The movement known as Rococo began in eighteenth-century France, and has infused design objects with a sinuous, organic, and sensuous impulse for three centuries. Rococo dominated French design from 1730 to 1765, during the reign of Louis XV. Rococo ideas, transmitted by prints, objects and the traveling designers themselves, quickly spread to England, the Netherlands, the German states, Italy and America.

Rococo resurfaced in England under the flamboyant George IV and in France during the Second Empire. Its most significant revival occurred in the design concept known as Art Nouveau. In the twenty-first century, the Rococo spirit has burst forth once again as a creative force.

Rococo: The Continuing Curve, 1730-2008, featuring essays by international scholars and over 380 color illustrations, traces the movement within the historic continuum.

Deriving from the French word rocaille, in reference to the curved forms of shellfish, and the Italian barocco, the French created the term Rococo. Appearing at the beginning of the 18th century, it rapidly spread to the whole of Europe. Extravagant and light, Rococo responded perfectly to the offhandedness of the aristocracy of the time. In many aspects, this art was linked to its Baroque predecessor, and is thus also referred to as late Baroque style. While artists such as Tiepolo, Boucher and Reynolds carried the style to its apogee, the movement was often condemned for its superficiality. In the second half of the 18th century, Rococo began its decline. At the end of the century, facing the advent of Neoclassicism, it was plunged into obscurity. It had to wait nearly a century before art historians could restore it to the radiance of its olden age, which is rediscovered in this work by Klaus H. Carl and Victoria Charles.

About the Authors:

Victoria Charles is a professor of art history. She has published many works and has regularly contributed to Art Information, an international guide to contemporary art. Writing frequently for specialised journals and magazines, Victoria Charles recently contributed to a collective work, 1000 Paintings of Genius.
Klaus H. Carl is the author of numerous works on the history of large cities, and is also a well-known photographer of nature. A teacher by profession, he also took part, alongside Victoria Charles, in the writing of 1000 Paintings of Genius.

Дизайн мебели от Рококо до Арт Деко. Это издание, содержащее более 1300 (в основном цветных) иллюстраций, представляет собой сборник, позволяющий как знатокам, так и любителям в полной мере оценить трехвековую историю европейского дизайна мебели.

Emerging out of Baroque as a more relaxed style, Rococo was dominant in interiors, decorative art, and painting throughout Europe in the 18th century. With sentiment and emotion prevailing over reason, Rococo was a dramatic and theatrical style. In the Parisian art world, gallant scenes by Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard predominated, along with the delicate still lifes and genre paintings of Chardin. In Venice, we find the magnificent cityscapes and veduta of Canaletto and Guardi, along with Tiepolo's brilliantly illuminated ceiling frescos. London society celebrated portraitists of stature such as Hogarth, Gainsborough, and Reynolds, while in Southern Germany and Austria, pious images of celestial serenity created by Asam and Troger spanned the church ceilings.

Artists featured among others: François Boucher, Canaletto, Rosalba Carriera, Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, John Singleton Copley, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Thomas Gainsborough, Francisco de Goya, Francesco Guardi, William Hogarth, Angelika Kauffmann, Nicolas Lancret, Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Thomas Lawrence, Jean-Marc Nattier the Younger, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Joshua Reynolds, Johann Heinrich Tischbein, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Jean-Antoine Watteau, Joseph Wright

About the Series:
Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Genre Series features:

* a detailed introduction with approximately 35 photographs, plus a timeline of the most important events (political, cultural, scientific, etc.) that took place during the time period
* a selection of the most important works of the epoch; each is presented on a 2-page spread with a full-page image and, on the facing page, a description/interpretation of the work and brief biography of the artist as well as additional information such as a reference work, portrait of the artist, and/or citations

Text in Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish

The Rococo is a predominantly French style of the mid-18th century. Both in style and chronologically, Rococo fits in between the boldly ornamental Baroque and the elegant and joyful Romanticism. One the typifying elements of the Rococo is the use of exquisite bouquets as an ornamental detail.