Origin of the word/name. Samuel Siegfried Bing's (38-05) gallery in Paris; he helped introduce Japanese art and artworks to the West and was a factor in the development of the Art Nouveau style during the late nineteenth century.Bing developed a flourishing import-export business from the 1870s onward, working through several commercial entities with various partners and family members; he concentrated on the importation and sale of Japanese and other Asian objets d'art, though his business also exported French goods to Japan, working through a Yokohama office managed by his younger brother August. In December 1895 he opened his famous gallery, the Maison de l'Art Nouveau, which showed works of artists of what would become known as the Art Nouveau style. Henry van de Velde designed the interior of the gallery, while Louis Comfort Tiffany supplied stained glass. Bing's gallery featured entire rooms designed in the Art Nouveau style by his in-house designers.
During the gallery's most successful period, 1896–1902, Bing sold a great variety of artistic work, included fabrics designed by William Morris, glassware by Louis Comfort Tiffany, jewelry, paintings, ceramics, stained glass, and furniture of Art Nouveau style. Bing dealt with customers ranging from private collectors to major museums, and helped to promote a global art market. His pavilion at the 1900 Paris World's Fair was especially notable. By this time Bing was the primary European dealer for the Rookwood Pottery Co. of Cincinnati and the Grueby Faience Company of Boston, as well as the wares of Tiffany.
Siegfried Bing had also a significant role in promoting artists who were associated in the new style movement named Les Nabis, including Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Paul Sérusier, Paul Ranson and Felix Vallotton.
He published a monthly journal, Le Japon Artistique, which began in 1888 and was collected in three volumes in 1891. The journal influenced people like Gustav Klimt.