Becoming an Art Nouveau expert

I already wrote here about my Art Nouveau discoveries of Brussels during the great Art Nouveau and Art Deco Biennale, and after exploring various sites in Schaerbeek, I spent another weekend discovering Art Nouveau gems in Ixelles and Etterbeek.

On Saturday, I started with the ultimate example of Art Nouveau, Victor Horta's Hôtel Solvay in Avenue Louise. The building is nowadays a listed UNESCO world heritage site together with Horta's Hôtel Tassel (see below), Hôtel van Eetvelde and Horta Museum. 

The interior of the house is once again fantastic: in Horta's style, stained glass windows bring light to the house, walls are beautifully decorated and all details are carefully executed.

I continued to another UNESCO site not far away in Rue Paul-Emile Janson, where Horta designed in 1893 Hôtel Tassel. The interior of this building was completely destroyed in the 1970s, but is now renovated to look like the original. 

My last destination on Saturday was Maison Blerot in Rue de Belle-Vue, in a street where you have a row of buildings designed by the Art Nouveau architect Ernest Blerot (look for his signature on the facade). 

Compared to Horta, Blerot's style was a bit more romantic with more flowers and animals used in the decorative patterns. Blerot constructed over 70 houses in Brussels and I think I need to go and discover some of them in the neighborhood of Saint-Boniface soon.

On Sunday I continued my Art Nouveau weekend with yet another Horta building close to Sablon, Maison Frison. It's a house that I've walked past many times, but I have never paid any attention to its dirty facade (see below, it's the one with "for rent" sign). Indeed, the facade is not spectacular, but the interior has a beautiful winter garden of true Horta style.

One of the highlights of the Biennale was, without a doubt, Maison Cauchie in Etterbeek, close to Parc Cinquantanaire. This is where I finally understood the technique of "sgraffito", which is used to make the decorative paintings in many Art Nouveau facades. It consists of two layers of plaster of which the bottom one is dark. When the plaster is still wet, the artists carves the lines of the image on the wall, revealing the darker layer. Then, as in the fresco style, the wet paint is coloured. 

Paul Cauchie and his wife Caroline were masters of the sgraffito style and on the facade of their house you can admire their skills. The building has a well-earned place in the secret list of "The 5 most striking Art Nouveau houses in Brussels".

My last visit was in Parc Leopold (No. 322 in the list of "The 5 most remarkable places in the Eruopean Quarter"), the Bibliothèque Solvay, behind the European Parliament. 

The story of the Solvay library is super interesting. Ernest Solvay (father of Armand Solvay who commissioned Hôtel Solvay) was a rich industrialist who was very keen on supporting education, science and research.  He founded five private institutes, one of which was the institute of sociology, an academic field close to Solvay's heart. 

This building was constructed to only around 10 top students of sociology. They had a beautiful library in the middle of the building for their use and their individual offices were furnished with Chesterfield furnitures. Not bad for sociologists! With the help of the sociologists, Ernest Solvay himself conducted analyses on workers' well-being in his factories. Oh boy, I wish we had more rich industrialists like him in the world today.

Later in the 20th century, the institute became part of the University of Brussels, and finally in 1981 the library was no longer used. Squatters moved in and destroyed the interior of the place completely in the following years. It was only in the end of the 1980s when an architecture student got interested in the place and urged politicians to save and protect it. 

The shameful story got a happy ending as the student later was in charge of renovating the building. It is now used for various events and concerts, so it is possible to see the beautiful stained glass windows. 

Art Nouveau in Brussels - the beauty is in the details

After summer holiday (which seems like ancient history already) I have had some difficulties in enjoying life in Brussels. After spending time with friends and family in Finland and making little visits to fabulous cities like London, Paris, Copenhagen and Berlin (all in one month which was definitely a bit too much!), returning to Brussels was hard. 

I know that I have started post-holiday period with a wrong attitude, so I'm now consciously trying to appreciate the city. After all, I'm halfway through my contract here, so I need to make the most out of my time here - otherwise I would regret it.

Beautiful glass decoration over an entrance door.

With a beautiful sunny autumn weather I try to enjoy the pretty little things in the city and there are plenty of them (it's not always easy in Brussels to see the beauty, you have to pay attention). A few weeks ago I was dog sitting a colleague's dog for a weekend and this gave me a fantastic opportunity to slowly stroll around in my neighborhood and expand my knowledge of the Schaerbeek commune in which I live. 

Schaerbeek doesn't always have the best reputation and I myself wanted first to live in cool places like St. Catherine or Ixelles, but now I've learnt to appreciate the architectural beauty of the commune. There are quite many interesting places to visit here, especially around the neighborhood of the imposing city hall in Place Collignon and pretty Parc Josaphat.

These are the details you find in so many buildings if you just look up and around. Makes life so much nicer, doesn't it.

Even more extensive strolling took place this weekend as I had bought a weekend pass for the Brussels Art Nouveau and Art Deco Biennale. It's a truly fantastic way to visit some of the buildings that would otherwise be closed to visitors and in general get interesting information on this famous period of Brussels architecture. (It's popular among the locals, but I would even recommend tourists to plan their visit so that they can participate.)

On Saturday I started with the famous Maison Autrique in Chaussée de Haecht 266, designed by Victor Horta in 1893 as his first work. This was the start of the golden period of Art Nouveau! The house was carefully renovated ten years ago and our wonderful guide gave us an interesting tour around the house. This building is unsurprisingly No. 238 on my secret list of "The 5 finest Art Nouveau Buildings open to public in Brussels". 

It's quite funny to find this architectural gem here because the street is the heart of the Turkish community with many brightly colored restaurant signs that hardly valorize the building.

Horta and Professor Autrique were both Freemasons and the facade of the building includes some of the Freemason symbols like triangles and the use of number three in various ways.

I continued to another beautiful house designed by Horta, Hôtel van Eetwelde of which I have written here earlier. This time I had the opportunity to see the gorgeous interior of the building (unfortunately no photos were allowed). 

Wall paper in the Quaker House.

My last visit on Saturday was to the close-by Quaker House in Square Ambiorix. While I have walked by the building quite often I have rarely paid much attention to it. It was designed by George Hobé at the turn of the 20th century and bought by the Quakers in 1985. Outside is not much of interest in my opinion, but the interior was pretty (unfortunately here our guide wasn't very knowledgeable and spoke very bad English).

Hôtel Cohn-Donnay and the Restaurant De Ultieme Hallucinatie.

On Sunday I made a great visit to the heart of Schaerbeek and Saint-Josse-ten-Noode to streets I've never taken. Inspired by my new Art Nouveau book, I carefully looked around me and up to the buildings along the streets and indeed, there were so many beautiful details in the houses. 

While the overall picture might be a bit chaotic with all the different styles, you can enjoy of many little beautiful things if you just care to take the time (this is why walking with a dog is fantastic, you really have the time to contemplate your surroundings).

The chess corner in Hôtel Cohn-Donnay. Paul Hamesse designed every detail.

Unfortunately in the 1980s the garden was covered and this indoor terrace was built. Art Nouveau windows on the bar were removed but luckily at least the wooden part was conserved (originally the arch served as a covered path to the music salon at the back of the garden).

I started at Hôtel Cohn-Donnay at Rue Royale 316 very close to the byzantine style church of Royale Sainte-Marie. Hôtel Cohn-Donnay was already built in 1841 (before the Art Nouveau movement) in a neoclassical style. Only in the early 20th century when the Cohn-Donnay family moved in, Paul Hamasse, a student of famous Art Nouveau architect Paul Hankar, transformed the interior into Art Nouveau style. 

The place nowadays houses a beautiful restaurant and a cat café, which is really an underestimation of the potential of the beautiful house. Well, the cats were cute, but eating with cats on the table waiting to attack the food was not very relaxing.

I continued my tour to see two more unknown buildings: one quite eclectic house by Franz Van Ophem in Rue Renkin 33 and another one of more neo-renaissance style by Frans Hemelsoet in Avenue Princesse Elisabeth 22.

Maison Van Ophem built in 1890.

 Beautiful window in Maison Van Ophem.

Both of these building are now privately owned and transformed into apartments. In the Maison Hemelsoet we could visit one of the apartments that the owners had renovated themselves to resemble the original style of 1902. I didn't really like the quite opulent style of the neo-renaissance, and while the facade of the house was Art Nouveau style, you couldn't find the influence inside anymore. 

It is worth knowing that Hemelsoet had made the building with many different influences to show his clients what he is able to do, like Maison Van Ophem, it was kind of a portfolio of the architect's skills.

 Maison Hemelsoet built in 1902.

More to come next weekend when I continue my visits to another six places.