light
into his interior stylings.
2176
02:31:32,400 --> 02:31:36,680
This is Victor Horta's house.
It's now a museum to the old boy.
2177
02:31:36,680 --> 02:31:42,280
Built in 1898, it's resplendent,
as you see, with light, nature,
2178
02:31:42,280 --> 02:31:44,600
organic shapes.
2179
02:31:44,600 --> 02:31:47,200
If the Viennese architects
were going to come up with
2180
02:31:47,200 --> 02:31:50,280
anything as good as this,
right here in Brussels,
2181
02:31:50,280 --> 02:31:53,280
it would be like
the toughest away game imaginable.
2182
02:31:54,920 --> 02:31:58,800
The Stoclet Palais
would have to be a masterpiece.
2183
02:32:02,600 --> 02:32:06,920
Work began on the Stoclet Palais
in 1905.
2184
02:32:06,920 --> 02:32:10,480
Every detail had to be honed,
perfected.
2185
02:32:10,480 --> 02:32:13,840
This exhibition shows
the extensive preparatory work,
2186
02:32:13,840 --> 02:32:17,440
showcasing the early plans
and sketches.
2187
02:32:18,600 --> 02:32:21,480
Viennese architect Josef Hoffmann
designed the building,
2188
02:32:21,480 --> 02:32:24,680
and the artists
of the Wiener Werkstatte
2189
02:32:24,680 --> 02:32:26,520
furnished the interiors.
2190
02:32:26,520 --> 02:32:28,960
For an opulent finishing touch,
2191
02:32:28,960 --> 02:32:33,000
the great star of Vienna's
art scene, Klimt himself,
2192
02:32:33,000 --> 02:32:35,760
created a huge centrepiece frieze.
2193
02:32:37,160 --> 02:32:39,520
It took five long years to complete.
2194
02:32:39,520 --> 02:32:44,640
There was to be a unity of style
to every aspect of the building.
2195
02:32:44,640 --> 02:32:47,960
It would be a Viennese masterpiece
in the heart of Brussels.
2196
02:32:59,680 --> 02:33:02,200
So what's the old pile
like on the inside?
2197
02:33:02,200 --> 02:33:05,280
Does that interior
sing like a symphony?
2198
02:33:05,280 --> 02:33:08,600
Is that Klimt frieze
all it's cracked up to be?
2199
02:33:08,600 --> 02:33:11,320
Sadly, for the public,
for historians,
2200
02:33:11,320 --> 02:33:13,760
and yes, even for arts
documentaries,
2201
02:33:13,760 --> 02:33:16,880
the house and its contents
are out of bounds,
2202
02:33:16,880 --> 02:33:18,960
tied up in a long-running
legal dispute
2203
02:33:18,960 --> 02:33:21,280
involving Stoclet's descendants.
2204
02:33:21,280 --> 02:33:23,640
So there's nothing else for it,
is there?
2205
02:33:23,640 --> 02:33:25,520
But to peek over the fence.
2206
02:33:39,920 --> 02:33:43,840
It's the great Miss Havisham
of European architecture,
2207
02:33:43,840 --> 02:33:48,000
still dressed up in its finery,
but withdrawn from the world.
2208
02:33:50,000 --> 02:33:53,320
The house, garden,
interiors and furnishings
2209
02:33:53,320 --> 02:33:56,240
were all conceived
as an architectural whole.
2210
02:33:59,640 --> 02:34:05,480
Every detail. The carpet, wallpaper,
glass, silverware, lighting,
2211
02:34:05,480 --> 02:34:09,640
furniture and fittings,
was designed and created in Vienna.
2212
02:34:12,520 --> 02:34:15,600
The dining room had
Hoffmann silver cutlery, crockery
2213
02:34:15,600 --> 02:34:19,320
and 24 matching chairs
covered in reindeer skin.
2214
02:34:21,160 --> 02:34:23,440
Even the children's playroom
2215
02:34:23,440 --> 02:34:27,720
had a Wiener Werkstatte-designed
frieze on the wall.
2216
02:34:27,720 --> 02:34:33,000
Vienna's finest architect,
finest craftsman and finest artist
2217
02:34:33,000 --> 02:34:36,600
had finally created
the ultimate Gesamtkunstwerk.
2218
02:34:38,680 --> 02:34:41,280
But to this day,
the secrets of the Stoclet Palais
2219
02:34:41,280 --> 02:34:43,400
remain locked away.
2220
02:34:57,000 --> 02:35:00,000
The most famous
painting in Austria,
2221
02:35:00,000 --> 02:35:03,040
the jewel
in Vienna's Art Nouveau crown,
2222
02:35:03,040 --> 02:35:06,240
the work which is synonymous
with Gustav Klimt,
2223
02:35:06,240 --> 02:35:08,840
was painted in 1908.
2224
02:35:08,840 --> 02:35:13,800
It's one of those rare iconic works
of art that needs no introduction.
2225
02:35:13,800 --> 02:35:15,880
First of all, I have to say
it's not The Kiss.
2226
02:35:15,880 --> 02:35:18,440
When you look at the painting,
you will see it's not The Kiss.
2227
02:35:18,440 --> 02:35:19,920
They're lovers.
2228
02:35:19,920 --> 02:35:22,840
So, also Klimt named
the painting Lovers.
2229
02:35:22,840 --> 02:35:24,800
This is something special.
2230
02:35:24,800 --> 02:35:27,920
It's not The Kiss,
it's definitely the moment before.
2231
02:35:27,920 --> 02:35:29,880
So this is very important to know.
2232
02:35:32,200 --> 02:35:34,800
Whatever you call
Klimt's masterpiece,
2233
02:35:34,800 --> 02:35:39,600
standing in front of the original
is an overwhelming experience.
2234
02:35:39,600 --> 02:35:43,040
No wonder it's held up as the
pinnacle of Viennese Art Nouveau.
2235
02:35:49,080 --> 02:35:53,040
Decorative and fine arts
are intertwined here,
2236
02:35:53,040 --> 02:35:55,480
with layers of geometric patterns,
2237
02:35:55,480 --> 02:36:00,320
ornamentation and the use
of Klimt's favourite material...
2238
02:36:00,320 --> 02:36:02,560
gold.
2239
02:36:02,560 --> 02:36:04,440
So the father was a goldsmith,
2240
02:36:04,440 --> 02:36:07,840
and Klimt was used to working
with gold.
2241
02:36:07,840 --> 02:36:12,040
You can have the polished gold,
you can work with leaf gold,
2242
02:36:12,040 --> 02:36:15,760
whatever it is, you know, and with
a shiny one, with not so shiny.
2243
02:36:15,760 --> 02:36:19,600
Because he had the knowledge about
the material, so he used it, yeah?
2244
02:36:19,600 --> 02:36:24,480
So he was the only one who did it,
more than also the pre-Raphaelites,
2245
02:36:24,480 --> 02:36:27,640
because the pre-Raphaelites,
they used the gold as well.
2246
02:36:27,640 --> 02:36:31,800
But only
in connection with saints, yeah?
2247
02:36:31,800 --> 02:36:34,320
But Klimt changed it completely.
2248
02:36:34,320 --> 02:36:37,760
Klimt worked with the idea
of the icon. When you're entering
2249
02:36:37,760 --> 02:36:41,680
a church, let's say in Russia
or in Greece, with a lot of icons,
2250
02:36:41,680 --> 02:36:44,480
you see those metallic pieces there.
2251
02:36:44,480 --> 02:36:48,840
But painted is only
the face and the hands.
2252
02:36:48,840 --> 02:36:52,240
And this is what Gustav Klimt
wanted to show, you know.
2253
02:36:52,240 --> 02:36:58,880
He's focusing everything
on the faces and on the hands.
2254
02:36:58,880 --> 02:37:01,880
And that's it. And the rest is gold,
and this makes it so famous,
2255
02:37:01,880 --> 02:37:06,040
and when the tourists... The moment
when they're entering the door here,
2256
02:37:06,040 --> 02:37:11,120
it's still. It's quiet,
and they're overwhelmed.
2257
02:37:11,120 --> 02:37:15,080
It's definitely a kind of
Klimt Church, which we have here.
2258
02:37:15,080 --> 02:37:17,920
What's it like seeing
this painting every day,
2259
02:37:17,920 --> 02:37:20,680
as you do,
in your professional capacity?
2260
02:37:20,680 --> 02:37:22,360
Can you still see it?
2261
02:37:22,360 --> 02:37:25,240
Has it become
like the furniture for you?
2262
02:37:25,240 --> 02:37:27,600
Sometimes I really hate
the painting... Do you?
2263
02:37:27,600 --> 02:37:30,760
..because you can see it everywhere,
on the umbrella, everywhere,
2264
02:37:30,760 --> 02:37:32,760
and I always feel as though
2265
02:37:32,760 --> 02:37:36,400
there's something in the painting
which I don't know,
2266
02:37:36,400 --> 02:37:41,480
there is another secret which I
didn't realise, and I have to work.
2267
02:37:41,480 --> 02:37:44,720
It's always a confrontation
between me and the painting.
2268
02:37:44,720 --> 02:37:46,600
Every day I have
these confrontations.
2269
02:37:52,920 --> 02:37:55,440
Klimt almost never explained
his paintings.
2270
02:37:55,440 --> 02:37:58,480
He lived with his mother
and his sister.
2271
02:37:58,480 --> 02:38:02,600
He rarely courted the limelight,
and never married.
2272
02:38:02,600 --> 02:38:05,760
But although you might not take
ol' Klimt for a lothario,
2273
02:38:05,760 --> 02:38:10,720
oh, bless him, the sensuality
and brazen sexuality of his work
2274
02:38:10,720 --> 02:38:13,000
set tongues a-wagging.
2275
02:38:22,080 --> 02:38:23,880
Klimt hardly ever painted men.
2276
02:38:23,880 --> 02:38:27,000
And when he did,
their faces were averted.
2277
02:38:27,000 --> 02:38:30,440
He had countless lovers,
and in the coffee shops of Vienna,
2278
02:38:30,440 --> 02:38:35,200
they whispered about the young girls
flitting through his studio.
2279
02:38:35,200 --> 02:38:39,360
Of course Art Nouveau had a thing
about bare girls and nymphs,
2280
02:38:39,360 --> 02:38:41,800
but Klimt was obsessed
with the female form.
2281
02:38:47,640 --> 02:38:51,200
Some of his paintings and etchings
were pure Viennese Viagra
2282
02:38:51,200 --> 02:38:54,600
for a certain class
of gentleman collector.
2283
02:38:54,600 --> 02:38:59,240
In fact, in 1901,
the Public Prosecutor of Vienna
2284
02:38:59,240 --> 02:39:02,880
ordered the latest edition
of Ver Sacrum to be seized
2285
02:39:02,880 --> 02:39:05,880
and all copies found, destroyed.
2286
02:39:16,560 --> 02:39:19,080
Fortunately,
the court rejected the call
2287
02:39:19,080 --> 02:39:21,440
to destroy Klimt's erotic sketches,
2288
02:39:21,440 --> 02:39:24,840
and I've come to the storerooms
of the Leopold museum
2289
02:39:24,840 --> 02:39:26,920
to look under their mattress.
2290
02:39:26,920 --> 02:39:30,680
I mean, to access some of Klimt's
rarely displayed material.
2291
02:39:34,640 --> 02:39:37,400
Tell me about this one, Maria.
2292
02:39:37,400 --> 02:39:41,840
I'm sure this is one of those
drawings which were created
2293
02:39:41,840 --> 02:39:44,720
after Klimt has made love to her,
2294
02:39:44,720 --> 02:39:49,040
because her expression
is after orgasm.
2295
02:39:49,040 --> 02:39:51,840
And this was unusual
2296
02:39:51,840 --> 02:39:56,160
in that he's celebrating
the female sexuality here?
2297
02:39:56,160 --> 02:40:01,760
Yes, and that's what was perhaps
shocking for his contemporaries.
2298
02:40:01,760 --> 02:40:05,320
Female sexuality was a taboo
2299
02:40:05,320 --> 02:40:09,200
and to show a face of a woman
2300
02:40:09,200 --> 02:40:13,560
in this...very happy...
2301
02:40:13,560 --> 02:40:16,200
circumstances. Orgasmic.
2302
02:40:16,200 --> 02:40:22,280
Orgasmic, of course, you say it,
was not usual to see in a picture.
2303
02:40:22,280 --> 02:40:26,160
The spontaneous expression
here in the drawing,
2304
02:40:26,160 --> 02:40:29,160
you never find in the same way
in the paintings.
2305
02:40:33,240 --> 02:40:36,360
One of the few pronouncements
that Klimt did make
2306
02:40:36,360 --> 02:40:40,040
was that "all art is erotic".
2307
02:40:40,040 --> 02:40:43,880
He's articulating one of
the core beliefs of Art Nouveau,
2308
02:40:43,880 --> 02:40:46,760
a movement
that celebrated sensuality.
2309
02:40:48,160 --> 02:40:52,000
And it's clear that Klimt
idolised women,
2310
02:40:52,000 --> 02:40:54,240
both sexually and aesthetically.
2311
02:40:57,920 --> 02:41:00,960
But despite
the flattering treatment,
2312
02:41:00,960 --> 02:41:03,720
it sometimes seems that the women
in his work are there
2313
02:41:03,720 --> 02:41:06,840
as part of the artist's
own decorative scheme,
2314
02:41:06,840 --> 02:41:11,560
rather than as portraits
of living, breathing individuals.
2315
02:41:15,160 --> 02:41:18,360
And of course,
from a feminist point of view,
2316
02:41:18,360 --> 02:41:25,320
this is terrible, because he had
a very male view on these girls,
2317
02:41:25,320 --> 02:41:30,000
and he didn't respect
their individuality.
2318
02:41:30,000 --> 02:41:35,480
So, for the feminists,
he is a terrible guy.
2319
02:41:35,480 --> 02:41:40,560
But on the other hand,
he is a great artist,
2320
02:41:40,560 --> 02:41:45,840
and I think you cannot blame him
personally for this attitude,
2321
02:41:45,840 --> 02:41:51,000
because it was so typical
for the time and for the atmosphere
2322
02:41:51,000 --> 02:41:54,760
in which he lived,
and in which he created his art.
2323
02:41:59,080 --> 02:42:01,480
But with all this wanton sexuality,
2324
02:42:01,480 --> 02:42:06,560
all these richly decorated portraits
of smouldering society women,
2325
02:42:06,560 --> 02:42:09,960
these opulent ornamental buildings
2326
02:42:09,960 --> 02:42:13,320
stuffed with luxurious chairs
and pepper pots,
2327
02:42:13,320 --> 02:42:19,040
the sheer decadence of Art Nouveau
made it ripe for criticism.
2328
02:42:19,040 --> 02:42:23,000
And it was no longer just
idiotic aristocrats
2329
02:42:23,000 --> 02:42:24,800
whinging on
about traditionalism.
2330
02:42:24,800 --> 02:42:27,880
The era of mass production
was well under way
2331
02:42:27,880 --> 02:42:31,120
and urban life
grew ever more anxious.
2332
02:42:31,120 --> 02:42:34,800
Art Nouveau sceptics were emerging.
2333
02:42:34,800 --> 02:42:41,520
And none more so than this man,
the eccentric Adolf Loos.
2334
02:42:41,520 --> 02:42:44,480
Loos was a vehement
opponent of the Secession.
2335
02:42:44,480 --> 02:42:47,200
He spent three years
in the United States,
2336
02:42:47,200 --> 02:42:49,040
and came back here to Vienna
2337
02:42:49,040 --> 02:42:53,080
enthralled by their much more
practical approach to design.
2338
02:42:53,080 --> 02:42:57,080
He was a deep thinker and a man
with a clever turn of phrase.
2339
02:43:04,280 --> 02:43:07,640
Herr Loos wrote essays
on every aspect of life.
2340
02:43:10,400 --> 02:43:14,880
But his most influential writing
was on architecture.
2341
02:43:14,880 --> 02:43:16,440
In Ornament And Crime,
2342
02:43:16,440 --> 02:43:20,320
he dismissed the Secessionists' idea
of the craftsman as an artist,
2343
02:43:20,320 --> 02:43:23,120
and he declared
ornamentation "degenerate".
2344
02:43:24,960 --> 02:43:28,480
In 1909, he finally got the chance
2345
02:43:28,480 --> 02:43:31,680
to put these theories into practise,
when he won a commission
2346
02:43:31,680 --> 02:43:33,920
in the historic heart of Vienna.
2347
02:43:37,160 --> 02:43:41,280
Get a load of this place. This is
the Emperor's Hofburg Palace.
2348
02:43:41,280 --> 02:43:43,360
And that's only the back door.
2349
02:43:43,360 --> 02:43:46,440
One day a couple of tailors
approached Adolf Loos and said,
2350
02:43:46,440 --> 02:43:50,360
"Can you build us a new shop front?
It's got to be opposite the palace."
2351
02:43:50,360 --> 02:43:52,000
What would he come up with?
2352
02:43:52,000 --> 02:43:55,040
How would he satisfy
the curiosity of the Viennese
2353
02:43:55,040 --> 02:43:57,480
for architecture with attitude?
2354
02:43:57,480 --> 02:43:59,880
What would the man deliver?
2355
02:43:59,880 --> 02:44:02,800
Da-na!
2356
02:44:02,800 --> 02:44:04,640
Please yourselves.
2357
02:44:08,080 --> 02:44:09,560
At first glance,
2358
02:44:09,560 --> 02:44:12,320
you could be forgiven for wondering
what all the fuss was about.
2359
02:44:12,320 --> 02:44:16,000
But believe me, when it was
first revealed in 1910,
2360
02:44:16,000 --> 02:44:19,080
the Looshaus shocked Vienna.
2361
02:44:19,080 --> 02:44:21,560
There was no traditional ornaments,
2362
02:44:21,560 --> 02:44:25,040
no nude muscular heroes, no cherubs,
2363
02:44:25,040 --> 02:44:27,920
but nor were there florid
Art Nouveau patterns,
2364
02:44:27,920 --> 02:44:30,880
gold, curling metal.
2365
02:44:30,880 --> 02:44:34,800
To Viennese eyes,
the building was naked.
2366
02:44:38,520 --> 02:44:41,360
One wag dubbed it
the house without eyebrows!
2367
02:44:43,160 --> 02:44:45,400
That's probably funnier in German.
2368
02:44:51,280 --> 02:44:56,440
Inside, the public areas
of the shop combined mahogany,
2369
02:44:56,440 --> 02:45:01,000
oak, brass and mirrors
to stunning effect,
2370
02:45:01,000 --> 02:45:03,760
while the work areas
were more Spartan.
2371
02:45:03,760 --> 02:45:07,120
Loos dismissed the idea
of Gesamtkunstwerk.
2372
02:45:07,120 --> 02:45:10,360
Real people didn't need a life
surrounded by art, he said.
2373
02:45:10,360 --> 02:45:12,160
What they needed were buildings
2374
02:45:12,160 --> 02:45:15,080
that were primarily functional
and simple,
2375
02:45:15,080 --> 02:45:18,800
and any superfluous decoration
was an old fashioned idea.
2376
02:45:18,800 --> 02:45:21,960
Loos thought it was as savage
as getting a tattoo.
2377
02:45:24,480 --> 02:45:26,560
His definition of
modern architecture
2378
02:45:26,560 --> 02:45:29,400
was influential and compelling.
2379
02:45:29,400 --> 02:45:33,720
Even the Secessionists'
star architect seemed to concur.
2380
02:45:35,880 --> 02:45:40,240
Otto Wagner, who originally
designed buildings like this,
2381
02:45:40,240 --> 02:45:44,520
ended up producing buildings
like this one.
2382
02:45:44,520 --> 02:45:48,320
The era of decoration
was well and truly over.
2383
02:45:55,480 --> 02:45:59,120
In the fine arts too,
Art Nouveau was beginning to age.
2384
02:46:00,520 --> 02:46:05,040
Nothing illustrates this better
than the emergence in 1909
2385
02:46:05,040 --> 02:46:09,400
of the enfant terrible
of Viennese art, Egon Schiele.
2386
02:46:09,400 --> 02:46:11,560
At first, Schiele seemed destined
2387
02:46:11,560 --> 02:46:13,960
to be the next big thing
in Art Nouveau.
2388
02:46:15,800 --> 02:46:17,560
So, Frank, what are
we going to see first?
2389
02:46:17,560 --> 02:46:19,080
What have you got up your sleeve?
2390
02:46:19,080 --> 02:46:21,440
Well, it's quite
an interesting picture, really,
2391
02:46:21,440 --> 02:46:25,960
cos although I would be the last
to say it's a GOOD painting,
2392
02:46:25,960 --> 02:46:28,760
it's a very young Schiele.
He was 18 when he did it.
2393
02:46:28,760 --> 02:46:31,800
It's called Stylised Flowers.
2394
02:46:31,800 --> 02:46:35,320
I don't see that you can describe
this picture at all
2395
02:46:35,320 --> 02:46:38,400
without mentioning
Art Nouveau or Jugendstil.
2396
02:46:38,400 --> 02:46:42,200
He has turned everything
into a decorative device.
2397
02:46:42,200 --> 02:46:43,600
It's ornamental.
2398
02:46:43,600 --> 02:46:46,960
But what's really interesting
about it, it seems to me,
2399
02:46:46,960 --> 02:46:49,360
is the evidence that it provides
2400
02:46:49,360 --> 02:46:52,160
of his interest
in what Klimt was doing.
2401
02:46:52,160 --> 02:46:54,320
First of all, you've got
a square format,
2402
02:46:54,320 --> 02:46:57,080
of which Klimt himself was so fond.
2403
02:46:57,080 --> 02:47:00,400
Secondly, we've got that
central position in the painting.
2404
02:47:00,400 --> 02:47:04,160
But then there's the final clincher,
if you like,
2405
02:47:04,160 --> 02:47:08,320
which is the use of gold and silver,
2406
02:47:08,320 --> 02:47:11,760
actually IN the surface
of the paint,
2407
02:47:11,760 --> 02:47:16,320
which of course is taken directly
from those paintings by Klimt.
2408
02:47:16,320 --> 02:47:19,120
What was
their relationship like, Frank?
2409
02:47:19,120 --> 02:47:21,800
Well, Schiele would very much
have liked it to be
2410
02:47:21,800 --> 02:47:25,680
a kind of father/son relationship,
but it was never that.
2411
02:47:25,680 --> 02:47:28,760
Klimt obviously liked Schiele.
2412
02:47:28,760 --> 02:47:32,920
He admired to an extent
what Schiele was doing.
2413
02:47:32,920 --> 02:47:35,440
He helped Schiele
early in his career.
2414
02:47:35,440 --> 02:47:38,080
Schiele, on the other hand,
absolutely ADORED Klimt.
2415
02:47:38,080 --> 02:47:40,600
So, Frank, is it the case
with Schiele then,
2416
02:47:40,600 --> 02:47:43,200
that he's got all these influences
from Klimt,
2417
02:47:43,200 --> 02:47:45,040
there's an Art Nouveau period,
2418
02:47:45,040 --> 02:47:48,600
but then he's taking art
onwards in some way?
2419
02:47:48,600 --> 02:47:49,960
Very much so.
2420
02:47:49,960 --> 02:47:53,320
And I suggest we look at
a painting now,
2421
02:47:53,320 --> 02:47:58,560
which will demonstrate that
in maybe even a shocking way.
2422
02:47:58,560 --> 02:48:01,440
Really, Frank?
Well, we're both consenting adults.
2423
02:48:01,440 --> 02:48:02,480
Let's have a look.
2424
02:48:07,320 --> 02:48:11,240
Lovemaking. Wow, that is quite
full on, isn't it? It is.
2425
02:48:11,240 --> 02:48:13,600
You wouldn't know that was
the same bloke.
2426
02:48:13,600 --> 02:48:14,720
No.
2427
02:48:14,720 --> 02:48:18,000
And that, of course,
is a self-portrait. Really?
2428
02:48:18,000 --> 02:48:20,320
The whole point about this really is
2429
02:48:20,320 --> 02:48:22,960
that he makes himself
look like a corpse
2430
02:48:22,960 --> 02:48:25,920
and she looks like one
of these rubber dolls that you...
2431
02:48:25,920 --> 02:48:29,400
..well, not exactly rubber.
But you know what I'm trying to say.
2432
02:48:29,400 --> 02:48:31,520
I have heard of them. Yes. Yes.
2433
02:48:31,520 --> 02:48:36,600
He's dealing now with death,
with melancholy,
2434
02:48:36,600 --> 02:48:39,240
with extremes of all sorts.
2435
02:48:39,240 --> 02:48:42,480
And he's also, of course,
consciously dealing
2436
02:48:42,480 --> 02:48:46,120
with what might be regarded
as an impossible subject.
2437
02:48:46,120 --> 02:48:49,680
He's using his work
to express something
2438
02:48:49,680 --> 02:48:52,240
which is beyond what you can see.
2439
02:48:52,240 --> 02:48:55,680
What you can see is merely,
as it were, the veil
2440
02:48:55,680 --> 02:48:59,960
which is cast in front
of the true message of the picture.
2441
02:48:59,960 --> 02:49:03,280
Schiele is now, particularly
in a painting like this,
2442
02:49:03,280 --> 02:49:06,400
concerned with almost everything
BUT the surface.
2443
02:49:06,400 --> 02:49:08,720
Frank, where did Schiele's
new direction
2444
02:49:08,720 --> 02:49:11,360
and everything else that
was happening associated with him,
2445
02:49:11,360 --> 02:49:12,960
where did that leave Art Nouveau?
2446
02:49:12,960 --> 02:49:15,160
Was it a bit old hat by now?
2447
02:49:15,160 --> 02:49:17,360
It was just losing relevance
2448
02:49:17,360 --> 02:49:19,400
and losing importance.
2449
02:49:19,400 --> 02:49:22,600
And this sort of thing
was becoming...
2450
02:49:22,600 --> 02:49:24,120
..I won't say fashionable
2451
02:49:24,120 --> 02:49:26,920
because it never became fashionable
in the same way,
2452
02:49:26,920 --> 02:49:30,400
but it was doing
all the interesting new things
2453
02:49:30,400 --> 02:49:33,400
which Art Nouveau had
long since ceased to do.
2454
02:49:38,200 --> 02:49:40,800
It was the end for beauty,
2455
02:49:40,800 --> 02:49:44,080
for ornament, for decadence.
2456
02:49:44,080 --> 02:49:46,920
Art Nouveau suddenly felt archaic,
2457
02:49:46,920 --> 02:49:50,480
as egotistic Egon
was happy to point out.
2458
02:49:52,360 --> 02:49:55,560
It's called The Hermits,
it's dated 1912.
2459
02:49:55,560 --> 02:49:58,680
It shows Schiele,
2460
02:49:58,680 --> 02:50:03,720
finally out
of the Art Nouveau Jugendstil mould.
2461
02:50:03,720 --> 02:50:06,760
There's no going back from this
point? Oh, no. No going back.
2462
02:50:06,760 --> 02:50:09,520
It looks as though
Schiele is supporting
2463
02:50:09,520 --> 02:50:13,120
the weight of Klimt
on his shoulders.
2464
02:50:13,120 --> 02:50:15,120
Klimt looks almost dead.
2465
02:50:15,120 --> 02:50:17,760
And I think he's trying
to tell us something.
2466
02:50:17,760 --> 02:50:19,720
And what's he trying to tell us?
2467
02:50:19,720 --> 02:50:21,720
He's in charge now? Yeah, yeah.
2468
02:50:21,720 --> 02:50:26,200
There's poor old Klimt,
on whom he used to rely,
2469
02:50:26,200 --> 02:50:27,800
who's now relying on him.
2470
02:50:28,840 --> 02:50:32,520
It's quite a bold, even arrogant,
thing to be saying or painting?
2471
02:50:32,520 --> 02:50:36,560
It certainly is, but Schiele was,
in terms of modernism,
2472
02:50:36,560 --> 02:50:39,400
that much further ahead
than Klimt was.
2473
02:50:39,400 --> 02:50:41,720
I do see Klimt as being, as it were,
2474
02:50:41,720 --> 02:50:45,160
the end of something rather
than the beginning of something.
2475
02:50:45,160 --> 02:50:49,920
He belongs as much to the
19th century as to the 20th century.
2476
02:50:49,920 --> 02:50:52,720
There's nowhere else really
for him to go.
2477
02:50:55,160 --> 02:50:58,240
The work of Schiele and Loos
2478
02:50:58,240 --> 02:51:01,240
heralded the end
for Viennese Art Nouveau.
2479
02:51:01,240 --> 02:51:07,120
By 1918, Otto Wagner, Gustav Klimt
and Koloman Moser were all dead,
2480
02:51:07,120 --> 02:51:10,920
and the Austro-Hungarian empire
had ceased to exist.
2481
02:51:12,840 --> 02:51:15,040
There's an argument
that the Art Nouveau
2482
02:51:15,040 --> 02:51:18,280
that flourished
on the banks of the Danube here
2483
02:51:18,280 --> 02:51:23,400
wasn't a new wave, so much
as the last eddies of the old.
2484
02:51:23,400 --> 02:51:26,360
True, they banged on
about being young.
2485
02:51:26,360 --> 02:51:28,640
They were the Jugendstil, remember.
2486
02:51:28,640 --> 02:51:32,160
And they dealt with trendy things
like sex and psychology.
2487
02:51:33,320 --> 02:51:35,720
But the whole design movement here
2488
02:51:35,720 --> 02:51:40,320
remained essentially the plaything
of the rich and the well-to-do,
2489
02:51:40,320 --> 02:51:43,160
and they self-consciously
turned their backs
2490
02:51:43,160 --> 02:51:46,600
on the new means of production -
industrial methods.
2491
02:51:48,040 --> 02:51:50,760
After the stinging criticisms
of Loos,
2492
02:51:50,760 --> 02:51:54,640
the idea of paying a craftsman
to spend ten days
2493
02:51:54,640 --> 02:52:00,000
making you an egg cup or a stool
seemed frankly laughable.
2494
02:52:04,920 --> 02:52:09,600
With its decadence, decoration
and luxurious prices,
2495
02:52:09,600 --> 02:52:11,240
Art Nouveau is as much
2496
02:52:11,240 --> 02:52:14,520
the last artistic flourish
of the 19th century
2497
02:52:14,520 --> 02:52:18,160
as it is the first
of the 20th century.
2498
02:52:18,160 --> 02:52:21,840
Perhaps it's no surprise
that a stylistic movement
2499
02:52:21,840 --> 02:52:25,840
founded around the idea of the new
never fully matured.
2500
02:52:26,960 --> 02:52:28,760
The style had bloomed in cities
2501
02:52:28,760 --> 02:52:33,840
like Vienna, Paris, Brussels,
Glasgow, Prague, Barcelona,
2502
02:52:33,840 --> 02:52:38,720
and was built around a myriad of
modern ideas about what art was for.
2503
02:52:38,720 --> 02:52:42,480
But just a decade or so
after its spectacular rise,
2504
02:52:42,480 --> 02:52:44,280
it died out
throughout the continent.
2505
02:52:46,840 --> 02:52:49,160
With the advent
of the First World War,
2506
02:52:49,160 --> 02:52:54,080
Art Nouveau's international style
was deemed unpatriotic, foreign,
2507
02:52:54,080 --> 02:52:57,760
and disowned by both sides
of the conflict.
2508
02:52:57,760 --> 02:53:01,240
And by the 1920s,
Adolf Loos's radical ideas
2509
02:53:01,240 --> 02:53:04,240
inspired modernist movements
like the Bauhaus
2510
02:53:04,240 --> 02:53:08,160
to reject all decoration
and embrace functionalism.
2511
02:53:08,160 --> 02:53:13,640
Fine art was enthralled
to Picasso, Cubism, Abstraction.
2512
02:53:13,640 --> 02:53:16,480
For decades,
Art Nouveau was dismissed
2513
02:53:16,480 --> 02:53:19,080
by both modernists
and traditionalists.
2514
02:53:19,080 --> 02:53:23,160
Its buildings neglected,
its art ignored.
2515
02:53:23,160 --> 02:53:27,880
In fact, it wasn't until the 1960s
that a new generation
2516
02:53:27,880 --> 02:53:33,520
began to rediscover and celebrate
European art's fin de siecle moment.
2517
02:53:35,600 --> 02:53:39,760
And after so much darkness
in 20th century Austria,
2518
02:53:39,760 --> 02:53:44,680
celebrating the golden era of Klimt,
Wagner, and the Wiener Werkstatte
2519
02:53:44,680 --> 02:53:49,000
has become vitally important
to the image of the city.
2520
02:53:49,000 --> 02:53:53,200
Young couples snuggle up
in front of The Kiss.
2521
02:53:53,200 --> 02:53:56,480
Tourists learn the story
of the Secession.
2522
02:53:57,760 --> 02:54:01,600
And every day,
thousands of Viennese commuters
2523
02:54:01,600 --> 02:54:05,040
pass through
Otto Wagner's sumptuous stations.
2524
02:54:05,040 --> 02:54:08,320
A multi-million pound
tourist industry
2525
02:54:08,320 --> 02:54:11,920
is now built around the story
of the Secessionists.
2526
02:54:11,920 --> 02:54:16,920
Klimt, Hoffman, Wagner, Moser,
and Schiele, take a bow.
2527
02:54:19,680 --> 02:54:22,200
It strikes me
that Viennese Art Nouveau
2528
02:54:22,200 --> 02:54:24,320
was as much about artistic freedom
2529
02:54:24,320 --> 02:54:28,440
as it was fancy buildings
and naked ladies.
2530
02:54:28,440 --> 02:54:32,040
"To every age its art,
and to the art its freedom."
2531
02:54:32,040 --> 02:54:35,680
A century on, that still sounds
like a radical manifesto.
2532
02:54:35,680 --> 02:54:38,120
And if we ever lose sight of that,
2533
02:54:38,120 --> 02:54:41,520
well, then it really is
Goodnight, Vienna.
2534
02:54:43,800 --> 02:54:47,440
# Goodnight, Vienna
2535
02:54:47,440 --> 02:54:51,760
# You city of a million melodies
2536
02:54:51,760 --> 02:54:54,600
# Our hearts are thrilling
to the strains that you play
2537
02:54:54,600 --> 02:54:59,160
# From dawn till the daylight dies
2538
02:54:59,160 --> 02:55:02,640
# Goodnight, Vienna
2539
02:55:02,640 --> 02:55:06,720
# Where moonlight fills the air
with mystery
2540
02:55:06,720 --> 02:55:09,960
# And eyes are shining
to the gypsy guitars
2541
02:55:09,960 --> 02:55:11,600
# That sing to the starry sky. #
221127
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