Architect. »[18]. [26] The press also refers to : « le style Modern ». 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! Thus, in a text dated November 29, 1898, published in 1899 in his work Visions de Notre Heure. Bigot-Renaux commercial Catalogue 1902 (detail) Private collection. 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! [8] Drawing GP 552 et GP 559, fonds Guimard, Musée d’Orsay. He continued working in the Art Nouveau style, emphasizing its features of harmony and continuity, in both the exteriors and interiors of his buildings. [16] De Felice, Roger, L’Art appliqué au Salon d’Automne, L’Art Décoratif, December 1903, p. 234. […] And what does this mean? ", "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. And then, because this building is considered as an artwork of Guimard, founder of his Art Nouveau style. Art Deco, simple and elegant, and Art Nouveau inspired by Hector Guimard, who is also recognized for his Parisian metropolitan entrances that are so famous. [2] « It all smells like vicious English, the morphine-addicted Jewess or the crafty Belgian, or a pleasant salad of these three poisons! The serial production of objects for the architectural décor has mobilised a great deal of creative energy on Guimard’s part. We know the artisanal and manual character of the usual work of a blacksmith or carpenter. And the public wonders: What can it be, an Architect of Art? The books and articles below constitute a bibliography of the sources used in the writing of this page. The artist still needs to settle down a little. Project for a sign for the Gilardoni & Brault stand at the Ceramics Exhibition in 1897. [3] Boileau, Louis-Charles, L’Architecture, 19 December 1896. 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. Letterhead of a letter from Guimard to the director of works of the CMP, dated 27 January 1903. These expressions, however, offered a convenient angle of attack to all those who only wanted to see the formal strangeness or virtuosity of this creation and who, without seeking to understand Guimard’s creative approach, which was based more on the properties of materials and the translation of forces contributing to the structure of objects and architecture, wanted to make people believe that the same tormented aspect could take on all kinds of products, whatever their size, materials or functions. The street was given the stage name (Agar) of the actress Léonide Charvin who lived in the house adjacent on the right to the hotel Mezzara. However, this term quickly became part of everyday language and may be found, in the francized form of “Style Moderne”, in another commercial catalog published in 1902, which includes models by Guimard. Receive a message when a new article is online, Shortly after Boileau’s article, in January 1897, Charles Genuys, a former professor of Guimard. The last occurrence we know of the architect’s participation in a commercial catalog is the “Lambris Guimard” which appears in the 1926 Elo catalog. The use of the term finally evolved in the 1930s when certain authorities became aware of the need to protect a few representative samples of works from the beginning of the century. It thus represents some of Guimard's first recognizable experiments with Art Nouveau. ", "Every great epoch has had a stylization of art. 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. Each plate also bears the mention « Style Moderne », placed below the name of the category of models presented, but one would look in vain for the name of the architect. ", "By studying the principles of art which have guided artists from the earliest period down to the present day, it is possible to make a selection, and that if we will take the trouble to find out how our predecessors managed to discover them, we can by applying the same method to the conditions prevailing in our own times, deduce therefrom the proper modern rules. 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). Private collection. Fortunately, in more confidential or professional journals, some authors are much more lenient about the legitimacy of the expression « Style Guimard ». »[20], Commenting again on the same exhibition, the Journal de la Marbrerie et de l’Art Décoratif, in three issues, gives one of the few really enthusiastic articles[21] on Guimard’s work in general and on his exhibition in particular; so enthusiastic, moreover, that one wonders whether the architect might not have held the journalist’s penholder. Apart from the differences indicated, these two types of castings’ catalogues have the same contents and will have the same increases in pagination from 1908 to about 1920. 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? The names of other emblematic artists of this style, such as the Nancy artists Gallé or Majorelle, whose production volumes place them at the forefront of the art market, are also used to characterise it. These are some best artists of this art style wherein Alphonse Mucha is very renowned for his artwork then Gustav Klimt comes with his unique style. Such an example is offered to us by the article of an anonymous author who, commenting on the great works in Paris in La Politique Coloniale of September 7, 1903 , gives his opinion on one of the recurring debates of the time: whether or not to maintain the Eiffel Tower. [30] Descouturelle, Frédéric, Les Fontes ornementales de l’architecte Hector Guimard produites à la fonderie de Saint-Dizier (Ornemental castings of architect Hector Guimard produced at the Saint-Dizier foundry), memoir for a Master II, EPHE, under the direction of Jean-François Belhoste, 2015. 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 ». From the first of his three articles devoted to Castel Béranger[3] in 1896, the architect Louis-Charles Boileau had lit a counterfire to this accusation of foreign inspiration by pointing out to his readers that Guimard’s wallpapers were “not English”[4]. Photo Art Auction, 2015. No Reviews Yet. 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. [4] In contrast to those frequently used by Horta to dress some of its interior decorations. His father was an orthopedist originally from Toucy, while his mother was a seamstress from Larajasse. 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. 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. But he must do more if he is to lift himself above the mere material conditions if he is to achieve the harmony and feeling that characterize a true work of art. Iron, cast iron, bronze, wood, staff, stoneware, stained glass, fabrics, in turn translate his inextinguishable thirst for decoration. It is understandable that it was therefore difficult for Guimard to accept this patronage for his personal work. It will compete with the appellations we mentioned above (« Style 1900 » or « Style Métro »), other scornful ones such as « Style Noodle » and even an appellation as whimsical as « Style Jules Verne » proposed by auctioneer Maurice Rheims, but which will not be very successful. The heart of the structure was the octagonal concert hall, with a vaulted roof structure of iron and abundant mahogany paneling, accented by colored glass of yellow and orange whose effect in modulating the interior natural light must have been spectacular. He was the first of several major architects to be born that year, two months before Frank Lloyd Wright, four months before Henry Hornbostel, and nine before Josef Maria Olbrich. Heading of the plates of the « Modern Style » catalogues. Art nouveau (c.1880 to 1910) Art nouveau could be said to be the first 20th century modern style. It accompanies that of « Architect of Art » on the series of postcards sold on this occasion. It’s the Guimard style and you know the Metro. 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. 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. In this article, we will try to better define these different qualifiers and the times in which Guimard may have used them. 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. A debate has thus begun, through articles, on the legitimacy of the architect to give his name to a style. In the cartouche at the bottom of the title, this time the words « Leclerc et Cie » (Leclerc and Co.) appear, which was the commercial name of the foundry at the time. Private collection. One month after the dedication on 9 November 1901, Père Lavy left Paris, reassigned by his superiors to Constantinople. [12] Vigne, Georges, Hector Guimard, éditions Charles Moreau, 2003, p. 111. This is the case of Royaumont[19] in his report of the same salon of the Société des Artistes Décorateurs in 1907, published in the Revue Illustrée. The key feature of the structure, however, is at ground level, where Guimard has used pairs of inclined iron columns arranged in a V shape (seen here) to raise all the classroom space one floor above. Reserves of the Saint-Dizier foundry (currently assigned to the collections of the Saint-Dizier museum). 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. [20] Royaumont, « Art et Décoration », Revue Illustrée, 1907, p. 775. MoMA photo. 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. Private collection. Before our research in 2015 on this subject[30], it had not been noticed that in reality two types of catalogues had been published. [7] Adeline Oppenheim Papers, The Public Library of New-York. Entrances of Paris Metro were designed and created in 1898 to 1905.Guimard’s amazing metal Art Nouveau designs (c.1899-1901), with their flowing lines and floral shapes, shocked Parisians, who thought his use of iron far too Germanic. 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. »[10]. Former Yves Plantin collection. First of all, it can, by antithesis, help the reader to better situate Guimard’s style by opposing it to the English style as regards wallpapers, a style then well-known and well recognizable. Only on the lower part of the plates is the discreet mention « Modèle de la Société F. S. D. » which indicates, in a way that is not clear to the uninitiated, the Fonderie de Saint-Dizier. Much of Guimard’s work was more engineering than architecture, but he considered himself an architecte d’art. 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 distinction, now carved into the façade, catapulted Guimard to instant fame. The font used for the top line is part of the family of fonts created by Georges Auriol. On the inside of each plate, the words « Style H.Guimard » are printed on the upper part of each plate, placed below the name of the category of models presented. Guimard's first significant work, the École du Sacré Coeur, an elementary education facility in the 16th arrondissement, shows the way that he uses technological innovations to improve on a classic building type in French architecture. It appears, as mentioned above, on signs displayed on the stands of the exhibitions and fairs in which he took part, but also more concretely on certain works, such as the commercial prints of some of his ornamental castings. But what a strange pretension leads him to decorate his work with signs informing visitors that they are allowed to admire the Guimard Style! Private collection. This new expression, probably too close to “Art nouveau”, will no longer be used, with one exception. Due to the large number of references to the name Guimard, we refer to this type of catalogue as « Style Guimard ». He is known in particular for having brought back the irony mark (he is not the inventor, as we have read here and there, this merit going to Marcellin Jobard, owner of the Courrier Belge, who first used it in the early 1840s). 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. "Hector Guimard Artist Overview and Analysis". Guimard, Héctor (1867–1942). 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. [29] Composed for the most part of former students of Charles Genuys, Hector Guimard’s teacher at the National School of Decorative Arts, the Group of Modern Architects planned the construction of a large hotel for travellers for the 1925 exhibition, before being entrusted with the creation of the French Village. On the plan of the first project in 1906, the street is simply referred to as « Rue Nouvelle » (new street). Choses et gens qui passent (Visions of our time. This new expression, probably too close to “Art nouveau”, will no longer be used, with one exception. Private collection. The word “modern” immediately brings to mind “Modern Style”, one of the expressions used to designate the Art Nouveau style. The Castel Beranger's ornament is full of whiplash and undulating plastic surfaces, such as in the vestibule, whose walls are covered with glazed ceramic tile. [6] Eugène-Auguste Chevassus (1863-1931) known as Eugène Belville, painter, decorator and art critique. ». See more ideas about Art nouveau, Hector guimard, Nouveau. At the 1900 World’s Fair, Guimard created a remarkable stand for the perfumer Millot. 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.