The Majorelle Gardens of Marrakech were laid out in the 1920s by Louis Majorelle, the French decorator, architect and painter renowned for his participation in both the art nouveau and art deco movements. He gave his name to the shade of blue lavishly used to paint the house and ornament the garden decoration. The site has been restored and replanted by the designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge in the vibrant primary colours of the original, to which they have added their personal touch. This manual explores the Gardens through photographs and text, and includes garden maps, plant lists and practical information on visiting times and best seasons.

Art Nouveau gives a name to the decorative and architectural style developed in the 1880s and 1890s in the West. Born in reaction to the Industrial Revolution and to the creative vacuum it left behind, Art Nouveau was at the heart of a “renaissance” in the decorative arts. The primary objective of the movement was the creation of a new aesthetic of nature through a return to the study of natural subjects. In order to achieve this, artists such as Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Antoni Gaudí, Jan Toorop, and William Morris favoured innovation in technique and novelty of forms. After its triumph at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1900, the trend continued and has inspired many artists ever since. Art Deco, the successor of Art Nouveau, appeared after World War II.

First published in 1998. Design reform in the fields of architecture and the decorative or applied arts became objectified through writings published during the period of 1885 to 1910. This investigation includes, but is not limited to, Art Nouveau in France and Belgium, and the arts and crafts movement in England and the United States. Even though the similar processes of creativity and shared goals of Art Nouveau and the arts and crafts movement have long been recognized, attempts to explore their origins and their points of interrelation with the broader scope of art history have been largely unsuccessful—until now.

Rarely has a subject been served by a book of this stature. Five years in the making, it covers all aspects of Art Nouveau in France in 624 authoritative pages and 740 illustrations. Arwas traces the evolution of the movement as it developed, primarily in Nancy and Paris, with the help of carefully chosen illustrations, many never published before. Ranging from the 1900 Paris exhibition to paintings, graphics and posters and such collecting fields as furniture, jewellery, ceramics, book bindings and sculpture, the informative, witty text ranges over architecture, haute couture, and the role of women in Art Nouveau with a particular look at such theatrical icons as Sarah Bernhardt, Loïe Fuller and the Grandes Horizontales. Destined to become the standard book on the subject, both content and design will appeal widely to the connoisseur, the specialist and the collector, as well as to the novice who will be introduced to the magical wonders of the style.

-The complete works of Jacques Majorelle, an orientalist painter of the 20th century -1050 works have been documented by Felix and Amelie Marcilhac -With paintings inspired by scenes from Sudan, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire and Morocco, this book collects Majorelle's fascinating (and occasionally exoticising) depictions of north-west African life Jacques Majorelle (1886-1962) is an emblematic figure of Orientalism. The son of the cabinet-maker Louis Majorelle, he trained at the Ecole nationale des Beaux-arts appliques of Nancy then in Paris, at the Academie Julian. Majorelle traveled through Spain, Egypt and Italy, starting from 1908. In 1917 he moved to Morocco. There, he developed a singular chromatic language which gave him a place divested of all influences among his contemporaries. Landscapes, bazaar scenes, and portraits, he based his art around the city of Marrakech where he lived, as well as across the rest of Morocco. He gathered inspiration from his many trips to Sudan, Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire, amassing a considerable oeuvre of over 1,000 works in which light, colour and a certain viewpoint on exoticism played a decisive role.