Art Nouveau Design - Designs for modern bookbindings (c. 1889)
Title: Art Nouveau Design - Designs for modern bookbindings
Artist: Chr. Neureuther
Year of printing: c. 1889
Origin: The Netherlands
Technique: Original chromolithography on paper
Size (inc. mat): 40 x 30 cm.
Size image: 28.5 x 19.2 cm.
Professionally matted in acid-free museum quality mat-board.
This original 19th century chromolithography was part of a series of plates intended to use as examples for craftsman such as: architects, sculptors, interior decorators, furniture-builders, silver-smiths, book-designers and graphical artists. Most of the decorations are stylized in the (then modern) style of Jugendstil (also called: Art Nouveau, Nieuwe Stijl). It was a style that became very popular in Europe between 1890 and 1914 and manifested itself in all forms of arts and crafts (glassmaking, books, pottery, jewelry, furniture, architecture and painting). The style is characterized by a-symmetrical organic forms often inspired by nature. The term Jugendstil was used after the German art-periodical: Die Jugend, where-as in France and the English-speaking world the term Art Nouveau was used because it was named after the store of influential art-dealer Siegfried Bing: „Galerie l’Art Nouveau“. Series of prints with examples inspired all types of craftsman and were incorporated in their own creations. The technique used for this print is chromolithography (chromos = colour, Lithos = stone, graphein = to draw); which means that it was printed from a flat stone. The technique was developed in the 19th century and ensured larger print-runs, more details and effective printing in many different forms. The initial chromolithographic technique involved the use of multiple lithographic stones, one for each color, and was still extremely expensive when done for the best quality results. Depending on the number of colours present, a chromolithograph could take even very skilled workers months to produce. To make a print, once referred to as a “chromo”, a lithographer, with a finished design in front of him, gradually created and corrected the many stones using proofs to look as much as possible like the design, sometimes using dozens of layers.
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