Les
Industries Artistiques
Francaises et Etrangeres
L'Exposition Universelle de 1900
In 1900, the world witnessed a grand display of Art Nouveau jewels, objects, and architecture at Paris’s Exposition Universelle.
Planning began for the 1900 Paris Exposition in 1892. At this time, French expositions were a government affair, not a private one. Since the end of the eighteenth century, the state had sponsored regular exhibitions in Paris, mostly to showcase national industrial goods and fine arts. Throughout the years these national expositions steadily grew in size and ambition.
In one sense, the Exposition in 1900 was the beginning of the end. With over fifty million people attending the Exposition, the movement's artists gained a wide audience. One needn’t possess a crystal ball to see the effect: increased demand for the pieces, lowered manufacturing and design standards, and a resultant faltering of the originality and artistic care central to the movement.
By 1910, Art Nouveau had all but died. The Exposition of 1900 thereafter has been seen as the movement’s greatest moment and, at the same time, the start of a precipitous and unfortunate decline.
Find much more info on this exhibition here.
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Condition of the book: very good.
All plates are still with guard papers and there is an abundance of the most beautiful examples of Art Nouveau design of all kinds. A great piece of visual design history!
The first 50 pages are descriptive text and an index of the pieces exhibited.
The book is available in our online shop.
