Art Nouveau in Brussels
The Art Nouveau movement of architecture and design first appeared in Brussels in the early 1890s, and quickly spread to France and to the rest of Europe. It began as a reaction against the formal vocabulary of European academic art, eclecticism and historicism of the 19th century, and was based upon an innovative use of new materials, such as using iron and glass to open larger interior spaces and provide maximum light; curving lines such as the Whiplash line; and other designs inspired by plants and other natural forms.
The early Art Nouveau designers in Brussels created not only art and architecture but also furniture, glassware, carpets, and even clothing and other decoration to match. Some of Brussels' municipalities, such as Schaerbeek, Etterbeek, Ixelles, and Saint-Gilles, were developed during the heyday of Art Nouveau and have many buildings in that style. After 1900, the style gradually became more formal and geometric. The final Art Nouveau landmark in Brussels was the Stoclet Palace by the Austrian architect Josef Hoffmann, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which marked the transition to a more geometric and formal style and the birth of Art Deco and early modernism.
In spite of the Brussels city planning free-for-all between the end of the Second World War and the late 1960s, Brussels still has more than 500 Art Nouveau buildings.
Architecture
Paul Hankar
The first two Art Nouveau houses in Brussels were built at the same time, in 1892–1893, by Paul Hankar and Victor Horta respectively. They were similar in their originality, but very different in their design and appearance. Hankar, the son of a master stone cutter, had studied ornamental sculpture and decoration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels while working as an ornamental sculptor. From 1879 to 1904, he worked in the studio of the prominent architect Henri Beyaert, a master of eclectic and neoclassical architecture. Through Beyaert, Hankar became an admirer of Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, the French architect who advocated the use of innovative new materials such as iron and glass, while drawing from historical architecture for inspiration.In 1893, Hankar designed and built Hankar House, his own residence, at 71, rue Defacqz/Defacqzstraat, in the Saint-Gilles municipality of Brussels. To decorate it, he brought together the talents of several of his artist friends, including the sculptor René Jannsens and the painter Albert Ciamberlani, who adorned the facade with sgraffiti, or layers of plaster tinted in pastel colours onto a moistened surface, a technique popular in Renaissance Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries. The facade and balconies featured iron decoration and curling lines in stylised floral patterns, which became an important feature of Art Nouveau. Based on this model, he built several houses for his artist friends, including Jannsens, Ciamberlani, the silversmith and jewellery maker Philippe Wolfers, and the painter Léon Bartholomé. He also designed a series of innovative glass display windows for Brussels shops, of which one, at 13, rue Royale/Koningsstraat in Brussels, still survives.
In 1897, Hankar designed one more important project; he was the artistic director for the International Exposition held in Tervuren, near Brussels, which featured works by the major Belgian Art Nouveau artists, including Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, Henry Van de Velde, and George Hobé. He died in January 1901 at the age of 41, but his style influenced the work of younger Brussels artists, including Paul Hamesse, Léon Sneyers, Antoine Pompe and the modernist Victor Bourgeois.
Victor Horta
In 1892–1893, Victor Horta was building a very different kind of Art Nouveau house in Brussels, the Hôtel Tassel, for the scientist and professor Emile Tassel. Horta, born in Ghent, was the son of a shoemaker, who had studied architecture at the Academy of Ghent, then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels. He subsequently worked for the neoclassical architect Alphonse Balat, who was in the midst of constructing the enormous glass and iron Greenhouses of Laeken for King Leopold II of Belgium. As his assistant, Horta learned how to use glass and iron and later steel, materials he used skilfully in the all of his later buildings.The Hôtel Tassel, completed in 1893, was on a relatively narrow lot, and the facade, designed to harmonise with the neighbouring buildings, was well-crafted but not revolutionary. The extraordinary part was the interior, designed with an open floor plan, and with an innovative use of iron columns and glass windows and skylights, and of decoration, to create a new idea of interior space. The house was built around an open central stairway. The decoration of the interior featured curling lines, modelled after vines and flowers, which were repeated in the ironwork railings of the stairway, in the tiles of the floor, in the glass of the doors and skylights, and painted on the walls. The building is widely recognised as the first full appearance of Art Nouveau in architecture. In 2000, it was designated, along with three other townhouses designed soon afterwards, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In designating these cites, UNESCO explained: "The stylistic revolution represented by these works is characterised by their open plan, the diffusion of light, and the brilliant joining of the curved lines of decoration with the structure of the building."
Horta built several more town houses in variations of the style, each with its own original character. They include the Hôtel van Eetvelde, the Hôtel Winssinger, the Hôtel Deprez-Van de Velde, the Hôtel Solvay, and the Hôtel Aubecq, as well as his own residence, which is now the Horta Museum. He applied the same original combination of a steel frame, open plan, skylights and functional features, without the decoration and luxury materials, for several larger buildings, including the headquarters of the Belgian Worker's Party or Maison du Peuple/Volkshuis. He also designed several commercial buildings, including the À L'Innovation department store, which burnt down in 1967, as well as a large fabric store, the Magasins Waucquez, which is now the Belgian Comic Strip Center.
After about 1910, Art Nouveau features gradually disappeared from Horta's work, as his style evolved into a fusion of neoclassicism and early modernism. Major later buildings include the Centre for Fine Arts and Brussels-Central railway station, which he began in 1910, and which he was still working on when he died in 1947.
Henry Van de Velde
Another major figure in Brussels Art Nouveau was Henry Van de Velde. He began as a student of art, music and literature, but in 1893 decided, following the influence of William Morris, to turn to the decorative rather than fine arts. He began designing furniture in 1894, and designed his own house, Bloemenwerf, in the Uccle municipality of Brussels, based on the Red House of Morris. He rejected the influence either of nature or of historic styles, and designed houses and decoration purely for functionality. In 1906, he left Belgium for Weimar, where he began a new career with the German Werkebund. After spending the First World War in Switzerland, he returned to Brussels where, from 1925 to 1935, he directed the Higher School of Decorative Arts. In 1947, he settled in Switzerland, where he died in 1957.Josef Hoffmann and the Stoclet Palace (1905–1911)
Brussels has the earliest Art Nouveau houses, and also the finest example of a late Art Nouveau or Vienna Secession house, the Stoclet Palace, by Josef Hoffmann, in the Woluwe-Saint-Pierre municipality. The building has virtually nothing in common with the first Art Nouveau houses, except a certain audacity and willingness to break all the previous styles' rules. It was built for the Brussels banker and art collector Adolphe Stoclet, who met Hoffmann in Vienna, and was impressed by his work. The exterior of the Palace is assembled out of large marble cubes, mounting to a tower. The only decoration on the exterior is a small work of sculpture by Franz Metzner over a doorway, and narrow, stylised bands of sculpture accenting the cubes' horizontal and vertical edges.The interior is much more lavish, with a richness of varied stones and woods, but it is also incessantly geometric. The most famous feature is the ceramic frieze in the dining room by Gustav Klimt. The house was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009.
Other notable Brussels Architects
Other notable Art Nouveau architects in Brussels include:- Paul Saintenoy, who adapted many elements introduced by Horta, including slender iron columns, bow windows, and balustrades with curling lines. His most famous work is the Old England department store, on Rue Montagne de la Cour/Hofberg, in central Brussels, now the Musical Instruments Museum. It features natural light, rich decoration of iron grill-work and ceramic tiles, and an open floor plan. In 1899, he also completed the first apartment building in Brussels built of reinforced concrete.
- Leon Sneyers. Sneyers was trained by Paul Hankar, and then became his collaborator, working in particular on the Belgian participation in the 1902 Turin Exposition of Decorative Arts, which brought Belgian design to a wider European audience. He designed many displays for expositions across Europe. He was attracted to the style of the Wiener Werkstätte, and ran a gallery which promoted their products in Brussels.
- Gustave Strauven. Strauven began his career as a designer working with Victor Horta, then made some of the most extravagant Art Nouveau buildings in Brussels. The best-known is the house of the painter Georges de Saint-Cyr at 11, Ambiorix Square. The house is only wide, but is given extraordinary height by his elaborate architectural inventions. It is entirely covered by polychrome brick and a network of curling vegetal forms in cast iron.
- Paul Cauchie. Cauchie was an architect, decorator, painter, furniture designer, and a specialist in sgraffito, the Renaissance technique of decorating a facade with murals made of tinted plaster applied to a wet surface. He founded his own enterprise in Brussels in 1896 to decorate houses with this technique, which was widely used in the Art Nouveau period. He designed his own house in 1905, with a facade almost entirely covered with sgraffito. He also decorated the interior with friezes, furniture and woodwork he had designed.
Furniture and decoration
Another notable figure in early Belgian Art Nouveau furniture and design was Gustave Serrurier-Bovy. He lived for a time in England, and was influenced by works of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement. His work showed the rustic influence of Arts and Crafts style, but he added his own elements of asymmetry. He also combined different types of furniture into single units, such as a desk with an attached bookcase, chest of drawers, and cupboard. His later work was much more geometrical, well on the path toward modernism.
Jewellery
The most prominent Art Nouveau jeweller in Brussels was Philippe Wolfers. He was also a sculptor and silversmith, and combined these different skills in a variety of works. He designed jewellery and other objects based on insects, plants, and animals, using previous materials and natural curving forms. His work included a pendant with a pearl and a swan surrounded by serpents. Another important figure was Frans Hoosemans, who made small works of sculpture, candlesticks and other objects using ivory, silver, and other precious materials.Painting and ''Sgraffito''
One particular aspect of Brussels' Art Nouveau was the use of sgraffito for exterior or interior decoration. This was a technique invented during the Renaissance, involving applying layers of tinted plaster to a damp wall. It was used in particular by architect Paul Hankar on the facades of houses. The artist-decorator Paul Cauchie made sgraffito for the facade of his own residence, as did the painter Albert Ciamberlani.Protection status
Among Brussels' Art Nouveau creations, four buildings by Victor Horta were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000 under the title "Major Town Houses of the Architect Victor Horta ": the Hôtel Tassel, the Hôtel Solvay, the Hôtel van Eetvelde and the Horta House.The Stoclet Palace, built between 1905 and 1911 by the Austrian architect Josef Hoffmann, one of the founders of the Viennese Secession, has also been listed as a World Heritage Site since 2009.