William Morris saw the art world through the idealistic lens of socialism. He and the like-minded designers who clustered around him wanted nothing less than to redefine art by restoring "craft" to a place of value. True art for them was based in time-honored, populist traditions; the sometimes raw b

Arts & crafts furniture, Decorative, Egalitarian, Organic, Political, Subtle, Surface

Carlo, papa and patriarch of the Bugatti design family, got around to design by accident. Trained from his youth in the fine arts -- as a sculptor and painter at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan, as well as at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris -- he embarked on his furniture-designing ca

Art nouveau furniture, Collage, Decorative, Eclectic, Excessive, Saturated

At the end of the nineteenth century, there was probably no greater way to gain international recognition as an artist -- or anything else for that matter -- than to be associated with the brilliant actress Sarah Bernhardt. Czechoslovakian painter Alphonse Mucha would get just that opportunity. As a

Art nouveau design, Decorative, Ethereal, Fantastic, Lyrical, Mythic, Serene

A.W.N. Pugin's life was divided between two obsessions: his design and his religion. The first he inherited from his father, an architectural draftsman; the second from life's hard experience, which led him to convert to Catholicism at age 22. The two obsessions combined in Pugin's moralistic approac

Decorative, Elegant, Gothic architecture, Grand, Political, Religious