When East Met West, a New Art Grew

Christopher Dresser, often cited as ‘the first Product Designer’, also created the first objects to be labelled as ‘Art Nouveau’, drawing on his botanical knowledge and experiences in Japan…

In a startling aesthetic revolution, Christopher Dresser rejected the superfluous decoration typical of the Victoriana around him and asserted that beauty can be a result of pure, simple forms that are derived from, and are harmonious with, the function of an object. He suggested that “form follows function” should become a guiding concept. The revelation that led him to this design revolution came about as a result of several factors…

Christopher Dresser was born in Glasgow, 1834, and by 1850 was a Doctor of Botany. He’d observed that flowers, fruits and many natural forms often possessed an innate beauty that was a result of their simplicity. A flower is defined by its function alone. Indeed, the survival of its species had depended on how well it functioned! Yet these functional forms, although transient, were almost universally regarded as things of beauty. In 1855, as Professor of Artistic Botany in London at the Department of Science and Art, he introduced and taught the new subject of Art Botany.