i5o 
ftERAMIC STUDIO 
L'ART NOUVEAU 
"ItTAN Y authors begin their manuscript with some reference 
■W*- to the weather, which is often an indication that they 
hardly know how to begin. Some such feeling pervades 
the mind of the writer of this article, in her attempt to re- 
spond to a request for a few expressions concerning I/Art 
Nouveau; the need of the accessories of thunder, lightning, 
and moaning wind, is felt strongly, the term, after turning 
page after page of authorities upon the subject, seeming 
to require a few uncanny adjuncts to give it proper expres- 
sion. The people who sustain and assail the new art, 
are about equally divided in number, and intensity of ex- 
pression, and purpose. It is apparently not easy to frame 
any definition, or statement of the principles or the char- 
acteristics of the movement, for it is a movement and not 
a style. It certainly designates a great variety of forms 
and developements of decorative design, with a character 
of protest against the traditional and common-place. A 
great authority on the negative side has described our 
graceful LArt Nouveau, as "the concentrated essence of a 
wriggle," and he also speaks of "squirming lines and blobs," 
in connection with the new work. 
LArt nouveau is certainly a dangerous thing to the 
designer in china painting, who is not blessed with good 
taste. In its best rendering it is reposeful, and essentially 
original, but in the hand of an amateur the wandering, 
snakey lines, squirming over everything, are all but artistic 
and have no correspondence to anything in nature. They 
are, in fact, a terrible nightmare, and have ruined much 
good work. 
When lines for decorative purpose are set out to ignore 
the instincts and preferences that have guided artists in 
expression for centuries, those instincts being the facts and 
forms in nature, let us hope that the strolling pencil may 
be handled always by the trained artist, and one possess- 
ing practical knowledge, distinct artistic aim, and definite 
principles. 
If we are really to have an entirely new method of 
artistic expression, which shall be different from anything 
that has ever gone before, let us hope that on every oc- 
casion the inventors of the strolling lines may be skilled 
in the work, before any application of them to an exquisite 
piece of china is "fired in." Originality is valuable only 
when combined with beauty and fitness. Unless these 
qualities are strictly observed, excentricity, rather than 
originality, should be the term used. We live in an age of 
progression, an age when a thing is welcome simply 
because it is new, nor will it be rejected because it is an 
innovation. An innovation in art will not be tolerated 
long if it violates the teaching of nature. L Art Nouveau 
has been tried by certain standards, essential to its appli- 
cation, and has not been found wanting. It has made an 
influence felt which is stamped upon many of our industries, 
and has given ample proof of its valuable means of artistic 
expression, in the hands of skilled artists. In its charm of 
simplicity and graceful lines is the tremendous advance 
made by LArt nouveau, during only a few years. It has 
been the means of reviving several branches of decorative 
art, and is in fact a general revival showing it not to be a 
fictitious movement. It is based upon excellent and 
positive principles. It attempts to create, and does not 
copy, and creation is the life of decorative art. In the 
work-shops of artists who lead the movement, art-crafts- 
men are trained, looking to flowers, foliage, grasses, and an 
infinite variety of living forms for new beauty, rather than 
copying antique ornament, and it is really better to fall into 
some error trying to create, than to become sterile, copying. 
Let us encourage and acknowledge LArt Nouveau, 
remembering that imitators are condemned to an impulse 
of exageration, which may produce shocking results, in our 
line of work especially. Every true expression of art is 
founded upon the patient study of nature, and LArt Nou- 
veau can never give results, without the work that precedes 
every accomplishment in any branch of art. 
Jeanne M. Stewart 
GOLDENROD AND DRAGON-FLY (Treatment page 154) 
