Otto Eckmann
German (1865-1902)
for Scherrebek Weaving School
Five Swans, 1897
woven wool
Danish Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen

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Shown at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris, this tapestry of five swans floating down a meandering stream was one of the fair's best-received Art Nouveau designs. Created by Munich artist Otto Eckmann, it reflects the German strain of Art Nouveau called Jugendstil, or youth style. The name comes from the Munich-based magazine Die Jugend, meaning Youth, which promoted the new art movement.

Eckmann produced this tapestry in 1897 at a weaving school in a German town now part of Denmark, and the design was widely published in magazines. Critics called it the famous swan tapestry, the freshest product of the new movement. The appeal of the five swans tapestry lay in its unmodulated colors, flat, boldly outlined shapes, and tipped perspective, which all came from Japanese prints. People liked it so much that the tapestry was eventually produced in a hundred versions. It even inspired a spoof that replaced the elegant swans with five pug dogs marching up a winding path. Eckmann was furious when he saw it.