Art Nouveau: Horta, Van de Velde, Guimard.

Art Nouveau was a brief but very influential and unique period of time in the history of architecture. It was a time spent in the exploration of new ideas and was very much influenced by the work of Viollet-le-Duc and the Arts and Crafts movement going on in England, while also drawing from the technological and industrial advances of the late 1800’s. Art Nouveau was a definite break from classical style and the debate of eclecticism. It was a truly innovative style of the times where men such Victor Horta, Henry Van der Velde, and Hector Guimard paved the way for new modern architecture.

Illustration in Art Nouveau style by Alphonse Mucha showing the 

nature of organic curves and ornament

Victor Horta was a prominent figure in Art Nouveau as it emerged in Belgium in the 1880’s. The beginnings of Art Nouveau came out of mediums such as illustration, fabrics, and ceramic works. They had a certain specific tie to organic shape and form and also the naturalistic spirit of the Romantic Movement. According to William Curtis, “Victor Horta…seemed a three-dimensional equivalent to the painters’ two-dimensional linear inventiveness” (54). Perhaps Horta’s most significant work in the Art Nouveau is his Hotel Tassel built in Brussels in 1892. It is here we see his use of the modern material and the ideas of Viollet-le-Duc regarding the exposed iron beam and its synthesis with stone. “The principal innovations lay in the frank expression of metal structure and in the tendril-like ornamentation which transformed gradually into the vegetal shapes of banisters, wallpaper, and floor mosaics”(Curtis, 55). It was this focus on structure integrated with organic themes that defined Art Nouveau as an iconic architectural style.  

Victor Horta, Hotel Tassel, Brussels, 1892

  Another Belgian prominent on the scene of Art Nouveau was Henry Van de Velde. Van de Velde started as a painter and was very much influenced by the work of Impressionists and the theoretical teachings of William Morris. From painting, Van de Velde moved into the applied arts of furniture making and interior design, and then from there moved into designing buildings. He was very interested in the idea of ‘the total work of art’ where every part of a building, down to the smallest detail, would carry the same aesthetic character as the overall building (Curtis, 57). Van de Velde was very much a forerunner of functionalism with his view on ornament. He broke the formerly held conception that structure and ornamentation are supposed to occupy two separate spaces.

Example of Van de Velde furniture design

Similar to the work of Horta and Van de Velde in Belgium, Hector Guimard sought to demonstrate the decorative principals of Art Nouveau through architecture in France. He too was influenced by Viollet-le-Duc’s Gothic rationalism and was also familiar with the works of Horta. According to Colquhoun, “His alliegiance to Viollet-le-Duc was even stronger than that of Horta…the Maison Coilliot was based on illustrations in Viollet’s Entretiens and the Dictionnaire”(23). His Paris Metro (1900) is also significant display of Art Nouveau’s natural forms put into ironwork and detailing. Many of Guimard’s designs in iron were able to be mass-produced using molds due to the available industrial capability at that time.

Paris Metro, Guimard, 1900

Overall the work of these three men helped to create a brand new sense of architecture that carried over to influence the thinking of future architects of the 20^th century. Their use of form and structure where tightly controlled by functionalist thought and rationalism handed down by Viollet-le-Duc. It is also their use of material and natural ornamentation that created such a unique style that should never been forgotten.