The Belle Epoque in Europe

French architect and artisan. Studies of architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Nancy. At first, he worked in the studio of his father, the architect Charles André (1841-1921), then he collaborated with Eugène Vallin with whom he developed some principles of the Art Nouveau. He was teacher of applied arts and architecture of the Ecole de Nancy where he was very involved in. He is considered to be the principal and most important architect of the Ecole de Nancy. As an artisan, he also designed furniture, as an architect, he built several dwelling houses in Nancy. He won several prizes for his work.

German architect noted for his influential role in the development of modern architecture in Germany. In addition, he was a pioneer in the field of industrial design.
After attending the fine arts school at Hamburg, Behrens went to Munich in 1897 during the time of the renaissance of arts and crafts in Germany. In 1900 the Grand Duke of Hessen called him to his newly founded artists' colony at Darmstadt. There, Behrens built his own house (1901) with all its furnishings. In 1903 he became director of the arts and crafts school in Düsseldorf.
The most important event in Behrens' career occurred in 1907. Emil Rathenau, general director of the AEG (Allgemeine Elektricitäts Gesellschaft - one of the largest manufacturing concerns in the world), appointed him as artistic adviser for all AEG products. Rathenau was a farsighted industrialist who recognized the industry's need for the refining hand of an artist. Up to that time Behrens had been a mediocre painter, producing woodcuts, book covers, ceramics, interiors, fabrics, and carpets, but he began to concentrate intensely on creative work in the industrial sphere. His contributions included the hexagonal trademark of the AEG, its catalogs, and its office stationery, products such as electric fans and street lamps, and retail shops and factories. Between 1909 and 1912 he built the AEG factory complex. His turbine assembly works with its glass curtain wall was the most influential building in Germany at that time. During that period Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier worked in his office.
Behrens' later works included factory and administrative buildings: the Mannesmann-Werke in Düsseldorf (1911-12), Farbwerke at Höchst (1920-24), the classical German embassy at St. Petersburg (1911-12), and the factory for the Austrian Tobacco Administration at Linz (1930). From 1922 to 1927 he was professor on the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. His later buildings demonstrated his belief that a building complex must have a heavy massiveness.

His father had founded the big store Magasins Réunis; he himself was an amateur artist, art collector and a sportsman who loved travelling; moreover, he was an enlightened sponsor who ordered the conception of his new shops from the artists of the Ecole de Nancy. He founded the magazine Art et Industrie and left an important Art Nouveau donation in his former villa which today is the Museum of the Ecole de Nancy; his daughter, Jacqueline, continued the fatherly generosity.

Daum was an engineer, and after having taken over a glazier's workshop in collaboration with his brother Auguste, he founded an Arts and Crafts department where he adopted the style and the colours of the Art Nouveau, using especially floral decoration. He succeeded to collaborate in his workshop with talented artists like Henri Bergé (decoration artist) and Amalric Walter (expert for liquid glass). He became vice-president of the Ecole de Nancy.

Born in Croatia, he was architect and student under Otto Wagner; in Vienna, he built besides others the business house Portois & Fix (1897-1900), the Artaria House (1901/02) and the Urania (1909/10). He participated in the construction of the graceful pavilions for the metropolitan station on the Karlsplatz and designed the plan for the Gutenberg monument at the Lugeck (1904).

After studies at the Staatshandwerkschule (National Artisan School) in Linz, he was student under Kolo Moser on the Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School) in Vienna from 1899 to 1902. Being a cofounder of the Wiener Kunst im Hause (Vienna Art at Home), member of the Österreichischer Werkbund (Austrian Craftsmen Association). Since 1906, he was specialized in mosaics made of marble, ceramics, glass, enamel, stone and metal like for instance those created for Otto Wagner's Steinhof church, mosaics which were originally designed by Kolo Moser. His most important works during the period of the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Crafts Studio) were the dining room frieze of the Stoclet Palace in Brussels designed by Gustav Klimt and other mosaics for that building designed by himself. From 1908 to 1910, he created the mosaics of the church of Saint Charles Borromew on the Central Cemetary of Vienna, 1910 to 1911 he participated in the interiordecoration of the Villa Ast in Vienna.

French artist creating glassware, ceramics and furniture. After a period of practical training in the chinaware and glazier's workshop of his father, he studied philosophy, zoology and botany. From 1864 to 1866, he went to a private art school in Weimar. In 1867, he completed a practical formation in a glazier's workshop in Lothringia while he worked as a designer in his father's workshops in Nancy, Saint-Clément and Meisenthal. During several stays in Paris and London between 1871 and 1874, he became familiar with Japanese art which influenced his work deeply.
In 1874, he took over the artistic direction of his father's company. In 1884, he established a furniture workshop and in 1886, he possessed a furniture factory. During the World Fairs of Paris in 1878, 1889 and 1900, he triumphed with ceramics, glass and furniture by winning important prizes. In 1890, he became member of the Académie de Stanislas in Nancy and in 1891 membre of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1894, he founded in Nancy the Société Lorraine des Arts Décoratifs and in 1901 the Ecole de Nancy to which he gave his whole attention and of which he became the first president.
Gallé is considered to be the most important glass artist of his time, many considerable developments in glass art could be made thanks to him, e. g. he tried successfully to increase the luminosity of the colours while preserving the transparency of the material. With his furniture, he developed new shapes and decorations out of natural structures.

French painting and designing artist, studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1894, after having returned to Nancy, he designed vase decorations for Daum Frères, furniture for Louis Majorelle and book covers for René Wiener. In 1897, he founded his own workshop, and since 1900, he devoted his energy exclusively to glass mosaics and glass painting. At the same time, he taught at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Nancy, and in 1901, he was a cofounder of the Ecole de Nancy. In 1914, he left Nancy for Paris.

French architect, interior designer and Art nouveau crafts designer. He studied in Paris from 1882 to 1885 at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs and in 1889 at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. While travelling to England and Belgium, he saw the new buildings by the Belgian designer Victor Horta in Brussels which would exert a lasting influence on his own work. Hector Guimard's first project in Paris was the interior of the restaurant Au Grand Neptune. This interior decoration commission was followed by several for private dwellings in and around Paris. Hector Guimard's most important work is Castel Béranger, a town house in Paris, rue La Fontaine, which was built between 1894 and 1897. The best-known Guimard works are, however, the ornamental entrances to the Paris Métro stations he designed (1903) in wrought iron, bronze, and glass. Hector Guimard was one of the leading exponents of the Art nouveau style. In the portfolio L'art dans l'Habitation Moderne (1898), Hector Guimard presented a documentation of building Castel Béranger, with designs and photographs of the work in progress. Hector Guimard was the most cogent and coherent theorist advocating the unity of architecture and interior decoration, which he conceived as total works of art.

After a formation at the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he used his competences as an architect and engineer to create the first metal structure buildings in Nancy. His nephew Henry (1874-1963) followed his footsteps and won the gold medal at the World Fair of Paris in 1900.

Born in Vienna, he studied, from 1893 to 1896, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under professors Hasenauer and Luntz; afterwards, he got a scholarship to spend in Italy until 1897. From 1908 to 1937, besides an interruption during the war, he was professor at the Federal Technical Research and Teaching Institute in Vienna. Amongst other works, there are the staircase Fillgraderstiege (1905-07) in Vienna, the church of Pressbaum (1906-08) and the decoration of the bridge Aspernbrücke in Vienna (1912/13, but never completed because of the war). His masterpiece, however, were the buildings, especially the church of Saint Charles Borromew, at the Central Cemetary of Vienna.

Architect and artisan, born in Pirnitz/Moravia, studied at the Staatsgewerbeschule (National Artisan School) in Brünn, then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in the lessons of Otto Wagner and others after a period of practical training in the military building authorities in Würzburg. After the third formation period, he won the Prix de Rome and spent a year in Italy. After his return to Vienna, he worked in the Wagner studio. Hoffmann was a cofounder of the Vienna Sezession. When he was 29 years old, he became professor at the Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School) in Vienna. In 1903, he founded the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Crafts Studio) which he directed until 1931. His first buildings were, in 1902/03, Haus Henneberg, Haus Moll, Haus Moser and Haus Spitzer, in 1904 to 1906 the Sanatorium Purkersdorf in collaboration with the Wiener Werkstätte, followed by numerous important orders. Being the spiritus rector of the Wiener Werkstätte, he participated on all its expositions and was member or corresponding member of nearly all artists associations of his time. Since he lived his idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total art work), he created in each branch of the applied arts like e. g. furniture, metal works, jewels, leather, glassware, textiles, ceramics, floor coverings. Hoffmann influenced the development of applied arts in a decisive and lasting way.

Belgian architect and artisan, studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gent and Brussels. In 1895, he took over the architecture studio of Alphonse Balat in which he had started his career. In 1893, he built his first house, the Tassel House, in Art Nouveau style to which followed many other buildings in Brussels.
Horta was one of the architects renewing the Belgian architecture. His first buildings, graceful iron constructions, are particularly remarkable because of the generous application of glass and are dominated by a line-orientated ornamentation. Otherwise than other Art Nouveau artists, his lines are less inspired by blossoms and leaves but by stalks and stems.
Besides the Tassel House (1893), his main works are amongst others the Solvay House (1900) and the People's House (1899) in Brussels.

At the age of 14 years already, Klimt, born in Vienna, went to the Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School). In 1893, he founded a studio community with his brother Ernst and his fellow student Franz Matsch. His first important order was the decoration of the staircase in the new Burgtheater (Royal Theatre) in 1888. Klimt starts to leave the academic painting style, and his last important order of that time, the ceiling frescos of the three secular faculties of the Vienna university, causes a scandal. Gustav Klimt, by his painting style, the tension between rough and supple, between hard and soft shapes, becomes the pioneer of the modern age. In 1897, he is cofounder of the Vienna Sezession and its first president. Until his leaving in 1905, he determinates the artistic development in a decisive manner. He enters the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Crafts Studio) where the artists follow his style for many years: The stylization of natural shapes, mosaics paint by templates, gold and other reflecting colours. He meets the architect Josef Hoffmann in a congenial way by building the Stoclet Palace (Brussels) where he succeeds to create a masterpiece of human figuration in decorating the dining room with his mosaics. Amongst his most famous art works are the Beethoven frieze (1902), Judith (1905-08) and The Kiss (1908).

Student under Löffler and Czeschka at the Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School) in Vienne from 1904 to 1909. Since 1910, Kokoschka wrote, painted and designed especially for the Sturm of Berlin. His art works develops in a rather particular expressionist style and he was for a short period only joined to the Vienne art scene before World War I. From 1907 to 1909, Kokoschka cooperated with the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Crafts Studio). His most famous work during this period were the colour lithographies for his book The Dreaming Boys. Moreover, he designed postcards, Japanese fans, picture sheets and illustrations for the almanac of the Wiener Werkstätte in 1911. He participated in the decoration of the cabaret The Bat and produced there his theatre plays in the performing art style.

Hungarian Art Nouveau architect. His ancestors came from Bavaria and, after having first lived in Burgenland (Austria) during the 17th century, went to Buda. Lechner knew the building trade through his father's brickyard and studied architecture. Having started with traditional buildings in the historism style, he addressed himself, around the turn of the century, to Asiatic culture which was generally considered to resemble the Magyar art and joined it with elements of traditional Hungarian folkloristic art. Today, Lechner is often called the "Gaudí of Eastern Europe" which is not completely wrong since his very individual style evokes in many parts Gaudí's work.
Most important buildings are the Ladislas Church (1892-98), the Museum of Applied Arts (1893-96), the Geological Institute (1898-1900) and the Post Office Savings Bank (1899-1901).

After having finished the design school of the Arts and Crafts Museum in Reichenberg in 1890, he continued his studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School) in Vienna attending the lessons of Matsch and Czeschka. He published the mockery magazine Quer Sacrum. In 1900, he attended the lessons of Koloman Moser. For a short period, he was professor at the embroidery school where he taught painting and imprinting art; until 1935, Löffler was professor at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna. During his studies already, he created many works such as posters, banknotes etc. He studied the fresco technique. In 1906, he founded the Wiener Keramik (Vienna Ceramics) with Powolny and the sculptor Lang; since 1908, the products were distributed by the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Crafts Studio). He was cofounder of the Kunstschau (Art Exposition), their first exhibition took place in 1908. During the following years, Löffler participated in all important works of the Wiener Werkstätte, particularly in decoration, bar, cloakroom, wardrobe and posters for the cabaret The Bat as well as in the decoration of the Stoclet Palace in Brussels. He was member of the Österreichischer Werkbund (Austrian Craftsmen Association) and of the Künstlerhaus (Artists house).

Glaswegian architect and designer who was prominent in the Arts and Crafts Movement in Great Britain. He was apprenticed to a local architect, John Hutchinson, and attended evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art. In 1889 he joined the firm of Honeyman and Keppie, becoming a partner in 1904. In collaboration with three other students, one of whom, Margaret Macdonald, became his wife in 1900, Mackintosh achieved an international reputation in the 1890s as a designer of unorthodox posters, craftwork, and furniture. In contrast to contemporary fashion his work was light, elegant, and original, as exemplified by four remarkable tearooms he designed in Glasgow (1896-1904) and other domestic interiors of the early 1900s.
Mackintosh's chief architectural projects were the Glasgow School of Art (1896-1909), considered the first original example of Art Nouveau architecture in Great Britain; two unrealized projects: the 1901 International exhibition, Glasgow (1898), and "Haus eines Kunstfreundes" (1901); Windyhill, Kilmacolm (1899-1901), and Hill House, Helensburgh (1902); the Willow Tea Rooms, Glasgow (1904); and Scotland Street School (1904-06). Although all have some traditional characteristics, they reveal a mind of exceptional inventiveness and aesthetic perception. By 1914 he had virtually ceased to practice and thereafter devoted himself to watercolour painting.

French artist, cabinetmaker, furniture designer, and ironworker who was one of the leading exponents of the Art Nouveau style. The son of a cabinetmaker, Majorelle was trained as a painter and went in 1877 to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied under Jean-François Millet. After his father's death in 1879, he returned to Nancy to manage the family workshop. Concentrating on the design of furniture, Majorelle moved from 18th-century reproductions to the developing style of Art Nouveau and began (1890) to produce works conceived in that style. While still adhering to the quality of hand craftsmanship, Majorelle maintained a modern workshop that incorporated both machine- and hand-labour in wood, marquetry, bronze, cabinetry, and sculpture. Thus, he increased production and decreased price, an administrative achievement that accounts for his enormous success.
Majorelle's catalogs between 1900 and 1914 show a tremendous output: suites of furniture for individual rooms, furniture using botanical motifs or other stylistic themes, and specific pieces whose prices ranged according to custom-ordered materials. Majorelle's style incorporated a modified flowing line with polished woods, highlighted by Art Nouveau bronze mounts in the 18th-century tradition.
After World War I Majorelle continued to produce furniture in a modified, opulent Art Nouveau style, which by then was being replaced by the more severe Art Deco style. After his death Majorelle's studio was managed by his pupil Alfred Lévy.

Vienna painter, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna before being student under Franz Matsch at the Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School) in Vienna from 1892 to 1895. Being a cofounder of the Vienna Sezession and the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Crafts Studio) where he played a leading role in determining its style in a decisive way until his leaving in 1908. Member of the Österreichischer Werkbund (Austrian Association of Craftsmen). Moser's activities for the Wiener Werkstätte were universal: He participated in all important exhibitions of his time.

German architect who was a cofounder of the Vienna Sezession, the Austrian manifestation of the Art Nouveau movement. Olbrich was a student of Otto Wagner, one of the founders of the modern architecture movement in Europe.
Olbrich designed the building in Vienna to house the exhibitions of the Sezession (1898-99). It has a blocklike simplicity, but floral Art Nouveau decoration was used on the metal cupola. In 1899 Olbrich was invited to join the artists' colony at Darmstadt established by Grand Duke Ernest Louis. He designed six of the houses there, as well as a central hall for meetings and studios, which shows the influence of the Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. He also designed the Hochzeitsturm (1907; Marriage Tower) at Darmstadt, which had rounded, fingerlike projections on its roof suggestive of Art Nouveau but also had bands of windows denoting a distinctly modern trend. In 1907, Olbrich was cofounder of the Deutscher Werkbund (German Craftsmen Association) in Munich.
Among Olbrich's last works were a house at Cologne-Marienburg (1908-09) and the department store Tietz in Düsseldorf (designed in 1906 and completed after his death; today Kaufhof).

French painter, designer, sculptor, ceramist and artisan, studied the art of design from 1873 to 1876 at the Ecole Municipale de Dessin (Local design school) in Nancy and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1888 and 1889, he was designer of furniture, jewellery and glassware at the Ets. Gallé. In 1890, he went to Paris in order to devote himself to sculpture. After his success at the Salon du Champ de Mars in 1894, he got commissions for monuments and decorative sculptures on Art Nouveau buildings in Nancy. In 1901, he was cofounder of the Ecole de Nancy of which he became president in 1904, after Gallé's death.

German architect, artisan and painter, studied at the Munich Academy from 1888 until 1890; in 1895, influenced by the English Arts and Crafts movement, he designed his first furniture. In 1897, he was cofounder of the Vereinigte Werkstätten für Kunst im Handwerk (Unified Workshops for Art in Handicraft). During the glass palace exhibition, he presented his furniture and paintings, but in 1899 only, he found the deserved appreciation during the Deutsche Kunstausstellung (German Art Exhibition) in Dresden. At the Paris World Fair in 1900, he won a prize. Subsequently to these successes, he got the commission to build the national theatre in Munich (1900/01) and, in 1903/04, he was designer of the Meißen china factory. From 1902 to 1905, he was professor at the Nuremberg Art School.
Riemerschmid was cofounder of the Deutscher Werkbund (German Craftsmen Association) in 1907. Being one of the most important German Jugendstil artists, he designed interior decorations, glassware, textiles, wallpapers as well as many buildings. Besides the national theatre in Munich (today the Kammerspiel), he built the colony Hellerau near Dresden, the factory building of the Deutsche Werkstätte (German Crafts Studio) in Dresden (1909) and the Munich broadcasting building (1928/29).

Born in Brünn, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. In 1899, he became professor at the Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School) in Vienna and its director in 1909. He was director of the sets and costumes department at the Vienna National Theatre, member of the Vienna Sezession and of the Österreichischer Werkbund (Austrian Craftsmen Association). Amongst his important works were the costumes and the stage set for the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Crafts Studio) at the cabaret The Bat and, of course, his world famous stage sets at the Hofoper (Vienna Court Opera) for Gustav Mahler.

Austrian Expressionist painter, draftsman, and printmaker noted for the eroticism of his figurative works. As a student at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts (1907-09), Schiele was strongly influenced by the Jugendstil movement, the German Art Nouveau. He met Gustav Klimt, leader of the Vienna Secession group, and the linearity and subtlety of Schiele's work owe much to Klimt's decorative elegance. Schiele, however, emphasized expression over decoration, heightening the emotive power of line with a feverish tension. He concentrated from the beginning on the human figure, and his candid, agitated treatment of erotic themes caused a sensation.
In 1909 he helped found the Neukunstgruppe (New Art Group) in Vienna. From 1911 onward he exhibited throughout Europe, and a special room was devoted to his work at a 1918 Secessionist exhibit in Vienna, shortly before his death from Spanish influenza. Important works include The Self Seer (1911), The Cardinal and Nun (1912), and Embrace (1917). His landscapes exhibit the same febrile quality of colour and line.

Belgian architect and inventor, worked between 1896 and 1898 as designer in the studio of Victor Horta, afterwards he worked for La Gerbe, a magazine for interior decorations and literature. Around 1900, he became independent architect and got commissions for individual dwelling houses in Brussels, e. g. the house of the painter Saint-Cyr.

French architect and cabinetmaker, studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Nancy, worked and learned in his uncle's joinery which he took over in 1881. Under the influence of Emile Gallé, he became an Art Nouveau artist. In 1896, he designed the entrance for the furniture studio of Gallé. As an architect, he was one of the pioneers of reinforced concrete constructions.

Belgian architect and teacher who ranks with his compatriot Victor Horta as an originator of the Art Nouveau style, characterized by long sinuous lines derived from naturalistic forms. By designing furniture and interiors for the Paris art galleries of Samuel Bing in 1896, van de Velde was responsible for bringing the Art Nouveau style to Paris. But he was interested not so much in the style as in the philosophy of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement in England. Van de Velde's most vital contributions to modern design were made as a teacher in Germany, where his name became known through the exhibition of furnished interiors at Dresden in 1897.
In 1902 he went to Weimar as artistic adviser to the grand duke of Saxe-Weimar. There he reorganized the Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School) and the academy of fine art and thus laid the foundations for Walter Gropius' amalgamation of the two bodies into the Bauhaus in 1919. Like the progressive German designers at the time, van de Velde was connected with the Deutscher Werkbund (German Craftsmen Association), and he designed the theatre for the Werkbund Exposition in Cologne in 1914. More of his most important works are his own house in Uccle near Brussels (1895), the interior of the Folkwang Museum in Hagen (1900-02), the Library of the Ghent University (1935-40) and the Kröller-Müller Museum in B-Otterloo (1936-54), furthermore the villas Hohenhof/Hagen, Schulenburg/Gera, Esche/Chemnitz and his own residence Hohe Pappeln in Weimar.

Austrian architect and teacher, generally held to be a founder and leader of the modern movement in European architecture. From 1857 to 1860, he studied at the Vienna National Technical School, from 1860 to 1861 at the Royal Construction Academy in Berlin and, from 1861 to 1863, he attended the Architecture School of the Vienna Academy where he himself was professor from 1904 to 1912.
Wagner's early work was in the already-established Neo-Renaissance style. In 1893 Wagner broke with tradition by insisting on function, material, and structure as the bases of architectural design.
Among his notable works in the Art Nouveau style are a number of stations for the elevated and underground City Railway of Vienna (1894-1901) and the Postal Savings Bank (1904-06). The latter, which had little decoration, is recognized as a milestone in the history of modern architecture, particularly for the curving glass roof of its central hall.
Wagner had a great importance and influence on the development of construction around the turn of the century towards modern architecture. His students, amongst them Joseph Maria Olbrich and Josef Hoffmann, continued to develop his ideas. Besides his activities as an architect, especially at the time when he was member of the Vienna Secession which he left with the Gustav Klimt group, Wagner also designed for the decorative arts.

French architect, started his activities in Nancy during the 1880s. After attracting attention by the construction of the printing house Royer on the rue de la Salpêtrière, he got the commission to build the Villa Majorelle. He worked mostly in Nancy where, in 1907, he created with Victor Prouvé the department store Magasins Réunis and, in 1910, the Hôtel-Brasserie Excelsior of which the interior decoration was created by Louis Majorelle.