The designs of Belgian architect Victor Horta are among the first Art Nouveau buildings in the world. Built in 1892. Hotel Tassel can be considered the pioneering building of this unprecedented style. Although the stone façade appears simple, the interior of the building impresses with its floral motifs, autumn colours and brilliant play of light. Art Nouveau was meant to break with the recurring patterns of Rome or Greece, and the inspiration for the new dawn of architecture was taken from the ground up, i.e. from nature.
A new beginning
Born in the 1860s Victor Horta took his first steps in Ghent. After problems at music school, young Victor transferred to art school, where he found his passion. He quickly got to Paris to create his first designs there. However, in time, he returned to Belgium, specifically to Brussels, where he began to study architecture.
Horta made many important contacts during this time, and his success in design translated into a fruitful university career. In the 1880s. Horta co-designed the most important projects alongside the royal architect, who relied on the then popular Beaux-Arts style. However, it was Horta who was to contribute to the collapse of the dictates of the neo-classical Parisian school of architecture in the following years.
Towards the end of the decade, Horta came into contact with a group of artists operating under the name Les XX. The Belgian painters attracted many artists who wanted something new in art and later architecture. Les XX collaborated with leading impressionists such as Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh. It was through this group of artists that Horta became interested in the ornate floral paintings of the British painter William Morris and the ideas propounded by the Frenchman Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. The Arts and Crafts movement focusing on natural and fine decorative applied art is a direct inspiration for Art Nouveau. Viollet-le-Duc, in turn, impressed some architects with his theses on the strong connection between small decorated art and architecture.
Viollet-le-Duc was not fond of the then dominant Beaux-Arts style. The end of the nineteenth century seemed a good time to move away from successive editions of styles familiar from ancient Greece or Rome. True, the architect was passionate about Gothic and medieval art, but Horta drew a somewhat different conclusion about the ‘new beginning’ of architecture. Interestingly, the Frenchman’s musings also reached America, where the architect Louis Sullivan drew his conclusion: form will follow function.
Pioneer of Art Nouveau
Horta’s pioneering Art Nouveau was born from a combination of Morris’s art and Viollet-le-Duc’s thought. The new style was tested in 1892, when the scientist Emile Tassel commissioned Horta to design an urban house. The small building was to blend in with the street, so the architect designed a stone facade in an apparently classical style. However, the façade conceals small hints of the new order. On the sides, narrow windows are noticeable, sometimes even resembling an ambrosia (a shooting hole). The centrally located bay window, on the other hand, is characterised by an iron construction typical of the period.
The exposed rivets indicate that it is the work of the industrial age, but the curvilinear railings suggest natural inspiration. Irregular curved shapes overgrow the façade, which is particularly evident on the heads of the columns, which do not follow the classical acanthus leaf. The same goes for the volutes, which differ from the Roman ones in thickness and bending angle. Admittedly, the façade does not fully depart from the classical or the right angles, but it still tries to do so in a subtle way. Even the masonry itself bulges out like a sheet towards the bay window.
Apart from the characteristic olive-patina green, the façade is grey. The interior of the Tassel Hotel, on the other hand, is flooded with warm orange colours. Inside, there is no question of antique white or cool marble. The iconic winding staircase with its narrow soul is quintessentially Art Nouveau. The curvature of the architecture is supported by floral paintings reminiscent of dancing vines. Of note is the white and orange mosaic, which also mimics similar patterns and is sometimes arranged in a jagged spiral.
For Horta, consistency in his work was important. For this reason, the stained-glass windows are also inscribed with Art Nouveau threads, branches and other floral details. The entire building is flooded with light through a large skylight, which brilliantly illuminates the staircase and injects life into the organic ornaments.
Excellent work
The Hotel Tassel was a pioneering project of Art Nouveau, but later Horta buildings such as the Hotel Solvay became exemplary examples of this modern style. Unlike the quickly built Hotel Tassel, the Solvay took a long time to build. The industrialist Armand Solvay began to grow impatient and it was not long before the investor broke off his difficult collaboration with the visionary architect. However, over time Solvay saw that only Horta was capable of completing such a complex project. Moreover, the entire design and construction process took from 1894 to 1903.
From the outside, the building resembled its predecessor with its fine Art Nouveau detailing and industrial elements. However, what extended the design process by years awaits inside. Plant motifs returned to the interiors in the form of polychromy on the olive-coloured walls. What’s more, the architect was able to mould wood or iron in such a way that it swirls into organic shapes. It is the impressive woodwork of the lamellas, railings and glazed walls that set the Hotel Solvay apart from its predecessor. Horta also designed the overflowing Art Nouveau furniture, which added coherence to the entire interior. The architect took care of every last detail such as the chair legs or the melting bell button.
Wood, marble and iron are noticeable, but the most important element of the Solvay Hotel is glass. The skylight suspended above the staircase is an Art Nouveau masterpiece. The warm red, orange and yellow colours of the glass form a spectacular fan vault that illuminates the entire interior. In addition to the amazing skylight, the neo-impressionist painting by Théo van Rysselberghe, which depicted a genre scene, is also worth noting. Interestingly, the artist used the puentilism technique, which was popular at the end of the 19th century and consisted of densely applied dots.
A Pyrrhic victory for Art Nouveau
Horta’s hard work and visionary approach helped to create a completely new style in architecture. Horta himself became a key architect of Belgium, but after the tragedy of the First World War, the colours and natural shapes of his designs dimmed. True, Horta spent the war years teaching at American universities, but upon his return to the country in 1919, the architect departed from his old aesthetic. The pre-war world had ceased to exist, his buildings had become too ornate and too expensive, and his potential clients had left or become impoverished by the war effort. Horta had to move with the times and start designing in the emerging modernism or, more specifically, art déco. Unfortunately, his Art Nouveau buildings were abandoned and deteriorated over the years, and four of them were only listed by UNESCO in 2000.
These two incredibly ornate buildings embodied the spirit of the time. The beautiful, natural style changed the face of architecture, although it quickly disappeared due to the Great War. Importantly, Belgian architectural thought briefly flooded Europe from Oporto to Moscow and allowed a break in the established thinking about the aesthetics of buildings. Interestingly, at the same time in the USA, one of the fathers of skyscraper Louis Sullivan was trying to break through with his original Art Nouveau, but the Americans wouldn’t listen to him. You can read more about the forgotten Art Nouveau overseas HERE.
Source: UNESCO
Also read: Architecture | Curiosities | Hotel | Belgium | Art Nouveau | whiteMAD on Instagram
