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.

OEducation: Royal Academy of Fine Arts

OPeriod: Neo-impressionism

OStructures: Kröller-Müller Museum

OVan de Velde spent the most important

part of his career in Germany and had a

decisive influence on German

architecture and design at the beginning

of the 20th century.

O Van de Velde was born in Antwerp, where he

studied painting under Charles Verlat at the

academie des Beaux-arts,antwerp (1882-84) and

with painter Carolus Duran,paris (1884-85).

O He worked as a painter & interior decorator in

atwerp & brussels, 1885-94.

O He produced his first architectural work in

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

O 1899 Habana Company shop interiors, Berlin

O 1900 Stern House atlernations ,Berlin

O 1901 Haby Coiffures interiors, Berlin

O 1901/02 Folkwang Museum interiors, Hagen,

Germany

O 1902 Herbert Esche House, Chemnistz, now

Karlmarxstadt, Germany

O 1902/03 Leuring House, Scheveningen,

Netherlands

O 1903 Deutsche Bank Building interiors,Augaburg,

Germany

O 1903/04 Museum of Fine arts ,Weimar

O 1903/05 Louise Durnont Theater ,Weimar

O 1904 Webcht Restaurant ,Weimar.

O institute de sociologie,Parc Leopold,Brussels

O 1904/06 Kunstgewerbeschule,Weimar

O 1906 Boardroom, for Hagener Textilindustrie,

Hagen ,Germany

O 1907 Springmann House, Hagen, Germany Esche

House, Lauterbach ,Germany

O 1908 Monument ,Jena , Germany

O 1909 Frose House , Hanover,Germany

O 1910 Vicrage, Riga

O 1912 Durkheim House , weimar .Nietzsche

Monument, Weimar

O 1913 Baron Henneberg House, Chemnitz,

Germany

O 1914 Baron de Golubeff House ,Paris

O 1921 Van de velde House , Wassenaar ,near

Hamburg

O 1925 Fyffes Company Offices, Rotterdam

O 1926 Plan for Left Bank of Antwerp Schinckel-

Blankenese House ,near Hamburg

O 1927 “La Nouvelle Masion” Tervueren, Belgium

O 1929 Old people’s housing ,Hanover Germany

O 1930 Wolfers House, Brussels

O 1931 Colman/Saverys Duplex House,Zoute,

Brussels

O 1932 Marquis de Brion Apartment interiors ,

O 1937 Belgian Pavilion, World’s Fair ,Paris

O 1939 Belgian Pavilion,World’s Fair , New York

O 1939/40 Library ,University of Ghent