Henri van de Velde

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Velde, Henry van de (1863–1957). Belgian architect, designer, painter, writer, and teacher, one of the chief creators and exponents of the Art Nouveau style and a key figure in the development of art teaching in the 20th century. He was born in Antwerp, where he studied painting at the Academy, 1880–3. In 1888 he adopted the Neo-Impressionist style, but he gave up painting soon afterwards. This was the result of acute self-questioning that followed a nervous collapse in 1889 brought on by the death of his mother. He decided that ‘what is of use to only one person is close to being of use to no one, and in the near future only what is of use to all will be considered useful', and thereafter he devoted himself to architecture and applied art. In 1895 he created a house for himself (‘Bloemenwerf') in the Brussels suburb of Uccle, designing everything from the architecture to the kitchen utensils, and in 1896 he carried out decorations for Siegfried Bing's Paris shop Maison de l'Art Nouveau, from which the name of the new style derived. Van de Velde's work for Bing featured the sinuous curves typical of Art Nouveau, but he believed in a rational use of form, unencumbered by tradition, and thought that ornament should grow naturally from the structure rather than being mere superficial decoration. In 1897 some of his work was exhibited in Dresden to great acclaim, leading to several commissions in Germany, where he moved in 1900. His German patrons included Karl Ernst Osthaus (see SONDERBUND), for whom he remodelled the Folkwang Museum at Hagen (1900–2) and who wrote a biography of van de Velde (1920). From 1902 to 1917 he lived in Weimar, where he was appointed head of the new Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts). The teaching here was novel in that pupils—instead of studying the art of the past—were encouraged to think in terms of the needs of the modern world. Van de Velde's successor in Weimar was Walter Gropius, who developed his ideas at the Bauhaus.

In 1917 van de Velde moved to Switzerland, then in 1920 the Netherlands, where he began to work for Hélène Kröller-Müller, for whom he later designed the celebrated museum at Otterlo (1937–54). This shows the much severer style of his later years. In 1926 he returned to Belgium, and the following year he became head of the newly-founded Institut Supérieur des Arts Décoratifs in Brussels. He taught there for the next 20 years and in this period received many state commissions, including the Belgian pavilions at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1937 and the New York World's Fair in 1939. In 1947 he retired to Switzerland. In addition to his highly varied artistic output, he wrote several books on his ideas and also an autobiography, Geschichte meines Lebens, posthumously published in 1962.

Velde, Henry van de (b Antwerp, 3 Apr. 1863; d Zurich, 25 Oct. 1957). Belgian architect, designer, painter, writer, and teacher, one of the chief creators and exponents of the Art Nouveau style and a key figure in the development of art teaching in the 20th century. He began his career as a painter and in 1888 adopted Neo-Impressionism. However, he gave up painting soon afterwards—the result of acute self-questioning that followed a nervous collapse in 1889 brought on by the death of his mother—and thereafter devoted himself to architecture and applied art. In 1896 he carried out decorations for Siegfried Bing's Paris shop Maison de l'Art Nouveau, from which the name of the new style derived. From 1902 to 1917 he lived in Weimar, where he was appointed head of the new Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts). The teaching here was novel in that pupils—instead of studying the art of the past—were encouraged to think in terms of the needs of the modern world. Van de Velde's successor in Weimar was Walter Gropius, who developed these ideas at the Bauhaus. In 1917 he moved to Switzerland, then in 1920 the Netherlands, where he began to work for the collector and patron Hélène Kröller-Müller (1869–1939), for whom he later designed the celebrated museum of modern art named after her at Otterlo (1937–54). This shows the much severer style of his later years. In 1926 he returned to Belgium, and taught in Brussels for twenty years before retiring to Switzerland in 1947. He wrote several books on his ideas and also an autobiography, Geschichte meines Lebens, posthumously published in 1962.

Henri van de Velde , 1863–1957, Belgian designer and architect. Beginning as a painter, critic, and crafts designer in Belgium and in France, he received his first great acclaim for the interiors that he exhibited at Dresden in 1897. Van de Velde played a leading role in the development of Jugendstil, the German equivalent of art nouveau . His designs for furniture and tableware are of especially high quality. With ideas deriving in part from Ruskin and William Morris, he taught at his own school, the Weimar School of Arts and Crafts. Van de Velde's architectural activity was considerable. His best work is found in his own house near Brussels (1895) and in the studio building for his school at Weimar (1906), but his architecture never had the quality, importance, or influence of his crafts and his numerous writings. His first book was Die Renaissance im modernen Kunstgewerbe (1901).

van de Velde, Henri (or van de Velde, Henry) (1863–1957). See Velde.