1
00:00:16,840 --> 00:00:20,480
As the 19th century was
drawing to a close,


2
00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:24,480
a luxurious, new style was taking
Europe by storm.


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00:00:26,760 --> 00:00:29,840
This was the fin de siecle,


4
00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:35,560
the glamorous, decadent but also
anxious end to the 19th century,


5
00:00:35,560 --> 00:00:39,720
and the style was Art Nouveau.


6
00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:41,000
Merci.


7
00:00:46,120 --> 00:00:49,520
Art Nouveau grew out of the dark,
restless energies


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00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:51,240
of the industrial city.


9
00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:54,720
In the age of Darwin and Freud,


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00:00:54,720 --> 00:01:01,000
it was fixated with nature,
sensuality and sex.


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00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:04,760
In the space of a decade or so,


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00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:08,120
Art Nouveau went from being
nowhere to everywhere.


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Lapped up by the burgeoning
middle classes of Europe,


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it was mimicked and mass produced.


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00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:20,240
What began as a revolution in the
name of truth, beauty and nature,


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00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:24,080
ended in derision,
decadence and decay.


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00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:30,440
In this series, I'll be visiting
the great cities of Europe,


18
00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:33,720
where the work of visionaries
like Emile Galle,


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00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:38,200
artists like Gustav Klimt and
entrepreneurs like Arthur Liberty


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00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:40,320
blossomed all too briefly.


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00:01:56,200 --> 00:01:58,640
Paris at the end
of the 19th century


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loved its bullet-straight
boulevards,


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00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:07,040
its imposing monuments and
classically inspired architecture.


24
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But beyond the grandeur,
the population had exploded


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00:02:13,640 --> 00:02:17,720
from half a million
to 2.5 million people by 1900.


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Those elegant boulevards
were gridlocked with horses,


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carriages and crowds.


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Things needed to change.


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The city planners came up with
a radical solution.


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Le Metro, ladies and gentlemen!


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00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:47,160
Typically Paris,
typically Art Nouveau.


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The good citizens of Paris
were shocked.


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Entrances like bat wings,


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00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:59,600
sinuous metals, sensuous curves.


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It was a bold declaration
of the new art for the new century.


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The first Metro entrances
appeared just in time


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for a massive celebration in Paris,


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the World Fair of 1900.


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It was when the city would show off
its cutting-edge new style.


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At the heart of the fair were
two huge buildings,


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standing opposite each other, the
Grand Palais and the Petit Palais.


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This is Le Grand Palais.
It's exquisite, isn't it?


43
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It's beautiful, substantial,


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one of the biggest and best
exhibition spaces


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you'll find anywhere in the world,
never mind Paris.


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You'd love it.


47
00:03:45,960 --> 00:03:48,200
Unfortunately, I'm not going there.


48
00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:53,640
I'm going to Le Petit Palais,
the small palace over here.


49
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Perhaps they were boasting
to their foreign visitors.


50
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"In France, this,
all 16,000 square metres of it,


51
00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:05,960
"is what we call small."


52
00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:12,800
Bonjour. Monsieur Chazal,
je m'appelle Stephen.


53
00:04:12,800 --> 00:04:14,640
Merci, monsieur.


54
00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:17,440
'Gilles Chazal is director
of the Petit Palais.'


55
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Can you give me some idea of the
sheer size of the exhibition


56
00:04:24,920 --> 00:04:28,120
in terms of Paris? It was a great,
big event, wasn't it?


57
00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:30,120
It was an international exhibition.


58
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It was of course a very,
very famous event.


59
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It was from this place to La Tour
Eiffel... To the Eiffel Tower.


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00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:39,600
Yes, yes and along the River Seine.


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It was absolutely incredible and it
was a discovery for the public,


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to look after artworks,
but also engines and so on.


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Also, it was a change of century,
so it was a very great moment.


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Designed to showcase the very best
of modern art and industry,


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00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:10,960
the World Fair was France's
manifesto for the 20th century.


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There were moving walkways
and a grand electricity hall.


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Over 60 countries exhibited
and 50 million people visited.


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It was the party to end all parties,


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and Art Nouveau was
the guest of honour.


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Around the city, the dramatic
jewellery of Rene Lalique,


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the organic forms of
Emile Galle's glass


72
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and the alluring femme fatales
of Alfonse Mucha


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dazzled the Paris crowds.


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00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:56,720
With all its marble
and mosaics and gilt and glass,


75
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this was an opulent luxury
showroom for Art Nouveau,


76
00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:03,960
but it was much more than that.


77
00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:08,880
It also held up a dazzling mirror
to French hopes and fears


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00:06:08,880 --> 00:06:11,160
at the turn of the 20th century.


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Paris was overcrowded, filthy


80
00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:22,280
and simmering with anti-Semitic
tensions.


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00:06:22,280 --> 00:06:26,440
At the World Fair, Art Nouveau
was at the height of its popularity,


82
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and for a brief moment it
seemed like an antidote


83
00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:32,880
to the ugliness of the modern age.


84
00:06:32,880 --> 00:06:38,040
But on the cusp of the 20th century,
how did this upstart new style


85
00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:42,880
threaten to upstage the conservative
ranks of traditional French design?


86
00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:53,760
It was only five years
before the 1900 World Fair


87
00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:56,480
that Art Nouveau had begun to emerge


88
00:06:56,480 --> 00:07:00,040
from the licentious
bohemian quarter of the city.


89
00:07:09,080 --> 00:07:11,880
In 1895, Montmartre,


90
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the playground on the edge
of the French capital,


91
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had become a magnet for artists


92
00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:21,320
looking for inspiration
and excitement.


93
00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:26,320
Degas and Toulouse Lautrec painted
the local prostitutes and dancers,


94
00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:30,400
and they became emblems
of the city's sexual freedom.


95
00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:57,560
Decadent, licentious, drug-fuelled,
absinthe-soaked -


96
00:07:57,560 --> 00:07:59,960
there was a downside, as well,
of course,


97
00:07:59,960 --> 00:08:03,480
but it was here in Montmartre
that the artists of the day,


98
00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:06,440
the avant-garde artists
earned their stripes.


99
00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:18,600
Of all the artists who set the scene
for Art Nouveau,


100
00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:22,080
Charles Baudelaire was
the most subversive.


101
00:08:22,080 --> 00:08:26,640
In 1857 he shocked Paris
to its breeches


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00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:31,200
with his first volume of poetry,
Les Fleurs Du Mal.


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00:08:31,200 --> 00:08:33,880
It's all there in the title,
really, isn't it?


104
00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:35,920
The Flowers Of Evil.


105
00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:43,320
He was fascinated
by the dark side of nature...


106
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..and human nature.


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00:08:50,880 --> 00:08:55,800
Sex, death, vampires, lesbians,


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and all this at the same time
as Anthony Trollope


109
00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:02,720
was writing Barchester Towers.


110
00:09:23,840 --> 00:09:28,720
It was in the back-street drinking
dens and hash joints of Paris


111
00:09:28,720 --> 00:09:32,320
that Baudelaire's ideas
about nature and art


112
00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:36,080
were handed down to
Art Nouveau designers.


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00:09:36,080 --> 00:09:40,080
Louise, what is Baudelaire
telling us about nature?


114
00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:44,160
He embraces all that's
artificial, you know,


115
00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:47,480
he vaunts the merit of
artificiality over nature,


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and that's the beginnings of
decadentism, if you like,


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a rejection of naturalism
and of its values.


118
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Is that because science
and industry was giving us so much,


119
00:09:57,960 --> 00:10:01,000
one day we could tweak nature
if it suited us?


120
00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:04,040
Yeah, there's a desire
to improve on nature.


121
00:10:04,040 --> 00:10:05,920
To take it, to work on it,


122
00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:08,240
and to do something better
and something different.


123
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And this leads us into decadence,
it leads us into Art Nouveau.


124
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The dancers and performers
from Paris' nocturnal world


125
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embodied these dangerous new ideas.


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Like moths to a flame, Art Nouveau
designers were drawn to these women.


127
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And none was more nocturnal
than the divine Sarah Bernhardt.


128
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She was Art Nouveau's ultimate muse.


129
00:10:40,280 --> 00:10:45,000
Bernhardt was celebrated
as the greatest actress of her day,


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as much by herself as anyone else.


131
00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:50,840
The word bohemian could almost
have been invented for her.


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Amongst her many lovers
she counted crowned heads of Europe.


133
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It's even said she slept
in a coffin,


134
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believing that playing dead
might improve her tragic roles.


135
00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:06,040
Baudelaire would have
been proud of her.


136
00:11:08,920 --> 00:11:13,640
Just look at Sarah there, reclining
on her chaise longue with her fan,


137
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her eyes imploring, no, demanding,


138
00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:19,680
that you give her
your full attention.


139
00:11:19,680 --> 00:11:24,400
And that dog at her feet represents
fashionable Parisian society,


140
00:11:24,400 --> 00:11:29,640
writers, poets, artists
for whom Sarah was a muse.


141
00:11:29,640 --> 00:11:32,640
But look deep into Fido's eyes.


142
00:11:32,640 --> 00:11:35,360
I think he's seen things
in the boudoir


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00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:37,960
no animal should be exposed to.


144
00:11:45,240 --> 00:11:49,400
Sarah was about to play a new role


145
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in the Paris debut of Art Nouveau.


146
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It was Christmas Day 1894.


147
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Sarah needed a poster to advertise
her new play, Gismonda.


148
00:12:01,640 --> 00:12:04,120
But who to turn to?


149
00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:07,840
Alfonse Mucha was a Moravian artist


150
00:12:07,840 --> 00:12:11,680
who'd worked his way across Europe
to study art in Paris.


151
00:12:11,680 --> 00:12:15,560
He really wanted to be
a fine artist, not a commercial one,


152
00:12:15,560 --> 00:12:18,280
but he was living hand to mouth.


153
00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:22,680
Then he was approached to create
the Gismonda poster.


154
00:12:22,680 --> 00:12:26,720
He put his ambitions on hold
and got to work.


155
00:12:26,720 --> 00:12:29,200
This is Mucha later in life,


156
00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:33,800
but today it's his grandson John
and John's wife Sarah


157
00:12:33,800 --> 00:12:35,640
who take up the story.


158
00:12:38,120 --> 00:12:41,600
The first poster of Art Nouveau.


159
00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:46,840
Well, it's the first poster that
Mucha did for Sarah Bernhardt, yes.


160
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This is indirectly the first step


161
00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:56,120
to actually make art available
to the general public,


162
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you no longer have to be rich.


163
00:12:58,480 --> 00:13:00,320
How did it come about?


164
00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:01,840
It came about


165
00:13:01,840 --> 00:13:04,240
in a most extraordinary way,


166
00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:07,200
because what happened
was that Mucha,


167
00:13:07,200 --> 00:13:09,360
who was a struggling artist
at the time,


168
00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:11,800
was doing a favour for a friend,


169
00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:14,240
he was correcting some proofs
at the printers,


170
00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:17,400
and it was at Christmas time so
everybody else was off on holiday,


171
00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:20,280
and suddenly the manager
of the printers came rushing in.


172
00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:23,760
Sarah Bernhardt had said
she had to have a new poster


173
00:13:23,760 --> 00:13:26,840
for her re-presentation
of Gismonda in the new year


174
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and she wanted it now.


175
00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:33,200
So there was no-one else to ask,
so Mucha got the ask.


176
00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:36,440
So the printer went on holiday,
came back from holiday


177
00:13:36,440 --> 00:13:38,480
and said "Where's the poster?"


178
00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:42,360
And Alphonse presented this
and the printer had a fit.


179
00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:44,200
Why did he have a fit, John?


180
00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:47,280
He'd never seen anything
like this, nothing.


181
00:13:47,280 --> 00:13:50,160
Sarah Bernhardt wanted to see it,
so it was rolled up


182
00:13:50,160 --> 00:13:52,360
and the printer took it
to Sarah Bernhardt.


183
00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:54,640
Alphonse was depressed
because, you know,


184
00:13:54,640 --> 00:13:56,520
he thought he'd made
a terrible mistake.


185
00:13:56,520 --> 00:14:01,160
Almost immediately, a message
came back from Sarah Bernhardt


186
00:14:01,160 --> 00:14:03,920
that she wanted to see Mucha,
so he went to her boudoir,


187
00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:05,440
with a very heavy heart,


188
00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:08,880
because he thought he was
going to get a bollocking,


189
00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:12,920
and this is in Alphonse's own words,
I mean, true historical fact,


190
00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:15,400
she got up, embraced him and said,


191
00:14:15,400 --> 00:14:18,240
"Mr Mucha,
you have made me immortal."


192
00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:21,000
You know, she might have been
in her 50s


193
00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:24,680
and have done all sorts of things,
but when she was on stage,


194
00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:28,400
she was this woman with a vision,
with a purity in her heart.


195
00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:33,440
What Mucha did was that
he saw Sarah Bernhardt


196
00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:38,160
and he made her look the way
she felt and wanted to be seen.


197
00:14:38,160 --> 00:14:40,680
And that's what he's communicating,


198
00:14:40,680 --> 00:14:43,640
is who she saw herself as.


199
00:14:43,640 --> 00:14:46,560
Then she immediately signed him up
for a six-year contract.


200
00:14:47,680 --> 00:14:50,080
This was like a lightning
from blue sky.


201
00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:05,160
Mucha's Gismonda
captured the moment.


202
00:15:05,160 --> 00:15:07,720
The nouvelle woman was born.


203
00:15:09,960 --> 00:15:14,440
He crowns the divine Sarah
with stylised flowers.


204
00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:20,640
Using pale muted shades rather
than bold primary colours,


205
00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:23,920
he revolutionised poster design.


206
00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:31,880
The poster appeared
on the 1st January 1895


207
00:15:31,880 --> 00:15:34,160
on the streets of Paris.


208
00:15:34,160 --> 00:15:37,040
It caused a sensation
from the get-go.


209
00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:40,080
This was the first public
declaration of the new art


210
00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:43,080
in the French capital.


211
00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:46,320
The public went wild for the poster.


212
00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:50,600
As quickly as Gismonda was put up,
she was taken down again.


213
00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:54,760
Bill stickers were followed
and bribed to hand her over.


214
00:15:54,760 --> 00:15:57,720
Mucha became an overnight success.


215
00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:01,760
He moved to a swanky new studio,


216
00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:05,240
where he experimented with
the new art of photography.


217
00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:10,640
And he took this wonderful series
of photographs of his models.


218
00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:16,880
His new women have definitely
burnt their corsets, haven't they?


219
00:16:16,880 --> 00:16:22,440
They stare back at you,
brazen and proud of their bodies.


220
00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:29,280
He produced this book,
Documents Decoratifs,


221
00:16:29,280 --> 00:16:35,280
a bible which later spread Mucha's
style around France and Europe.


222
00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:41,480
Well, these are a bit more candid
than those Sarah Bernhardt pictures.


223
00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:46,560
They're beautiful, graphically
ahead of their time,


224
00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:53,240
and also, I suppose one has to say,
quite risque for the 1890s.


225
00:16:53,240 --> 00:16:55,720
Some of these girls are very demure,


226
00:16:55,720 --> 00:17:00,920
they seem to merge with the wildlife
they're pictured alongside,


227
00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:05,480
the flowers, but others, like this,
dare I say it, hussy here,


228
00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:10,800
definitely have a bit of "come into
the garden, Claude," about them.


229
00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:16,800
What my mother might have called
a bit forward.


230
00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:30,880
Champagne,


231
00:17:30,880 --> 00:17:33,080
cigarettes,


232
00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:37,040
Mucha discovered that sex
could sell anything.


233
00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:41,880
It could even sell holidays
on the newly-developed Riviera.


234
00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:45,880
And the selling point
was the nouvelle woman,


235
00:17:45,880 --> 00:17:48,200
the icon of Art Nouveau.


236
00:18:04,440 --> 00:18:08,000
The growing middle class was
learning to love spending its money


237
00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:10,040
in bars and restaurants


238
00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:12,920
and the new department stores
that were springing up everywhere.


239
00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:15,120
It was spend, spend, spend.


240
00:18:15,120 --> 00:18:18,600
There was a plethora of new products
on the market,


241
00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:21,600
and every one of them
needed to be advertised.


242
00:18:23,360 --> 00:18:27,320
In the new age of mass advertising,
mass production


243
00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:31,920
and mass consumption, Art Nouveau
was itself mass produced.


244
00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:40,960
Mucha made Art Nouveau de rigueur,
fantastique, formidable.


245
00:18:49,880 --> 00:18:53,000
Wow, or even, mon dieu!


246
00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:55,280
What about this place?


247
00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:01,040
When Georges Fouquet inherited


248
00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:05,240
his father's exclusive
jewellery business in 1895,


249
00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:07,880
he wanted some of that Mucha magic.


250
00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:10,760
He started designing jewellery
with him,


251
00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:13,800
and commissioned Mucha
to create a shop


252
00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:17,360
that would indulge his clients'
taste for Art Nouveau luxury.


253
00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:22,120
Can we go back in time?


254
00:19:22,120 --> 00:19:26,880
It's Paris, you're a man of means,
you've got a few bob, or francs,


255
00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:30,240
and you want to impress
that special person in your life.


256
00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:33,440
Well, this is where you come,
this jewellery shop,


257
00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:37,360
for that piece, that rock,
for a special occasion.


258
00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:41,640
Maybe a birthday, a Valentine,
an anniversary.


259
00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:44,800
But over the decades,
what is quite clear


260
00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:48,920
is that the shop itself,
the jewellery shop, is the true gem.


261
00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:52,280
It's the gift that goes on giving.


262
00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:58,560
In this shop, Mucha used
the full Art Nouveau palette,


263
00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:01,840
curves inspired
by the natural world,


264
00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:05,520
feathers, gilt, finery.


265
00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:10,240
Every inch of it
decorative and sensual.


266
00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:15,480
Sex and Art Nouveau were intimate,
promiscuous bedfellows.


267
00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:17,360
Look at the figure up here.


268
00:20:17,360 --> 00:20:22,080
A beautiful, almost classical pose
at first, but then notice,


269
00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:27,640
her arms are behind her head,
emphasising her splendid bust,


270
00:20:27,640 --> 00:20:30,600
and even a modern haircut.


271
00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:36,040
She is the femme fatale,
a classic symbol of Art Nouveau.


272
00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:40,800
And imagine presenting your femme
fatale with this Fouquet brooch.


273
00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:43,120
Now, that would put a smile
on her face.


274
00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:59,000
In its early days, Art Nouveau
was still the preserve


275
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:02,440
of the rich bohemian elite
of the city.


276
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:08,000
Amongst them was an ambitious
and talented young designer


277
00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:12,840
who would embrace the new style
and revolutionise jewellery design.


278
00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:17,880
When the great society jeweller
Rene Lalique


279
00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:21,480
was beginning his career in Paris
in the 1870s,


280
00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:23,480
jewellery wasn't about design.


281
00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:26,600
It was all about the bling,
about the rocks.


282
00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:29,240
And not just any rocks - diamonds.


283
00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:32,040
Diamonds as big as the Ritz
in Paris.


284
00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:37,200
Lalique changed all that.


285
00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:41,960
He's probably better known today
for his glass designs,


286
00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:43,920
but he trained as a goldsmith


287
00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:48,880
and built his reputation on his
pioneering Art Nouveau jewellery.


288
00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:53,520
These days, you have to go to
museums to see his precious pieces.


289
00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:04,200
'Philippe Thiebault is curator
in chief at the Musee d'Orsay,


290
00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:08,240
'and he has the key
to the Lalique jewel box.'


291
00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:10,880
Hello, Philippe, I'm Stephen.
Nice to meet you.


292
00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:12,200
Very nice to meet you.


293
00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:14,400
I see you have an interesting
object in your hand.


294
00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:19,640
'Before Lalique, valuable
jewellery was produced by artisans


295
00:22:19,640 --> 00:22:21,880
'from precious metals and gemstones.


296
00:22:21,880 --> 00:22:26,560
'The bigger the rocks, the more
desirable and valuable the piece.


297
00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:29,200
'Lalique turned all that
on its head.'


298
00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:41,080
So it's a piece by Lalique,
it's a hairpin in horn.


299
00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:43,520
Horn? So that's cheap...


300
00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:45,120
It's very, very cheap,


301
00:22:45,120 --> 00:22:49,280
and it's a characteristic
of the art of Lalique,


302
00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:55,200
because Lalique was
not very fond of expensive material.


303
00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:59,440
When he chose materials, it was
not for the price of the material,


304
00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:02,520
but for the colour,
the texture of the material.


305
00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:06,400
So with Lalique, it wasn't
the gemstones in the jewellery,


306
00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:09,520
it was the design,
that's what added the value.


307
00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:12,720
Yes, yes. It's a very naturalistic
piece, you know.


308
00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:17,640
It is engraved to imitate,
to suggest, the angelica.


309
00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:19,280
It's a plant, you know.


310
00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:23,080
And here you have little diamonds


311
00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:28,920
to suggest the reflections
of the sun on the plant.


312
00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:31,280
Right. It's a very lovely piece.


313
00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:34,680
And the gentleman who bought this
from Lalique,


314
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:36,280
he would be buying this
for his wife?


315
00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:40,320
Maybe not, maybe not.
Well, this is Paris.


316
00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:45,320
Many men went to Lalique,


317
00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:52,760
and they asked for jewels for a lady.


318
00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:56,160
"Can you make something for my
special friend," that kind of thing?


319
00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:57,560
Yes, yes.


320
00:23:57,560 --> 00:24:01,080
What about Lalique,
how did he feel about women himself?


321
00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:02,960
Lalique, I think...


322
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:09,160
We know that Lalique did love
many women during his life,


323
00:24:09,160 --> 00:24:13,880
had many mistresses in Paris
and London, everywhere,


324
00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:19,320
and it's the reason why he
is a good designer of jewels,


325
00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:22,960
because I think he loved
very much women.


326
00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:27,120
Some of his pieces are erotic.


327
00:24:27,120 --> 00:24:32,160
We have a box, and you will see
at the centre, a naked woman,


328
00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:35,080
and she opens her cloak...


329
00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:37,240
Her cloak? Yes.


330
00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:42,560
And so around her,
you have young men, also naked.


331
00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:46,560
They are completely dazzled
by the nudity.


332
00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:49,440
Are they? They're falling away,
the shock, thrilled.


333
00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:51,280
It's like a goddess, you know.


334
00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:56,600
She is like a butterfly,
or maybe like a bat.


335
00:24:56,600 --> 00:24:59,600
Because bats and butterflies
were very appreciated


336
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:01,280
by the artists of Art Nouveau.


337
00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:12,000
Lalique created dramatic jewellery
about women, for women.


338
00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:22,280
His world, like so much of
Art Nouveau, is a no-man's land,


339
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:25,040
where the woman reigns supreme.


340
00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:32,040
Lalique's fascination with natural
forms of all kinds wasn't unusual.


341
00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:39,080
Collecting and categorising nature
was the great obsession of the time.


342
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:49,920
To study insects close-up,
Lalique came here to Deyrolle,


343
00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:54,480
the cabinet of curiosities,
in the St Germain district of Paris.


344
00:25:56,800 --> 00:26:00,840
This extraordinary bestiary
is really a trophy cabinet


345
00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:04,040
of what was going on
in the late 19th century.


346
00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:07,200
There was an explosion
in international travel,


347
00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:11,040
in collecting, in taxidermy,
in botany.


348
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:15,720
This kind of stuff was brought home
by gentlemen in their swag bags.


349
00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:19,680
In the middle of the 19th century,


350
00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:22,640
Darwin's radical new theories
about evolution


351
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:25,720
and man's place
in the natural world


352
00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:28,800
exploded established beliefs.


353
00:26:34,800 --> 00:26:39,240
Nature, savage nature,
red in tooth and claw.


354
00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:42,760
This was a new battleground
between religion on the one hand


355
00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:44,680
and science on the other.


356
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:47,960
For designers,
it was a badge of modernity,


357
00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:50,400
a new way of understanding
the world.


358
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,920
They brought nature into Paris.


359
00:26:55,960 --> 00:26:58,760
But they did so on new terms.


360
00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:05,560
For designers like Lalique,
nature was there to be embellished.


361
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:08,400
The lily was there to be gilded.


362
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:34,160
Swarms of insects,
clouds of butterflies, birds, bats,


363
00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:37,480
they all buzzed and flapped
around Lalique's work.


364
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:40,480
In fact, if it hadn't
all looked so beautiful,


365
00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:42,800
it might have been
like a Hitchcock film.


366
00:27:45,320 --> 00:27:49,320
This is the art of metamorphosis.


367
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:54,960
Birds, insects and women dissolve
in and out of each other


368
00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:56,440
in weird and wonderful ways.


369
00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:01,520
Nature's sensuous, but sinister.


370
00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:04,880
It's blue skies
and bumblebees one minute,


371
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:07,000
and bats at bed-time the next.


372
00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:19,080
Lalique may have used cheap
materials,


373
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:22,840
but his jewellery was lavish
and dramatic -


374
00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:26,120
perfectly designed
for the dim electric lights


375
00:28:26,120 --> 00:28:28,720
of Paris' nocturnal world.


376
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:34,160
This is the world-famous
restaurant Maxim's.


377
00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:36,800
Sarah Bernhardt
and the literary crowd


378
00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:40,000
partied here till the early hours.


379
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:44,200
Entrepreneur Eugene Cornuche
redesigned it in Art Nouveau style


380
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:48,160
in 1899 for the World Fair.


381
00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:51,400
He knew that Art Nouveau,
famous artists


382
00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:56,600
and a ready supply of courtesans
could turn his investment into gold.


383
00:28:56,600 --> 00:29:01,280
Today it has the feel
of an upmarket bordello.


384
00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:05,440
They say every man who came here
arrived with a woman,


385
00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:07,240
but it was never his wife.


386
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:16,120
You can practically hear the violins
soaring away,


387
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:19,800
the booming laughter and gossip
of the politicians


388
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:23,880
and the artists and actors
and painters who came here,


389
00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:28,960
and the tinkling laughter
of their new muses or courtesans.


390
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:40,200
Pierre Andre, thank you so much
for letting me see Maxim's.


391
00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:43,040
You are very welcome
in this incredible place.


392
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:45,200
It is incredible, isn't it? It is.


393
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:48,880
With its mirrors and gilt,


394
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:51,640
the spiral staircase.


395
00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:54,920
It is a symbol of what we call
in France La Belle Epoque.


396
00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:59,920
It really represents


397
00:29:59,920 --> 00:30:04,600
such a dream in people's minds


398
00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:09,240
that it stays from that time,


399
00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:11,880
and it's still today the same.


400
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:14,240
Maxim's was Art Nouveau.


401
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:19,840
Is there a sense that
the normal rules didn't apply?


402
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:23,240
Once you stepped over the doorway
of Maxim's... Absolutely.


403
00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:29,600
The only rules correct
in such a place


404
00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:34,440
was elegance and glamour.


405
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:39,480
In Maxim's, many times
we had writers, novelists...


406
00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:42,280
Like Marcel Proust,
did he come here?


407
00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:45,000
Of course, he came many, many,
many times. Sarah Bernhardt?


408
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:48,880
And Sarah Bernhardt, who was
one of our best clients.


409
00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:52,880
It was really the place where you
had to come to see and be seen.


410
00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:59,320
It showed exactly all the taste
they had at that period,


411
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:04,440
and the best was all around
Art Nouveau.


412
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:11,120
Maxim's sensuous curves


413
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:14,480
and women in their gardens of Eden -


414
00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:19,920
they play on the idea of innocence,
purity, and, of course sin.


415
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:24,080
There are mirrors absolutely
everywhere in here.


416
00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:27,760
It's like a hall of mirrors
from a circus.


417
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:31,120
Or maybe something a bit seedier,
a bit kinkier,


418
00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:33,120
a little bit more sinister.


419
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:40,720
In 1899, Maxim's typified


420
00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:45,000
much of the Art Nouveau
that was being created.


421
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:47,600
Fashionable and extravagant,


422
00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:52,760
it had come to represent
fin-de-siecle decadence and excess.


423
00:31:56,880 --> 00:32:00,560
But there is another side
to this story.


424
00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:05,160
If you think that Art Nouveau


425
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:09,720
is all exquisite vases
and curly furniture,


426
00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:11,920
well, you couldn't be more wrong.


427
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:18,600
Amongst the Art Nouveau designers
at the 1900 World Fair,


428
00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:23,000
at least one felt that the new style
had a more serious mission.


429
00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:29,720
His stand featured
a working furnace,


430
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:33,760
and surrounding it,
a display of glass vases.


431
00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:36,160
They were all dedicated to a cause


432
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:39,640
which exposed a seismic rift
in French society.


433
00:32:40,800 --> 00:32:44,800
The designer behind this display
was Emile Galle.


434
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:54,520
Emile Galle was the troubled
genius of Art Nouveau,


435
00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:58,600
he was creative, an innovator,
an entrepreneur.


436
00:32:58,600 --> 00:33:04,080
He was also a passionate believer
and campaigner for social justice.


437
00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:07,200
That, in the end,
would cost him dearly.


438
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:14,080
Emile Galle is one of the most
fascinating characters to emerge


439
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:18,040
in the story of the French arts in
the latter part of the 19th century.


440
00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:23,440
He was absolutely a man of his time,
and in that respect,


441
00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:25,960
is a key figure in the story
of Art Nouveau.


442
00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:30,000
Philippe,
what sort of a man was Galle?


443
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:31,880
Very complex personality,


444
00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:35,240
a poet, one might say,
a philosopher, a dreamer,


445
00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:39,040
who found his medium,
particularly in glass.


446
00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:43,000
A man with very diverse interests,


447
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:48,880
he was a great botanist,
he had a strong political agenda,


448
00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:53,000
he was a liberal
with a tremendous social conscience.


449
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:56,480
Emile Galle was also
an industrialist,


450
00:33:56,480 --> 00:34:00,120
who built from an
inherited family business


451
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:04,200
a very substantial and successful


452
00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:08,080
glass, furniture
and ceramics factory.


453
00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:16,680
With his master craftsmen,
Galle created stunning prototypes,


454
00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:20,360
while on the workshop floor,
designs were mass produced


455
00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:23,120
for a hungry market across France.


456
00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:26,200
Art and industry went hand in hand.


457
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:39,360
So he was experimenting to develop
different techniques,


458
00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:41,560
colouring and texturing the glass,


459
00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:44,080
creating effects
within the mass of the glass,


460
00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:48,760
layering colours
and cutting back with acid


461
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:53,360
or engraving to achieve cameo
and other effects.


462
00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:59,680
He ended up really being capable
of making pieces of glass


463
00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:03,040
of a technical complexity
that had never been achieved before.


464
00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:14,440
Engraved with quotations
and dedications,


465
00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:18,960
his exhibition pieces go
way beyond the purely decorative.


466
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:27,920
The magic of them is that as well as
being virtuosities of glassmaking,


467
00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:34,560
they are always imbued with
this magical poetic quality


468
00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:37,120
which is his signature.


469
00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:45,440
He would evoke nature,
he would evoke the cycle of life.


470
00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:53,360
He would draw you
into a piece of glass


471
00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:57,400
and somehow you could
become lost in it.


472
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:06,360
And you would be as enthralled as
if you were looking up at the stars.


473
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:10,080
You sort of lose a sense of scale
within his pieces.


474
00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:15,040
He was truly an artist.


475
00:36:30,240 --> 00:36:35,920
Galle's view of nature was a complex
but also a very honest one.


476
00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:39,000
Yes, he could do blue skies
and dragonflies,


477
00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:44,440
but he also appreciated what
was rank, decaying, dying.


478
00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:48,760
He'd have been just as happy here
on an overcast autumn afternoon


479
00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:52,280
as he would have been
at the height of summer.


480
00:36:56,440 --> 00:37:00,920
Like Baudelaire, Galle was trying
to find a new language


481
00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:04,960
that could express the realities
of modern life and death.


482
00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:14,520
I've come to the Ecole de Nancy
museum in Galle's home town.


483
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:19,000
At the end of the 19th century,


484
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:23,200
Nancy became a power house
of Art Nouveau design.


485
00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:30,080
In 1901, Galle formed
an association of local designers.


486
00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:34,800
They included the furniture designer
Louis Majorelle


487
00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:39,520
and glass designers
Antonin and Auguste Daum.


488
00:37:39,520 --> 00:37:42,360
Today they're big names
in their own right,


489
00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:45,480
but Galle was the true visionary.


490
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:57,320
Now, this is your real Galle McCoy.


491
00:37:57,320 --> 00:38:01,560
This is the stuff that everybody
loved, his lamps.


492
00:38:01,560 --> 00:38:05,520
Obviously echoing the flowers
in the field, the bloom up here,


493
00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:09,760
but what's very interesting about it
is he was trying to show nature


494
00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:13,840
as she really was,
not just spring, not just bounty,


495
00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:17,920
but also autumn
when everything dies and dries up.


496
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:21,560
So beneath these buds of poppies
about to burst,


497
00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:26,800
at the bottom of the plant, these
tendrils, these withered pieces


498
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:31,440
of the plant, the leaves clinging
to it, won't be here much longer,


499
00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:33,120
soon to be blown away.


500
00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:43,080
One of the vases that Galle
exhibited at the 1900 World Fair


501
00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:44,600
is here at the museum.


502
00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:51,840
It is called Les Hommes Noirs,
The Dark Men.


503
00:38:53,040 --> 00:38:56,240
A collaboration with the artist
Victor Prouve,


504
00:38:56,240 --> 00:39:00,320
it tells a story of injustice
that threatened to destabilise


505
00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:03,480
the government and the country's
fragile peace


506
00:39:03,480 --> 00:39:05,240
at the turn of the century.


507
00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:12,120
This vase was dedicated to one man,
Alfred Dreyfus.


508
00:39:27,840 --> 00:39:31,680
In 1895, Dreyfus,
a Jewish army officer,


509
00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:35,720
was sentenced to life imprisonment
for treason on the basis


510
00:39:35,720 --> 00:39:38,240
of documents that had been faked.


511
00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:48,440
In a humiliating ritual, his badges
of rank were torn from him


512
00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:50,840
and his sword was broken.


513
00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:58,320
Dreyfus, we know that he screamed,
"I am innocent,"


514
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:01,800
but it was so loud nobody
could hear him, you know.


515
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:06,040
So this small man was just
standing alone against


516
00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:10,760
all the anti-Semitic screams,
you know, "Death to Dreyfus,"


517
00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:14,840
"Death to the spy, death to
the traitor, death to the Jew."


518
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:18,680
It was really a very, very violent
moment he had to go through.


519
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:27,600
The anti-Semitism that had been
simmering for decades in Paris


520
00:40:27,600 --> 00:40:29,200
now exploded.


521
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:36,440
The daily anti-Semitic paper
La France Juive stoked the hatred.


522
00:40:36,440 --> 00:40:40,960
This whole Dreyfus affair
cast a very long shadow here
in France, didn't it?


523
00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:42,080
Yes, it did.


524
00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:45,080
The concern was the Dreyfus affair
came to such a point


525
00:40:45,080 --> 00:40:48,080
that they thought France
would be threatened,


526
00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:51,400
the republic, the democracy,
or the republic...


527
00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:54,040
Really? It could bring down
the whole government?


528
00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:58,520
Exactly. It came to such a climax
of anger and passion.


529
00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:02,520
The streets in Paris became very
animated with the Dreyfus case.


530
00:41:02,520 --> 00:41:03,920
So it really divided everybody.


531
00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:05,840
It split the whole country.


532
00:41:05,840 --> 00:41:09,200
Some artists took a stand.


533
00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:12,800
The novelist Emile Zola famously
attacked the government


534
00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:15,400
with his open letter, J'Accuse.


535
00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:21,240
Les Hommes Noirs was Galle's
J'Accuse in glass.


536
00:41:22,520 --> 00:41:26,560
The dark men symbolise
French hypocrisy and injustice.


537
00:41:30,720 --> 00:41:36,000
The words on the case ask,
"From where do you come?"


538
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:38,920
"We come from beneath the earth."


539
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:52,000
When Galle returned to Nancy
after the 1900 World Fair,


540
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:56,000
he paid a high price
for his defence of Dreyfus.


541
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:59,480
He was ostracised by his neighbours
and friends,


542
00:41:59,480 --> 00:42:01,640
and his business suffered.


543
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:07,920
He was defending an innocent
against the army, against the church


544
00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:10,200
and against the justice.


545
00:42:10,200 --> 00:42:13,960
Since he was involved
in this Dreyfus affair,


546
00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:19,920
he had lost a lot of customers, the
business was not working very well,


547
00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:25,160
so maybe he was a bit upset
about the future for his wife


548
00:42:25,160 --> 00:42:28,080
and his daughters,
and the future of the factory.


549
00:42:28,080 --> 00:42:34,440
As he was the only one who was
designing for his factory,


550
00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:36,760
what would happen next?


551
00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:38,520
What would become of Galle?


552
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:44,240
Do you think, later in his life,
Galle regretted the position


553
00:42:44,240 --> 00:42:46,760
he took over the whole
Dreyfus affair?


554
00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:51,840
It's hard to tell, but he was
so deeply always involved


555
00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:55,480
in those cases
that he was defending.


556
00:42:55,480 --> 00:43:00,280
So I think he regretted it
only on the commercial side


557
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:04,240
because of the lack of orders,
of commands,


558
00:43:04,240 --> 00:43:08,480
that came after
the Great Exhibition in 1900.


559
00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:11,720
But when he was quoting authors
like Victor Hugo,


560
00:43:11,720 --> 00:43:18,640
he said, "Art is like a weapon
to defend your ideas."


561
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:24,360
Soon after the World Fair,
Galle found out


562
00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:26,440
that he had another battle to fight.


563
00:43:29,400 --> 00:43:32,480
Galle was about to die,
he knew he was dying,


564
00:43:32,480 --> 00:43:36,160
so he put a lot of this sadness,


565
00:43:36,160 --> 00:43:39,240
this melancholia,
in all his creations.


566
00:43:39,240 --> 00:43:43,040
This is the very last piece of
furniture that he produced


567
00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:47,960
in his factory before he died, and
it made really a very strong effect


568
00:43:47,960 --> 00:43:49,400
on the people here.


569
00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:53,080
What do you think he's
trying to say in this?


570
00:43:53,080 --> 00:43:58,800
It's dawn and it's night-time,
the bed, but you could look at it


571
00:43:58,800 --> 00:44:01,760
particularly as the work
of a dying man,


572
00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:04,240
as about life and death, in fact.


573
00:44:04,240 --> 00:44:05,640
Yes, that's it, exactly.


574
00:44:05,640 --> 00:44:09,560
Galle used the symbols
of the butterflies


575
00:44:09,560 --> 00:44:14,520
and they represent, with the central
egg, they represent birth,


576
00:44:14,520 --> 00:44:17,880
the beginning,
and they are full of hopes.


577
00:44:17,880 --> 00:44:21,720
But then at the end of the day,
they are dead.


578
00:44:21,720 --> 00:44:25,680
And on your back,
you can see just above your head,


579
00:44:25,680 --> 00:44:29,440
this night butterfly, the sphinx,


580
00:44:29,440 --> 00:44:34,600
which is slowly falling above you,
and it means death.


581
00:44:34,600 --> 00:44:38,880
He is dying and his wings
are closing on your head.


582
00:44:38,880 --> 00:44:43,480
It has to make you think of what
you make of your life, I think.


583
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:54,880
Tragically, Galle didn't live
to see Dreyfus exonerated in 1906.


584
00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:00,760
He died two years earlier,
but in the last years of his life


585
00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:05,240
he'd created some of his most
powerful and moving pieces.


586
00:45:12,760 --> 00:45:15,200
Galle had exposed a fault line
in French life


587
00:45:15,200 --> 00:45:18,440
at the turn of the century,


588
00:45:18,440 --> 00:45:20,720
but there was a lot more
where that came from.


589
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:28,840
With the population explosion came
crime, overcrowding, poverty.


590
00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:36,160
There was disquiet
on the streets of Paris,


591
00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:40,160
and the city needed to find
new solutions.


592
00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:50,520
For a young architect who was out
to make a bit of a name for himself,


593
00:45:50,520 --> 00:45:56,760
a bit of a splash,
the time was ripe for trying
something utterly different.


594
00:45:59,440 --> 00:46:04,880
Hector Guimard was a young architect
with an ego as big as his talent.


595
00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:09,360
Important projects came his way
when he was still in his 20s,


596
00:46:09,360 --> 00:46:14,960
and in 1896, when Guimard was not
yet 30, he designed the building


597
00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:20,600
that would cement his reputation
for bravura, style and ambition.


598
00:46:20,600 --> 00:46:24,040
His mission was to create
not just a radically different


599
00:46:24,040 --> 00:46:28,880
sort of building, but a template
for a new form of communal living.


600
00:46:37,160 --> 00:46:40,760
Sebastien Cord
is an architect himself


601
00:46:40,760 --> 00:46:46,560
and a resident of Castel Beranger,
Guimard's most celebrated building.


602
00:46:46,560 --> 00:46:50,480
To see the real Guimard magic you
have to get inside the curly gates


603
00:46:50,480 --> 00:46:54,000
to the communal courtyard within.


604
00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:56,440
So you see the courtyard?
Stunning, yeah.


605
00:46:56,440 --> 00:47:00,000
Guimard was really young
when he built this.


606
00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:04,560
Security code? Yeah.


607
00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:09,800
How long have you lived here?


608
00:47:09,800 --> 00:47:12,360
About five years.


609
00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:15,960
Must be fantastic, since you're
in the business of architecture,


610
00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:18,640
to live here. Look at that!


611
00:47:19,960 --> 00:47:23,120
From here you can see
the building is asymmetrical,


612
00:47:23,120 --> 00:47:27,480
a crime against architecture
in classically proportioned Paris.


613
00:47:28,600 --> 00:47:30,520
Your eye doesn't get bored of it


614
00:47:30,520 --> 00:47:32,880
because there are different
contours to it.


615
00:47:32,880 --> 00:47:37,240
That's interesting
in the work of Guimard.


616
00:47:37,240 --> 00:47:40,360
It's architecture and art
with curving lines.


617
00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:43,560
And the glass up there
is beautiful, isn't it?


618
00:47:43,560 --> 00:47:45,200
Is that all original?


619
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:46,280
Yes.


620
00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:49,680
'Guimard said the logic of nature
is impeccable,


621
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:53,360
'and at Beranger,
his visual language is the sea.


622
00:47:53,360 --> 00:47:58,440
'The windows repeated on every floor
are stained into voluptuous waves.'


623
00:47:59,520 --> 00:48:02,520
I love these kind of sponge-like
bits of stone,


624
00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:06,640
they look like sea sponges,
don't they? Is that the idea?


625
00:48:06,640 --> 00:48:09,360
We call it mouliere in French.


626
00:48:13,160 --> 00:48:16,280
'Red brick,
anathema to traditionalists,


627
00:48:16,280 --> 00:48:21,280
'butts up against whole stones
and engineered stone too.'


628
00:48:23,080 --> 00:48:27,120
Very different to the other
buildings I've been seeing in Paris,


629
00:48:27,120 --> 00:48:29,800
the kind of Haussmann buildings,
isn't it?


630
00:48:29,800 --> 00:48:31,080
Yes.


631
00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:34,240
'It's Guimard's signature ironwork
that gives the building


632
00:48:34,240 --> 00:48:37,160
'its Art Nouveau character and wit.'


633
00:48:38,200 --> 00:48:39,440
It's incredible.


634
00:48:39,440 --> 00:48:41,320
'Why the long face?


635
00:48:41,320 --> 00:48:45,600
'These sea horses press their noses
to the walls for good reason.'


636
00:48:46,640 --> 00:48:49,560
It has a structural function also.


637
00:48:49,560 --> 00:48:53,440
Does it? It's holding the wall up.
Yes. That's good to know.


638
00:48:56,760 --> 00:49:01,240
I believe another unusual thing
is that all the apartments


639
00:49:01,240 --> 00:49:03,080
are roughly the same size?


640
00:49:03,080 --> 00:49:05,800
It wasn't big apartments
for the rich. Exactly.


641
00:49:05,800 --> 00:49:09,800
Every level have the same height.


642
00:49:09,800 --> 00:49:13,760
You don't have the rich
at the first level


643
00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:17,320
and the poor people at the top.


644
00:49:19,640 --> 00:49:23,240
'Really breaking with tradition,
Guimard dared to create


645
00:49:23,240 --> 00:49:27,400
'an apartment block that ignored
the social hierarchy of Paris.


646
00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:34,160
'At first, the neighbours
called this Castel Deranger,


647
00:49:34,160 --> 00:49:38,440
'and when you step in to
the building's vestibule,
you can kind of see why.'


648
00:49:38,440 --> 00:49:43,040
That's incredible.
It's really like a cave, isn't it?


649
00:49:43,040 --> 00:49:45,480
Yes, it's designed like a grotto.


650
00:49:45,480 --> 00:49:50,200
It's a masterpiece of the building
made by Guimard.


651
00:49:50,200 --> 00:49:52,880
Just the gateway is remarkable.


652
00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:56,240
It's marvellous.
Really original, in fact.


653
00:49:56,240 --> 00:49:58,080
It's like a harp.


654
00:49:58,080 --> 00:49:59,800
A harp?


655
00:49:59,800 --> 00:50:04,360
These are the strings
and you can kind of pluck them.


656
00:50:04,360 --> 00:50:06,200
That's rather beautiful, isn't it?


657
00:50:06,200 --> 00:50:08,560
Maybe not the way I'm doing it,
but it could be.


658
00:50:10,680 --> 00:50:14,400
'All the geometry of the structure
is submerged in iron curves


659
00:50:14,400 --> 00:50:20,440
'and undulating plaster, as if the
building itself were made of water.'


660
00:50:22,160 --> 00:50:25,040
So these are meant to look
a bit like trees, are they?


661
00:50:25,040 --> 00:50:28,400
Yeah, it's like trees
going from the grotto.


662
00:50:28,400 --> 00:50:32,280
It's like a piece of a garden
but also with water...


663
00:50:32,280 --> 00:50:35,800
Like an undersea garden.


664
00:50:35,800 --> 00:50:37,720
It's quite strange.


665
00:50:37,720 --> 00:50:40,400
Yes, it's like Neptune's garden.
Yes.


666
00:50:40,400 --> 00:50:44,680
'For many years, the full beauty
of this weirdly wonderful entrance


667
00:50:44,680 --> 00:50:49,360
'was hidden under countless
coats of gloss paint.


668
00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:53,120
'Sebastian's just completed
the painstaking task of returning


669
00:50:53,120 --> 00:50:56,920
'Castel Beranger to how Guimard
intended it to be.'


670
00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:02,440
That's great, isn't it? Yes.


671
00:51:03,880 --> 00:51:08,520
It's a pleasant way
to enter in the building.


672
00:51:08,520 --> 00:51:10,120
It is.


673
00:51:20,120 --> 00:51:21,600
Pardon, monsieur.


674
00:51:21,600 --> 00:51:24,400
'As the space where residents would
meet and greet each other,


675
00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:29,160
'it's the heart of Guimard's
masterplan for convivial
urban living.'


676
00:51:29,160 --> 00:51:30,960
Here she is with her French bread.


677
00:51:38,080 --> 00:51:39,800
That's what we should have done.


678
00:51:39,800 --> 00:51:42,560
I didn't kiss you. Maybe later!


679
00:51:42,560 --> 00:51:44,400
Let's see how things go. After!


680
00:51:44,400 --> 00:51:46,880
OK, after you.


681
00:51:46,880 --> 00:51:51,160
'Guimard moved in here himself,
enjoying his bachelor lifestyle


682
00:51:51,160 --> 00:51:53,720
'and his celebrity.


683
00:51:53,720 --> 00:51:56,680
'A tireless self-publicist,


684
00:51:56,680 --> 00:52:01,520
'he sent out postcards of himself at
home with his watery Art Nouveau.'


685
00:52:06,280 --> 00:52:11,240
With an award under his belt
for Beranger, Paris was his oyster.


686
00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:18,120
As the city was preparing
for the 1900 World Fair,


687
00:52:18,120 --> 00:52:21,640
he landed the commission
that would make him immortal.


688
00:52:23,280 --> 00:52:25,760
The city was in gridlock.


689
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:29,920
The Metro, a new railway fit
for a new century was being built -


690
00:52:29,920 --> 00:52:31,320
under the ground.


691
00:52:31,320 --> 00:52:35,640
And Guimard was asked to design
the Metro entrances


692
00:52:35,640 --> 00:52:40,840
to add a final decorative flourish
to this fantastic new-fangled way


693
00:52:40,840 --> 00:52:42,200
of getting about.


694
00:52:45,280 --> 00:52:47,720
He was a controversial choice,


695
00:52:47,720 --> 00:52:54,360
but in time, Parisians warmed to his
flamboyant version of Art Nouveau.


696
00:53:20,440 --> 00:53:26,280
This is Port Dauphine, Guimard's
finest surviving Metro station.


697
00:53:26,280 --> 00:53:28,920
It's en route to
the Bois de Boulogne,


698
00:53:28,920 --> 00:53:33,360
the woods on the outskirts of Paris,
and that seems rather appropriate,


699
00:53:33,360 --> 00:53:38,880
because emerging from the station
is like leaving a thicket
of iron trees.


700
00:53:40,160 --> 00:53:44,920
Guimard brought nature and art into
the very heart of the modern city.


701
00:53:46,200 --> 00:53:49,200
Salvador Dali described
his designs as


702
00:53:49,200 --> 00:53:54,720
"those divine entrances to the Metro
by grace of which one can descend


703
00:53:54,720 --> 00:53:57,120
"into the region
of the subconscious."


704
00:54:03,600 --> 00:54:09,080
Guimard's station, which is actually
metallic and dense and brittle,


705
00:54:09,080 --> 00:54:15,240
in this wooded setting, shape-shifts
into a giant moth or bug


706
00:54:15,240 --> 00:54:19,840
with its gossamer wings,
its many, spindly limbs


707
00:54:19,840 --> 00:54:24,360
and those questing,
probing antennae.


708
00:54:27,840 --> 00:54:34,080
He chose cast iron to create
drooping stalks and rising branches.


709
00:54:34,080 --> 00:54:39,080
And glass, a vulnerable material
for a busy urban structure,


710
00:54:39,080 --> 00:54:42,600
seems to be draped over
the iron skeleton.


711
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:49,840
Guimard designed 141
station entrances,


712
00:54:49,840 --> 00:54:54,640
each on a variation
of four basic templates,


713
00:54:54,640 --> 00:54:59,560
as well as a loose interpretation
of the letter "M" for Metro.


714
00:55:03,040 --> 00:55:06,440
The Metro entrances,
redefining the city,


715
00:55:06,440 --> 00:55:09,880
seemed like the portals
to the future.


716
00:55:09,880 --> 00:55:17,680
But when the 1900 exhibition
was all packed up, the harsh light
of the 20th century started to dawn.


717
00:55:29,960 --> 00:55:34,840
This dining room was designed for
an apartment in Nancy in 1902


718
00:55:34,840 --> 00:55:38,800
by Eugene Vallin,
an associate of Emile Galle.


719
00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:42,760
I've got a theory that
this wasn't made by men.


720
00:55:42,760 --> 00:55:47,160
I think it's the work of a species
of hyper-evolved bee.


721
00:55:47,160 --> 00:55:49,520
I mean, look at the curves
everywhere.


722
00:55:49,520 --> 00:55:52,840
It's as though they looked at what
we did with metal and straight lines


723
00:55:52,840 --> 00:55:57,040
and rejected it and everything
was masticated out of royal jelly.


724
00:55:58,560 --> 00:56:01,680
Bit freaky for you?
Bit acid trippy?


725
00:56:01,680 --> 00:56:05,640
Well, consider, it would be lovely
to come here to dinner once,


726
00:56:05,640 --> 00:56:07,160
maybe for a week.


727
00:56:07,160 --> 00:56:10,840
But every day?
You would start to feel like Kafka,


728
00:56:10,840 --> 00:56:15,400
who, shortly after this was created,
would pen Metamorphoses.


729
00:56:23,040 --> 00:56:27,120
And that was the problem -
it was too curly, too decorative,


730
00:56:27,120 --> 00:56:29,880
too dark, too much.


731
00:56:29,880 --> 00:56:32,720
When it arrived in the dining rooms
of the middle classes,


732
00:56:32,720 --> 00:56:35,960
the Bohemian elite
lost their taste for it.


733
00:56:35,960 --> 00:56:40,960
Like all fashions, Art Nouveau
became a victim of its own success.


734
00:56:45,520 --> 00:56:50,480
Like a fickle lover, the city that
had once embraced the style


735
00:56:50,480 --> 00:56:53,480
turned against it in the 1920s.


736
00:56:53,480 --> 00:56:56,680
The wonderful Fouquet jewellery shop
was dismantled,


737
00:56:56,680 --> 00:57:00,640
and was reconstructed
in the Musee Carnivalet in Paris


738
00:57:00,640 --> 00:57:02,000
just 23 years ago.


739
00:57:03,960 --> 00:57:07,840
Even the iconic Metro entrances
didn't escape the cull.


740
00:57:10,280 --> 00:57:14,840
Port Dauphine is one of just three
glass entrances that have survived.


741
00:57:17,240 --> 00:57:21,280
Sadly, when Art Nouveau dramatically
fell out of fashion,


742
00:57:21,280 --> 00:57:24,360
all the others were
ruthlessly hacked down.


743
00:57:28,280 --> 00:57:32,920
79 original Guimard designs
have been lost,


744
00:57:32,920 --> 00:57:35,880
and Art Nouveau was forgotten
until the last decades


745
00:57:35,880 --> 00:57:37,200
of the 20th century.


746
00:57:39,360 --> 00:57:44,000
Today the Metro
and Paris go hand in hand again


747
00:57:44,000 --> 00:57:47,440
and the city treasures
its Art Nouveau heritage.


748
00:57:50,760 --> 00:57:53,760
The old love affair
has been rekindled.


749
00:57:59,920 --> 00:58:05,200
Next time, the roots and hidden gems
of Art Nouveau in British cities,


750
00:58:05,200 --> 00:58:08,120
set against a backdrop of scandal
and depression,


751
00:58:08,120 --> 00:58:11,560
when artists and designers
were on the front line


752
00:58:11,560 --> 00:58:14,240
of sexual and social change.


753
00:58:37,160 --> 00:58:40,200
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd