The Austrian Art Nouveau, or Vienna Secession, differed from many other national expressions of that international design movement. Compare for a moment its eponymous headquarters building designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich (1898) with its gilded open work laurel leaf dome to the contemporary works of Hector Guimard, Baron Horta or Antoni Gaudi. It becomes evident that in Austrian hands, the Art Nouveau interpretation of nature was perhaps bionic as well as organic. The whiplash line, asymmetry, sense of unconstrained movement, Japanisme and dank palette typically associated with Art Nouveau bowed at the end of the Hapsburg Empire to order, formality, saturated colors, clarity and planar surfaces. This was true in the fine arts as exemplified by Gustav Klimt, the founder of the Secession movement, as well as the decorative arts that extended to everyday experience. Our ceramic ewer is a case in point. Carrying an impressed mark, “Austria,” it was fashioned prior to 1921. Though of a traditional Italianate form, to a cultivated Viennese shopper of the time, the vase's vibrant colors and block print flowers would have seemed au courant. Condition: Excellent. Dimensions. 7" spout-handle x 3.5" base x 9"H.