The Studio Magazine was an illustrated fine arts and decorative arts magazine, founded in Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in 1893, which exerted a major influence on the development of the Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...

 and Arts and Crafts

Arts and Crafts movement

Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...

 movements.

The Studio promoted the work of "New Art" artists, designers and architects—it played a major part in introducing the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Scottish architect, designer, watercolourist and artist. He was a designer in the Arts and Crafts movement and also the main representative of Art Nouveau in the United Kingdom. He had a considerable influence on European design...

 and Charles Voysey

Charles Voysey

Charles Voysey may refer to:* Charles Voysey * Charles Voysey * Charles Cowles-Voysey , architect and son of the above...

 to a wide audience—and it was especially influential in Europe.

From 1906 onwards Studio published an annual survey, The Studio Year-Book of Decorative Art, dedicated to the latest trends in architecture, interior design, furniture lighting, glassware, textiles, metalwork and ceramics. These annuals championed Modernism

Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

 in the 1920s and later the "Good Design" movement. In the later 20th century the annuals gave increasing prominence to architecture and interior design and in the mid-1960s it was retitled Decorative Art in Modern Interiors. The annual ceased publication in 1980.

The following passage in Nevile Shute's 1927 novel So Disdained

So Disdained

So Disdained is the second published novel by British author, Nevil Shute. It was first published in 1928 by Cassell & Co, then republished in 1951 by William Heinemann and issued in paperback by Pan Books in 1966....

captures the nature of the magazine and the influence it had on British people at the time:

"Lord Arner had in his library all the bound volumes of Studio since the beginning. When he was worried or upset over anything he used to go in there and sit down beside the fire, and turn these volumes over slowly. When he came to a picture that he liked he would sit staring at it for a long time without moving. He liked water-colour reproductions best, I think, and especially garden sketches, water colours of herbaceous borders, and paintings with delicate, bright colours. Sometimes he would pass the heavy volume across when he found a drawing that he particularly admired."

Copies of the magazine survive either as individual copies in their rather flimsy card covers, or as hardback bound volumes, usually containing four monthly issues. The Year-Books, especially those from the 1906-14 period, are particularly collectable, capturing as they do the design 'zeitgeist' of the era.

Frank Rutter

Frank Rutter

Francis Vane Phipson Rutter was a British art critic, curator and activist.In 1903, he became art critic for The Sunday Times, a position which he held for the rest of his life...

 was one of the contributors.

In popular culture

The Stairway to Heaven

Stairway to Heaven

"Stairway to Heaven" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in late 1971. It was composed by guitarist Jimmy Page and vocalist Robert Plant for the band's untitled fourth studio album . The song, running eight minutes and two seconds, is composed of several sections, which...

 lyrics, printed on the album sleeve of Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

's Led Zeppelin IV

Led Zeppelin IV

The fourth album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin was released on 8 November 1971. No title is printed on the album, so it is generally referred to as Led Zeppelin IV, following the naming standard used by the band's first three studio albums...

album, were typeset in a font inspired by a part of an old issue of Studio magazine.