Art dans Tout

The Art dans Tout movement was a French art group which operated from 1896 to 1901. Originally called Les Cinq, because it had five founder members, artist and lace designer Félix Aubert, sculptor and craftsman Alexandre Charpentier, sculptor and medalist Jean Dampt, sculptor and medalist Henry Nocq and architect Charles Plumet, it later changed its name to Les Six when Nocq left the group in 1897, replaced by painter Étienne Moreau-Nélaton and architect and decorator Tony Selmersheim. In 1898, the group expanded further to become Art dans Tout when Carl-Albert Angst, a sculptor and student of Dampt, Jules Desbois, a sculptor, Paul Follot, a furniture designer, Alphonse Hérold, a cabinetmaker, Antoine Jorrand, a painter and tapestry designer, Henri Sauvage, an architect, and Louis Sorrel, an architect and collaborator of Aubert's, joined. The group dissolved in 1901 due to commercial necessity.

The group's philosophy can be summed up in two concepts, that the form of a work of art should always fit its function and be artistic, and that the material the work is made from should always reflect the purpose of the object and the nature of the material.

With the rise of machine production, the cost of producing object d'art and house decorations fell. In France, as around the rest of Europe, differing philosophies arose as to how to produce beautiful household objects and furniture for the masses, not just for the rich, following the philosophy of Eugène-Émmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. Followers of Viollet-le-Duc believed that banal, mediocre interiors had a negative effect on the development, morality and intellect of people who lived in them. Various attempts at collaborations between artists and industries that produced these items occurred. In France, these attempts had mostly ended in failure. Several of the artists in the group worked in a style that was part of the larger Art Nouveau style. The group was part of a tentative but determined attempt to break down the barriers between art, industry and everyday life.

Nocq in his role as art critic wrote an article on improvements in street design seen in England and Belgium, and encouraged France to follow their lead.

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