Art Nouveau was an international art movement during the late 1800's that focused on decorative arts such as glass work, interior design and jewelery, along with other departures from tradition in design, painting and sculpture. The movement was characterized by an elaborate ornate style of flowing curvilinear forms that frequently depicted leaves and flowers.

Key artist in the movement included: Gustav Klimt, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Otto Wagner, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Stanisław Wyspiański.

Although Art Nouveau took on distinctly localized tendencies as its geographic spread increased some general characteristics are indicative of the form. A description published in Pan magazine of Hermann Obrist's wall-hanging Cyclamen (1894) described it as "sudden violent curves generated by the crack of a whip", and this description became well-known during the early spread of Art Nouveau. Subsequently, not only did the work itself become better-known as The Whiplash, but the term "whiplash" is frequently applied to the characteristic curves employed by Art Nouveau artists. Such decorative "whiplash" motifs, formed by dynamic, undulating, and flowing lines in a syncopated rhythm, are found throughout the architecture, painting, sculpture and other forms of Art Nouveau design.

1896 Edition of the German Magazine Jugend
		This front cover of an 1896 edition of the German magazine Jugend is decorated in Art Nouveau motifs. Jugend was strongly associated with the style and the magazine's name inspired the German term for the movement, Jugendstil ("Jugend"-style).

Louis Comfort Tiffany: The Holy City
		Having 58 panels, this window is said to be one of the largest made by the Tiffany Studios. It is located at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church (Baltimore, Maryland), which has eleven Tiffany windows.

Toulouse-Lautrec: La Goulue at the Moulin Rouge
		Louise Weber was taken under the wing of Jacques Renaudin (1843–1907), a wine merchant who danced in his spare time under the stage name "Valentin le Désossé". They danced at the renowned Moulin Rouge in Montmartre when it first opened, performing an early form of the Cancan known as the "chalut." The two were instant stars, but it was Weber who stole the show with her outrageously captivating conduct. Booked as a permanent headliner, La Goulue became synonymous with the Cancan and the Moulin Rouge nightclub. The toast of Paris and the highest paid entertainer of her day, she became one of the favorite subjects for Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, immortalized by his portraits and posters of her dancing at the Moulin Rouge.

Gustav Klimt: A section of the Beethoven Frieze
		In 1902, Klimt finished the Beethoven Frieze for the 14th Vienna Secessionist exhibition, which was intended to be a celebration of the composer and featured a monumental, polychrome sculpture by Max Klinger. Meant for the exhibition only, the frieze was painted directly on the walls with light materials.

Louis Comfort Tiffany: The Tree of Life
		an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass and is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements. Tiffany was affiliated with a prestigious collaborative of designers known as the Associated Artists which included Lockwood de Forest, Candace Wheeler, and Samuel Colman. Tiffany designed stained glass windows and lamps, glass mosaics, blown glass, ceramics, jewelry, enamels and metalwork.

Gustav Klimt: Adele Bloch-Bauer I

According to press reports it was sold for US$135 million to Ronald Lauder for his Neue Galerie in New York City in June 2006, which made it at that time the most expensive painting ever sold.

Klimt took three years to complete the painting. It measures 138 x 138 cm and is made of oil and gold on canvas, showing elaborate and complex ornamentation as seen in the Jugendstil style.

Otto Wagner: Majolicahaus

His style incorporated the use of new materials and new forms to reflect the fact that society itself was changing. In his textbook, he stated that "new human tasks and views called for a change or reconstitution of existing forms". In pursuit of this ideal, he designed and built structures that reflected their intended function, such as the austere Neustiftgasse apartment block in Vienna.

n 1897, Otto Wagner, Gustav Klimt, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser founded the "Vienna Secession" artistic group. From the ideas of this group he developed a style that included quasi-symbolic references to the new forms of modernity.

Louis Comfort Tiffany: Dragonfly

Tiffany used cheap jelly jars and bottles because they had the mineral impurities that finer glass lacked. When he was unable to convince fine glassmakers to leave the impurities in, he began making his own glass. Tiffany used opalescent glass in a variety of colors and textures to create a unique style of stained glass. This can be contrasted with the method of painting in glass paint or enamels on colorless glass that had been the dominant method of creating stained glass for several hundred years in Europe.

Ivan Bilibin: The Tale of the Golden Cockerel

The Tale of the Golden Cockerel is the last fairy tale in verse by Alexander Pushkin. Pushkin wrote the tale in 1834 and it was first published in literary magazine Biblioteka dlya chteniya in 1835. The tale is based on the short story Legend of the Arabian Astrologer from the Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving.

Stanisław Wyspiański: View of Kościuszko Mound

He was an outstanding Polish playwright, painter and poet, as well as interior and furniture designer. A patriotic writer, he created a series of symbolic, national dramas within the artistic philosophy of the Young Poland Movement. Wyspiański was one of the most outstanding and multifaceted artists of his time in Europe.

Stanisław Wyspiański: Planty Park at Dawn

Wyspiański’s artistic output is very eclectic. Among dramas and poetry, one can find there views of Cracow (drawings, sketch-books, oil-paintings, pastel drawings), portraits and self-portraits, designs of stained glass windows and paintings, illustrations, graphic art, plans of furniture and interiors, development of Wawel.