Nordic Art Nouveau

Nordic Art Nouveau (National Romantic style) is a conventional name of the 19th-20th century architecture of the 19th-20th century, located around the Baltic Sea. In Scandinavian countries it is called “national romanticism” or “national romantic style”.

The emergence of style
In Europe, a similar style is called ” national romanticism.” The term “northern modern” is later, arose in the Soviet era and is not used by Western art historians. Its emergence in Russia was facilitated by cultural and economic ties, intensified at the beginning of the 20th century, with Finland and Sweden, countries where national romanticism was the main trend in art, and also increased interest in Russian folk art, folklore, and wooden and stone architecture of the Russian North.

In October 1897, Diaghilev organized an exhibition of Scandinavian artists in the museum of the technical drawing school of Baron AL Stieglitz. The exposition includes works of more than seventy artists from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark selected in the workshops of Scandinavia and Paris. Among them – Anders Zorn, Bruno Liljefors, Karl Larson.

In January 1898, Sergei Diaghilev organizes an exhibition of Russian and Finnish artists, in which, along with Alexander Benois and Mikhail Vrubel, artists V. Blomsted, Axeli Gallen-Kallela and others participate.

Acquaintance with their work had a huge impact on Russian artists. The dialogue of Nicholas Roerich with the Finnish artist Gallen-Kallela resulted in a great friendship, the similarity of their paintings and views on art was repeatedly noted.

Leading Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, who was the founder of the style of Finnish national romanticism, was a member of the Petersburg Academy of Arts and the group ” World of Art “. He often visited Petersburg, was personally acquainted with Igor Grabar, Sergei Diaghilev, Nikolai Roerich and other famous figures of Russian culture.

According to the project of the Finnish architect A. Shulman in 1904, the house of IV Besser (now Vladimirsky prospect, 19) was built in the style of Finnish modernism.

As a result, there were formed two frequently interacting directions. One of them is the “Russian style”. In search of monumental simplicity, the architects turned to the ancient monuments of Novgorod and Pskov. The other is actually the “Russian Northern Modern”, very close to the buildings of Stockholm and Helsinki.

The main characteristics of the style
The main external features of the architecture of the “Northern Art Nouveau” – with great art are selected combinations of natural and artificial finishing materials, each of which benefits from neighborhood with another. The plinth is often lined with Finnish granite, mostly roughly worked, and in some cases smoothly chiseled, with sculpture. The planes of the walls of the upper floors are covered with textured plaster or finishing bricks. In the decoration elements are introduced ornaments inspired by northern folklore, images of northern flora and fauna. Often used majolica, colored ceramic tiles. The forms of buildings are massive, free from small decor. Contrast combinations of textures, color-tonal planes, shapes, a variety of window openings and their combination with piers – all this turns the facades in the full sense of the word into a complex cold structure reminiscent of both northern rocky landscapes and large-scale medieval structures.

Nordic style of modernism
In the second half of the 19th century. a number of countries in Western Europe were experiencing economic growth and the emergence of capitalist relations. The construction boom began and trade intensified. The visual expression of all these processes was the style of historicism (eclecticism) and the newborn modernist style. The spread of a new style coincided with the rise of national self-determination and the formation of peoples of nations. Self-assertion was inherent in even such ancient monarchies that existed in Sweden and Denmark. Thus, the national revival coincided with the cultural upsurge in Finland and the national version of the modern, which in the literature is called “National romantic style”.

With some common stylistic features with a European style of modernism, the style in the Scandinavian countries quickly became nationally colorful. A number of Scandinavian artists turned to the heritage of the national Middle Ages, creatively complemented them and redone. The practice of world exhibitions required demonstrations of national achievements in industry and in culture. The exhibition competition began to demonstrate its own achievements in the construction of national pavilions, and so on. The events of the World Exhibitions widely covered various periodicals and illustrated editions. A significant contribution to the popularization of the new style was made by bourgeois advertising, which was also experiencing an upsurge. The new section of the time advertising was the advertising of architectural bureaus and private architects, who often switched to modern-day modernist stylistics. Projects of capital artists were taken to remote villages, where there were amazing buildings, completely different from the local building traditions. So, the architect Gunnar Svenson served as a construction consultant at the Swedish diplomat in St. Petersburg. His client was a surgeon SP Fedorov, who built his own manor in the village of Vorobyovo in the Kaluga region. Under the project of Swede F. Lidvala, a building was constructed on Khreschatyk Street in Kyiv, although Lidval did not live in Ukraine. This practice was not a single one. The short period of existence of the modernist style nevertheless gave massive construction both in the capital and in the provincial cities of many countries.

Due to this, the modernist style and its national variants quickly crossed the boundaries of states and capitals and reached the remote provinces, including far to the south of the Baltic.

Buildings in the style of northern modernism are characterized by monumentality, sharp and expressive silhouette, asymmetry on facades, the use of natural stone or brick. Buildings have a taste of fortress architecture through the use of large blocks of stone, bare walls with poor decor, frequent rejection of open balconies and galleries, as the buildings are designed to save heat in the long cold time. Depending on the function of the building windows could be quite large, especially in shopping malls and large department stores even in the north.

In private homes, unbroken bricks with scratching areas and poor decor were combined in a compromise. Restricted use of coloring of the facades by painting. In cities, the use of multi-colored tiles (sometimes mosaics) was practiced in the tympans of rounded gables, which enriched the expressiveness of buildings.

Buildings in the style of northern modern art are diverse in function as most modern day buildings. The operation of large volumes and monumental but not rich decor did not prevent the construction of stations, theaters, shops, banks, temples, socially significant buildings. Greater exterior affinity was the country cottages, farmsteads that marveled with a variety of volumes, forms of windows and fancy décor, which only resembled medieval samples, often was an author’s, individual.

The Nordic Art Nouveau is not only architectural buildings and not only facades. The same tendencies in the synthesis of arts, their combination, as in the architecture of secession in general, became important in it. Construction in countries close to the north contributed to the design of fireplaces, stoves and their ceramic decoration. The decor of fireplaces and stoves surprised a variety of designs and decor tiles as important components of newly created interiors. Famous architects and masters of decorative arts and crafts, among them the Finns Uno Ulberg, M. Grippenberg, V. Aspelin, L. Sparre, Armas Lindgren and E. Saarinen, Russian artist Mikhail Vrubel, did not refuse to design the heating devices and their decor.etc. Projects of fireplaces of Finnish architects also used outside of Finland. The value and export of Finnish colored tiles has also become important.

Coexistence in time with other styles contributed to the creation of gardens, squares, new fountains. So, a garden in a regular style was designed by architect Isaac Casson for the construction of the Norrland County in Uppsala.

Northern Art Nouveau in Finland
The formation of modernity in the art of Finland fell on the era of the awakening of national identity, interest in folklore and history. Therefore, modernism has been closely associated with national romanticism, a trend that has been developing rapidly since the end of the XIX century in various spheres of culture: architecture, literature, music, painting.

The most important event that made us talk about the original Finnish architecture was the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900, where the Finnish pavilion, designed by E. Saarinen, A. Lindgren and G. Gesellius, aroused universal admiration and won international recognition. The spectators were impressed by the unusual combination of shapes coming from Finnish wooden architecture, ancient stone churches and the fashionable style of Art Nouveau at the time.

In the next decade, a new direction took shape and gained popularity in Finland, and E. Saarinen, A. Lindgren and G. Gesellius created a number of buildings in Helsinki and other cities of the country. Their most significant works are their own house and workshop “Wittresk”, the building of the National Museum of Finland, the house of the insurance company “Pohjuola”, houses on the peninsula Katajanokka. Later E. Saarinen built the station buildings in Helsinki (1906-1914) and Vyborg (1913, not preserved).

A prominent representative of national romanticism in Finland was the architect Lars Sonck, who built a number of churches (the St. Michael’s Cathedral in Turku, the cathedral in Tampere, the Church of Kallio in Helsinki), as well as many residential, public and commercial buildings (telephone company building, hospital building in the Eyra district and etc.)

The architects of the Finnish Art Nouveau refused both the abundant decorativeness and pomposity of the eclecticism, as well as the symmetry and regularity of classicism. They used a free composition of the whole and parts, conditioned by a functional purpose, a picturesque dynamic dismemberment of volumes. External forms used the motifs of ancient Roman and folk architecture. Expressive silhouettes of the roofs and towers they skillfully inscribed in the natural environment. Widely used were traditional materials such as granite and wood.

Examples
Bergen Station (Bergen stasjon) (1913, Norway)
Copenhagen City Hall (Københavns Rådhus) (1905, Denmark)
Finnish National Theatre (Suomen Kansallisteatteri) (1902, Finland)
Frogner Church (Frogner kirke) (1907, Norway)
Holdre Manor (Holdre mõis) (1910, Estonia)
National Museum of Finland (Suomen Kansallismuseo) (1905, Finland)
Norwegian Institute of Technology (Norges tekniske høgskole) (1910, Norway)
Pohjola Insurance building (1901, Finland)
Polytechnic Students’ Union or Sampo Building (1903, Finland)
Röhss Museum (Röhsska konstslöjdsmuseet) (1916, Sweden)
Stockholm City Hall (Stockholms stadshus) (1923, Sweden)
Stockholm Court House (Stockholms Rådhus) (1915, Sweden)
Taagepera Castle (Taagepera mõis) (1912, Estonia)
Tarvaspää, (1913, Finland) the house and studio built for himself by Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela
Tolstoy House (Толстовский дом) (1912, Russia)
Church of the Epiphany (Uppenbarelsekyrkan) (1913, Sweden)
Vålerenga Church (Vålerenga kirke) (1902, Norway)

Nordic Art Nouveau in Ukraine
The notion of the name of the “Nordic Modern” is particularly evident in the fact that the stylistics of the supposedly Scandinavian countries is inherent only to countries located around the Baltic Sea. In fact, the style was noticeably more widespread, as its propaganda contributed to the editions of the late 19th century. and the practice of World Exhibitions. Last but not least, the style’s benefits were enhanced by the advantages of the style itself, its rationality, flexibility, practicality in abandoning the unnecessary and laborious décor, which were so admired in Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, the masters of the era of national variants of modernity.

Examples of buildings in the style of the so-called “northern modern” are characterized by a number of buildings in the cities of Kharkiv, Odessa, Chernihiv, Mariupol, etc.

Northern Art Nouveau in Russia
Nordic Art Nouveau is a trend in the Russian architecture of modernity, developed mainly in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 20th century under the influence of the Swedish and in particular the Finnish architecture of national romanticism. In a broader sense, the appeal to national sources, the rethinking of the national medieval architecture in the context of the modernist style in the countries of the Baltic region, primarily in such large centers as Stockholm, Riga, Helsinki and St. Petersburg: this trend of modernity is considered as one of the stages of formation Scandinavian design.

St. Petersburg
The development of the “Northern Modern” style in St. Petersburg was influenced by the Swedish and Finnish neo-romantic architecture. Leader of ideas from the first source was a representative of the Swedish diaspora of St. Petersburg, Fedor (Friedrich) Lidval. The buildings built on his projects from 1901 to 1907, and especially the Lidvali residential complex on Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt, became a quality alternative to the spread of the German and Austrian (secession) variants of Art Nouveau in Petersburg. The influence on the formation of the creative manner of Lidval of such major representatives of neoromanticism in Sweden as Ferdinand Boberg and IG Clason. Another important contribution to the formation of style at an early stage was the construction of Robert Meltzer ‘s projects of mansions on Kamenny Island. A little later, the influence of the more outrageous Finnish architecture became the main one. In such iconic buildings as Putilova’s house on the Bolshoy Prospekt of the Petrograd Side (architect Ippolit Pretro) and the building of the Rossiya insurance company on Bolshaya Morskaya Street(architect H. Gimpel) – both 1907 years of construction, architects resorted to direct quoting from the works of their Finnish colleagues, which, however, does not underestimate the high artistic qualities of these works. During the second half of the decade, “Northern Modern” became the main trend in the architecture of St. Petersburg, attracting the forces of young architects. It is with this time that the main achievements of Nikolai Vasiliev, a consistent supporter of the romantic theme with an individual vision of style, are connected. This is the facade of Alexei Bubyr’s house on Stremyannaya Street and the final project of the Cathedral Mosque, in the severe form of which the “northern” theme prevails over oriental motives. An interesting example of style is the House of Bazhanov (architectPavel Alyoshin), up to now the original interior of the front rooms of Bazhanov’s apartment has been preserved: the main staircase, the reception room, the office, the hall, the living room, the foyer, the small and large dining rooms, the white hall.

In subsequent years, the “Northern Art Nouveau” was sharply criticized, sometimes chauvinistic in nature. The insultingly named “Chukhon modern”, it was opposed to neoclassicism as a truly national (imperial) style. Nevertheless, new buildings appear, in which the former decorativeness gives way to rational architecture. Instead of a small ornamental and sculptural decoration, a romantic image is formed by the combination of large volumes of facades – bay windows, balconies and the silhouette of the roof. Of particular interest are the profitable houses built in 1910-1912 by Alexei Bubyr ‘s projects, among them Kapustin’s house in the panorama of the Fontanka River.

Examples
Profitable house Lidvaly, 1901-1904; F. Lidval – Kamennoostrovsky prospect, 1 – 3
Profitable house I. von Besser, 1904; A. Shulman – Vladimirsky Ave, 19
The mansion of V. Savitsky, 1904-1905; N. Vasiliev – Pushkin, Moskovskaya Str. 15
The Follenweyder Mansion, 1904-1905; R. Melzer – Stone Island, Great Alley, 13
Profitable house Melzerov, 1904-1905; F. Lidval – Bolshaya Konyushennaya Ul., 19, Volynsky per., 8
The apartment house of Yu. P. Kollan, 1904-1905; F. Lidval – Bolshoy Prospect Vasilievsky Island, 92
The mansion of R. Melzer, 1904-1906; R. Melzer – Stone Island, Field Alley, 6-8
Profitable house of the Insurance Company “Russia”, 1905-1907; A. Gimpel, V. Ilyashev – Bolshaya Morskaya Str., 35
Profitable house TN Putilova, 1906-1907; I. Pretro – Bolshoy Prospekt of the Petrograd Side, 44
Profitable house A. Bubyr (Ugryumov), 1906-1907; N. Vasiliev, A. Bubyr – Stremyannaya Str. eleven
Profitable house A. Zimmerman, 1906-1907; F. Lidval – Kamennoostrovsky Ave, 61
Profitable house V. Vasilieva, 1907; L. Ilyin, R. Klein – Zagorodny pr., 66, Podolskaya ul., 1

Source from Wikipedia