The stylistic movement known as rococo, which began in eighteenth-century France, has infused design objects with a sinuous, organic, and sensuous impulse for three centuries. In its original manifestation, rococo dominated French design from 1730 to 1765, during the reign of Louis XV. The king and his mistress Madame de Pompadour endorsed the rococo spirit, as it reflected their predilection for an intimate lifestyle and their love of extravagance. Rococo turned away from the contraints of classicism's geometry toward nature for models, celebrating the tactile as well as the visual, the fantastical over the intellectual. Designers competed to produce highly original, eccentric, and exotic designs in silver, refined woods, textiles, and ceramics, all of which appealed to the senses and emotions. Rococo design ideas, transmitted by decorative-arts prints, objects, and the traveling designers themselves, quickly spread to England, the Netherlands, the German states, the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, and America.
The rococo impulse went underground during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when neoclassicism prevailed, then resurfaced in England under the flamboyant Prince Regent, later George IV, and in France during the Second Empire (1852-70). Rococo's most significant later interpretation occurred internationally from about 1880 to 1915, when designers found inspiration in the natural flow of the rococo aesthetic for a new design concept known as Art Nouveau. While the austere geometry of modernism governed much of design thinking during the twentieth century, designers continually returned to organic, natural curves as a source of inspiration in the 1930s, 1950s, and the psychedelic 1960s. More recently, the rococo spirit has burst forth once again as a creative force.
Through the past 300 years, the generative influences behind rococo and its revivals appear to be similar. Rococo erupts in reaction to periods of severe constraint and thrives in times of burgeoning economic prosperity. Rococo objects speak to human desires that go beyond simple necessity, and many are works of extreme craftsmanship. They tap into the sensuous, pleasure-seeking aspects of design when designers and their patrons seek creative freedom and fantasy. Finally, rococo reflects increased respect for the feminine, with objeccts referencing the female form. Rococo: The Continuing Curve, 1730-2008 places the exuberant movement within the historic continuum, bringing together an unprecedented collection of designers and objects of different eras to celebrate the joyful and liberating spirit of rococo.
Manufactured by Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company
mold-blown, iridized glass
Gift of Stanley Siegel, from the Stanley Siegel Collection
interior
decoration
container
home
organic
multicolored
luxury
peacocks
iridescent
art nouveau
fans
trumpeted
striated
swirls
Favrile
This vase exhibits the brilliant blue tones that Tiffany’s workshop achieved in favrile glass. The “Peacock” vase celebrates Tiffany’s revival of the decorative technique of feathering that had been in use since Roman times. Thin filaments of differently colored batches of glass form long, sinuous lines that were fashionable in the art nouveau style.
pen and gray ink, brush and watercolor, gouache, gold paint, black chalk on white laid paper
Purchased for the Museum by the Advisory Council
architects
artists
ceilings
architecture
interior
illusionistic
horses
figures
allegory
preparatory
green
art
painters
vaults
chariots
gods
pendentive
heavens
rococo
ornament
Apollo
putti
clouds
light
mythology
In 1905, the Hewitt sisters were introduced to Jean-Léon Decloux in Paris during one of their acquisitions trips. Decloux collected drawings, print albums, and decorative arts objects, and soon became one of their agents for purchasing works on paper. To cement the relationship, he quickly donated examples of French ornamental paneling. On Decloux’s recommendation, the Hewitt sisters encouraged the museum’s advisory council to purchase over 500 drawings from Decloux’s collection in 1911; in 1921, the museum acquired 413 albums of Decloux’s ornament prints and related preparatory drawings.
In 1905, the Hewitt sisters were introduced to Jean-Léon Decloux in Paris during one of their acquisitions trips. Decloux collected drawings, print albums, and decorative arts objects, and soon became one of their agents for purchasing works on paper. To cement the relationship, he quickly donated examples of French ornamental paneling. On Decloux’s recommendation, the Hewitt sisters encouraged the museum’s advisory council to purchase over 500 drawings from Decloux’s collection in 1911; in 1921, the museum acquired 413 albums of Decloux’s ornament prints and related preparatory drawings.
Gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt, from the textile collection of Mrs. Abram Stevens Hewitt
This sumptuous silk shows how skilled 18th-century French weavers were in the production of textiles for the luxury market. With its characteristic rococo patterning, this confection of a dress fabric has its S-curves trimmed with the black-tipped tails of ermine, a fur typically reserved for the coronation robes of royal figures.
Museum purchase through gift of Georgiana L. McClellan
decoration
domestic
dining
organic
stemmed
flared
iridescent
The form of this Favrile glass vase suggests a flower with flared bloom and narrow stem. Tiffany coined the word “favrile” from the Latin fabrilis (relating to a craftsman), to imply handwork for his mold-made glass. His experiments with minerals resulted in an iridescence suggesting the surface of excavated ancient Roman glass.
On the bottom shelf is an early gourd-shaped vessel [1966-55-8] whose asymmetrical and dimpled body shows off the swiftness of the gaffer who worked the piece in a semi-molten state. Named Cypriote after glass excavated on Cyprus, the iridescent purple vase with feather decoration [1981-50-1] has a pitted and iridescent surface resembling ancient glass.
Among the French objects on view at the Exposition of Modern French Decorative Art at Lord & Taylor in 1928 was Suzanne and René Lalique’s Tourbillons vase, with a faceted glass surface created through mass-production pressing and hand-carving. This vase, here accented with black enamel, represented a new vision and technique in decorative glass.
Gift of Stanley Siegel, from the Stanley Siegel Collection
floral
sprouting
nature
bulbous
golden
iride
Tiffany invented the term “favrile,” from the Latin fabrilis (handmade) to describe all of the blown glass produced by his firm. Nature was Tiffany’s primary inspiration, as shown beautifully in these three floraform vases. The designer cultivated a variety of flowers and plants in his gardens at Laurelton Hall and used them for study and inspiration.
Panton’s highly sculptural chair is a unified design: rather than being made of assembled parts, the S-curved body combines seat, back, and legs in a continuous molded form. The design eliminates the need for wood or metal supports. The concave base provides stability and takes advantage of the material’s lightness, while allowing the chair to nestle for stacking.
In 1889, designer Paulding Farnham’s enameled and bejeweled orchids for Tiffany
& Co. created a sensation at the Paris Exposition Universelle. The choice of orchids
coincided with these flowers being sought for the gardens of the wealthy, who
were also the jewelry firm’s patrons. Designers consulted botanical texts at the
studio and made watercolor sketches to devise life-like enameling schemes. The
book Orchids and How to Grow Them in India and Other Tropical Climates, found in
the studio’s library, likely served as a reference for the design of this jewelry
Ohr, known as the “mad potter of Biloxi,” made free-form vessels that are organic in both form and surface treatment. Here, the variegated rose and pink glaze with dark brown splotches on the exterior is paired with an interior glazed in yellow speckled with mottled green.
Museum purchase through gift of Anonymous Donor, Carol B. Brener and Stephen W. Brener, Mr. and Mrs. Max B. Furman, Mrs. John Innes Kane, James M. Osborn, and Thonet Industries, Inc.
interior
decoration
container
home
display
asymmetry
brightly colored
irregular
glass
folded
slumped
By layering and slumping fine glass threads, Zynsky creates vessels in organic forms that are texturally and colorfully rich. This particular bowl includes iridescent black, scarlet, pale and medium green, and mauve, with an interior layered in an intense red.
The thick-walled, richly textured body of this glass vessel, formed in a wooden mold, demonstrates Aalto’s interest in organic form and reflects the morphologies of his Finnish homeland’s forests and lakes. The undulating shape is an intentional departure from classical rigidity and a complement to Aalto’s laminated bentwood furniture.
Charles Francis Annesley Voysey’s wallpaper and textile designs were known references for painters working at the Rozenburg Pottery and Porcelain Factory in the Netherlands, whose designs can be seen in the case nearby. Voysey adapted nature into flat designs that appealed to biological and botanical interests of the era. Here, tulips and acanthus leaves are interlaced in a dynamic composition
brush and watercolor, graphite, brush and gouache on brownish, translucent wove paper, possibly coated with resin
Museum purchase from Drawings and Prints Council Fund through gift of The Florence Gould Foundation
symmetry
jewels
figurative
leaves
vegetal
jewelers
jewelry
stars
art nouveau
transparent
jewelry design
This drawing for a corsage ornament by famed art nouveau designer Lalique features a Milky Way of diamonds and sapphires flanked by two nudes, both personifications of Night. The final brooch was exhibited in Paris at the influential Exposition Universelle of 1900.
brush and watercolor, graphite on cream wove paper
Museum purchase from Drawings and Prints Council Fund
floral
organic
art nouveau
print
watercolor
When writing to his wife in 1910 about his ideal family home in Bohemia, Alphonse Maria Mucha made his desires for living near nature clear: “You know my conditions . . . woods nearby, the town nearby, a garden as big as possible—so that I can build a studio there.” Mucha prioritized access to natural resources
in order to attain a good quality of life and work. His textile designs celebrate the spontaneous freeform curves of flowers and plants.
Manufactured by Ancienne Manufacture Royale de Limoges
glazed porcelain with photo-transfer (silkscreen) and painted-platinum decoration
Museum purchase from Charles E. Sampson Memorial Fund
ceramics
figures
container
fish
kitchen
landscape
flowers
dining
floral
organic
women
scrolls
female
scene
curved
consumers
celebrity
Louis XV
cartouche
This rococo-style tureen was designed by Cindy Sherman after a design originally commissioned by Madame de Pompadour, a French royal mistress. The representation of a fish inside the tureen is a play on “Poisson” (fish), her family name, and suggests its use. Madame de Pompadour, in an effort to refashion her identity as a royal mistress, carefully oversaw the production and display of her painted image. However, in the place of a portrait of Madame de Pompadour, Sherman has inserted a self-portrait, meant to spoof the commodification of women as objects of male fascination and desire.
Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund
floral
organic
art nouveau
print
watercolor
When writing to his wife in 1910 about his ideal family home in Bohemia, Alphonse Maria Mucha made his desires for living near nature clear: “You know my conditions . . . woods nearby, the town nearby, a garden as big as possible—so that I can build a studio there.” Mucha prioritized access to natural resources
in order to attain a good quality of life and work. His textile designs celebrate the spontaneous freeform curves of flowers and plants.
Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund
collectors
profile
display
exhibition
romance
women
print collectors
printmakers
intertwined
curving line
line
pair
art nouveau
hair
erotic
kissing
publishers
An icon of art nouveau illustration, Behrens’ Der Küss (The Kiss) appeared in the avant-garde journal Pan in 1898. The flat, evenly colored style—evidence of the fashion for Japanese woodcut prints in turn-of-the-century Europe—makes plain the provocative imagery of two androgynous figures kissing, their hair erotically intertwined.
This example may have been made for a Scottish or Irish patron, as the rococo carving is deeper than on most English chairs. It resembles designs from the 1750s published by Robert Manwaring. Few maker names are known, however, as British furniture was rarely signed and published designs provided models for many makers.
Museum purchase through gift of Mr. and Mrs. Lee S. Ainslie III, Marilyn Friedman, and Nancy Marks; General Acquisitions Endowment; Drawings & Prints Council Fund
advertising
pattern
display
exhibition
dining
organic
overlapping
eggs
curving line
geometric
food
sales
grocers
symposium
orthogonal
This Jugendstil art nouveau advertisement for Tropon, manufacturers of a nutritional supplement developed from egg whites, shows broken eggs from which the whites swirl down and around the tag line “L’Aliment le plus Concentré.” The abstract composition illustrates Van de Velde’s belief in line as a creative force.
Museum purchase from Charles E. Sampson Memorial Fund
organic
bulbous
leaf
squat
At the turn of the twentieth century during the art nouveau period, major European ceramic firms took advantage of iridescent glazes to maximize their expressions of an organic style. The use of eosin-reduced glazing at the Zsolnay factory in Hungary created vivid freeform color patterns.
Laarman’s rococo-inspired Heatwave radiator consists of modular units cast from reinforced concrete. Disputing the modernist correlation between functionality and streamlined forms, Laarman asserts that high decoration can foster increased function: “A radiator needs a large surface to give its heat to the air. The more decoration a radiator has, the better it works.”
The Garland light represents an intersection between Boontje’s work in patternmaking and his textiles. Designed to be mass-produced in various metal finishes and colors, each lamp is a pliable garland with no fixed shape; it can be draped and layered around a light bulb according to the owner’s whim.
Museum purchase from General Acquisition Endowment
foliage
decorative
carved
art nouveau
marquetry
tray
The Furniture Journal of October 10, 1904 reported that, with respect to his work in wood, Gallé believed in copying trees, leaves, and flowers in detail. The article states, “In the course of a morning walk he may be struck by the branch of a tree, or a chance grace in a blossom. The design follows at once, and in the woods which appear in some of the decorative panels by this great French master.” Gallé featured the visual qualities of many different woods through his work with inlay
