He frequently used the expression « Style Guimard » when he wrote about architecture and the decorative arts, notably in the magazine La Critique, of which he was one of the main editors, but also in larger-circulation newspapers such as the XIXème siècle or Le Rappel, contributing in his own way to popularising the expression. Guimard used the same design on correspondence cards, also used in 1903. This new expression, probably too close to “Art nouveau”, will no longer be used, with one exception. We have never seen M. Plumet, for example, who is indeed an authentic artist, and a great artist, declare himself to be an Architect of Art. A player in the early days in France of what we now call the Art Nouveau style, Guimard undoubtedly perceived very quickly the interest he had in finding by himself a name for his creation before the public, or rather the media, did it for him. While criticising De Félice for not doing his job as an art critic, he justified the term « Architect of Art » by its Greek etymology (archos, chief and tecton, worker), reserving the right to add the word « d’Art », which he considered justified in the light of banal and unartistic constructions produced by professionals calling themselves « Architects ». Hector Guimard was born in Lyon, France, in 1867. ", "For construction, do no the branches of the trees, the stems, by turn rigid and undulating, furnish us with models? In 1911, the hardware house Paquet in Grenoble, France, committed itself, at the request of the architect, to use the formula “Modèle Style Nouveau H.G.”[7] to designate the porcelain doorknob it manufactured for Guimard and But in reality, the wording used in the published catalog will retain the architect’s initials while deleting the “Style Nouveau”. Guillaume Apollinaire, since he is the one in question, had a fairly extensive career as an art critic in the press. He continued working in the Art Nouveau style, emphasizing its features of harmony and continuity, in both the exteriors and interiors of his buildings. Things and People Passing By), the writer Octave Uzanne thinks he has found in the person of Guimard the providential architect who seems to be sorely lacking in Paris. It reads that the porch of a large Parisian dwelling exhibited there is in the « Style Moderne National ». The other edition, the « Style Moderne » catalogue, more in line with commercial requirements, would be intended for use by the foundry. Guimard is by far the best-known French Art Nouveau architect, to the extent that in some French circles Art Nouveau was referred to as "Style Guimard," a moniker promoted by Guimard himself. His work is easy to distinguish amongst other practitioners of the style, with plastic, abstracted and sometimes bizarre vegetal and floral imagery in iron, glass, and carved stone that is usually twisted and bent into irregular and asymmetrical forms. If it is perfectly true that the major French media dealing with decorative art, after having briefly taken an interest in him during the time of the Castel Béranger, then turned a blind eye to him, we now know that Guimard has always displayed an intense sociability that has partially compensated for this lack of recognition. the Guimard Style. Though well-educated at the École nationale des arts décoratifs, and familiar with many of the leading French architectural theorists, Guimard attended but did not receive a diploma from the École des Beaux-Arts as was the norm for most French academic architects at the end of the 19, Guimard's work has recently been discovered to be rather political - particularly pacifist and socialist. Private Collection, Parma. [26] The press also refers to : « le style Modern ». [27] Plans of the projects archived at the Cooper-Hewity museum, New York. [2] « It all smells like vicious English, the morphine-addicted Jewess or the crafty Belgian, or a pleasant salad of these three poisons! HÔTEL GUIMARD – … Private collection. Artist : Style Hector Guimard Period:20th Century Style:Art Nouveau Condition : Bon état Material : Fonte, marbre , laiton Reference : 702398 Galerie Vaudémont Ecole de Nancy, Généraliste. This is what Forthuny meant to denounce by writing: « Does Mr. Guimard have the right to deny his origins? (The first plate from this folio, a perspective of the building - which is difficult to capture in its entirety in a photograph - is pictured here.) These are seamlessly complemented by similar sinuous forms resembling the stems or branches of plants inside the individual apartments, two of which were occupied by Guimard and his friend, the painter Paul Signac. It accompanies that of « Architect of Art » on the series of postcards sold on this occasion. [5] The National Exhibition of Ceramics and all the Arts of Fire was held at the Palace of Fine Arts on the Champ-de-Mars from 15 May to 31 July 1897 and was extended until 5 September. In a letter addressed to Adeline Oppenheim Guimard, he wrote: « these pieces should be particularly significant of the Guimard Style » then, citing a handful of umbrellas as an example, he described it as: « an excellent example of the Guimard’s Style at its best and purest »[31], summing up in a few words all the strength of the style invented by Guimard. In his report published in the magazine Art et Décoration, Paul Cornu expressed the same reproaches as in 1903 about the expression « Style Guimard » which certainly accompanied the stand: « Mr. Guimard thinks he has created a style. Fortunately, in more confidential or professional journals, some authors are much more lenient about the legitimacy of the expression « Style Guimard ». Here, Guimard has rotated the columns 90 degrees from Viollet's plan to align with the plane of the façades and thus clear the space at ground level under the rest of the structure as a playground, thus solving the problem of the limited space on the site. Following exotic trends while remaining faithful to regional traditions, this modern style could be seen in art, design, and architecture. In this particular case, the article in question is probably not an object created by Guimard and it would therefore already be a shift in meaning that globalises the production of Art Nouveau style decorative art under the name of Guimard. This last episode is to be placed in a context of nationalist unrest which only grew for a decade before the climax of the Dreyfus affair in 1898 and which then saw the clear victory of the nationalist right in the Paris municipal elections of 1900. Guimard then planned to build a series of investment properties financed by the « Société Générale de Constructions Modernes » (formed in July 1910), of which he was a shareholder, along with his father-in-law and Léon Nozal. [16] De Felice, Roger, L’Art appliqué au Salon d’Automne, L’Art Décoratif, December 1903, p. 234. The columns themselves use an unusual shape that leaves them open to precise interpretations, thus attracting continual rumination and attention. The post-World War II period was to be ruthless for Art Nouveau. Although ephemeral, the use of this term did not escape the notice of the decorator Eugène Belville[6], who, in the 1897 magazine Notes d’art et d’archéologie, ironically criticised Guimard’s use of the term, who, he wrote, « epigraphed his madreporic constructions with the title of Style National Moderne ». We conclude that they are parallel and not successive editions. Unveiled during the Paris World’s Fair in 1900, the design would become a symbol of the Art Nouveau movement. It should be noted, however, that for this catalog, Guimard probably did not have the mastery of the mentions used in the header of the plate. Nothing to say about it. Art Nouveau in France In Paris, the floral exuberance of works by Belgian architect Victor Horta was interpreted in unique fashion by Hector Guimard (1867-1942). Paris-born designer Robert Couturier knows the style all too well, as he was raised in an Art Nouveau-style residence built by famed architect Hector Guimard. The serial production of objects for the architectural décor has mobilised a great deal of creative energy on Guimard’s part. This first feminist daily, engaged in many progressive struggles, the first of which was the demand for the place of women in society, considered the criticisms of Guimard to be excessive: « (Those who despise the Guimard Style), did they not notice in the night, all the way over there at the Porte Dauphine, two large fireflies shining through trees and shrubs, with a mysterious charm, these are two kiosks of the Metro. Rare are the professions in which, under the impulse and the plans of a single personality, a concrete work rises ex nihilo, which generally survives him. Unable to allow such a hostile article to pass, Guimard had a reply published in the supplement of the magazine in February 1904. Musée d’Orsay, Guimard collection, GP 128. These models can be found in the perfumer’s commercial catalog, in the form of colorized drawings with the names of the perfumes and the company name “F. In fact, he will never want to explain himself on this dreamlike and fantastic side of the « Guimard Style », no doubt considering it to be a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. This precision, no doubt brought at Guimard’s instigation, is at two levels of reading. [22] Marcel Bernhardt known as Alcanter de Brahm (1868-1942) is a writer, poet, art critic and later became assistant curator of the Carnavalet Museum. One of the two types of catalogues bears on its cover the mention in lettering designed by Guimard « Artistic fonts/for/constructions/heating appliances/garden art/graves » and in a cartouche at the bottom, the mention « Style Guimard ». With much less irony, he then commented favourably on Guimard’s sending of three sets of furniture: « […] because M. Guimard himself, the art architect, seems this time to be timidly sacrificing simplicity and reason. Hector Guimard practiced what he preached. To give a counterpart to the « Style Guimard » catalogue we therefore refer to this type of catalogue as « Style Moderne ». Guimard developed a difficult relationship with his parents: at age thirteen the family moved from Lyons to Levallois-Perret, just outside the northwestern city limits of Paris, and soon afterward Guimard apparently ran away from home, finding refuge in the home of Apollonie Grivellé, a rich landowner in the suburban 16th arrondissement of Paris. The inscriptions were designed in a completely different way from those on the cover of the first type of catalogue. What sign, what gas ramp or electric advertisement would be both more meaningful and more elegant than these two phosphorescent cages that so kindly indicate the location of the Metro stations ». Art nouveau (c.1880 to 1910) Art nouveau could be said to be the first 20th century modern style. A few years later, the expression began to gain recognition on the other side of the Atlantic. The main claim of the current of Art Nouveau, of which Hector Guimard is one of the most important French exponents, is the unity of architecture, furnishings and layout of the rooms. Drawing on his most recent works such as the Castel Béranger or the accesses to the metro — which he criticized favourably — and then on the architect’s career and personality, the author does not at any time seem shocked by the use of this expression. Art Nouveau is a popular and undoubtedly beautiful style of interior design. Coll. But other authors, more closely related, such as Édouard Molinier in his article published in Art et Décoration in March 1899 about the Castel Béranger, reject this idea: « Without denying Horta’s merit, there were perhaps better things for a French artist to do than to seek inspiration in Belgium. It is simply used when greater discretion is required. Seen by many as an unbearable lack of modesty, this « Style Guimard » mention is, of course, just as badly received as the qualifier « Architect of Art ». With a view to a homogeneous presentation, in addition to the decor and furniture, he was also commissioned to create models of bottles and boxes for the launch of several new perfumes and their derivatives. We will examine later the particular case of the catalogues of ornamental castings, but each plate of the catalogue of his Lustres Lumière, published before 1914, receives the mention « Style Guimard ». The controversy reached its climax at the 1903 Housing Exhibition at the Grand Palais, where the words « Pavillon Style Guimard » were clearly displayed on the enamelled lava sign on the porch of Guimard’s pavilion. Guimard will never have disturbed as much, aroused contrary feelings, irreconcilable positions as at that time considered as one of the key periods of his career. The Castel Beranger is the building that made Guimard famous, and he regarded it as one of his most important, going so far as to include it along with the Humbert de Romans concert hall and the Paris Métro entrances as some of his most notable in an article in Architectural Record explaining Art Nouveau to an American audience in 1902. at the National School of Decorative Arts, published in La Revue des Arts Décoratifs an article vigorously entitled “Soyons Français! Guimard, Héctor (1867–1942). Happy, almost astonished to have “unearthed this work built and realized in Paris,” he drew on the example of Belgium and its ongoing architectural revolution – led in particular by Victor Horta – to express the wish that Guimard would impose himself in the same way in France as the leader of modern architects: “May Mr. Hector Guimard soon become our Horta from France! Decorative, sensual, and uncompromising, Art Nouveau ('New Art') emerged as a dynamic and expressive style in the visual arts from the early 1890s to the First World War. This text by Genuys, which actually supports Guimard’s efforts, can however also resonate as a warning to those who, although he says he always wants to refer to the inexhaustible spectacle of nature, nevertheless favors arrangements of abstract lines. 10 (detail), without date, c. 1905. ", "When the artist has met the demands of logic, that is to say when he has lived up to the requirements of a particular project and to the conditions in which he must labor, he has in a sense done the work of an engineer. Bigot-Renaux commercial Catalogue 1902 (detail) Private collection. [31] Papers Adeline Oppenheim, The Public Library of New-York. "Art Nouveau was inspired by all the fluid forms of nature," Couturier says. His commentary on Guimard’s submission (consisting of watercolour drawings) is first of all ironic about the qualifiers « Architecte d’Art » and « Style Guimard » before claiming that these proud mentions are only there to enhance an unnecessarily complicated work: « Mr. Hector Guimard also presents us with projects of decorative ensembles, but in the form of simple watercolour sketches. [3] Boileau, Louis-Charles, L’Architecture, 19 December 1896. His signature work, the Paris Métro entrances, are classic examples of Art Nouveau, characterized by their elegant flowing lines, floral ornamentation, sacred geometric forms, and mythical symbolism.. From the 1880s to World War I, Art Nouveau … Victor Horta, Paul Hankar and Hector Guimard set out to tranform the most plain and functional buildings, houses, hotels, public works buildings and even subway entrances, into works of art. Produced in collaboration with industrialists or workshops, these editions are an opportunity to publish specific catalogues in which the existence of the « Style Guimard » is mentioned as much as possible. » Alexandre, Arsène, Le Figaro, 28 December 1895. And all this, however, with such a personality of touch, that one could not find to define these forms any other name than Guimard style! However, this programme, which reflects the rationalist side of his creation, lacks the unbridled decorative inventiveness that rejected most critics and the public at the time and which is so attractive to us now. Postcard n°1 of the series Le Style Guimard (detail). And the public wonders: What can it be, an Architect of Art? This text by Genuys, which actually supports Guimard’s efforts, can however also resonate as a warning to those who, although he says he always wants to refer to the inexhaustible spectacle of nature, nevertheless favors arrangements of abstract lines. Private collection. Reserves of the Saint-Dizier foundry (currently assigned to the collections of the Saint-Dizier museum). May 1, 2018 - Explore Tom Coxon's board "hector guimard", followed by 204 people on Pinterest. But doesn’t wanting to distinguish oneself from the others by pointing out its eminently artistic quality also mean belittling one’s own? « Style Guimard » then became one of the « official » formulas to designate this period. On the plan of the first project in 1906, the street is simply referred to as « Rue Nouvelle » (new street). At the age of 15, he enrolled in Paris’ École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs, a school dedicated to the decorative arts. Guimard created three standard types of entrances: enclosed, tripod canopies, and open to the sky - that use the twisted, organic vegetal forms typical of Art Nouveau. November 12, 2012, By Hannah Bergin / Hector-Germain Guimard was born in Lyons in March 1867. Private collection. The books and articles below constitute a bibliography of the sources used in the writing of this page. After the completion of the project, Guimard sent Horta a signed copy of the lavish album of prints produced to publicly promote it, along with an inscription of admiration. [4] In contrast to those frequently used by Horta to dress some of its interior decorations. Several clues prove that Guimard was trying to escape the anathema of cosmopolitanism that could be thrown at him at any moment. All Rights Reserved |, Hector Guimard: Architect, Designer (1867 - 1942), (2003), Architectural Monographs 2: Hector Guimard (1978), Guimard: Paris, Musée d'Orsay, 13 avril-26 juillet 1992 [et] Lyon, Musée des arts décoratifs et des tissus, 25 septembre 1992-3 janvier 1993 (1992), Guimard: Colloque international, Musée d'Orsay, 12 et 13 juin 1992 (1994), The Red List: Furniture Design, Hector Guimard, Celebrating Hector Guimard: France's Forgotten Gaudi, Hector Guimard: Entrance to Paris Métropolitan. Hector Guimard was a French architect and designer, and a prominent figure of the Art Nouveau style. It is accompanied by the same text by Stanislas Ferrand (previously published in the magazine Le Bâtiment on 9 August 1903), which also appears on the packaging of Le Style Guimard card packs. Hector Guimard is by far the best-known French Art Nouveau architect, whose work is easily recognized among other masters of the style. Curiously, such a badly damaged relationship between the two men found a rather happy outcome in the article which De Félice again devoted to the 1904 Salon d’Automne. At first, these appear to be nearly seamless, yet in fact they are constructed out of several cast iron parts that were easily mass-produced at the modern iron foundries to the east of Paris. Thus, around 1912, new models of cast iron bench legs (GO and GN) were designed and prominently bore the words « Style Guimard » inscribed in an indentation. During his strolls through the capital, denouncing “the disturbing imaginative torpor of its architects,” “the silly order of its buildings,” or its “stupid architectonic”, he marveled at the originality of Castel Béranger and its “somewhat revolutionary architecture,” the fruit, according to him, of “a matured thought […] tending towards the renovation of architectural art. Mar 14, 2013 - Explore J J's board " Hector Guimard", followed by 2302 people on Pinterest. ParisStep / Guimard explained his architectural principles based on the « Logic, Harmony and Sentiment » trilogy that he had developed since his 1899 lecture in the lounges of Le Figaro[14]. Sadly, the structure was doomed probably from its conception, as Père Lavy was admonished by his superiors for commissioning a building so lavish, whose purpose was viewed as suspect as it appeared to be devoted to secular rather than church functions (the building contained no noticeable religious iconography, nor except for its name did it hint at having a religious purpose). Private collection. He frequently used curvilinear lines and iron in a new, open way. ", "Nature is a big book from which we can draw inspiration, and it is in that book that we must look for principles, which, when found, have to be defined and applied by the human mind according to human needs.". Iron, cast iron, bronze, wood, staff, stoneware, stained glass, fabrics, in turn translate his inextinguishable thirst for decoration. And it is therefore easy to accept that he is known as an « ironworker of art » and « carpenter of art » when his production deserves it. Content compiled and written by Peter Clericuzio, Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors, "I love architecture, because in its essence, in its structure, in its function, and in all of its manifestations, it contains within itself every one of the other arts, without exception. Q.1- Who art the best artists of Art nouveau? Hector Guimard's Cite station Métro entrance by Khan Academy: In the Frame: Decorative Arts: Art Nouveau, École du Sacré Coeur (Sacred Heart School), Paris (1895), Humbert de Romans Concert Hall and School, Paris (1897-1901; destroyed 1905). About the Seller. One month after the dedication on 9 November 1901, Père Lavy left Paris, reassigned by his superiors to Constantinople. ... Art Nouveau-style pewter chandelier with eight arms, circa 1940. Paris Metro Entrances In 1896, Adrien Bernard, president of the French Metro, commissioned Guimard to design several surface stations, such as those at Bastille, Porte Dauphine, Abbesses and Chatelet, to name but four. The artist still needs to settle down a little. [9] Georges Léopold Cochet (1872-1962) known as Pascal Forthuny, writer,art critic and musician. In 1901, just a few months after the publication of Forthuny’s text, an issue of La Vie Moderne published an anonymous but fascinating article entitled « Le Style Guimard ». “ (“Let us be French!”) in which he warned against the temptation that modern decorative artists might be seek to follow the footsteps of foreign artists, especially Belgians. This new expression, probably too close to “Art nouveau”, will no longer be used, with one exception. As a result, it displays the complete range of Guimard's creative powers with Art Nouveau, the full expression of which he had seen just before he started designing it when he traveled to Brussels and met Victor Horta in 1895. I witnessed it the other day in one of our department stores when a customer, on the occasion of a Christmas gift, was bargaining an art object, and the clerk selling her this article added: This is what we do best now, it’s Guimard style. The font used for the top line is part of the family of fonts created by Georges Auriol. ", "Let the Belgians, the German and the English evolve for themselves a national art, and assuredly in so doing they will perform a true, sound, and useful work. It is probably one of the most accomplished period texts on the subject. [14] Guimard, Hector, « La Renaissance de l’art dans l’architecture moderne » (the Renaissance of art in modern architecture), Le Moniteur des Arts, 7 July 1899. Today Guimard is regarded as one of the most individualistic artists of his era, one of the innovating founders of Art Nouveau who developed a personal aesthetic that is often instantly recognizable and distinguishable even from his fellow practitioners of the style. The building makes extensive use of copper sheeting and ornament in the balconies, downspouts, and gates, much of which has been oxidized to a natural green, using strange motifs such as facial masks and seahorses. The first press article referring to this term was probably Pascal Forthuny’s[9] description of the furniture at the Universal Exhibition, published in the magazine Le Mois littéraire et pittoresque in December 1900: « (…) M. Guimard — by what concept is he blinded? Mar 20, 2020 - Architect Hector Guimard 1867-1942 is probably the best known representative of the Art Nouveau style of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It’s the Guimard style and you know the Metro. It seems that Guimard’s perseverance finally had some results and brought the expression « Style Guimard » into the language of the time, at least in Paris. He warned him against the pretension that some people « are creating a style » that could « raise public mistrust » as opposed to those who would « content themselves with looking for style ». ", "Every great epoch has had a stylization of art. [18] Cornu, Paul, « L’Exposition des Artistes Décorateurs », Art et Décoration, 1907, p. 200. Private collection. On the contrary, La Fronde, another newspaper that did not specialise in decorative art, came to his rescue in an article dated 16 August 1903, entitled « Le Style Guimard » and signed La Dame D. Voilée (the D. veiled Lady)[15]. Project for a sign for the Gilardoni & Brault stand at the Ceramics Exhibition in 1897. Letter head of an invoice from the Ateliers Guimard dated 14 November 1905. Guimard even consulted noted composer Camille Saint-Saens on the hall's design, producing magnificent acoustic effects. In November 1909, the developer’s name was the « Société Immobilière de la rue Moderne » and, on the plans, the street to be created was actually named « Rue Moderne » (modern street).