BRUSSELS CÉCILE DUBOIS ART NOUVEAU
BRUSSELSCÉCILE DUBOISART NOUVEAUPHOTOS SOPHIE VOITURON
WALKSIN THE CITY CENTERBRUSSELSCÉCILE DUBOISART NOUVEAUPHOTOS SOPHIE VOITURON
INTRODUCTION6First walk10THE ORIGINS OF ART NOUVEAUFROM HÔTEL SOLVAY TO THE HORTA MUSEUMIN THE SPOTLIGHT Victor Horta - Octave Van Rysselberghe - Henry van de Velde - Paul Hankar Benjamin De Lestré - Adrien Blomme - Jean DelhayePORTRAITS Claire Fontaine - Françoise AubrySecond walk32IXELLES, SAINT-GILLES, AND FORESTFROM HÔTEL HANNON TO THE PARK OF FORESTIN THE SPOTLIGHT Antoine Pompe - Paul Vizzavona - Jean-Baptiste Dewin - Social housingPORTRAIT Francis MetzgerThird walkTHE HEART OF SAINT-GILLESFROM PLACE ANTOINE DELPORTE TO RUE VANDERSCHRICK52IN THE SPOTLIGHT Paul Hamesse - Ernest BlerotFourth walk68CINQUANTENAIRE AND THE SQUARES NEIGHBOURHOODFROM MAISON CAUCHIE TO SQUARE GUTENBERGIN THE SPOTLIGHT Sgraffito - Gustave StrauvenPORTRAITS The Dessicy family - Olivier BerckmansFifth walkIXELLESFROM SAINT-BONIFACE TO THE IXELLES PONDS AND AVENUE LOUISEIN THE SPOTLIGHT Raphaël Evaldre - The Delune brothers92
Sixth walk108A FEW UNKNOWN GEMS IN SAINT-JOSSE-TEN-NOODE AND SCHAERBEEKFROM THE MUSÉE CHARLIER TO HÔTEL COHN-DONNAYIN THE SPOTLIGHT Gaspard Devalck - Heritage conservation and awareness-raising policyin the Brussels-Capital RegionSeventh walk122THE CENTRE OF SCHAERBEEKIN THE SPOTLIGHT Henri Jacobs - Privat Livemont - Frans HemelsoetPORTRAIT François SchuitenEighth walk142THE SABLON AND MAROLLES NEIGHBOURHOODSIN THE SPOTLIGHT Émile Hellemans - Jules Barbier - Léon Sneyers - Fernand SymonsNinth walk156THE CENTRE OF BRUSSELSIN THE SPOTLIGHT The production of ceramic tiles – Paul SaintenoyPlaces to seeHeritage conservation and awarenessGuided visits and eventsWebsites about Art Nouveau heritageDocumentation centreBibliographyIndex of names of personsNotes170170170170171171172175
BRUSSELS,THE BEST CITY FORART NOUVEAUWhile other cities could probably also lay claim tothis title, it is true that Brussels is probably one of thefew European cities where the Art Nouveau stylehas such a prominent presence. This is where thefirst Art Nouveau buildings were built. That said,things might have been very different. After WorldWar II, several of the innovative masterpieces ofarchitects such as Victor Horta and Paul Hankarwere demolished or even thoroughly altered,much like the work of several lesser known architects. Fortunately, people gradually rediscoveredArt Nouveau over the years. At the same time,we must remain vigilant! While the interest of ArtNouveau is almost unanimously recognised, manyminor heritage elements may potentially disappear, either because of negligence or ignorance.A guide like this one therefore continues to becrucial for raising public awareness about the richness, diversity, and relevance of Art Nouveau asa creative movement, in early twentieth-centurysociety.This publication contains nine walks, during whichyou can discover the many facets of Art Nouveauin architecture in various Brussels neighbourhoods.It discusses the personalities of several key architects and decorative techniques used to introduceart into the streetscape. The book also containsseveral portraits/interviews of owners, conservators,and restorers, who help safeguard this exceptionalheritage. Saint Cyr house, square Ambiorix 11, Gustave Strauven, 1900
INTRODUCTION Sgraffito, home of the architect Paul Hankar,Rue Defacqz 71, 1060 Saint-GillesAt the end of the nineteenth century, Brussels architects reacted against academicism, which inevitablyled them down the path of Art Nouveau. Victor Horta,with his organic style, and Paul Hankar, whose stylewas more geometric, created a style of architecturethat would soon become internationally famous. Injust fifteen years, from 1893 onwards, hundreds ofArt Nouveau buildings were built across the capital;initially by the great innovators, and subsequently bytheir pupils and followers, who were also inspired, inthe early twentieth century, by the Viennese Secessionand by other trends in European Art Nouveau.Some of these architects designed gesamtkunstwerke,overseeing every aspect of the design, from the architecture to the technical features of a modern edifice(heating, electricity, pipes ) down to the interiordecoration and the furnishings. The concept of the‘portrait house’ was also developed, designing a houseentirely to the specifications of a client.Initially, Art Nouveau perfectly fulfilled the ambitions of the industrial, often progressive, and freethinking bourgeoisie. At the time, Belgium was thesecond industrial power of the world. These clientswished to assert their influence in the city with thisnew and often exuberant architecture, with its clearlyvisible metallic structure and with rooms that invitedlight into the house. Gradually, the style becamemore democratic, culminating in the construction ofArt Nouveau school buildings, social housing, town8INTRODUCTIONhouses, warehouses, community centres, and so on.While Art Nouveau incorporated industrial materialssuch as iron and cast iron, it also relied heavily on theartisanal tradition for stonework, woodwork and joineryand ironwork, stained glass windows, sgraffito andcolourful ceramic decorations.In the early twentieth century, Horta already movedaway from Art Nouveau, revisiting more classicstyles of architecture. Paul Hankar died prematurelyin 1901 whereas Henry van de Velde and OctaveVan Rysselberghe, two other pioneering architects,pursued international careers. The ‘second generation’, comprising Ernest Blerot and Gustave Strauven,whose style was more floral, or Léon Sneyers and PaulHamesse, who developed a more rational architecture,in the vein of Paul Hankar, took over at the helm fromthe innovators. And finally, there were other notablearchitects such as Jean-Baptiste Dewin, Paul Cauchie,and Victor Taelemans, who developed their own verypersonal styles.The construction of the Stoclet Palace, between 1905and 1911, by the Austrian architect Josef Hoffman,marked the end of the history of the Art Nouveaumovement in Brussels with a masterful flourish. Thegeometric shape of the Stoclet Palace ushered in thearchitecture of the interwar period, and would go on toinfluence several Brussels and international architects.World War I signified the demise of this architecture, which at times was outrageously decorative.Sometimes people even forgot that the pioneers soughtfirst and foremost to rethink spaces. A long period followed, during which Art Nouveau was maligned andforgotten. Some major buildings were demolished,such as Horta’s Maison du Peuple, which was built in1895, in spite of international protests. Fortunately,some buildings were listed and restored slowly thetide turned thanks to the visionary insight of peoplesuch as Jean Delhaye and Guy and Léo Dessicy. TheHorta Museum opened in 1969, just four years after thedemolition of the Maison du Peuple.Nowadays, the style is widely appreciated, garneringthe interest of Belgian and international visitors alike.
We must remain vigilant however. The avidity of realestate developers and ignorance can cause irreversiblelosses. In Brussels, residential Art Nouveau buildingscan be found in the bourgeois communes of the firsttier—Forest, Saint-Gilles, Ixelles, Saint-Josse-tenNoode, Schaerbeek, which extend the city of Brusselsto the northeast—, which grew exponentially in theearly twentieth century. The city seemed to be perpetually evolving. New neighbourhoods were built and thearchitects who also served as real estate developersand even contractors did not have to go far to findclients for their buildings. In the city centre, wherepeople went for retail and leisure, the programmeswere more diverse, but the buildings were also morescattered. They were built in places where there wasstill some space left in the early twentieth century, orwhere the town planners decided to create space.Art Nouveau is never the only style in a specificneighbourhood. It always exists alongside other contemporary styles such as neoclassicism, the firstarchitectural style used when the city expanded to thesuburbs, in the 1860s, as well as other ‘neo’ styles(neo-Renaissance, neo-Gothic, etc.) and eclecticism,which drew heavily on various styles. Art Nouveau alsoexisted alongside the first Beaux-Arts style buildings,which became a prominent feature in Belgian citiesfrom 1905 onwards, and which referred to the Frencheighteenth-century styles.It would have been interesting to add an Art Nouveautrail for the communes in the second tier, but thiswould have been a very long trail, which would havebeen impossible to cover on foot. When you leave thecity centre for Uccle, Watermael-Boitsfort, or BerchemSainte-Agathe, you run into several surprising ArtNouveau buildings, which we decided not to includehere, as they are often isolated and are sometimes noteven visible from the street. Stoclet Palace, avenue de Tervuren 279-281, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre (Josef Hoffmann, 1905–1911, listed on 13 October 2005).Added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2009.9
FIRST WALKTHE ORIGINS OF ART NOUVEAUFROM HÔTEL SOLVAYTO THE HORTA MUSEUMAvenue Louise, which was built in 1864 and whichconstitutes the starting point of this walk, fulfilleda double ambition: to create a new and elegantavenue, which connected the city centre with LaCambre forest and promote a new upper middleclass neighbourhood.A progressive bourgeoisie, drawn to the ArtNouveau buildings in the surrounding area, reliedon such innovators as Victor Horta and Paul Hankarfor the design of their homes. This walk focuses onthe ‘manifesto’ houses of the Brussels Art Nouveaustyle and includes three Horta buildings, which wereadded to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000. Detail of the front door, Rue Forestière 40, Ch. Sée, 1909
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01 HÔTEL SOLVAYAVENUE LOUISE 224, 1050 BRUSSELS02 HÔTEL TASSELRUE PAUL-ÉMILE JANSON 6, 1000 BRUSSELS03 HOUSERUE FAIDER 83, 1050 IXELLES04 HÔTEL CIAMBERLANIRUE DEFACQZ 48, 1050 IXELLES05 HÔTEL OTLETRUE DE FLORENCE 13, 1000 BRUSSELS06 HOUSE AND STUDIO OF THE ARCHITECTPAUL HANKARRUE DEFACQZ 71, 1060 SAINT-GILLES07 HOUSERUE AFRICAINE 92, 1060 SAINT-GILLES08 HOUSE OF SANDER PIERRONRUE DE L’AQUEDUC 157, 1050 IXELLES09 HOUSE AND STUDIO OF THE ARCHITECTADRIEN BLOMMERUE AMÉRICAINE 205, 1050 IXELLES10 HOME AND STUDIO OF VICTOR HORTA /HORTA MUSEUMRUE AMÉRICAINE 23-25, 1060 SAINT-GILLES
1/ HÔTEL SOLVAYAVENUE LOUISE 224, 1050 BRUSSELSArchitect: Victor Horta1895-1898Listed: 7 avril 1977 et 22 avril 1999Added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000 Dining Room of the Hôtel SolvayAround the 1890s, Armand Solvay (1865–1930) tookover at the helm of the family company which hisfather, Ernest Solvay, founded in 1863. Solvay inventedthe industrial process for the manufacture of soda.In 1894, Armand Solvay tasked Victor Horta with thedesign of his mansion. Horta, who had shot to fameafter building Hôtel Tassel, would go on to write inhis Mémoires: ‘In effect, I was welcomed in this environment because in being so bold as to choose me,a sign of energy and independence, Solvay’s choicecontained, albeit in a different form, the energy thatthe Solvay brothers needed to invent their soda.’1Thearchitect had an almost unlimited budget at hisdisposal and his relationship with his clients wasremarkable, as ‘this was an amicable relationship,underscored by the intelligence and charm of his wife,who fortunately was more open to modernism thanher husband’,2 even though there were some signsof impatience by the end of the project. Construction14FIRST WALKcommenced in 1895, and while thestructural work was completed in1898, the Solvays ended up havingto wait until 1903 before the lastfurniture was delivered. But theresult was unparalleled: this wasHorta’s masterpiece, the pinnacleof his architectural ideas.The mansion’s design is revealedin the organisation of the façade,which is fifteen metres wide.Horta used white and blue stone,interrupted by lateral oriels onthe various floors, enlivening thefaçade’s design and creating theillusion that the central span ishollow. The ground floor is on thestreet level ‘so the master of thehouse has an office where he can conduct privatebusiness and large cloakrooms that connect with theentrance hall and the utility rooms.’3 A monumentaldouble staircase, with a massive stained glass skylight made of American glass and a painting by ThéoVan Rysselberghe, titled ‘La lecture dans un parc’(1902) provides access to the reception rooms onthe first floor. There are no load bearing walls here.Instead the visible metal structure allows the architectto create wide-open spaces that open out onto oneanother. On the street side, the reception rooms runacross the entire width of the house. At the back of thehouse, on the garden side, Horta created a dining roomand study. All the spaces interconnect, with glazedpartitions that can be opened or closed. A secondstairwell, also with a stained glass skylight, leads tothe second floor, where the parents sleep. The landinghas been converted into a veritable conservatory, in theheart of the house. The third floor is where the children
and the governess sleep. The servants’ quarters arelocated in the attic, which can only be accessed by theservice staircase. Before World War I, the Solvay familyemployed about a dozen servants.Horta pushes the principle of gesamtkunstwerk toits limits here, designing every aspect of the interiordecoration and the furnishings, using only the mostvaluable and noble materials, including twenty-threedifferent types of marble and seventeen varietiesof wood, including several types of African wood.The house is one of the few Horta designs where theoriginal furniture was preserved. If we were to merelylimit ourselves to discussing the interior, this would notdo justice to the architect, who incorporated it into anoriginal structure, while also seeing to all the technicaldetails: a forced air heating system, electric lighting,and so on. In 1944, the stained glass window on thefirst floor was destroyed by the impact of the explosionof a V1 bomb. In 1957, the Wittamer-De Camps familyacquired the mansion from the Solvay family, transforming it into a sewing workshop and exhibitiongallery. Since then, the window and the mansion haveundergone several restorations, a process that continues today. The building is only exceptionally open tovisitors and is also used for the organisation of smallerevents, for conservation purposes.2/ HÔTEL TASSELRUE PAUL-ÉMILE JANSON 6, 1000 BRUSSELSArchitect: Victor Horta1893-1894Listed: 18 novembre 1976Added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000The year 1893 is an important date in the history of ArtNouveau. This was the year in which Victor Horta builtHôtel Tassel, the manifesto of his organic Art Nouveaustyle and in which Paul Hankar launched the geometricArt Nouveau style when he built his own house. EmileTassel, who was employed as an engineer at Solvay,lived with his grandmother and enjoyed receivingfriends. He liked to conduct scientific research athome, and was a professor at the Université Libre deBruxelles. He asked Horta, whom he knew from theMasonic lodge les Amis Philanthropes, to design hima house for a single man. The very balanced façadegives a hint as to the edifice’s interior organisation.It is made of blocks of white stone, from Euville andSavonnières, both in the Lorraine region in France,which the Art Nouveau architects preferred to use.By positioning the entrance door in the middle of thefaçade, Horta already gave a hint of what was to come.Here nothing would resemble anything people had seento date. In traditional Brussels houses, the entrancedoor was on the side of the house, in a narrow span.On the upper floor, the salon, dining room and verandawere all located in the main span. On the right and leftof the entrance, two small windows light up a parlourand a small hall, which led to the service corridor thatgave out into the kitchens in the cellar on the gardenside of the house. In the mezzanine, small windowswith stained glass panels, which are separated byfive slender stone columns with bases and capitalsthat have been carved to resemble claws, gripping aniron lintel, allow light into the smoking room. On thefirst floor, light flows into the office through the largewindow of the bow window with its distinctive ironstructure. Finally, the house also had a large study onthe uppermost floor.The façade was divided vertically into three sections.The central spans gradually opens up to the light,while the windows of the two lateral spans becomenarrower. The small openings on the upper floor are15
heart of the house, on the ground floor, was completelyopen and the metal structure clearly visible, whichanchored the interior. The capitals of the cast ironcolumns extend into tendrils and twists at the crown,creating a whiplash motif that is also used elsewherein the interior. The floor is decorated with marblemosaics, in white, orange, and green, in organic flameand scroll shapes. The doors and some of the windowshave stained glass panels, featuring marine scenes orflowering bulbs. Finally, the wall of the stairwell features a large mural, in gradients of green and orange,with stylised arabesques and plants, attributed toHenri Baes.After Tassel died in 1920, Norine Couture occupied thepremises, after which it was renovated several times.The house was acquired in 1976 by Jean Delhaye, whoadmired Horta and restored it. Soon after, it was listed.Nowadays it is used as office premises. Stairwell of Hôtel Tasseleven reminiscent of loopholes. The bow window, whichprotrudes from the façade, has a very organic shape.The house was very deep (more than twenty metres)and is subdivided into three parts: an area for intellectual life, in the front of house, a rear part, and acentral part with a conservatory in the heart of thehouse on the left, with a skylight and the stairwellon the right, which led to the upper floors, and whichhad a stained glass skylight above it. The edifice foldsback unto itself on this central section, which bathesin natural light and which is the heart of the house.At the back, the upper floor comprises a successionof rooms, inclusing the sitting room and the diningroom. The bedrooms of Tassel and his grandmotherwere located at the back of the other floors. In theinterior, the decoration blended in seamlessly with thestructure, as part of the house’s general concept. The16FIRST WALKVictor Horta (1861–1947) was born in Ghent. He firststudied at the Academy of Fine Arts in his city ofbirth, then spent a year in Paris, and finally endedup at the Academy in Brussels. He then acquiredextended work experience in the practice ofAlphonse Balat (1818–1895), the architect ofLeopold II, who was a figurehead of the classicstyle, at the time when Balat was tasked with theconstruction of the greenhouses of the Palace atLaeken. His early projects already bear testimonyto his skill in designing classic compositions (thepavilion of the Human Passions, 1890–1899). In1893, he created his first Art Nouveau style building,building Maison Autrique, followed by Hôtel Tassel.From then on, Horta would develop his ownoriginal spatial concept and a new decorativelanguage, drawing on plants for inspiration. Until1914, he created several gesamtkunstwerke, fora progressive clientele. He also built departmentstores, Brugmann Hospital (1906), the House ofthe People (1895), and so on In 1913, he wasappointed as Director of the Academy of Fine Artsin Brussels, where he proceeded to reorganise theeducational programmes. After World War I, hegave his spatial expression even more free rein,
designing the complex structure of the Centre
In Brussels, residential Art Nouveau buildings can be found in the bourgeois communes of the first tier—Forest, Saint-Gilles, Ixelles, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Schaerbeek, which extend the city of Brussels to the northeast—, which grew exponentially in the early twentieth century. The city seemed to be perpet-
ART NOUVEAU IN BRUSSELS Brussels living Art Nouveau The first Art Nouveau house was built in Brussels in 1893. Today, Brussels still has more than 500 Art Nouveau buildings. Buildings that are always places to live in: dwellings, museums, shops, restaurants, cafés . Yes, we can still go on living Art Nouveau in Brussels! Contents
Brussels turned to Art Nouveau as a reaction against academic art. Victor Horta, with his organic style, and Paul Hankar, with his more geometric style, created a new architectural language, which soon became internationally famous, earning Brussels the title of European Art Nouveau Capital to this day. Art Nouveau, meaning “new art”, was a .
with shading devices or solar-protective (tinted, reflective) glazing (Dubois, 1999, 1998a, 1998b); 3. The development of tools to define shading devices at an early and intermediate design stage (Dubois, 2000a, 2000b; Wallent én, Kvist & Dubois, 2000); 4. Studies of the impact of shading devices on daylight quality in office rooms (Dubois .
Oct 22, 2014 · ART ART 111 Art Appreciation ART 1301 Fine Arts ART 113 Art Methods and Materials Elective Fine Arts . ART 116 Survey of American Art Elective Fine Arts ART 117 Non Western Art History Elective Fine Arts ART 118 Art by Women Elective Fine Arts ART 121 Two Dimensional Design ART 1321 Fine Arts ART
ART-116 3 Survey of American Art ART ELECTIVE Art/Aesthetics ART-117 3 Non-Western Art History ART ELECTIVE Art/Aesthetics OR Cultural Elective ART-121 3 Two-Dimensional Design ART ELECTIVE Art/Aesthetics ART-122 3 Three-Dimensional Design ART ELECTIVE Art/Aesthetics ART-130 2 Basic Drawing
ART 110 . Art Appreciation (2) ART 151 . Introduction to Social Practice Art (3) ART 281 . History of Western Art I (3) ART 282 . History of Western Art II (3) ART 384 . Art Since 1900 (3) ART 387. History of Photography (3) ART 389 . Women in Art (3) ENGL 270 . Introduction to Creative Writing (3)* HON 310 . Art in Focus (3)** each semester .
Printmaking/Digital Media: Art 231, Art 235, Art 270, Art 331, Art 370, Art 492 Painting: Art 104, Art 203, Art 261, Art 285, Art 361, Art 461, Art 492 The remaining 21 credits of Fine Arts electives may be selected from any of the above areas as well as
Archaeological Research & Consultancy at the University of Sheffield Graduate School of Archaeology West Court 2 Mappin Street Sheffield S1 4DT Phone 0114 2225106 Fax 0114 2797158 Project Report 873b.3(1) Archaeological Building Recording and Watching Brief: Manor Oaks Farm, Manor Lane, Sheffield, South Yorkshire Volume 1: Text and Illustrations July 2007 By Mark Douglas and Oliver Jessop .
