Art Nouveau Tarot is the 1989 Matt Myers deck: a vivid, oil-painted tarot with stained-glass color, dramatic faces, dark blues, hot oranges, purples, turquoise, and a very late-eighties sense of theatrical romance. If you landed here looking for the Matt Myers Art Nouveau Tarot rather than another Art Nouveau-themed deck, this review is now written in that context.
The major arcana stay close enough to classic tarot to feel recognizable, but the deck has its own voice. The Hierophant is often discussed as The Priest, Strength shows a gentler, faith-and-patience kind of courage, Death dances among flowers, and the Moon/Sun imagery leans into strong feminine and masculine symbolism. The minors are the real twist: instead of simple scenic clones of Rider-Waite-Smith, the numbered cards follow relationship storylines across the suits.
Tap any card to open a larger carousel view.Art Nouveau Tarot Cards
Quick take
Matt Myers’ Art Nouveau Tarot is best for readers who want a deck that is romantic, moody, story-driven, and visually intense. It is not the soft pastel Art Nouveau look many people expect from modern decks. This one feels darker, glossier, more stained-glass, and more character-focused.
The TarotFans gallery currently shows 75 verified card-front images. The recovered set is missing three majors: The Lovers, The Star, and Judgement. I am keeping that count honest rather than padding the page with uncertain images from a different Art Nouveau deck.
What makes the Matt Myers Art Nouveau Tarot different?
The biggest difference is that Myers painted the deck in oils and used human models, which gives many cards a portrait-like quality. Faces feel specific. Figures look staged, expressive, and sometimes almost photographic under the heavy color. That makes the deck easy to recognize once you have seen it.
The style is Art Nouveau through a stained-glass filter: strong outlines, ornamental borders, saturated color, floral and vine-like details, and a dramatic decorative mood. It has beauty, but it is not delicate in the usual “pretty tarot” way. It can feel romantic, Christian, Celtic, earthy, theatrical, and a little strange all at once.
Card study
Strength — courage as something still growing
Strength is one of the best examples of this deck’s emotional symbolism. Instead of only showing power already mastered, the image can read as courage in development: patience, hope, and the willingness to grow into your own steadiness.
In a reading, this card asks where gentleness is not weakness. It can point to confidence that is still taking root, especially when a situation needs faith before proof.
Major arcana: traditional bones, Myers mood
The majors are the easiest entry point. They keep familiar tarot architecture, but the tone is very much Matt Myers: rich reds and blues, youthful models, devotional poses, ornamental backdrops, and simple but memorable symbolic choices. The deck is not trying to hide its drama.
Some cards will feel immediately readable; others may ask you to sit with them. The Priest/Hierophant can feel more church-like than many modern versions. Death is unusually beautiful, with the skeleton-and-flowers contrast making transformation feel both final and fertile. The Sun and Moon are especially clear examples of how the deck uses gendered symbolic language.
Four-card moment
Major arcana mood check
Read these four as will, inner knowing, creative embodiment, and structure. Together they show how the deck blends classic tarot roles with staged, portrait-like character work.
The minor arcana tell relationship stories
The minors are where this deck becomes most unusual. The pips often show couples moving through emotional, practical, and conflict-based situations. That can make the cards memorable, especially for relationship readings, but it can also surprise readers who expect every pip to show the exact number of suit symbols in a traditional way.
For some people, the storylines are the deck’s magic. For others, they make the minors feel less direct. The best way to read them is to keep the traditional card meaning in one hand and the scene’s emotional temperature in the other. Ask: what relationship pattern, pressure, promise, or repair is this card showing?
Card study
Death — endings in bloom
Death is one of the deck’s most striking cards because it refuses to make transformation plain or clinical. The dancing skeleton and blooming flowers turn the card into a reminder that endings can be unsettling and fertile at the same time.
In practical readings, Death asks what has already changed, what needs ritual release, and what new life is trying to grow through the old structure.
Cups, Coins, Swords, and Staves
The deck uses Staves, Cups, Swords, and Coins. Aeclectic’s deck notes also point out a nonstandard elemental attribution in the little white booklet: Staves are associated with Air and Swords with Fire. You do not have to use that system, but it matters if you want to read the deck on its own terms.
The suit stories are especially useful in love and family questions. Cups can show intimacy, disappointment, and reunion. Coins often feel grounded and practical. Swords and Staves can bring tension, movement, friction, and ambition. The suit borders and color coding help you stay oriented while the scenes pull you into narrative.
Four-card moment
The Cups family storyline
Use this four-card line to feel how the deck handles emotional growth: opening, shared joy, separation or grief, and a return to harmony.
Who will enjoy this deck?
Choose Matt Myers’ Art Nouveau Tarot if you like decks with strong personalities, saturated color, expressive human figures, and minors that behave like story scenes. It is especially good for readers who enjoy relationship questions, emotional development, creative journaling, and decks with a vintage collectible feeling.
It may be less ideal if you want a clean beginner deck, a minimalist deck, or a fully Rider-Waite-Smith visual system. New readers can absolutely use it, but the pips may require patience because they ask you to combine card meanings with a deck-specific narrative language.
Pros and cons
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Card study
The Moon — dream, instinct, and atmosphere
The Moon shows why this deck works when you want mood as much as meaning. Its symbolism is clear enough to read, but the atmosphere invites you to ask what is being felt before it is being explained.
In readings, use it for uncertainty, projection, psychic sensitivity, dreams, and the moment when the path is visible only in reflected light.
Four-card moment
Coins as practical relationship work
This sequence reads as material beginning, protection, patient planning, and mature stability. It is helpful for questions where love, money, home, and long-term effort overlap.
Reading tips for Matt Myers’ Art Nouveau Tarot
Start with the card title, then read the body language. Because the figures are so expressive, posture and gaze matter. Is someone reaching, resisting, praying, dancing, turning away, or standing still? Those visual cues often clarify the traditional meaning.
Second, track the suit story. If a minor feels confusing, compare it to nearby cards in the same suit. Myers’ approach makes more sense when you see the numbered cards as a sequence rather than isolated illustrations.
Finally, do not force the deck to be another Art Nouveau Tarot. There are several decks with similar names. This one is the Matt Myers version: darker, more narrative, more saturated, and more idiosyncratic than the softer decorative decks people often imagine.
Final thoughts on Art Nouveau Tarot by Matt Myers
Art Nouveau Tarot by Matt Myers is a memorable vintage deck because it has a point of view. The majors offer recognizable tarot images in rich, dramatic color, while the minors turn suit meanings into relationship scenes that can feel intimate, awkward, beautiful, and human.
If you want a perfectly neutral teaching deck, this probably is not the first choice. If you want a romantic, oil-painted, story-heavy deck with a strong late-eighties stained-glass personality, it is absolutely worth a closer look.
Art Nouveau Tarot FAQ
Is this the Matt Myers Art Nouveau Tarot?
Yes. This review is about the 1989 Art Nouveau Tarot by Matt Myers, not the Antonella Castelli Art Nouveau deck or another similarly named deck.
How many Art Nouveau Tarot cards are shown here?
The TarotFans gallery currently shows 75 verified card-front images. The missing cards are The Lovers, The Star, and Judgement.
What is unusual about the minor arcana?
The minors follow storylines, often involving couples moving through life, love, conflict, family, and practical concerns. They are readable, but they are not simple Rider-Waite-Smith copies.
Is Art Nouveau Tarot by Matt Myers beginner friendly?
It can work for beginners who love visual storytelling, but the pips may take practice. New readers may want to keep a guidebook or meaning reference nearby while learning the deck’s story system.
What suits does the deck use?
The deck uses Staves, Cups, Swords, and Coins, with King, Queen, Knight, and Page as the court cards. Some sources note that its booklet reverses the usual Staves/Air and Swords/Fire correspondences.
What kinds of readings suit this deck best?
It shines in relationship readings, emotional development, creative reflection, family-pattern questions, and any spread where visual storytelling helps you understand the situation.
