1900 three-leaf mahogany screen by Felix Bernard

Charming little screen or three-leaf fireplace screen from the art nouveau period in carved mahogany decorated with embroidery on silk representing birds. The wooden panels are carved with stylized chestnut leaves and fruits. Each leaf is decorated with a bird embroidered on a wild indian yellow silk. The upper part is perforated by six beveled glass panes embedded. Each panel is carved in the form of arabesques, in a fully art nouveau taste. The whole, foldable, rests on four small curved feet ending in clog. The central panel is slightly larger than the other two. This small screen is signed "f. Bernard nancy" on the central sheet. Felix bernard (nineteenth-twentieth) is a cabinetmaker from nancy active at 6 rue de la salpêtrière in nancy at the end of the nineteenth century. His work being in the style of émile gallé and louis majorelle, he ranks in the productions known as the "school of nancy". Art nouveau or the triumph of the curved line. Stemming from the romantic theories of the nineteenth century, art nouveau is based on the break with classicism and in reaction to a society in full industrialization. Quickly considered an international movement, art nouveau – called tiffany in the united states, arts and crafts in england, jugenstil in germany, stile liberty in italy – established itself in france in the early 1890s. It was siegfried bing, a french art dealer, collector and patron of the arts of german origin, who gave the new style the name by which it is known today, opening in 1895 an art gallery he called "l'art nouveau". This new style imposes no rules on artists. The norms of austere academicism are pulverized, to make art nouveau a transgressive art at the center of which nature, woman and eroticism become essential elements.

Ref. : DEZE7233