Henry Clemens van de Velde (; 3 April 1863 – 15 October 1957) was a Belgian painter, architect, interior designer, and art theorist. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar, he is considered one of the founders of Art Nouveau in Belgium.' He worked in Paris with Siegfried Bing, the founder of the first gallery of Art Nouveau in Paris. Van de Velde spent the most important part of his career in Germany and became a major figure in the German Jugendstil. He had a decisive influence on German architecture and design at the beginning of the 20th century.

Early life

Henry Van de Velde was born in Antwerp, Belgium, where he studied painting under Charles Verlat at the famous Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp. He then went on to a year's study with the painter Carolus-Duran in Paris. As a young painter he was strongly influenced by Paul Signac and Georges Seurat and soon adopted a neo-impressionist style, and pointillism. In 1889 he became a member of the Brussels-based artist group "Les XX". After Vincent van Gogh exhibited some work on the yearly exhibition of Les XX, Van de Velde became one of the first artists to be influenced by the Dutch painter. During this period he developed a lasting friendship with the painter Théo van Rysselberghe and the sculptor Constantin Meunier.

Career

thumb|upright|Henry van de Velde by Georg Kolbe, 1913, Albertinum gallery, Dresden

thumb|upright|Henry van de Velde by [[Edvard Munch]]

In 1890, Van de Velde wrote that "there will be no place in the society of the future for anything which is not of use to everyone." They collaborated on a number of projects together, including designing wallpapers and female clothing. Their first house, the Villa Bloemenwerf in Uccle, was Van de Velde's first attempt at architecture and was inspired by the British Arts and Crafts Movement. Its exterior closely resembled the Red House of William Morris. Maria Sèthe designed the garden surrounding the house.

Van de Velde also designed interiors and furniture for the influential art gallery "L'Art Nouveau" of Samuel Bing in Paris in 1895, the shop from which Art Nouveau took its name. He participated in Bing's pavilion at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900 and showed his own work.

Van de Velde was strongly influenced by John Ruskin and William Morris's English Arts and Crafts movement

The Manuscript on Ornament

Van De Velde played the role in elaborating an aesthetic theory a synthesis of the two opposite poles of rational conception associated with particular understanding of the ornamental function. The Manuscript on Ornament sheds further light on this aesthetic theory, and the role played therein by the notion of ornament. It constitutes an important document in the sequence of his intention of publishing a "historical—theoretical" treatise on design.

Selected works

thumb|upright|Chair designed for "[[Villa Bloemenwerf", 1895]]

  • 1895–96: "Villa Bloemenwerf", Van de Velde's first private residence, in Uccle (Brussels), Belgium
  • 1895: Interior decoration of Siegfried Bing's art Gallery "Maison de l'art nouveau" in Paris, France
  • 1898: Monument to Count Frédéric de Mérode in Brussels, Belgium
  • 1900–02: Interior of the Folkwang Museum in Hagen, Germany
  • 1902–03, 1911 (extension): "Villa Esche" in Chemnitz, Germany
  • 1903: Extension and interior decoration of the Nietzsche Archive in Weimar, Germany
  • 1906–07: Clubhouse of the "Chemnitzer Lawn-Tennis-Club" in Chemnitz, Germany (demolished)
  • 1907–08: "Hohenhof", mansion for Karl Ernst Osthaus in Hagen, Germany
  • 1907–08: "Haus Hohe Pappeln", Van de Velde's private residence in Weimar, Germany
  • 1909–11: "Ernst-Abbe-Denkmal", memorial for Ernst Abbe in Jena, Germany (in collaboration with the sculptors Max Klinger and Constantin Meunier)
  • 1912–13: Palace for Graf Dürckheim in Weimar, Germany
  • 1913–14: "Werkbund-Theater", theatre at the Deutsche Werkbund exhibition in Cologne, Germany
  • 1913–14: "Villa Schulenburg" in Gera, Germany
  • 1913–14: Wohnhaus für den Fabrikanten Dr. Theo Koerner in Chemnitz, Germany
  • 1927–28: "La Nouvelle Maison", Van de Velde's private residence in Tervuren, Belgium
  • 1929: "Wolfers House" in Ixelles (Brussels), Belgium
  • 1929–31: Home for the elderly of the 'Minna und James Heinemann-Stiftung' in Hanover, Germany
  • 1933–35: Polyclinic and "Villa Landing" for Dr. Adriaan Martens in Astene near Ghent, Belgium
  • 1933–38: Library of Ghent University with "Boekentoren" in Ghent, Belgium
  • 1936–42: "Technische School", school building in Leuven, Belgium
  • 1937: Belgian Pavilion at the 1937 Paris Exposition
  • 1937: "Station Blankenberge", railway station in Blankenberge, Belgium
  • 1939: Belgian Building for the 1939 New York World's Fair, now at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia

<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="5">

Image:Villa Bloemenwerf (front).JPG|Villa Bloemenwerf, Uccle (Brussels), Belgium

Image:Monument au comte Frédéric de Mérode 01.jpg|Monument to Count Frédéric de Mérode, Brussels, Belgium

Image:Hohenhof Hagen01.jpg|Villa Hohenhof, Hagen, Germany

Image:Haus Schulenburg 1.jpg|Villa Schulenburg, Gera, Germany

Image:Villaesche.JPG|Villa Esche, Chemnitz, Germany

Image:Trzebiechklatka.jpg|Staircase of the Sanatorium of Trzebiechów, Poland

Image:Nietzsche_Archives_in_Weimar.JPG|Extension to the Nietzsche Archive, Weimar, Germany

Image:Van-de-Velde-Bau in Weimar (Südgiebel).jpg|Van-de-Velde-Building, Weimar, Germany, home of the art faculty of the Bauhaus-University

Image:Belgique - Bruxelles - Maison Wolfers - 01.jpg|Wolfers House, Ixelles (Brussels), Belgium

Image:2021 Boekentoren - University Library of Ghent.jpg|Boekentoren of Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

</gallery>

References

Bibliography

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  • Hollis, Richard, Henry van de Velde. The Artist as Designer. From Art Nouveau to Modenism. Occasional Papers, 2019.
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  • Kuenzli, Katherine Marie. 2019. Henry van de Velde : Designing Modernism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • [English influence on H.van de Velde, Dahlia Wallpaper].
  • Ploegaerts, Léon et Pierre Puttemans, L'œuvre architecturale de Henry van de Velde, Laval, 1987.
  • Sembach, Klaus-Jürgen, Henry van de Velde: ein europäischer Künstler seiner Zeit, Köln: Wienand Verlag, 1992, ISBN 3-87909-314-8
  • Tucker, Elizabeth and Katherine M Kuenzli (2022), Henry van de Velde :Selected Essays, 1889–1914. Edited by Katherine M. Kuenzli. Translated by Elizabeth Tucker. Los Angeles, Getty Research Institute.
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  • and building blog on the renovation.
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  • On his 150th birthday, Google dedicated its home page to van de Velde.
  • Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels, Belgium: exhibition from 13 September 2013 to 12 January 2014.