Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and flowers. Other characteristics of Art Nouveau were a sense of dynamism and movement, often given by asymmetry or whiplash lines, and the use of modern materials, particularly iron, glass, ceramics and later concrete, to create unusual forms and larger open spaces. It was popular between 1890 and 1910 during the Belle Époque period, and was a reaction against the academicism, eclecticism and historicism of 19th century architecture and decorative art.
Victor Pierre Horta was a Belgian architect and designer, and one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement. He was a fervent admirer of the French architectural theorist Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and his Hôtel Tassel in Brussels (1892–93), often considered the first Art Nouveau house, is based on the work of Viollet-le-Duc. The curving stylized vegetal forms that Horta used in turn influenced many others, including the French architect Hector Guimard, who used it in the first Art Nouveau apartment building he designed in Paris and in the entrances he designed for the Paris Metro. He is also considered a precursor of modern architecture for his open floor plans and his innovative use of iron, steel and glass.
La Samaritaine is a large department store in Paris, France, located in the first arrondissement. The nearest métro station is Pont-Neuf, directly in front at the quai du Louvre and the rue de la Monnaie. The company was owned by Ernest Cognacq and Marie-Louise Jaÿ who hired architect Frantz Jourdain to expand their original store. It started as a small apparel shop and expanded to what became a series of department store buildings with a total of 90 different departments. It has been a member of the International Association of Department Stores from 1985 to 1992.
Paul Saintenoy was a Belgian architect, teacher, architectural historian, and writer.
Paul Hankar was a Belgian architect and furniture designer, and an innovator in the Art Nouveau style.
The Centre for Fine Arts is a multi-purpose cultural venue in the Royal Quarter of Brussels, Belgium. It is often referred to as BOZAR in French or by its initials PSK in Dutch. This multidisciplinary space was designed to bring together a wide range of artistic events, whether music, visual arts, theatre, dance, literature, cinema or architecture.
The Musical Instruments Museum (MIM) is a music museum in central Brussels, Belgium. It is part of the Royal Museums of Art and History (RMAH) and is internationally renowned for its collection of over 8,000 instruments.
The Hôtel Tassel is a historic town house in Brussels, Belgium. It was designed by Victor Horta for the scientist and professor Emile Tassel, and built between 1892 and 1893, in Art Nouveau style. It is considered one of the first buildings in that style because of its highly innovative plan and its ground-breaking use of materials and decoration. It is located at 6, rue Paul-Emile Janson/Paul-Emile Jansonstraat, a few steps from the Avenue Louise/Louizalaan.
The Hôtel van Eetvelde is a historic town house in Brussels, Belgium. It was designed by Victor Horta for Edmond van Eetvelde, administrator of Congo Free State, and built in 1895, in Art Nouveau style. It is located at 4, avenue Palmerston/Palmerstonlaan in the Squares Quarter. An extension, also designed by Horta, was added in 1898.
The Mont des Arts or Kunstberg, meaning "Hill/Mount of the Arts", is an urban complex and historic site in central Brussels, Belgium, including the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), the National Archives of Belgium, the Square – Brussels Meeting Centre, and a public garden.
The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels is an art school established in Brussels, Belgium. It was founded in 1711. Starting from modest beginnings in a single room in Brussels' Town Hall, it has since 1876 been operating from a former convent and orphanage in the Rue du Midi/Zuidstraat, which was converted by the architect Victor Jamaer. The school has played an important role in training leading local artists.
Henri Sauvage was a French architect and designer in the early 20th century. He was one of the most important architects in the French Art nouveau movement, Art Deco, and the beginning of architectural modernism. He was also a pioneer in the construction of public housing buildings in Paris. His major works include the art nouveau Villa Majorelle in Nancy, France and the art-deco building of the La Samaritaine department store in Paris.
The Place Royale or Koningsplein is a historic neoclassical square in the Royal Quarter of Brussels, Belgium. Modelled after the so-called French royal square and built between 1775 and 1782, according to a plan of the architects Jean-Benoît-Vincent Barré and Gilles-Barnabé Guimard, to replace the former Palace of Coudenberg, it was part of an urban project including Brussels Park.
The Place des Martyrs is a historic square in central Brussels, Belgium. Its current name, meaning "Martyrs' Square", refers to the martyrs of the September Days of the Belgian Revolution of 1830.
The Belgian Comic Strip Center is a museum in central Brussels, Belgium, dedicated to Belgian comics. It is located at 20, rue des Sables/Zandstraat, in an Art Nouveau building designed by Victor Horta, and can be accessed from Brussels-Congress railway station and Brussels-Central railway station.
The Palace of the Count of Flanders is a neoclassical palace in Brussels, Belgium. It was originally built between 1776 and 1781 for Countess Brigitte of Tirimont-Templeuve, though it was heavily expanded in the 19th century. Nowadays, it houses the Court of Audit of Belgium.
The Art Nouveau movement of architecture and design first appeared in Brussels, Belgium, in the early 1890s, and quickly spread to France and to the rest of Europe. It began as a reaction against the formal vocabulary of European academic art, eclecticism and historicism of the 19th century, and was based upon an innovative use of new materials, such as iron and glass, to open larger interior spaces and provide maximum light; curving lines such as the whiplash line; and other designs inspired by plants and other natural forms.
The Hankar House is a historic town house in Brussels, Belgium. It was designed by the architect Paul Hankar, and built in 1893, in Art Nouveau style. It is generally considered one of the first buildings in that style because of its highly innovative plan and its ground-breaking use of materials and decoration.
The Art Deco movement of architecture and design appeared in Brussels, Belgium, immediately after World War I when the famed architect Victor Horta began designing the Centre for Fine Arts, and continued until the beginning of World War II in 1939. It took its name from the International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925. At the end of World War II, Art Deco in Brussels faded to make way for the modernist and international architectural styles that would mark the postwar period.
The Hôtel Otlet is a historic town house in Brussels, Belgium. It was designed by the architect Octave van Rysselberghe for the jurist, bibliographer and entrepreneur Paul Otlet, and built between 1894 and 1898, in Art Nouveau style. This work marks the still cautious insertion of Van Rysselberghe into that style.
