Art Nouveau was a decorative movement growing out of the desire of progressive artists designers and architects to break free from the rigid constraints of the 19th century industrial world view.

Its principal precept was a return to the use of natural organic forms in all art and objects.

In reality though an admirable attempt to mirror nature in human realisations, in many examples this was neither comfortable nor practical. The period was short lived beginning in 1900 growing from an increasing awareness of oriental and far eastern art during the 1890s, it was effectively curtailed by the arrival of WW1. However it produced some of the most graceful manifestations of the decorative arts.