Russian Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau as an architectural style originated in Europe. Abroad it never took on a single, settled form, developing instead in its own way in each country — Russia included — absorbing elements of one national culture or another. In Russia it became an independent, distinctive movement that left its mark on architecture as well as on painting and sculpture.

Art Nouveau was originally conceived as a style for the wealthy — for private estates, mansions, and villas. Over time, however, along with the simplified techniques used in early Art Nouveau, it was increasingly applied to public buildings and apartment houses. Yet a century ago, as today, Russian Art Nouveau remained a sign of luxury and affluence. In the last century, renowned masters worked on commissions from wealthy patrons who were drawn to striking architectural solutions.

Today our architects turn to the theme of Art Nouveau more and more often when designing the facades of country houses. The reason is easy to understand: in private home building, the creative ambitions of a project's author can be fully realized in keeping with the characteristic features of the style. Every house in the Art Nouveau style is a work of art.

Pseudo-Russian style

This direction is marked by a free reworking of old Russian building methods, closely interwoven with the European features of Art Nouveau. Among the Russian architects who worked in the Russian — or, as it was later called, "pseudo-Russian" — style, Ivan Ropet stands out, a man who studied medieval Russian architecture like no other. At the end of the 19th century, Savva Mamontov invited him to his estate. There Ropet built a bathhouse: a one-story building with a mezzanine, a carved porch, and a four-slope roof painted with red lead in a checkerboard pattern.

The Ropet House — The massive roof combines surprisingly well with the tiny windows and the low door hidden behind the steep porch. The log structure is emphatically massive.

Over the course of his career, the architect created many outstanding structures. Most often they were "terems" with Russian decorative patterns, pointed windows, wooden turrets, and carved window casings — an interpretation of Russian national motifs. Some of Ropet's manors now stand abandoned; many have already been completely destroyed or have burned down.

Adopting the techniques of this style is especially recommended today in the construction of wooden houses — decorating them with galleries, loggias, and terraces, and using dressed timber, whether smooth or rough-hewn, and logs for the facade. Natural wood can be replaced with synthetic materials that imitate it. This not only lightens the structure but also extends its life. The central facade can be decorated with tiles or panels, and the roof slopes, shutters, and casings with patterned fretwork carving ("towels," "valances," and so on).

fairytale house in Flenovo — The "fairy-tale house" in Flenovo, the work of the celebrated "storyteller" Malyutin. Its main feature is a window with rich wooden carving on fairy-tale motifs.

A "Russian terem" can also be created with brickwork. The building may be one or more stories, with triangular gables and dentils on the facade and helmet-shaped turrets, as on churches. Different materials combine beautifully, and patterned fragments — majolica inserts and large panels with floral ornament — fit organically into the style.

Tile ornament on the facade — Set against a brick wall, the ornament is a bright and original element.

Patterned frieze — A patterned tiled frieze.

NORTHERN ART NOUVEAU

The main distinguishing feature of Russian "Northern" Art Nouveau was the combination of different textures within a single composition. Petersburg Art Nouveau was also always more inclined toward the European direction than, say, that of Moscow.

Here, buildings in the Art Nouveau style almost always have a classical look. As a rule, houses in St. Petersburg were built with several wings of different heights and configurations, and with windows of different shapes and sizes. The buildings looked monumental, with massive doors and portals, rounded bay windows, sharply pitched roofs, and finishes of rough stone. At the same time, the smooth, curving lines and the plasticity and graphic quality of the decor and facade that are typical of Art Nouveau can be seen everywhere. The decoration includes motifs of northern nature, animals, and the heroes of myth. Forged, ceramic, and sculptural elements can all be found in the overall appearance of the houses.

Northern Art Nouveau details — Muted gray tones, a massive facade seamlessly united into a single monolith, decoration in the form of bird figures, windows of different sizes, and the distinctive relief "fur-coat" plaster. True Northern Art Nouveau.

Often a house's appearance echoes other styles — Gothic and Romanesque. There is almost no use of color, and decorative work is kept to a minimum — mostly bas-reliefs of the Scandinavian type. In Northern Art Nouveau the stylization of medieval and folk architectural motifs is clearly visible. Its graphic quality and restraint are combined with original devices, as, for example, in the mansion of the ballerina Kshesinskaya, built by A. Gauguin — a convex, capsule-shaped window for the winter garden that unites the space of the mansion with the outside world.

Kshesinskaya Mansion in St. Petersburg — The Kshesinskaya Mansion on Kronverksky Prospekt is a large building with a unique winter-garden window.

Chayev's Mansion in St. Petersburg — Chayev's mansion is an example of St. Petersburg Art Nouveau, combining brick, granite, plaster, and majolica tiles on the facade. The corner entrance is decorated with narrow windows set diagonally and with antique-style bas-reliefs.

Alongside Northern Art Nouveau, classic European Art Nouveau was also used in private construction in St. Petersburg. It carries hints of the half-timbered and "castle" types of building.

Dacha Hauswald on Kamenny Island — The Hauswald dacha on Kamenny Island in St. Petersburg is considered the first building in Russia constructed in the Art Nouveau style. Much of the building is made of wood; the facade is plastered and finished with wooden beams in the half-timbered style. The adjoining turret is built of stone. Note the emphatic asymmetry of the silhouette, the broken line of the portals and the roof, the wooden terraces decorated with stone pillars, and the plinth made of stone slabs.

MOSCOW STYLE

It can be called romantic, and its leading architect is, of course, Shekhtel, with his unconventional approach to building layout. The finest example of early Russian Art Nouveau in Moscow is the Ryabushinsky mansion on Malaya Nikitskaya. The layout is marked by free asymmetry: each facade is composed differently, together forming a stepped composition. The cornice juts strongly forward, and the bay windows and balconies project unevenly beyond the walls. A plant ornament repeats all around, ceramic tiles are used in the decoration, and the windows hold colored stained glass. The street fence and the balcony frames create a unified style.

Ryabushinsky Mansion on Malaya Nikitskaya — An airy, light, and spacious house that creates a romantic mood. The ceramic tiles on the facade are crowned by a majolica band depicting irises, gentle tones are chosen, and the rooms are clearly visible through the various windows.

Mindovsky House on Povarskaya — One of the finest works of Lev Kekushev. Mindovsky's house on Povarskaya has scarcely changed since it was built.

Ding's House in Skokolniki — Ding's mansion in Sokolniki. Abundant stucco molding, windows decorated with mosaic panels, and even room on the plinth for carved wooden panels.

RUSSIAN ART NOUVEAU TODAY

Art Nouveau is called a "fleeting" trend; it appeared quite unexpectedly, was for a time not taken seriously, and the period of its "reign" ran out fairly quickly. It came to Russia from Europe with a considerable delay, and its lifespan can be put at just fifteen years. It is hard to fit into any single mold and contained many borrowed elements. Modern Russian Art Nouveau can be seen more and more often in the countryside, which means that the Art Nouveau of the last century left a significant mark on our history. Indeed, the sweep, breadth, organic quality, and fluidity of Art Nouveau are well suited to the revival of private mansions.

Wooden Art Nouveau — An example of refined Russian wooden Art Nouveau in the 21st century. Supple ornamentation of the wooden elements, carefully and tastefully chosen colors and textures, and handcrafted pieces — striking and unusual.

Modern Art Nouveau — designcapital.ru/facades/img/4266
Contemporary architecture in the Art Nouveau style. Rounded, weighty forms, wrought iron details, molding, and large areas of glazing. Brick, stone plinth slabs, and smooth and textured plaster were used in the construction. Above the doors and the unusually shaped windows with wooden frames are panels with a natural landscape. Natural, warm shades of color.

So what are the main techniques for buildings in the Russian Art Nouveau style today?

A bold combination of different materials in a single design, matched in color. Log houses, brick mansions, stone buildings — and often a mixture of types.
The presence of elements typical of Russian architecture — patterned carved window casings, shutters, and turrets on the roof. The building may resemble a Russian terem or a fairy-tale house.
Balconies and porches decorated with wrought iron patterns. The windows are large, and full glazing of walls and stained-glass windows are both possible. Facades are decorated with stucco and stone bas-reliefs and with numerous loggias, galleries, staircases, and terraces. Door and window openings have complex, oval shapes.
Above the entrance and around the perimeter of the walls there are bands of mosaic tile, patterned friezes, and majolica panels.
The overall style — fluidity, softness, curving outlines, the absence of strict symmetry, and, always, harmony with the landscape surrounding the house.

Look for examples of houses in the Art Nouveau style in our database of facades.