I should have written this article several months ago. It was to be my farewell piece to Brussels, which was my second home for 8 years. Circumstances prevented me from sitting down to research and write it but, as you will realize if you keep reading, the art I am going to write about has a timeless beauty; so this delay in publishing doesn't really matter.
I still miss Brussels and my need for a written farewell is just as urgent now as it was last October when I left the European capital at what was for me the end of an era.
I hope you will enjoy this ode to "my" Brussels and Art Nouveau.
Brussels is a city paved with cobblestones. And incredibly uneven sidewalks. And lots of dogs. So the best way to walk in and through Brussels is by looking down, watching your step. But that is also the worst way to walk through this city. As by looking down you will miss out on the beauty that you can discover by looking up and to the sides.
For Brussels is the apotheosis of Art Nouveau. Wherever you go in this city, you will come across it. Sometimes there are just remnants, a street lamp, a monument, or a simple doorway. Other times you will discover whole streets lined with Art Nouveau architecture, house facades that could be feted as monuments to the whole movement or even entire housing estates built in Art Nouveau style.
Art Nouveau is an art style that focused on architecture and the decorative arts. Its history is as organic as its characteristics as a style. The name "Art Nouveau" can be traced to a decorative arts shop called "La Maison de l'Art Nouveau", which was opened by a German entrepreneur in Paris. He had started off by importing Japanese art and furniture and eventually advocated a comprehensive approach to designing the interior of houses in the Japanese way: every detail of interior design was to form one coherent whole.
Art Nouveau furthermore developed as a response to the Arts and Crafts Movement, initiated by William Morris in England. Yet, contrary to Morris' ideal of hand crafting and staying true to botanically correct depictions of, for example, flower patterns used for wall paper, Art Nouveau artists were happy to have their designs mass produced and also applied a more abstract representation in their very organic forms.
Artists and designers were keen to turn their backs on the rigid rules of traditional academicism and searched for a more liberated style towards the end of the 19th century. This brought about the birth of an art form better suited to modern life in many European countries as well as the United States. The names given to the new art form in various languages are a good indication of the movement behind it: it is called 'Stile Liberty' in Italian, 'Jugendstil' (youth style) in German and Modernismo in Spanish. The names for it were as varied as the directions it took in the different countries.
Belgium undeniably was the leader in Art Nouveau architecture; and personally, I find architecture the most spectacular representation of this stylistic era. Belgian architects Victor Horta, the master of organic style, and Paul Hankar, who excelled in more geometric forms, were the first ones to design buildings in this avant-garde style. Horta started the movement by building the Hôtel Tassel in 1893, which in 2000 was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list. It was commissioned by Emile Tassel, a bachelor, who wanted Horta to build him a "house for a single man". The Art Nouveau concept was for any building to be a "Gesamtkunstwerk", with the exterior as well as the interior, including technical features like staircases, heating systems and pipes, merging into one harmonious whole.
A veritable building boom followed, with hundreds of Art Nouveau buildings going up across the city for the next 15 years, built first by the leaders in the field like Horta and Hankar, but eventually also by their many pupils and followers. The houses were often tailor-made to the owners' specifications and needs, with no expenses spared. Belgium at the time was an important industrial power in the world and the often ostentatious style of this new architecture met the ambitious aims of the entrepreneurial bourgeoisie.
The buildings display an organic fluidity, with almost sculptural appearances, facades that are graced by window openings in all shapes and sizes, wonderful wrought iron balcony railings and decorative additions in cast iron and carved stone. Many of the facades display colourful "sgraffiti" panels, a type of mural that is applied onto two layers of plaster, with the lighter coloured plaster being scratched off (to scratch is 'graffiare' in Italian, hence the name) to reveal an outline of the planned drawing in the dark underlying plaster. The drawings were then filled in with colour, with golden tones frequently dominating.
The interiors are just as organic, with swirling staircases, panelled rooms that are often irregular in shape, stretching over different levels, or divided by glazed partitions, and stained glass skylights to let in the filtered daylight. Of course, the furniture and furnishings match the style in their wonderful undulating forms, always suggesting nature and movement, mirroring the decorative motifs of the colourful mosaic floors. A lot of decorative art is displayed in the houses that are open to the public, but to see the whole range, I suggest that you visit either the Musee du Fin de Siecle (photos in the gallery just below were taken there) or the dedicated collection at the Musee de l'Art et d'Histoire.
Or book yourself a stay at the Maison Flagey. It is a meticulously restored Art Nouveau townhouse, that now operates as a BnB. It is overlooking the Ixelles ponds and located in one of Brussel's 'hot spots' for Art Nouveau architecture.
Over the years, the style was also applied to social and public projects, giving it a more democratic air, but naturally in a much less elaborate manifestation. The start of the First World War marked the end of the rather short Art Nouveau period and unfortunately, the movement was later maligned and a good number of buildings were destroyed. From the 1960s onward though, the style was being appreciated anew. Luckily for us, many of the iconic buildings in Brussels are now open as museums or owned by people and organisations that are meticulously restoring and maintaining Art Nouveau heritage.
I find that the best way to experience this legacy in its pure form, is to visit the Horta Museum in the Saint Gilles district. It is housed in two connected buildings, which used to be the private residence of Victor Horta and his workshop respectively. Walking through the rooms gives you a wonderful sense of this idea of a 'Gesamtkunstwerk'. The individual components work together to form one impressive representation of an artistic idea taken to perfection. Its facade sports wonderfully elaborate metal work, railings fashioned like butterfly wings and skillful merging of metal braces with stone supports.
One of the best examples of a sgraffito decorated facade is the one of Maison Cauchie. Its monumental sgraffito features eight graceful female figures representing allegories of the arts. Its style illustrates how Paul Cauchie, its architect and owner, was heavily influenced by Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh (elongated bodies in flowing robes and stylised roses) and the Viennese Secession (a myriad of golden hues). The facade's composition is symmetrical and leaning towards Art Deco rather than Art Nouveau with its geometric shapes and straight lines.
This building is situated in the European quarter, just off the Centenary Park, and I passed it so many times on my way to the shops or the metro that it became my favourite Art Nouveau building. I never got tired looking at it, taking photos of it and discovering new things about its facade. It is open only every first weekend of the month but it is well worth timing a visit to Brussels in order to catch a tour of this wonderful house.
Another building that is difficult to get access to, is Horta's 'Temple of the Human Passions', not far from Maison Cauchie, set in the grounds of the Centenary Park. It is open three times a week, but only during the summer months. Although it is neoclassical in appearance - it was designed around 1890, a few years before Hôtel Tassel was built - it already contains some design elements of Art Nouveau style. It was purposely built to house the sculptor Jef Lambeaux's controversial relief, titled 'Human Passions'. The relief is a veritable sculpture fest of interlaced bodies, writhing and moving across the plane, representing any imaginable human pleasure and sin. It is carved out of white Carrara marble and illuminated by a skylight only.
A few minutes walk from it, just behind the Berlaymont building that houses the European Commission, on Place Ambiorix, we find another Art Nouveau masterpiece: Saint Cyr House. Named after its first owner, the artist Georges Leonard de Saint Cyr, it lays claim to be one of the most photographed houses in the city. And rightly so! Built on a plot that is a mere 4 metres wide, it rises to a height of 4 storeys. Its fabulous facade decorations give it more the appearance of a sculpture than of a building. Each storey has just one big window opening, but every shape is different and all windows have wooden frames that have been bent to the most incredible undulating forms. Maybe the most noteworthy features are the brick ring on the third floor which is a mere decoration without a structural role, and, crowning the series of fabulous wrought iron balcony railings, the lofty and delicate crest that completes the sculptural image.
The last building I am going to describe to you in a bit of detail (before you get bored..) is probably my second favourite of all, namely the Stoclet Palais in Avenue de Tervueren. Adolphe Stoclet, the son of a wealthy banking family, commissioned the Austrian architect Josef Hoffman to build this villa for him in 1905, including the work of artists and designers of the Vienna Secession movement. There are mosaic friezes designed by Gustav Klimt and the iconic bronze male nudes on its roof structure are by Franz Metzner. The building's geometric design marked the end of the Art Nouveau movement in architecture and paved the way for the more streamlined functional buildings of the interwar period. It is still owned by the Stoclet family and not open to the public. So you have to appreciate its beauty merely by looking at it from the street through the wrought iron railings.
Of course there are landmark buildings like the ones I mentioned above all over Brussels, starting from the Hotel Gresham whose iconic entrance leads to the Museum of Fine Arts, to the Museum of Musical Instruments , the former Old England Department Store just down the road, to the numerous social housing estates like the one in Rue Marconi. There is the Aegidium, a former theatre and dance hall, on the Parvis de Saint Gilles and the Cafe Flora next door, which sports an eclectic style in an airy and light-filled venue.
All these architectural Art Nouveau treasures can be discovered and explored by following any of the many walks suggested online or in publications, or by joining guided tours around town. There is so much to enjoy in every single one of Brussel's municipalities, all you have to do is look up and discover the details!
In fact, there is one feature of Art Nouveau houses that is immediately noticeable and rather remarkable. Often the architects used to sign their work in stone, at about eye level in the facade. I think this is a wonderful way to show that these buildings are equal to works of art, and thereby proudly attributable to their creators. Wouldn't it be a great idea to introduce that practice again? Once architects sign their works for all to see, they might be more careful about what they allow to be built in their names.
I have linked the main buildings in the above text to a very good website on international Art Nouveau that carries photos also of the interiors of buildings. Inside most of the houses I visited taking photographs was not allowed so I could not include many interior views.
I hope that you aren't yet tired of photos as there are many more in the gallery below. Do take your time to click through them, there are some beautiful examples of everything Art Nouveau. They were taken during those eight years I used to travel to and from Brussels. As always you find additional information in the captions.
I invite you to click through and enjoy this virtual walk through Art Nouveau Brussels.