Hotel Tassel – arch. Victor Horta
Victor Horta
(b. Ghent, Belgium 1861; d. Brussels, Belgium 1947)
Victor Horta was born in Ghent, Belgium in 1861. After studying drawing, textiles and architecture at the Ghent Academie des Beaux Arts, he worked in Paris. He returned to Belgium and worked for the classical architect Alphons Balat, before he started his own practice.
Victor Horta created buildings which rejected historical styles and marked the beginning of modern architecture. He conceived modern architecture as an abstract principle derived from relations to the environment, rather than on the imitation of forms. Although the organic forms of Art Nouveau architecture as established by Horta do not meet our standard ideas of modern architecture, Horta generated ideas which became predecessors to the ideas of many modernist.
Horta was a leading Belgium Art Nouveau architect until Art Nouveau lost public favor. At this time he easily assumed the role of a neoclassical designer. Although many of Horta’s buildings have been needlessly destroyed, his former assistant Jean Delhaye has worked to preserve what remains of his work. Delhaye has also secured the Horta residence as a permanent museum.
Horta died in Brussels in 1947.
References
Dennis Sharp. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and Architecture. New York: Quatro Publishing, 1991
Maison Frison – arch. Victor Horta
Maison personelle – arch. Victor Horta
Maison personelle – arch. Victor Horta
Day by Day Correspondence 