Art Nouveau: The impetus in industrialization was partly English, but in design the French dominated Europe until the 1860's. The stifling historicism of 19th century manufacturing was overcome at the end of the century by the arts and crafts movement in England, which emphasized the importance of handcrafting, and by the art nouveau style, which introduced flowing motifs—often inspired by plant forms—and used bold decorations of enamel and semiprecious stones.
His republican opinions became so pronounced and his expression so outspoken that after the coup d'etat of Louis Napoleon in 1851 he was banished from France. His exile, which lasted until after the fall of the empire in 1870, was fruitful in such works as Marnix de Saint-Aldegonde (1856) ; L'Histoire de mes idees (1858) ; Merlin I'enchanteur (I860), and La Revolution (1865). Re-established in Paris, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies and voted consistently against all monarchial reaction and for the secularization of laws. His last work, L'esprit nouveau (1874), contains an expression of his social, political, and intellectual creed. He was more a rhetorician than a logician. |
