Jugendstil made its début in the early 1890s and ended when the First World War broke out in 1914. One of the movement’s main ambitions was to break with the past and to create a modern style encompassing all branches of the arts. We are particularly familiar today with the organic, natural forms of, for example, the School of Nancy. A second form of Jugendstil was dominated by abstract geometrical patterns inspired partly by the wealth of forms found in classical art and partly by styles, for example Neo-Classicism (Louis XVI), that imitated antiquity. An example of this second form of Jugendstil
is provided by the modernistic suite of drawing room furniture dating from around 1910, which is typical of Jugendstil in Basel. With its refined, severe lines, the suite of furniture contrasts sharply with the floral Jugendstil forms of some of the other objects displayed.