Henry van de velde (3/4/1863-25/10/1957) Henry Clemens Van de Velde was a Belgian Flemish painter, architect and interior designer. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar he could be considered one of the main founders and representatives of Art Nouveau in Belgium.
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brussels,1894 i.e., he built his house for himself
("Bloemenwerf").
O He designed every detail. As he never studied
architecture and he was paying for his house, he
could feel free from the old styles more than other
architects.
Bloemenwerf
OThe early years of Henry van de
Velde’s career, until he was 30, were
spent as a painter then as an interior
decorator.
OAs a painter he was much influenced
by the neo-impressionists,especially
Seurat & Van Gogh.
OWhen he turned to interior decoration
he designed almost everything for
home from tea-cups to furniture.
OHe was associated with the beginnings of Art Nouveau ,which was essentially the search for a contemporary non-historical style.
OThe linear patterns so conspicuous in Art Nouveau designs were also distinctive feature of much of van de Velde’s furniture, decoration and architecture, but he made an effort to link them with natural forms and with sense of structure.
O His association of linear rythms with structure
and lines of force is seen in his staircase
designs & furniture, as in many of his early
houses and in Folkwang museum at Hagen.
Stair case inFolkwang museum Hagen.
Van de Velde. Entrance Hall Folkwang Museum, Hagen (1902)
O Van de Velde’s early practice of painting & interior
decoration & furniture design influenced his whole
approach to architecture, so that however
functional his building succeeded in being, there
is always strongly present the decorative
character with linear motifs.
O He designed many houses several of them fairly
large.
O Most of his houses are heavy massive structures
with curved forms introduced in a variety of ways
shaped as the frequent use of elliptical &circular
shaped dormer windows, curved roofs, curved
porch entrances and bow windows.
O The plan of these large houses approximated
mostly to a symmetrical arrengement of rooms on
either side of main axis , & hall was often in the
centre with rooms all round reached by corridor
from entrance.
O He sometimes used 1st floor gallery round the hall.
O For fairly large houses this central hall proved to be
a functional arrangement.
O One of his earliest non-domestic architectural
works was the remodelling of the interior of the
Folkwang Museum at Hagen, where in the
teatment of arches, columns and capitals ,
balustrading and furniure , his introduction of
linear forms is seen to good effect.
O He appointed the art director at Weimer n 1901,
he founded and built the famous art school there,
a long building with central hall flanked by long
corridors with an elliptical staircase at rear.
O The top floor has large studio windows, while
flanking the centre of façade there are bow
windows between heavy plasters.
O It became a famous school design .
O Van de Velde remainned its head until the First
World War and was succeeded, on his own
recommendation, by Walter ropius in 1919, when it
was re-organized & became the celebrated
Bauhaus.
O Van de Velde was a member of Deutscher
Werkbund and took a prominent part together with
other notable architects in Cologne Exhibition of
1914 for which he designed a theatre(now
destroyed).
O This was probably his most famous building. The
design makes a satisfactory whole with an efficient
integration of its various parts: its is one of the
modren theatrs where traditional sharp separation
between the stage and auditorium by means of
proscenium wall and arch is eliminated and whole
is conceived as one room.
O Curved orms like the ogival roof help to give a
unifying rhythm to building.
O Van de Velde’s last buildning is the largest Kroller-
Muller Museum at Otterlo. This represents a
departure from his usual work .
O Here are few curves and very linear emphasis;
instead , it is a design of lage rectanglar masses,
with plain walls and simple windows, with nicely
calculated balance of verticals and horizontals,
while simple columns of interior are without
embellishment.
O The whole creates a feeling of classic repose.
Kroller-Muller Museumat Otterlo
O Van de Velde was essentially an individualist who
believed that architecture should be a matter of
individual artistic expression.
O He was opposed to standardization & team work.
O When Muthesius advocated at Deutscher
Werkbund Congress of 1911 that perfection of
form could be reached by mathematical
calculation , & made possible the acceptance of
machine & of standardization, he met with strong
opposition from Van de Velde who contended that
an artist was always an individualist who could not
be sebservient to rules and standards.
Five fascinating facts about Henry van de
Velde*:
O 1. “A line is a force” was Henry van de Velde’s
guiding artistic principle. As a result, he worked
primarily with lines, initially sweeping and later
straighter.
O 2. He was very much an all-round designer,
painter and architect, whose repertoire ranged
from art nouveau silver cutlery to streamlined letter
steamers.
O 3. Henry van de Velde exhibited works with the
then unknown Vincent van Gogh and was among
the first admirers of his paintings.
O 4. In Weimar, Henry van de Velde established the
Grand Ducal School of Arts and Crafts. The school
was closed in 1915 but became the Bauhaus
School in Weimar from 1920 under the
directorship of Walter Gropius.
O 5. When the ceramics industry hit troubled times,
Henry van de Velde was transferred to the
Thuringian village of Bürgel at the request of the
Duchy of Saxe-Weimar. His input gave the local
workshops a new lease of life.
Villa Esche in Chemnitz(1902/1911)
Villa Quisisana in Chemnitz (around 1908)
ErnstAbbe monument in Jena
(1909-11),
Villa Koerner in Chemnitz (1913/14)
WORKSO 1894 Hotel Otlet interiors,Brussels
O 1896 Interiors and furnishings for LibreEsthetique exhibition,Brussels
O 1897 Director’s office interiors, Ixelles, Belgium
O 1898 Loeffler Office interiors, Berlin .Keller und Reiner Art Gallery interiors, Berlin.
O Dining Room, Salon of Arts and Crafts, The Hague study/Workroom interiors, Secession Exhibition,Munich
O 1898/99 Maison Moderne interiors, for Julius Meier graefe, rue Pergolese, Paris