Victor Horta - Tapa dura

Victor Horta is well-known as the creator of art nouveau architecture. Following the design of the Hotel Tassel, Brussels, in 1893, Horta produced over 40 buildings during the following decade. This work discusses the many influences on and of his designs, highlighting the impressionist influences utilized in his work. Detailed descriptions of 19 projects, including Edicule Lambeaux, Hotel Autrique, Hotel Max Hallet and the Brugmann Hospital, are illustrated with axonometric drawings and specially commissioned photographs.

Victor Horta David Dernie * Alastair Carew-Cox The collection of photographs, drawings and text brought together in this monograph represents the most significant contribution to studies on Victor Horta in recent years. David Dernie and Alastair Carew-Cox present much new material and a fresh insight into the work of this most influential architect of late nineteenth-century Europe. Their intention has not been to provide an encyclopaedic coverage of Horta's work, but to illuminate the themes, conflicts and inspirations which lie behind his most important buildings. In a series of essays David Dernie examines Horta's training and formative years in Paris and Brussels: the influence of Viollet-le-Duc, Alphonse Balat, and most importantly the new avant-garde movements and the dominant Symbolist aesthetic in Belgian art and literature which were powerfully synthesised in the annual exhibitions of Les XX. Having thus provided a basis for the interpretation of Horta's oeuvre, the richly illustrated second section of the book presents the key buildings of his Art Nouveau period, from 1889 to 1923, including the H?tels Tassel and Van Eetvelde, and the Maison and Atelier Horta. The book has the full support of the Mus?e Horta in Brussels and almost all of the images are unpublished elsewhere, making this collection an invaluable source.