Art Nouveau

The reign of the last Russian emperor, Tsar Nicholas II, coincided with a period of glittering achievement known as the Silver Age of Russian culture. In architecture and fine art, the dominant style at the turn of the century was Art Nouveau – or, as it is known in Russia, Style Moderne.

In contrast to the preceding period of Eclecticism (Historicism), the masters of Art Nouveau did not employ combinations of ready-made forms. Instead, they strove towards artistic creativity, inspired solely by their own personalities and the direct task in hand.

In the age of capitalism and rapid industrialisation, this quest for originality, uniqueness, frivolity and artistic beauty combined, paradoxically, with standardisation, utilitarianism and mass production. Art Nouveau was the dominant trend in Russian art and architecture from the 1890s to the 1910s.