Victor Horta

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Victor Horta, around 1900
Brussels, Pavilion des Passions humaines (1890–1897)

Victor Horta (born  January 6, 1861 in Ghent , †  September 8, 1947 in Etterbeek ) was a Belgian Art Nouveau architect. He became internationally known at the end of the 19th century for the novelty of his houses. In 1932 King Albert I of Belgium awarded him the title of nobility "Baron" for his services to architecture . Horta was married twice and has two daughters.

Life

Horta was born on January 6, 1861 in Ghent, Belgium. His father, Pierre Horta, was a music-loving cobbler and had a total of 12 children from two marriages. Pierre Horta was 66 years old when Victor was born.

In his youth, Victor Horta resisted the authoritarian upbringing by his mother, who urged him to study law or medicine. Horta was enthusiastic about art early on, especially playing the violin. When Horta was helping his uncle on a construction site at the age of twelve, he first came into contact with the architectural profession.

Horta initially enrolled as a student at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent in 1873 for the architecture department , but continued to take classes at the Koninklijk Atheneum aan de Ottogracht in Ghent from 1874 to 1877 .

He then left the city in 1878 and moved to Montmartre in Paris to become an interior designer , where he worked in the studio of interior designer Jules Debuysson. In Paris, he was also inspired by the Impressionists and Pointillists and the ability to work with steel and glass. He later wrote in his memoir: “My stay in Paris, my walks, my visits to monuments and museums awakened my artistic sensitivity. No school education could have stimulated and made such a lasting impression on me as 'reading' monuments. "

When Horta's father died in 1880, he returned to Belgium and moved to Brussels to study at the Academy of Fine Arts . In Brussels he made friends with Paul Hankar , who later also turned to Art Nouveau.

From 1916 to 1919 Victor Horta stayed in London and the United States. In 1939, Horta began writing his memoirs . In 1945 he decided to destroy most of his archives. Horta is buried in the cemetery of the Brussels municipality of Ixelles .

plant

Horta was a good student and was appointed his assistant by his professor, the royal architect Alphonse Balat . Together they designed the royal botanical gardens in Laeken / Laken . This was the first time Horta had used glass and steel in their work.

In 1884 he received the Godecharle Prize for Architecture with a design for a parliament building in Brussels.

In 1885, when Horta was already working independently, he designed three houses for the Twaalfkamerenstraat in Ghent, which were built in the same year. He then decided not to build homes for wealthy citizens, and went for public tenders. In 1887, with a design for a natural history museum, he won the three-year award that the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels announced for its former students. He concentrated on shaping his designs, believing that his forms were highly practical and not an expression of artistic affectation. During this time, Horta made many contacts and joined the Freemasons .

Staircase in the Hôtel Tassel

In 1893 he started designing homes and businesses again. The Hôtel Tassel was built in 1892, the interior of which is characterized by the exposed cast iron construction and glass elements, as well as a rich ornamentation consisting of organic shapes and soft lines. The 32-year-old architect became famous almost overnight for this house. Victor Horta built the Maison Autrique in 1893, followed by the Maison Winssinger in 1895/1896 and the Hôtel Eetvelde from 1895 to 1900, all of which Victor Horta conceived as a total work of art in the Art nouveau style. From 1896 to 1899, Victor Horta designed the Maison du Peuple, the headquarters of the Belgian Socialist Party, the facade of which he constructed - as the first building in Brussels - entirely out of iron and glass. In 1900/1901 the department store À l'innovation was built , which Victor Horta also built in Art Nouveau style.

Grand Bazar, department store building in Frankfurt am Main at the later location of the Woolworth department store on the Zeil. Built by Victor Horta 1903–1905. Demolished 1937–1938.

His department store Waucquez , built in 1906, has housed the Belgian national comic museum, the Belgian Comics Center (BCZ) , since 1988 . The building seems to be a piece of pompous architecture, fully geared towards the effect that a temple of commerce should have on customers. But here too, Horta's mastery of creating light effects through glass roof constructions is evident.

From 1912 Victor Horta taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, from 1913 to 1915 he was its director.

After his stay in London and the United States from 1916 to 1919, Horta moved away from Art Nouveau, he now designed his buildings in a straighter, more classical language of forms. Horta's late work includes the art museum in Tournai, inaugurated in 1928, and Brussels Central Station, which was only completed after his death :

Reception and honors

After Horta's death, his former assistant Jean Delhaye made particular efforts to preserve the work he left behind. In 1969, by setting up a Horta museum, he ensured the unchanged survival of Victor Horta's residential and studio building in Rue Américaine, in the Brussels parish of St. Gilles.

Hôtel Solvay, Brussels

The preserved buildings of Horta are now a listed building. In 2000, four designed by Victor Horta buildings were under the name of Art Nouveau by Victor Horta in Brussels in the World Heritage list of UNESCO included:

Two architecture prizes are awarded in honor of Victor. Since 1967 the Royal Academy of Belgium has awarded the “Baron Horta Prize”, which was established in 1948, every five years. The Brussels Chamber of Architects has been awarding the “Bruxelles-Horta Prize” since 1996.

Web links

Commons : Victor Horta  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ biography of Victor Horta at hortamuseum.be (Dutch)
personal data
SURNAME Horta, Victor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian art nouveau architect
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Ghent
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1947
Place of death Etterbeek