A Door in the Spirit of Vienna: Art Nouveau Stained Glass for the Jevtić House

Vienna is the city of Jugendstil, the Austrian Art Nouveau, where flowers, curves and colored glass became part of everyday architecture. In June 2010 Stanisic Studio brought a piece of that spirit into a private home there, the Jevtić House.

A door full of flowers

The work is a full stained glass door set: a central door panel with a transom above it, and on each side a tall sidelight with its own small window above. Painted white frames and paneled bases hold the glass, so the whole wall reads as one composition.

At the center, a single red flower opens on a long green stem that curls and climbs through the panel, with a second bud lower down. The transom above answers it with green scrolls around a small dark bloom. The sidelights mirror each other: yellow blossoms, green tendrils and touches of red rise along their edges like vines on a trellis.

Behind it all is a ground of golden textured glass, framed by bands of deep plum. When light passes through, the hall glows with warm amber, and the flowers seem to grow out of the light itself.

Art Nouveau, made by hand

Art Nouveau loves the line: the whiplash curve, the stem that never runs straight. In stained glass that line is the lead itself. Every curve of the stems and tendrils was cut and leaded by hand in the studio, so the design and the structure of the window are one and the same.

Client: the Jevtić House, private home, Vienna, Austria
Work: Art Nouveau stained glass door with sidelights and transoms
Design: Stevan Stanisic
Made by: Stanisic Studio
Completed: June 2010