Victor Horta

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Victor Horta

Personal information
Name Victor Horta
Nationality Belgian,
Birth date 6 January 1861
Birth place Ghent, Belgium
Date of death 8 September 1947
Place of death Brussels, Belgium
Work
Significant buildings Hôtel Tassel

House and Studio Victor Horta
Hôtel van Eetvelde
Hôtel Solvay
Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels
Significant projects Brussels-Central railway station
Awards and prizes Titled "Baron" by King Albert I of Belgium
Maison and Studio Horta, designed in 1898, now houses the Horta Museum, dedicated to his work.
Maison and Studio Horta, designed in 1898, now houses the Horta Museum, dedicated to his work.
Interior of the Horta Museum
Interior of the Horta Museum

Victor Horta (January 6, 1861 - September 9, 1947) was a Belgian architect and designer. John Julius Norwich described him as "undoubtedly the key European Art Nouveau architect." Indeed, Horta is one of the most important names in Art Nouveau architecture; the construction of his Hôtel Tassel in Brussels in 1892-3 means that he is sometimes credited as the first to introduce the style to architecture from the decorative arts. The French architect Hector Guimard was deeply influenced by Horta and further spread the "whiplash" style in France and abroad.

Hôtel van Eetvelde
Hôtel van Eetvelde

Contents

Born in Ghent, he was first attracted to the architectural profession when he helped his uncle on a building site at the age of twelve. He studied in Ghent, but left to become an interior designer living in Montmartre in Paris. There, he was inspired by the emerging impressionist and pointillist artists, and also by the possibilities of working in steel and glass.

When Horta's father died in 1880, he returned to Belgium and moved to Brussels, to study at the academy of fine arts. He married, and fathered two daughters.

In Brussels, Horta built a friendship with Paul Hankar, later also to embrace Art Nouveau. Horta did well in his studies, and was taken on as an assistant by his professor Alphonse Balat, architect to Leopold II of Belgium. Together, they designed the royal Greenhouses of Laeken, Horta's first work to utilise glass and steel.

By 1885, Horta was working on his own, and designed three houses which were built that year. He then decided to avoid residential work for wealthy clients and instead devoted himself to competitions for public work, including statuary and even tombs. He focused on the curvature of his designs, believing that the forms he produced were highly practical and not artistic affectations.

After introducing Art Nouveau in an exhibition held in 1892, Horta was inspired. Commissioned to design a home for professor Tassel, he transfused the recent influences into Hôtel Tassel, completed in 1893. Incorporating interior iron structure with curvilinear botanical forms, which was known as “biomorphic whiplash,” and successfully created the first Art Nouveau architecture. Ornate and elaborate designs and natural lighting were concealed behind a stone façade to harmonize the building with the more rigid houses next door.[1]

During this period, Horta socialised widely and joined the freemasons, he was a member of the lodge Les Amis Philanthropes of the Grand Orient of Belgium in Brussels. This ensured a stream of clients when he returned to designing housing and shops from 1893.After receiving great notoriety for his designs, Horta was commissioned to complete many other important buildings throughout Brussels. Enhancing this new architectural style, Horta designed the Hôtel Solvay (1895–1900) and his own residence (1898) employing iron and stone façade with elaborate iron interiors.

After Art Nouveau lost favor, many of Horta's buildings were destroyed, most notably the Maison du Peuple (1895-1899) built for the progressive political party, the Belgian Workers Party and demolished in 1965. However, several of Horta’s buildings are still standing in Brussels to today and available to tour. Most notably are the Magasins Waucquez, formerly a department store, now the Brussels Comic Book Museum and four of his private houses (hôtels), which were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site:

Brahms' grave on the Zentralfriedhof designed by Horta
Brahms' grave on the Zentralfriedhof designed by Horta

Victor Horta was interred in the Ixelles Cemetery in Brussels.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

  • Françoise Aubry and Jos Vandenbreeden, Horta, Art Nouveau to Modernism, Ludion Press Ghent - Harry N. Abrams Publishers New York, 1996.
  1. ^ 'Jeannie Bastian'. The House that Horta Built. Accessed January 05, 2007.

v • d • e
World Heritage Sites in Belgium

Belfries of Belgium and France (with France) · Bruges (city centre) · Flemish Béguinages · Four Lifts on the Canal du Centre and their Environs, La Louvière and Le Rœulx, Hainault · Grand-Place, Brussels · Major Town Houses of the Architect Victor Horta, Brussels · Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes (Mons) · Notre-Dame Cathedral, Tournai · Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex
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