0:00:16 > 0:00:20As the 19th century was drawing to a close,
0:00:20 > 0:00:24a luxurious, new style was taking Europe by storm.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29This was the fin de siecle,
0:00:29 > 0:00:35the glamorous, decadent but also anxious end to the 19th century,
0:00:35 > 0:00:39and the style was Art Nouveau.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41Merci.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49Art Nouveau grew out of the dark, restless energies
0:00:49 > 0:00:51of the industrial city.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54In the age of Darwin and Freud,
0:00:54 > 0:01:01it was fixated with nature, sensuality and sex.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04In the space of a decade or so,
0:01:04 > 0:01:08Art Nouveau went from being nowhere to everywhere.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12Lapped up by the burgeoning middle classes of Europe,
0:01:12 > 0:01:15it was mimicked and mass produced.
0:01:15 > 0:01:20What began as a revolution in the name of truth, beauty and nature,
0:01:20 > 0:01:24ended in derision, decadence and decay.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30In this series, I'll be visiting the great cities of Europe,
0:01:30 > 0:01:33where the work of visionaries like Emile Galle,
0:01:33 > 0:01:38artists like Gustav Klimt and entrepreneurs like Arthur Liberty
0:01:38 > 0:01:40blossomed all too briefly.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58Paris at the end of the 19th century
0:01:58 > 0:02:01loved its bullet-straight boulevards,
0:02:01 > 0:02:07its imposing monuments and classically inspired architecture.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13But beyond the grandeur, the population had exploded
0:02:13 > 0:02:17from half a million to 2.5 million people by 1900.
0:02:22 > 0:02:27Those elegant boulevards were gridlocked with horses,
0:02:27 > 0:02:29carriages and crowds.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31Things needed to change.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35The city planners came up with a radical solution.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43Le Metro, ladies and gentlemen!
0:02:43 > 0:02:47Typically Paris, typically Art Nouveau.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52The good citizens of Paris were shocked.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55Entrances like bat wings,
0:02:55 > 0:02:59sinuous metals, sensuous curves.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03It was a bold declaration of the new art for the new century.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12The first Metro entrances appeared just in time
0:03:12 > 0:03:15for a massive celebration in Paris,
0:03:15 > 0:03:18the World Fair of 1900.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22It was when the city would show off its cutting-edge new style.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26At the heart of the fair were two huge buildings,
0:03:26 > 0:03:31standing opposite each other, the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais.
0:03:31 > 0:03:36This is Le Grand Palais. It's exquisite, isn't it?
0:03:36 > 0:03:38It's beautiful, substantial,
0:03:38 > 0:03:41one of the biggest and best exhibition spaces
0:03:41 > 0:03:43you'll find anywhere in the world, never mind Paris.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45You'd love it.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48Unfortunately, I'm not going there.
0:03:48 > 0:03:53I'm going to Le Petit Palais, the small palace over here.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59Perhaps they were boasting to their foreign visitors.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03"In France, this, all 16,000 square metres of it,
0:04:03 > 0:04:05"is what we call small."
0:04:09 > 0:04:12Bonjour. Monsieur Chazal, je m'appelle Stephen.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14Merci, monsieur.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17'Gilles Chazal is director of the Petit Palais.'
0:04:20 > 0:04:24Can you give me some idea of the sheer size of the exhibition
0:04:24 > 0:04:28in terms of Paris? It was a great, big event, wasn't it?
0:04:28 > 0:04:30It was an international exhibition.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32It was of course a very, very famous event.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36- It was from this place to La Tour Eiffel...- To the Eiffel Tower.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39Yes, yes and along the River Seine.
0:04:39 > 0:04:45It was absolutely incredible and it was a discovery for the public,
0:04:45 > 0:04:51to look after artworks, but also engines and so on.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57Also, it was a change of century, so it was a very great moment.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05Designed to showcase the very best of modern art and industry,
0:05:05 > 0:05:10the World Fair was France's manifesto for the 20th century.
0:05:10 > 0:05:16There were moving walkways and a grand electricity hall.
0:05:16 > 0:05:21Over 60 countries exhibited and 50 million people visited.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24It was the party to end all parties,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27and Art Nouveau was the guest of honour.
0:05:32 > 0:05:38Around the city, the dramatic jewellery of Rene Lalique,
0:05:38 > 0:05:43the organic forms of Emile Galle's glass
0:05:43 > 0:05:47and the alluring femme fatales of Alfonse Mucha
0:05:47 > 0:05:50dazzled the Paris crowds.
0:05:50 > 0:05:56With all its marble and mosaics and gilt and glass,
0:05:56 > 0:06:01this was an opulent luxury showroom for Art Nouveau,
0:06:01 > 0:06:03but it was much more than that.
0:06:03 > 0:06:08It also held up a dazzling mirror to French hopes and fears
0:06:08 > 0:06:11at the turn of the 20th century.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18Paris was overcrowded, filthy
0:06:18 > 0:06:22and simmering with anti-Semitic tensions.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26At the World Fair, Art Nouveau was at the height of its popularity,
0:06:26 > 0:06:29and for a brief moment it seemed like an antidote
0:06:29 > 0:06:32to the ugliness of the modern age.
0:06:32 > 0:06:38But on the cusp of the 20th century, how did this upstart new style
0:06:38 > 0:06:42threaten to upstage the conservative ranks of traditional French design?
0:06:49 > 0:06:53It was only five years before the 1900 World Fair
0:06:53 > 0:06:56that Art Nouveau had begun to emerge
0:06:56 > 0:07:00from the licentious bohemian quarter of the city.
0:07:09 > 0:07:11In 1895, Montmartre,
0:07:11 > 0:07:15the playground on the edge of the French capital,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18had become a magnet for artists
0:07:18 > 0:07:21looking for inspiration and excitement.
0:07:21 > 0:07:26Degas and Toulouse Lautrec painted the local prostitutes and dancers,
0:07:26 > 0:07:30and they became emblems of the city's sexual freedom.
0:07:51 > 0:07:57Decadent, licentious, drug-fuelled, absinthe-soaked -
0:07:57 > 0:07:59there was a downside, as well, of course,
0:07:59 > 0:08:03but it was here in Montmartre that the artists of the day,
0:08:03 > 0:08:06the avant-garde artists earned their stripes.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18Of all the artists who set the scene for Art Nouveau,
0:08:18 > 0:08:22Charles Baudelaire was the most subversive.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26In 1857 he shocked Paris to its breeches
0:08:26 > 0:08:31with his first volume of poetry, Les Fleurs Du Mal.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33It's all there in the title, really, isn't it?
0:08:33 > 0:08:35The Flowers Of Evil.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43He was fascinated by the dark side of nature...
0:08:45 > 0:08:47..and human nature.
0:08:50 > 0:08:55Sex, death, vampires, lesbians,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59and all this at the same time as Anthony Trollope
0:08:59 > 0:09:02was writing Barchester Towers.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28It was in the back-street drinking dens and hash joints of Paris
0:09:28 > 0:09:32that Baudelaire's ideas about nature and art
0:09:32 > 0:09:36were handed down to Art Nouveau designers.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40Louise, what is Baudelaire telling us about nature?
0:09:40 > 0:09:44He embraces all that's artificial, you know,
0:09:44 > 0:09:47he vaunts the merit of artificiality over nature,
0:09:47 > 0:09:50and that's the beginnings of decadentism, if you like,
0:09:50 > 0:09:54a rejection of naturalism and of its values.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57Is that because science and industry was giving us so much,
0:09:57 > 0:10:01one day we could tweak nature if it suited us?
0:10:01 > 0:10:04Yeah, there's a desire to improve on nature.
0:10:04 > 0:10:05To take it, to work on it,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08and to do something better and something different.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11And this leads us into decadence, it leads us into Art Nouveau.
0:10:12 > 0:10:18The dancers and performers from Paris' nocturnal world
0:10:18 > 0:10:20embodied these dangerous new ideas.
0:10:22 > 0:10:27Like moths to a flame, Art Nouveau designers were drawn to these women.
0:10:28 > 0:10:34And none was more nocturnal than the divine Sarah Bernhardt.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37She was Art Nouveau's ultimate muse.
0:10:40 > 0:10:45Bernhardt was celebrated as the greatest actress of her day,
0:10:45 > 0:10:47as much by herself as anyone else.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50The word bohemian could almost have been invented for her.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Amongst her many lovers she counted crowned heads of Europe.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59It's even said she slept in a coffin,
0:10:59 > 0:11:03believing that playing dead might improve her tragic roles.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06Baudelaire would have been proud of her.
0:11:08 > 0:11:13Just look at Sarah there, reclining on her chaise longue with her fan,
0:11:13 > 0:11:16her eyes imploring, no, demanding,
0:11:16 > 0:11:19that you give her your full attention.
0:11:19 > 0:11:24And that dog at her feet represents fashionable Parisian society,
0:11:24 > 0:11:29writers, poets, artists for whom Sarah was a muse.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32But look deep into Fido's eyes.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35I think he's seen things in the boudoir
0:11:35 > 0:11:37no animal should be exposed to.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49Sarah was about to play a new role
0:11:49 > 0:11:53in the Paris debut of Art Nouveau.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56It was Christmas Day 1894.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01Sarah needed a poster to advertise her new play, Gismonda.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04But who to turn to?
0:12:04 > 0:12:07Alfonse Mucha was a Moravian artist
0:12:07 > 0:12:11who'd worked his way across Europe to study art in Paris.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15He really wanted to be a fine artist, not a commercial one,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18but he was living hand to mouth.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22Then he was approached to create the Gismonda poster.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26He put his ambitions on hold and got to work.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29This is Mucha later in life,
0:12:29 > 0:12:33but today it's his grandson John and John's wife Sarah
0:12:33 > 0:12:35who take up the story.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41The first poster of Art Nouveau.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46Well, it's the first poster that Mucha did for Sarah Bernhardt, yes.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51This is indirectly the first step
0:12:51 > 0:12:56to actually make art available to the general public,
0:12:56 > 0:12:58you no longer have to be rich.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00How did it come about?
0:13:00 > 0:13:01It came about
0:13:01 > 0:13:04in a most extraordinary way,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07because what happened was that Mucha,
0:13:07 > 0:13:09who was a struggling artist at the time,
0:13:09 > 0:13:11was doing a favour for a friend,
0:13:11 > 0:13:14he was correcting some proofs at the printers,
0:13:14 > 0:13:17and it was at Christmas time so everybody else was off on holiday,
0:13:17 > 0:13:20and suddenly the manager of the printers came rushing in.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23Sarah Bernhardt had said she had to have a new poster
0:13:23 > 0:13:26for her re-presentation of Gismonda in the new year
0:13:26 > 0:13:29and she wanted it now.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33So there was no-one else to ask, so Mucha got the ask.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36So the printer went on holiday, came back from holiday
0:13:36 > 0:13:38and said "Where's the poster?"
0:13:38 > 0:13:42And Alphonse presented this and the printer had a fit.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44Why did he have a fit, John?
0:13:44 > 0:13:47He'd never seen anything like this, nothing.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50Sarah Bernhardt wanted to see it, so it was rolled up
0:13:50 > 0:13:52and the printer took it to Sarah Bernhardt.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54Alphonse was depressed because, you know,
0:13:54 > 0:13:56he thought he'd made a terrible mistake.
0:13:56 > 0:14:01Almost immediately, a message came back from Sarah Bernhardt
0:14:01 > 0:14:03that she wanted to see Mucha, so he went to her boudoir,
0:14:03 > 0:14:05with a very heavy heart,
0:14:05 > 0:14:08because he thought he was going to get a bollocking,
0:14:08 > 0:14:12and this is in Alphonse's own words, I mean, true historical fact,
0:14:12 > 0:14:15she got up, embraced him and said,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18"Mr Mucha, you have made me immortal."
0:14:18 > 0:14:21You know, she might have been in her 50s
0:14:21 > 0:14:24and have done all sorts of things, but when she was on stage,
0:14:24 > 0:14:28she was this woman with a vision, with a purity in her heart.
0:14:28 > 0:14:33What Mucha did was that he saw Sarah Bernhardt
0:14:33 > 0:14:38and he made her look the way she felt and wanted to be seen.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40And that's what he's communicating,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43is who she saw herself as.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46Then she immediately signed him up for a six-year contract.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50This was like a lightning from blue sky.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05Mucha's Gismonda captured the moment.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07The nouvelle woman was born.
0:15:09 > 0:15:14He crowns the divine Sarah with stylised flowers.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20Using pale muted shades rather than bold primary colours,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23he revolutionised poster design.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31The poster appeared on the 1st January 1895
0:15:31 > 0:15:34on the streets of Paris.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37It caused a sensation from the get-go.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40This was the first public declaration of the new art
0:15:40 > 0:15:43in the French capital.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46The public went wild for the poster.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50As quickly as Gismonda was put up, she was taken down again.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54Bill stickers were followed and bribed to hand her over.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57Mucha became an overnight success.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01He moved to a swanky new studio,
0:16:01 > 0:16:05where he experimented with the new art of photography.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10And he took this wonderful series of photographs of his models.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16His new women have definitely burnt their corsets, haven't they?
0:16:16 > 0:16:22They stare back at you, brazen and proud of their bodies.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29He produced this book, Documents Decoratifs,
0:16:29 > 0:16:35a bible which later spread Mucha's style around France and Europe.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41Well, these are a bit more candid than those Sarah Bernhardt pictures.
0:16:41 > 0:16:46They're beautiful, graphically ahead of their time,
0:16:46 > 0:16:53and also, I suppose one has to say, quite risque for the 1890s.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55Some of these girls are very demure,
0:16:55 > 0:17:00they seem to merge with the wildlife they're pictured alongside,
0:17:00 > 0:17:05the flowers, but others, like this, dare I say it, hussy here,
0:17:05 > 0:17:10definitely have a bit of "come into the garden, Claude," about them.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16What my mother might have called a bit forward.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30Champagne,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33cigarettes,
0:17:33 > 0:17:37Mucha discovered that sex could sell anything.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41It could even sell holidays on the newly-developed Riviera.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45And the selling point was the nouvelle woman,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48the icon of Art Nouveau.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08The growing middle class was learning to love spending its money
0:18:08 > 0:18:10in bars and restaurants
0:18:10 > 0:18:12and the new department stores that were springing up everywhere.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15It was spend, spend, spend.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18There was a plethora of new products on the market,
0:18:18 > 0:18:21and every one of them needed to be advertised.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27In the new age of mass advertising, mass production
0:18:27 > 0:18:31and mass consumption, Art Nouveau was itself mass produced.
0:18:35 > 0:18:40Mucha made Art Nouveau de rigueur, fantastique, formidable.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53Wow, or even, mon dieu!
0:18:53 > 0:18:55What about this place?
0:18:58 > 0:19:01When Georges Fouquet inherited
0:19:01 > 0:19:05his father's exclusive jewellery business in 1895,
0:19:05 > 0:19:07he wanted some of that Mucha magic.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10He started designing jewellery with him,
0:19:10 > 0:19:13and commissioned Mucha to create a shop
0:19:13 > 0:19:17that would indulge his clients' taste for Art Nouveau luxury.
0:19:20 > 0:19:22Can we go back in time?
0:19:22 > 0:19:26It's Paris, you're a man of means, you've got a few bob, or francs,
0:19:26 > 0:19:30and you want to impress that special person in your life.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33Well, this is where you come, this jewellery shop,
0:19:33 > 0:19:37for that piece, that rock, for a special occasion.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41Maybe a birthday, a Valentine, an anniversary.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44But over the decades, what is quite clear
0:19:44 > 0:19:48is that the shop itself, the jewellery shop, is the true gem.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52It's the gift that goes on giving.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58In this shop, Mucha used the full Art Nouveau palette,
0:19:58 > 0:20:01curves inspired by the natural world,
0:20:01 > 0:20:05feathers, gilt, finery.
0:20:05 > 0:20:10Every inch of it decorative and sensual.
0:20:10 > 0:20:15Sex and Art Nouveau were intimate, promiscuous bedfellows.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17Look at the figure up here.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22A beautiful, almost classical pose at first, but then notice,
0:20:22 > 0:20:27her arms are behind her head, emphasising her splendid bust,
0:20:27 > 0:20:30and even a modern haircut.
0:20:30 > 0:20:36She is the femme fatale, a classic symbol of Art Nouveau.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40And imagine presenting your femme fatale with this Fouquet brooch.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43Now, that would put a smile on her face.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59In its early days, Art Nouveau was still the preserve
0:20:59 > 0:21:02of the rich bohemian elite of the city.
0:21:03 > 0:21:08Amongst them was an ambitious and talented young designer
0:21:08 > 0:21:12who would embrace the new style and revolutionise jewellery design.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17When the great society jeweller Rene Lalique
0:21:17 > 0:21:21was beginning his career in Paris in the 1870s,
0:21:21 > 0:21:23jewellery wasn't about design.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26It was all about the bling, about the rocks.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29And not just any rocks - diamonds.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32Diamonds as big as the Ritz in Paris.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37Lalique changed all that.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41He's probably better known today for his glass designs,
0:21:41 > 0:21:43but he trained as a goldsmith
0:21:43 > 0:21:48and built his reputation on his pioneering Art Nouveau jewellery.
0:21:48 > 0:21:53These days, you have to go to museums to see his precious pieces.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04'Philippe Thiebault is curator in chief at the Musee d'Orsay,
0:22:04 > 0:22:08'and he has the key to the Lalique jewel box.'
0:22:08 > 0:22:10- Hello, Philippe, I'm Stephen. - Nice to meet you.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12Very nice to meet you.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14I see you have an interesting object in your hand.
0:22:14 > 0:22:19'Before Lalique, valuable jewellery was produced by artisans
0:22:19 > 0:22:21'from precious metals and gemstones.
0:22:21 > 0:22:26'The bigger the rocks, the more desirable and valuable the piece.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29'Lalique turned all that on its head.'
0:22:36 > 0:22:41So it's a piece by Lalique, it's a hairpin in horn.
0:22:41 > 0:22:43Horn? So that's cheap...
0:22:43 > 0:22:45It's very, very cheap,
0:22:45 > 0:22:49and it's a characteristic of the art of Lalique,
0:22:49 > 0:22:55because Lalique was not very fond of expensive material.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59When he chose materials, it was not for the price of the material,
0:22:59 > 0:23:02but for the colour, the texture of the material.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06So with Lalique, it wasn't the gemstones in the jewellery,
0:23:06 > 0:23:09it was the design, that's what added the value.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12Yes, yes. It's a very naturalistic piece, you know.
0:23:12 > 0:23:17It is engraved to imitate, to suggest, the angelica.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19It's a plant, you know.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23And here you have little diamonds
0:23:23 > 0:23:28to suggest the reflections of the sun on the plant.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31- Right.- It's a very lovely piece.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34And the gentleman who bought this from Lalique,
0:23:34 > 0:23:36he would be buying this for his wife?
0:23:36 > 0:23:40- Maybe not, maybe not. - Well, this is Paris.
0:23:40 > 0:23:45Many men went to Lalique,
0:23:45 > 0:23:52and they asked for jewels for a lady.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56"Can you make something for my special friend," that kind of thing?
0:23:56 > 0:23:57Yes, yes.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01What about Lalique, how did he feel about women himself?
0:24:01 > 0:24:02Lalique, I think...
0:24:02 > 0:24:09We know that Lalique did love many women during his life,
0:24:09 > 0:24:13had many mistresses in Paris and London, everywhere,
0:24:13 > 0:24:19and it's the reason why he is a good designer of jewels,
0:24:19 > 0:24:22because I think he loved very much women.
0:24:22 > 0:24:27Some of his pieces are erotic.
0:24:27 > 0:24:32We have a box, and you will see at the centre, a naked woman,
0:24:32 > 0:24:35and she opens her cloak...
0:24:35 > 0:24:37- Her cloak?- Yes.
0:24:37 > 0:24:42And so around her, you have young men, also naked.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46They are completely dazzled by the nudity.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49Are they? They're falling away, the shock, thrilled.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51It's like a goddess, you know.
0:24:51 > 0:24:56She is like a butterfly, or maybe like a bat.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59Because bats and butterflies were very appreciated
0:24:59 > 0:25:01by the artists of Art Nouveau.
0:25:06 > 0:25:12Lalique created dramatic jewellery about women, for women.
0:25:16 > 0:25:22His world, like so much of Art Nouveau, is a no-man's land,
0:25:22 > 0:25:25where the woman reigns supreme.
0:25:27 > 0:25:32Lalique's fascination with natural forms of all kinds wasn't unusual.
0:25:34 > 0:25:39Collecting and categorising nature was the great obsession of the time.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49To study insects close-up, Lalique came here to Deyrolle,
0:25:49 > 0:25:54the cabinet of curiosities, in the St Germain district of Paris.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00This extraordinary bestiary is really a trophy cabinet
0:26:00 > 0:26:04of what was going on in the late 19th century.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07There was an explosion in international travel,
0:26:07 > 0:26:11in collecting, in taxidermy, in botany.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15This kind of stuff was brought home by gentlemen in their swag bags.
0:26:17 > 0:26:19In the middle of the 19th century,
0:26:19 > 0:26:22Darwin's radical new theories about evolution
0:26:22 > 0:26:25and man's place in the natural world
0:26:25 > 0:26:28exploded established beliefs.
0:26:34 > 0:26:39Nature, savage nature, red in tooth and claw.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42This was a new battleground between religion on the one hand
0:26:42 > 0:26:44and science on the other.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47For designers, it was a badge of modernity,
0:26:47 > 0:26:50a new way of understanding the world.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54They brought nature into Paris.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58But they did so on new terms.
0:26:59 > 0:27:05For designers like Lalique, nature was there to be embellished.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08The lily was there to be gilded.
0:27:28 > 0:27:34Swarms of insects, clouds of butterflies, birds, bats,
0:27:34 > 0:27:37they all buzzed and flapped around Lalique's work.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40In fact, if it hadn't all looked so beautiful,
0:27:40 > 0:27:42it might have been like a Hitchcock film.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49This is the art of metamorphosis.
0:27:49 > 0:27:54Birds, insects and women dissolve in and out of each other
0:27:54 > 0:27:56in weird and wonderful ways.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01Nature's sensuous, but sinister.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04It's blue skies and bumblebees one minute,
0:28:04 > 0:28:07and bats at bed-time the next.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19Lalique may have used cheap materials,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22but his jewellery was lavish and dramatic -
0:28:22 > 0:28:26perfectly designed for the dim electric lights
0:28:26 > 0:28:28of Paris' nocturnal world.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34This is the world-famous restaurant Maxim's.
0:28:34 > 0:28:36Sarah Bernhardt and the literary crowd
0:28:36 > 0:28:40partied here till the early hours.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44Entrepreneur Eugene Cornuche redesigned it in Art Nouveau style
0:28:44 > 0:28:48in 1899 for the World Fair.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51He knew that Art Nouveau, famous artists
0:28:51 > 0:28:56and a ready supply of courtesans could turn his investment into gold.
0:28:56 > 0:29:01Today it has the feel of an upmarket bordello.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05They say every man who came here arrived with a woman,
0:29:05 > 0:29:07but it was never his wife.
0:29:12 > 0:29:16You can practically hear the violins soaring away,
0:29:16 > 0:29:19the booming laughter and gossip of the politicians
0:29:19 > 0:29:23and the artists and actors and painters who came here,
0:29:23 > 0:29:28and the tinkling laughter of their new muses or courtesans.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40Pierre Andre, thank you so much for letting me see Maxim's.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43You are very welcome in this incredible place.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45- It is incredible, isn't it?- It is.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48With its mirrors and gilt,
0:29:48 > 0:29:51the spiral staircase.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54It is a symbol of what we call in France La Belle Epoque.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59It really represents
0:29:59 > 0:30:04such a dream in people's minds
0:30:04 > 0:30:09that it stays from that time,
0:30:09 > 0:30:11and it's still today the same.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14Maxim's was Art Nouveau.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19Is there a sense that the normal rules didn't apply?
0:30:19 > 0:30:23- Once you stepped over the doorway of Maxim's...- Absolutely.
0:30:24 > 0:30:29The only rules correct in such a place
0:30:29 > 0:30:34was elegance and glamour.
0:30:34 > 0:30:39In Maxim's, many times we had writers, novelists...
0:30:39 > 0:30:42Like Marcel Proust, did he come here?
0:30:42 > 0:30:45- Of course, he came many, many, many times.- Sarah Bernhardt?
0:30:45 > 0:30:48And Sarah Bernhardt, who was one of our best clients.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52It was really the place where you had to come to see and be seen.
0:30:52 > 0:30:59It showed exactly all the taste they had at that period,
0:30:59 > 0:31:04and the best was all around Art Nouveau.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11Maxim's sensuous curves
0:31:11 > 0:31:14and women in their gardens of Eden -
0:31:14 > 0:31:19they play on the idea of innocence, purity, and, of course sin.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24There are mirrors absolutely everywhere in here.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27It's like a hall of mirrors from a circus.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31Or maybe something a bit seedier, a bit kinkier,
0:31:31 > 0:31:33a little bit more sinister.
0:31:38 > 0:31:40In 1899, Maxim's typified
0:31:40 > 0:31:45much of the Art Nouveau that was being created.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47Fashionable and extravagant,
0:31:47 > 0:31:52it had come to represent fin-de-siecle decadence and excess.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00But there is another side to this story.
0:32:03 > 0:32:05If you think that Art Nouveau
0:32:05 > 0:32:09is all exquisite vases and curly furniture,
0:32:09 > 0:32:11well, you couldn't be more wrong.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18Amongst the Art Nouveau designers at the 1900 World Fair,
0:32:18 > 0:32:23at least one felt that the new style had a more serious mission.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29His stand featured a working furnace,
0:32:29 > 0:32:33and surrounding it, a display of glass vases.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36They were all dedicated to a cause
0:32:36 > 0:32:39which exposed a seismic rift in French society.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44The designer behind this display was Emile Galle.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54Emile Galle was the troubled genius of Art Nouveau,
0:32:54 > 0:32:58he was creative, an innovator, an entrepreneur.
0:32:58 > 0:33:04He was also a passionate believer and campaigner for social justice.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07That, in the end, would cost him dearly.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14Emile Galle is one of the most fascinating characters to emerge
0:33:14 > 0:33:18in the story of the French arts in the latter part of the 19th century.
0:33:18 > 0:33:23He was absolutely a man of his time, and in that respect,
0:33:23 > 0:33:25is a key figure in the story of Art Nouveau.
0:33:25 > 0:33:30Philippe, what sort of a man was Galle?
0:33:30 > 0:33:31Very complex personality,
0:33:31 > 0:33:35a poet, one might say, a philosopher, a dreamer,
0:33:35 > 0:33:39who found his medium, particularly in glass.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43A man with very diverse interests,
0:33:43 > 0:33:48he was a great botanist, he had a strong political agenda,
0:33:48 > 0:33:53he was a liberal with a tremendous social conscience.
0:33:53 > 0:33:56Emile Galle was also an industrialist,
0:33:56 > 0:34:00who built from an inherited family business
0:34:00 > 0:34:04a very substantial and successful
0:34:04 > 0:34:08glass, furniture and ceramics factory.
0:34:11 > 0:34:16With his master craftsmen, Galle created stunning prototypes,
0:34:16 > 0:34:20while on the workshop floor, designs were mass produced
0:34:20 > 0:34:23for a hungry market across France.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26Art and industry went hand in hand.
0:34:35 > 0:34:39So he was experimenting to develop different techniques,
0:34:39 > 0:34:41colouring and texturing the glass,
0:34:41 > 0:34:44creating effects within the mass of the glass,
0:34:44 > 0:34:48layering colours and cutting back with acid
0:34:48 > 0:34:53or engraving to achieve cameo and other effects.
0:34:53 > 0:34:59He ended up really being capable of making pieces of glass
0:34:59 > 0:35:03of a technical complexity that had never been achieved before.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14Engraved with quotations and dedications,
0:35:14 > 0:35:18his exhibition pieces go way beyond the purely decorative.
0:35:21 > 0:35:27The magic of them is that as well as being virtuosities of glassmaking,
0:35:27 > 0:35:34they are always imbued with this magical poetic quality
0:35:34 > 0:35:37which is his signature.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45He would evoke nature, he would evoke the cycle of life.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53He would draw you into a piece of glass
0:35:53 > 0:35:57and somehow you could become lost in it.
0:36:01 > 0:36:06And you would be as enthralled as if you were looking up at the stars.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10You sort of lose a sense of scale within his pieces.
0:36:10 > 0:36:15He was truly an artist.
0:36:30 > 0:36:35Galle's view of nature was a complex but also a very honest one.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39Yes, he could do blue skies and dragonflies,
0:36:39 > 0:36:44but he also appreciated what was rank, decaying, dying.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48He'd have been just as happy here on an overcast autumn afternoon
0:36:48 > 0:36:52as he would have been at the height of summer.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00Like Baudelaire, Galle was trying to find a new language
0:37:00 > 0:37:04that could express the realities of modern life and death.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14I've come to the Ecole de Nancy museum in Galle's home town.
0:37:17 > 0:37:19At the end of the 19th century,
0:37:19 > 0:37:23Nancy became a power house of Art Nouveau design.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30In 1901, Galle formed an association of local designers.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34They included the furniture designer Louis Majorelle
0:37:34 > 0:37:39and glass designers Antonin and Auguste Daum.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42Today they're big names in their own right,
0:37:42 > 0:37:45but Galle was the true visionary.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57Now, this is your real Galle McCoy.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01This is the stuff that everybody loved, his lamps.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05Obviously echoing the flowers in the field, the bloom up here,
0:38:05 > 0:38:09but what's very interesting about it is he was trying to show nature
0:38:09 > 0:38:13as she really was, not just spring, not just bounty,
0:38:13 > 0:38:17but also autumn when everything dies and dries up.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21So beneath these buds of poppies about to burst,
0:38:21 > 0:38:26at the bottom of the plant, these tendrils, these withered pieces
0:38:26 > 0:38:31of the plant, the leaves clinging to it, won't be here much longer,
0:38:31 > 0:38:33soon to be blown away.
0:38:38 > 0:38:43One of the vases that Galle exhibited at the 1900 World Fair
0:38:43 > 0:38:44is here at the museum.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51It is called Les Hommes Noirs, The Dark Men.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56A collaboration with the artist Victor Prouve,
0:38:56 > 0:39:00it tells a story of injustice that threatened to destabilise
0:39:00 > 0:39:03the government and the country's fragile peace
0:39:03 > 0:39:05at the turn of the century.
0:39:07 > 0:39:12This vase was dedicated to one man, Alfred Dreyfus.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31In 1895, Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer,
0:39:31 > 0:39:35was sentenced to life imprisonment for treason on the basis
0:39:35 > 0:39:38of documents that had been faked.
0:39:42 > 0:39:48In a humiliating ritual, his badges of rank were torn from him
0:39:48 > 0:39:50and his sword was broken.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58Dreyfus, we know that he screamed, "I am innocent,"
0:39:58 > 0:40:01but it was so loud nobody could hear him, you know.
0:40:01 > 0:40:06So this small man was just standing alone against
0:40:06 > 0:40:10all the anti-Semitic screams, you know, "Death to Dreyfus,"
0:40:10 > 0:40:14"Death to the spy, death to the traitor, death to the Jew."
0:40:14 > 0:40:18It was really a very, very violent moment he had to go through.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27The anti-Semitism that had been simmering for decades in Paris
0:40:27 > 0:40:29now exploded.
0:40:30 > 0:40:36The daily anti-Semitic paper La France Juive stoked the hatred.
0:40:36 > 0:40:40This whole Dreyfus affair cast a very long shadow here in France, didn't it?
0:40:40 > 0:40:42Yes, it did.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45The concern was the Dreyfus affair came to such a point
0:40:45 > 0:40:48that they thought France would be threatened,
0:40:48 > 0:40:51the republic, the democracy, or the republic...
0:40:51 > 0:40:54Really? It could bring down the whole government?
0:40:54 > 0:40:58Exactly. It came to such a climax of anger and passion.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02The streets in Paris became very animated with the Dreyfus case.
0:41:02 > 0:41:03So it really divided everybody.
0:41:03 > 0:41:05It split the whole country.
0:41:05 > 0:41:09Some artists took a stand.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12The novelist Emile Zola famously attacked the government
0:41:12 > 0:41:15with his open letter, J'Accuse.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21Les Hommes Noirs was Galle's J'Accuse in glass.
0:41:22 > 0:41:26The dark men symbolise French hypocrisy and injustice.
0:41:30 > 0:41:36The words on the case ask, "From where do you come?"
0:41:36 > 0:41:38"We come from beneath the earth."
0:41:47 > 0:41:52When Galle returned to Nancy after the 1900 World Fair,
0:41:52 > 0:41:56he paid a high price for his defence of Dreyfus.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59He was ostracised by his neighbours and friends,
0:41:59 > 0:42:01and his business suffered.
0:42:01 > 0:42:07He was defending an innocent against the army, against the church
0:42:07 > 0:42:10and against the justice.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13Since he was involved in this Dreyfus affair,
0:42:13 > 0:42:19he had lost a lot of customers, the business was not working very well,
0:42:19 > 0:42:25so maybe he was a bit upset about the future for his wife
0:42:25 > 0:42:28and his daughters, and the future of the factory.
0:42:28 > 0:42:34As he was the only one who was designing for his factory,
0:42:34 > 0:42:36what would happen next?
0:42:36 > 0:42:38What would become of Galle?
0:42:40 > 0:42:44Do you think, later in his life, Galle regretted the position
0:42:44 > 0:42:46he took over the whole Dreyfus affair?
0:42:46 > 0:42:51It's hard to tell, but he was so deeply always involved
0:42:51 > 0:42:55in those cases that he was defending.
0:42:55 > 0:43:00So I think he regretted it only on the commercial side
0:43:00 > 0:43:04because of the lack of orders, of commands,
0:43:04 > 0:43:08that came after the Great Exhibition in 1900.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11But when he was quoting authors like Victor Hugo,
0:43:11 > 0:43:18he said, "Art is like a weapon to defend your ideas."
0:43:21 > 0:43:24Soon after the World Fair, Galle found out
0:43:24 > 0:43:26that he had another battle to fight.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32Galle was about to die, he knew he was dying,
0:43:32 > 0:43:36so he put a lot of this sadness,
0:43:36 > 0:43:39this melancholia, in all his creations.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43This is the very last piece of furniture that he produced
0:43:43 > 0:43:47in his factory before he died, and it made really a very strong effect
0:43:47 > 0:43:49on the people here.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53What do you think he's trying to say in this?
0:43:53 > 0:43:58It's dawn and it's night-time, the bed, but you could look at it
0:43:58 > 0:44:01particularly as the work of a dying man,
0:44:01 > 0:44:04as about life and death, in fact.
0:44:04 > 0:44:05Yes, that's it, exactly.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09Galle used the symbols of the butterflies
0:44:09 > 0:44:14and they represent, with the central egg, they represent birth,
0:44:14 > 0:44:17the beginning, and they are full of hopes.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21But then at the end of the day, they are dead.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25And on your back, you can see just above your head,
0:44:25 > 0:44:29this night butterfly, the sphinx,
0:44:29 > 0:44:34which is slowly falling above you, and it means death.
0:44:34 > 0:44:38He is dying and his wings are closing on your head.
0:44:38 > 0:44:43It has to make you think of what you make of your life, I think.
0:44:49 > 0:44:54Tragically, Galle didn't live to see Dreyfus exonerated in 1906.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00He died two years earlier, but in the last years of his life
0:45:00 > 0:45:05he'd created some of his most powerful and moving pieces.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15Galle had exposed a fault line in French life
0:45:15 > 0:45:18at the turn of the century,
0:45:18 > 0:45:20but there was a lot more where that came from.
0:45:22 > 0:45:28With the population explosion came crime, overcrowding, poverty.
0:45:34 > 0:45:36There was disquiet on the streets of Paris,
0:45:36 > 0:45:40and the city needed to find new solutions.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50For a young architect who was out to make a bit of a name for himself,
0:45:50 > 0:45:56a bit of a splash, the time was ripe for trying something utterly different.
0:45:59 > 0:46:04Hector Guimard was a young architect with an ego as big as his talent.
0:46:04 > 0:46:09Important projects came his way when he was still in his 20s,
0:46:09 > 0:46:14and in 1896, when Guimard was not yet 30, he designed the building
0:46:14 > 0:46:20that would cement his reputation for bravura, style and ambition.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24His mission was to create not just a radically different
0:46:24 > 0:46:28sort of building, but a template for a new form of communal living.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40Sebastien Cord is an architect himself
0:46:40 > 0:46:46and a resident of Castel Beranger, Guimard's most celebrated building.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50To see the real Guimard magic you have to get inside the curly gates
0:46:50 > 0:46:54to the communal courtyard within.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56- So you see the courtyard? - Stunning, yeah.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00Guimard was really young when he built this.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04- Security code?- Yeah.
0:47:07 > 0:47:09How long have you lived here?
0:47:09 > 0:47:12About five years.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15Must be fantastic, since you're in the business of architecture,
0:47:15 > 0:47:18to live here. Look at that!
0:47:19 > 0:47:23From here you can see the building is asymmetrical,
0:47:23 > 0:47:27a crime against architecture in classically proportioned Paris.
0:47:28 > 0:47:30Your eye doesn't get bored of it
0:47:30 > 0:47:32because there are different contours to it.
0:47:32 > 0:47:37That's interesting in the work of Guimard.
0:47:37 > 0:47:40It's architecture and art with curving lines.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43And the glass up there is beautiful, isn't it?
0:47:43 > 0:47:45Is that all original?
0:47:45 > 0:47:46Yes.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49'Guimard said the logic of nature is impeccable,
0:47:49 > 0:47:53'and at Beranger, his visual language is the sea.
0:47:53 > 0:47:58'The windows repeated on every floor are stained into voluptuous waves.'
0:47:59 > 0:48:02I love these kind of sponge-like bits of stone,
0:48:02 > 0:48:06they look like sea sponges, don't they? Is that the idea?
0:48:06 > 0:48:09We call it mouliere in French.
0:48:13 > 0:48:16'Red brick, anathema to traditionalists,
0:48:16 > 0:48:21'butts up against whole stones and engineered stone too.'
0:48:23 > 0:48:27Very different to the other buildings I've been seeing in Paris,
0:48:27 > 0:48:29the kind of Haussmann buildings, isn't it?
0:48:29 > 0:48:31Yes.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34'It's Guimard's signature ironwork that gives the building
0:48:34 > 0:48:37'its Art Nouveau character and wit.'
0:48:38 > 0:48:39It's incredible.
0:48:39 > 0:48:41'Why the long face?
0:48:41 > 0:48:45'These sea horses press their noses to the walls for good reason.'
0:48:46 > 0:48:49It has a structural function also.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53- Does it? It's holding the wall up. - Yes.- That's good to know.
0:48:56 > 0:49:01I believe another unusual thing is that all the apartments
0:49:01 > 0:49:03are roughly the same size?
0:49:03 > 0:49:05- It wasn't big apartments for the rich.- Exactly.
0:49:05 > 0:49:09Every level have the same height.
0:49:09 > 0:49:13You don't have the rich at the first level
0:49:13 > 0:49:17and the poor people at the top.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23'Really breaking with tradition, Guimard dared to create
0:49:23 > 0:49:27'an apartment block that ignored the social hierarchy of Paris.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34'At first, the neighbours called this Castel Deranger,
0:49:34 > 0:49:38'and when you step in to the building's vestibule, you can kind of see why.'
0:49:38 > 0:49:43That's incredible. It's really like a cave, isn't it?
0:49:43 > 0:49:45Yes, it's designed like a grotto.
0:49:45 > 0:49:50It's a masterpiece of the building made by Guimard.
0:49:50 > 0:49:52Just the gateway is remarkable.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56It's marvellous. Really original, in fact.
0:49:56 > 0:49:58It's like a harp.
0:49:58 > 0:49:59A harp?
0:49:59 > 0:50:04These are the strings and you can kind of pluck them.
0:50:04 > 0:50:06That's rather beautiful, isn't it?
0:50:06 > 0:50:08Maybe not the way I'm doing it, but it could be.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14'All the geometry of the structure is submerged in iron curves
0:50:14 > 0:50:20'and undulating plaster, as if the building itself were made of water.'
0:50:22 > 0:50:25So these are meant to look a bit like trees, are they?
0:50:25 > 0:50:28Yeah, it's like trees going from the grotto.
0:50:28 > 0:50:32It's like a piece of a garden but also with water...
0:50:32 > 0:50:35Like an undersea garden.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37It's quite strange.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40- Yes, it's like Neptune's garden. - Yes.
0:50:40 > 0:50:44'For many years, the full beauty of this weirdly wonderful entrance
0:50:44 > 0:50:49'was hidden under countless coats of gloss paint.
0:50:49 > 0:50:53'Sebastian's just completed the painstaking task of returning
0:50:53 > 0:50:56'Castel Beranger to how Guimard intended it to be.'
0:50:58 > 0:51:02That's great, isn't it? Yes.
0:51:03 > 0:51:08It's a pleasant way to enter in the building.
0:51:08 > 0:51:10It is.
0:51:20 > 0:51:21Pardon, monsieur.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24'As the space where residents would meet and greet each other,
0:51:24 > 0:51:29'it's the heart of Guimard's masterplan for convivial urban living.'
0:51:29 > 0:51:30Here she is with her French bread.
0:51:38 > 0:51:39That's what we should have done.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42I didn't kiss you. Maybe later!
0:51:42 > 0:51:44- Let's see how things go.- After!
0:51:44 > 0:51:46OK, after you.
0:51:46 > 0:51:51'Guimard moved in here himself, enjoying his bachelor lifestyle
0:51:51 > 0:51:53'and his celebrity.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56'A tireless self-publicist,
0:51:56 > 0:52:01'he sent out postcards of himself at home with his watery Art Nouveau.'
0:52:06 > 0:52:11With an award under his belt for Beranger, Paris was his oyster.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18As the city was preparing for the 1900 World Fair,
0:52:18 > 0:52:21he landed the commission that would make him immortal.
0:52:23 > 0:52:25The city was in gridlock.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29The Metro, a new railway fit for a new century was being built -
0:52:29 > 0:52:31under the ground.
0:52:31 > 0:52:35And Guimard was asked to design the Metro entrances
0:52:35 > 0:52:40to add a final decorative flourish to this fantastic new-fangled way
0:52:40 > 0:52:42of getting about.
0:52:45 > 0:52:47He was a controversial choice,
0:52:47 > 0:52:54but in time, Parisians warmed to his flamboyant version of Art Nouveau.
0:53:20 > 0:53:26This is Port Dauphine, Guimard's finest surviving Metro station.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28It's en route to the Bois de Boulogne,
0:53:28 > 0:53:33the woods on the outskirts of Paris, and that seems rather appropriate,
0:53:33 > 0:53:38because emerging from the station is like leaving a thicket of iron trees.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44Guimard brought nature and art into the very heart of the modern city.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49Salvador Dali described his designs as
0:53:49 > 0:53:54"those divine entrances to the Metro by grace of which one can descend
0:53:54 > 0:53:57"into the region of the subconscious."
0:54:03 > 0:54:09Guimard's station, which is actually metallic and dense and brittle,
0:54:09 > 0:54:15in this wooded setting, shape-shifts into a giant moth or bug
0:54:15 > 0:54:19with its gossamer wings, its many, spindly limbs
0:54:19 > 0:54:24and those questing, probing antennae.
0:54:27 > 0:54:34He chose cast iron to create drooping stalks and rising branches.
0:54:34 > 0:54:39And glass, a vulnerable material for a busy urban structure,
0:54:39 > 0:54:42seems to be draped over the iron skeleton.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49Guimard designed 141 station entrances,
0:54:49 > 0:54:54each on a variation of four basic templates,
0:54:54 > 0:54:59as well as a loose interpretation of the letter "M" for Metro.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06The Metro entrances, redefining the city,
0:55:06 > 0:55:09seemed like the portals to the future.
0:55:09 > 0:55:17But when the 1900 exhibition was all packed up, the harsh light of the 20th century started to dawn.
0:55:29 > 0:55:34This dining room was designed for an apartment in Nancy in 1902
0:55:34 > 0:55:38by Eugene Vallin, an associate of Emile Galle.
0:55:40 > 0:55:42I've got a theory that this wasn't made by men.
0:55:42 > 0:55:47I think it's the work of a species of hyper-evolved bee.
0:55:47 > 0:55:49I mean, look at the curves everywhere.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52It's as though they looked at what we did with metal and straight lines
0:55:52 > 0:55:57and rejected it and everything was masticated out of royal jelly.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01Bit freaky for you? Bit acid trippy?
0:56:01 > 0:56:05Well, consider, it would be lovely to come here to dinner once,
0:56:05 > 0:56:07maybe for a week.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10But every day? You would start to feel like Kafka,
0:56:10 > 0:56:15who, shortly after this was created, would pen Metamorphoses.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27And that was the problem - it was too curly, too decorative,
0:56:27 > 0:56:29too dark, too much.
0:56:29 > 0:56:32When it arrived in the dining rooms of the middle classes,
0:56:32 > 0:56:35the Bohemian elite lost their taste for it.
0:56:35 > 0:56:40Like all fashions, Art Nouveau became a victim of its own success.
0:56:45 > 0:56:50Like a fickle lover, the city that had once embraced the style
0:56:50 > 0:56:53turned against it in the 1920s.
0:56:53 > 0:56:56The wonderful Fouquet jewellery shop was dismantled,
0:56:56 > 0:57:00and was reconstructed in the Musee Carnivalet in Paris
0:57:00 > 0:57:02just 23 years ago.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07Even the iconic Metro entrances didn't escape the cull.
0:57:10 > 0:57:14Port Dauphine is one of just three glass entrances that have survived.
0:57:17 > 0:57:21Sadly, when Art Nouveau dramatically fell out of fashion,
0:57:21 > 0:57:24all the others were ruthlessly hacked down.
0:57:28 > 0:57:3279 original Guimard designs have been lost,
0:57:32 > 0:57:35and Art Nouveau was forgotten until the last decades
0:57:35 > 0:57:37of the 20th century.
0:57:39 > 0:57:44Today the Metro and Paris go hand in hand again
0:57:44 > 0:57:47and the city treasures its Art Nouveau heritage.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53The old love affair has been rekindled.
0:57:59 > 0:58:05Next time, the roots and hidden gems of Art Nouveau in British cities,
0:58:05 > 0:58:08set against a backdrop of scandal and depression,
0:58:08 > 0:58:11when artists and designers were on the front line
0:58:11 > 0:58:14of sexual and social change.
0:58:37 > 0:58:40Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd