Professional Documents
Culture Documents
$3\
The sources of
modern
architecture
and design
NIKOLAUS PEVSNER
t9 PLATES 15 IN COLOR
//**^
2^U'
^/
The Sources of
Modern Architecture
and Design
The Sources of
Modern Architecture
and Design
Nikolaus Pevsner
FREDERICK
A.
PRAEGER
NEW YORK
Publishers
WASHINGTON
BY FREDERICK
III
A.
N.Y. IOOO3
Contents
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE
A Style for the Age
CHAPTER TWO
Art Nouveau
43
CHAPTER THREE
New
1 1
CHAPTER FOUR
Art and Industry
147
CHAPTER FIVE
Towards
79
202
Biographical Notes
204
Select Bibliography
214
Index
215
Introduction
predominance of the city over the small town and the country,
and it means the concentration on architecture and design for
the masses and on what new materials and new techniques can
do for them.
If this is accepted as a diagram of the twentieth century, so far
as we can observe and analyse it, where do its sources lie then?
We can now endeavour to list and consider them in their order
of time.
CHAPTER ONE
Age
functioning
able and a
is
be expected to prefer
its
aesthetic to
its
utilitarian qualities.
The
the
is
first
for saiHng.
the
two
ideas
have such
the sailors
a connection.'^
call
her
beauty;
designed in
a logical relation to
The fact that Pugin, who came first in this string of quotations,
called the
hook which he
The True
principal purpose
was not
a plea for
niques,
second.
No wonder that these men, when the Crystal Palace had gone
up and been filled with the proudest products of all nations,
were appalled at the standard of taste displayed. 'The absence of
any fixed principle in ornamental design is most apparent,' they
wrote, and 'the taste of the producers is uneducated'. ^^ No
wonder
10
itself
The Crystal Palace, built for the Great Exhibition of 85 and re-erected
Sydenham in 1853 (above, looking along the roof to the 'transept').
Joseph Paxton's building, which was entirely prefabricated, marked the
I
at
first
and
it
was designed
it
was designed by
///.
iron
significance.
It
internally, in
aesthetic
///.
of the same
years.
world.
3 The Menai Suspension Bridge, linking North Wales with the Isle of
Anglesey, was built by Thomas Telford between 1818 and 1826 as part of
the Holyhead to Chester Road. Telford, the greatest road and canal
engineer of the early nineteenth century, had earlier designed a vast singlespan iron bridge of unprecedented boldness (never built) to replace
London Bridge
as
of 579
feet.
- Matthew
Digby Wyatt among them were ready to count them among
the fmest structures of the century. But they were not the work
of architects. The architects, as we have seen, had been ready
to use iron in a minor way, where necessity arose, but otherwise
at best they only played with it. Now this is what Wyatt wrote
Some
in
may
trust ourselves to
glories
dream, but
may
we
be in reserve ... we
dare not predict.'^
This was the year of the Crystal Palace. Pugin called it the 'glass
monster', ^2 Ruskin a 'cucumber frame', ^^ but Wyatt wrote
that the building
was
'consummation
novelty of its form and
"^
13
///.
But by then,
architects
of
/// ^' 4,
first
volume
in
more
with
'the
means of
construction'.^^
habits'. ^^
much
to science as to art'.^o
are to be
attitude 'nothing
Roman, Gothic
new
or Renaissance.
From
When
that
engineers
'it
out
self-evident that
a perfectly
new
modem
development. '^^
xr"^f
C:^
6
W.H.
tremendous
its
362
feet span.
17
///.
111.7
But while iron and glass, and the new aesthetic vocabulary
which its extensive use entailed, went on in exhibition buildings
and train-sheds and also in factories and office buildings, where
much light and a cellular structure were demanded, the
architect continued to keep away from the new materials and to
be satisfied with the trappings of Gothic, Renaissance and more and more - Baroque. Neither the aesthetic possibilities of
defeating the limitation of past styles by means of the new
possibilities of skeletal construction nor the social possibilities
of mass-produced parts were taken seriously by the profession.
The great impetus in the fields of aesthetic and social renewal
came from England and centres in the larger-than-life figure of
William Morris, poet, pamphleteer, reformer, designer trained a little at university, a Httle in architecture, a little in
painting - and ending by being a manufacturer and shopkeeper,
though
7 The Hall des Machines, built for the Paris Exhibition of 1889. It was primarily
the work of engineers, led by V. Contamin, though assisted in the details by th
architect Dutert
pattern that
was
to
become
.mA
^^^>^
(l!
London
to
'a
workmen, 'common
fellows'
museum
their own day'.^^ And the
things which
are
The
demand
maker and
become
man
can have no
he can enjoy what
the craftsman does for him. So art should be not only 'by the
people' but also 'for the people'. ^^ 'I do not want art for a few,
any more than I want education for a few, or freedom for a
the user.' For while the average
few.'37
It is
It
by
for a
man
in
Looking
at the
illus-
pretentiously ugly.'^^
buyer,
more
houses are
filled
sold
is
'hurtful to the
hurtful to the
seller,
if
and the only acceptable things are usually in the kitchen. '^o The
reason is that they alone are honest and simple, and 'the
two virtues most needed in modern life (are) honesty and
simplicity '."^^ Morris maintained that a bonfire ought to have
been made of nine-tenths of all that was in wealthy people's
houses. ^2
Morris in
his
right in
blaming
production by machinery is
you refuse to accept the machine,
life,
construction inside.
21
>iijsjj^
Such
is of a truly revolutionary
completely devoid of any period allusions and
character,
///.
III.
72
III.
Webb
1!
i
Under
went back
of the English
MM;
tAiQ^4|k^'
c
c
^\ ^i^
Wi
f^
^ttSi
10
The firm of Morris and Co. exerted a decisive influence on almost every
III.
10
Webb
III.
it
produced these
tiles
designed by
7)
Swan
tiles
later,
when
hours
in
II
Lily,
It
four
months
at
was not
"^a^l
mB
'-
my
<
^W
^^v
^^
'Si?/
(^i^^H
mB
K"
te
^ kmr^i
>^
1
i
13
Silk
damask designed by
Owen
patterns for
flat
surfaces
Ilh
12, 13
Ills.
11,12
circle,
An example of Morris's own design - a chinz {Tulip, 1875) that shows the
ehness and crispness of Morris at his best
Just as Morris
knew
was
of
'
Norman Shaw's
Webb.
are
more
self-consciously urbane
15
later
house by Philip
Webb: Standen
venience,
Webb
achieves a
from the requirement of comfort and condesign combining sincerity and elegance
and
at the
same time
field, entirely
to a smaller scale
and
or almost entirely,
a greater delicacy
of
detail.
Webb
1873.
Its
14, 75
Ills.
29
///.
him
is
What
his
amusing
Zealand
Chambers, in the City of
London, 1872, uses motifs
from the seventeenth and
His
New
Shaw was
more
17
more
the
artist,
where
Webb
was the
///.
a different character,
30
builder,
sensitive.
17 Old
Chelsea, by
Swan House,
Shaw (1876).
a historical
is
unmistakably Shaw's
and no one else and had a great deal of influence in England and
America. Shaw even introduced this novel idiom into the City
of London. New Zealand Chambers of 1872, unfortunately
destroyed in the Second World War, is just as dainty and
///.
16
III.
i4
domestic.
The
oriel
>i^ti^^'V',
^^-^
Ipir
mil
III
gjgji
suburb The earliest
Bedford Park, near London - the first garden
style that has influenced
modest
a
in
designed
were
houses of about 1875
large and informal; old
domestic architecture ever smce. Gardens were
feeling
rural
pleasant
a
give
to
kept
trees were
1
///.
18
concerns us
There is one more respect in which Shaw's work
though at the
here. At Bedford Park, not far from London,
from
1875 the first
built
he
town,
time still not engulfed in the
Carr's
Jonathan
but
his,
garden suburb ever. The idea was not
who had
acquired the
to Hfe, in terms
of
site.
streets
new
Webb
entirely
i88os.
///.
19
21
W.G. Low
Bristol,
House,
Rhode
Island,
by Stanford White
(18S7, demolished), hi
America architects
and Shaw
20 (below)
The
F.L.
at North Easton,
by H.H.
Richardson
(i
880-1),
in his favourite
stonework
massive
And Europe
longer
at this juncture.
of Americans
as
The
much
as
defeat of historicism
field
35
///.
20
III.
21
The
flict
that
America
now
reached
this crucial
moment
is
///.
22
23 The Guaranty
Buildmg, Buffalo (1895)the masterpiece of Louis
Sullivan. In technique
and in
emphasis
strong vertical
points forward
to the twentieth century,
but its elaborate and
its
it
complex ornament
it still
in the
Nouveau
places
age of Art
{see
III.
26)
uM^m fs g
r^^r""'-
newer
New
///.
23
moment
///.
24
classic
///.
2^
is
In his Ornament
knew
clearly
an article
would be greatly for our aesthetic
in Architecture,
Ills.
2^, 26
24 The Marquette Building, Chicago, by Holabird & Roche. Here in 1894 the
frame is completely expressed around large, broad windows (those at the
bottom are already the 'Chicago type', see III. 182), the detailing is plain, and the
whole is so well planned it is still highly efficient today
steel
I!
Ni
^^7
L^i-H
'^^
r -
i^.
(fv^V^v
'*^;'?^
S
ornament by Louis Sullivan, (right) on the Guaranty Building
and (above) on the Carson Pirie Scott store (begun 1899, ///. 182).
Ornament in architecture had a special importance for Sullivan, and his own, with
its tensions and exuberant curls, is strikingly original
25, 26 Cast-iron
(1895, see
III.
25)
This is in fact our task now; for Art Nouveau was the other
campaign to drive out historicism. This is its primary significance
in European design and architecture, whatever other delights
and aberrations it may harbour. Among the sources of modern
architecture and design it is still the most controversial. Today's
architecture and design having taken a turn away from
rationalism and towards fancy, Art Nouveau has suddenly
become topical, and the very qualities of it which in this
narrative will appear historically most dubious are hailed.
Books and exhibitions have vied with each other to present its
fascination. All the more important must it be to attempt an
analysis - aesthetic as well as historical.
40
RHMnCKMURDO,RRIBR
^.RLLEN.
8 B 3
SUNNYSIDE, ORPINGTON.
KENT.
CHAPTER TWO
Art
Nouveau
S.
Paul-Emile Janson
in Brussels,
and that house w^as designed in 1892 and built in 1893. l^ut it
marks no more than the transfer of the style from the small to
a larger scale and from design to architecture.
The incunabula of Art Nouveau belong to the years 1883-8.
They are the following. Arthur H. Mackmurdo, wealthy
young architect and designer, in 1883 wrote a book on Sir
Christopher Wren's churches in the City of London - not a
subject that seems to call for Art Nouveau - and gave it a titlepage fully Art Nouveau. What justifies this statement? The
area inside the frame is filled by a non-repeating, asymmetrical
pattern of tulips, stylized vigorously into flaming shapes. To
the left and right sharply cut short by the frame are two
cockerels, pulled out to an excessive thinness and length. The
characteristics which we shall see recur whenever we speak of
Art Nouveau are the asymmetrical flaming shape derived from
nature, and handled with a certain wilfulness or bravado, and
the refusal to accept any ties w^ith the past. Of course Mackmurdo's design is not without ancestors, but they are not to be
found among the hallowed period styles.
He must have looked at Morris and, like Morris, at the PreRaphaelites. He must have known WiUiam Blake, as the
Pre-Raphaelites did, but he was also famihar - socially too with Whistler, and although Whistler was an Impressionist in
his formative years, he soon found an aim of his own, the aim to
blend the Hght, soft, hazy tones of Impressionism with the
43
///.
88
///.
zy
murdo's signet
for the
Mack-
Century Guild,
CO
28
(left)
creation
abstract,
the butterfly,
is
Companions are
Morris's early signet of his firm and Mackmurdo's of the
Century Guild which he started in 1882. The three signets sum
example of
///.
an
witty stylization.
III
28
carefully chosen
traditional typeface,
heralded a style of
book-design lasting
It
///.
Ills.
JO
32, 33
46
31
ltt:
///.
JJ
32, 33
--^
:^^^
from Morris but containing all the elements of the later style. They were printed
by Simpson and Godlce of Manchester for the C^Mitury Caiild
at
in
two dimensions,
as
Mackmurdo. His
///.
36
of 1884 and
conventions as Mack-
glass vessels
murdo's book and textile designs, with their soft, subtle colours
and the mystery of their naturalistically-represented flowers
emerging out of cloudy grounds. Nor was Galle alone, even in
these earliest years. Eugene Rousseau, for instance, a much older
craftsman in Paris of whom too little is known, turned to a new
style at the same time. The Musee des Arts Decoratifs bought
certain pieces from him in 1885, and among them is jardiniere
in imitation ofjade and a tall vase of clear glass, both strikingly
independent and courageous. The scratched-in pattern of the
tall
vase is particularly bold - Klee rather than Morris.
2i
Ills
34, 35
50
Among
seau,
its
both of 1884-5
36 A vase of shaded
coloured glass by Emile
Cialle, of about 1S95,
decorated with a cyclamen
in enamel. Cialle, like Obrist
illl. >4) had studied botany
51
showed
37
marbled with
spirit, for
instance a vase
/-.
s
r?^'
23*A-^-*:
11-^
EmileGalle(i887)
40 Gauguin also
designed a ceramic
centrepiece for a table,
in the form of a girl
bathing in
54
pool 1888
41 A pitcher by Gauguin,
baked and enamelled in 1886
by Chaplet
is
influenced design
by
his
55
///.
39
///.
4^
III.
40
42
Man
with the
Axe by
43 Gauguin's
Aux Roches
Noires of 1889,
from the catalogue of an
exhibition of
impressionist and
synthetic painting
at the
Cafe
Volpini in Paris
closest to the
Mackmurdo-Sumner
Axe
painted in
Tahiti in 1891,
reappear in Henri
van dc Vcldc's
title-page design
for Dominical, ot
1892
(left),
///.
43
III.
42
///.
46
///.
43
circle,
made
this
wall-
///.
///.
47
^S
had ill the i88os begun to work in ceramics. The plate of 1891
with its crudely drawn tulips asyniiiietrically and indeed casually
arranged still links up with Gauguin and Art Nouveau his later
plates stand entirely on their own in the whole of Europe. One
;
is
tempted
art;
to sec in
- and more justly - look in the direction of Gaudi, but even then
Bindesb^ll seems to retain priority. Bindesb^ll's impact
remains, and what ties him into our particular context here, is
the attitude of the architect turning potter and indeed craftsman
in general.
artist
the East
48
places
later dish
him
Both the
in a class apart
dishes
shown here
its
artist in
in
Europe
sj^riijfito
at
the time.
decoraticMi and
diameter
61
^^
^m
^w
<'
'
^^^^^
mffn^f^
t
^7m
f-^
;3
^^
^i^ ^fl
49 The greatest
English master of
Art Nouveau
sculpture was Alfred
No
else.
Gilbert;
on the base
of the 'Eros
fountain in
Piccadilly Circus
(1892) he freely
indulged his taste
for writhing,
marine, slightly
sinister
forms
The
nearest to
it
in
England
is
anywhere
certain half-concealed
are
embedded
seemingly in
Ills.
49> 50
62
m i^nmK:^
iri*ii.
,^
///.
32
///.
///.
log
which show
come from
Viollet-le-Duc's
the
most
material of Art
64
in the details
Nouveau.
made
iron a favourite
It
came
into
its
own
already referred to
at
(p. 43).
a slender iron
column
left
exposed, an
///.
curves.
One
Indirect influence
here,
///.
log
like
We
Gaudi's
sufficiently
Art Nouveau
so
much so
that
is
its
matter of decoration -
validity as an architectural
- and it is furthermore largely a matter of surface decoration. We must now follow it through the years of its conquest
and international success - a short-lived success; for it began
about 1893, arid it was faced with a formidable opposition from
about 1900 onwards. After 1905 it held out only in a few
countries, and mostly in commercial work in which no creative
impetus was left, if there ever had been any.
style
53 The Angels' Watch by the Belgian designer Henri van de Velde (1891),
no doubt inspired by the Pont-Aven group. This is the essence of Art
Nouveau - a recognizable subject, but every outline reduced to undulation
As
they
textiles
may
and the
art
be considered
Hermann Obrist
How ers
and if one compares it w ith
year or
two
It is
a tour dc force,
s ^
///.
34
later
///.
is
inspired by
67
was as if spring had come all of a sudden,' said van de Velde when he
saw designs by Voysey. Water-Snake is an exuberant design of about
1890. Voysey is in the line of Morris and Mackmurdo, but Art Nouveau
transforms his early designs into something quite distinct
55
'It
first
the best
years, the
sion
///.
36
is
exception to
this rule
Nouveau
are
all
but absent.
named: Alfred
commented on
of about 1890 are clearly influenced by
Mackmurdo's, but they are milder in their rhythms and a little
more accommodating. Less than ten years later Voysey was to
abandon this style altogether and turn to another, more original,
later.
Ills.
j2, JJ
One
Gilbert;
but
68
Voysey's
less
textiles
Art Nouveau.
^^
WSk}
^^
^v
mm
^^
^/fi
^P
Kr,^
r>.(^
56 Voyscy's NYniphcas,
57 Georges Leniinen's
catalogue for an exhibition
oC Les llii^^t (1891) is closer
to the boldness and vigour of
Gauguin than to the
sophistication of his fellowBelgian Horta
magazine Van
of 1896 (right ; see also
III. 44). In Germany Otto Eckmann
designed this alphabet and cover for
scrolly initials for his
Nu
en Straks,
70
In
Vinj^t,
craftsmen in
a
///.
44
///.
42
///.
^8
O^
Mackmurdo
57
book
///.
designers.
1895.
succession.
Eckmann
Both
left
also
book
decoration,
flBeDeF6B3K
bmnoPQRSCu
vwxyz
abcdefghijkimn
opqrsHuuwxyz
dick 1234567890
Ills.
39, 60
is
that
it
introduces us to
a different
Bookbinding too was affected by the new ideas: one of its masters was
Rene Wiener of Nancy, who produced this portfolio for engravings decorated with vines and a press - designed and made by Camille Martin
6i
in
1894
K^nl
Sf^x:
'*i/>;':>ift
I"'
to
is
In
all fields;
the
mid-
the natural
sciences
accurately
63
necklace
(1900) also by
Lalique, is a filigree
design of hazel-nuts
success.
The
63
on the continent of
Europe, were the ending years of the nineteenth and the very
years of the twentieth century. The catalogue of the Paris
Exhibition of 1900 is a mine of Art Nouveau. The necklace with
pendant by Rene Lalique was shown, and it illustrates, as do
first
///.
74
///.
64
(i
894) in the
form of a peacock,
its
enamelled
by nature and
by styHzation in Art Nouveau. From Germany came
brooch by Wilhelm Lucas von Cranach. It represents an
the part
///.
63
the
octopus strangling
abstractly
///.
66
and
is
:^-ii<;
73
UV
t ,'r" ^
///.
6S
67
///.
6g
///.
yo
///.
yi
of c.
down
inspired
by
Tiffany's.
on waves of the
sea
ing
Autumn
(below),
Crocuses'
combined
crisply cut
are
flowers
their
Wood
a less
furniture suffers
manufacturers
Ills.
74, 75
all at first
affected
by
It is
characteristic
is
of the
the
efforts
at
Art Nouveau
like the Baroque made claims to the CjcsamtOnly rarely can one do justice to an individual piece
without knowing of its intended context. That alone debarred
it or should have debarred it from quantity production. With
kunstwerk.
fathers,
It is
81
///.
73
74 Emile Galle's great Butterfly Bed of 1904, which again shows the
fashion for insects, was his last work. He watched its completion from an
invalid chair and died in the
at a
moment when
same year
were already
room and
live in, one can understand why. Such
one soon. Furniture ought to be a
it
out
as a place to
In looking at this
The
music-stand
illustrated
dimensional
Art
is
Nouveau
pure
curve,
example of the
spatially
three-
ingenious
///.
76
///.
yy
and
76 (ri^ht) Alexandre Charpentier went further still in this swirling musicstand of hornbeam, part of an ensemble of 1901. Both designs would be
more suitable for metal or plastic
^iyv-v*"
'^:^
///.
jS
is
the
elephantnie
massiveness of ValHn's
Gaillard's half-concealed
///.
7()
///.
So
dining
room nor
Van
classic past.
78
in its general
effect in spite
left)
///.
Sj
Ills.
81, 82
///.
84
genuine sculptural
armchair
of 1899 (III. 8j, ri^ht), completely free in
Gaudi's chairs for the Casa Calvet of 1 8961904 (below left). Gaudi's benches for Sta
"4
Furniture with
quality
- restrained
in Endell's
>
!''
MlWIiWfcv
The
///.
///.
31
og
88
(iiiell
Park
89 (ni^ht)
fac^adc
The
of the
Atelier Elvira,
Munich, by August
Eiidell.
The
reliefs in
large
red and
turquoise stucco,
shapes and
twisted glazingbars set the flat
window
surface in
flowing
'capital'
90
which
are repeated in
paint and mosaic
motion
architecture exists at
all. It
Nouveau
Gaudi.
of buildmgs
The
best start
in
is
Munich,
///.
Sg
III.
S?
it is
true,
the forms undulated, and not only those applied to the walls.
91
90 Horta, the leading Art Nouveau architect of Belgium, built the Hotel
Solvay for a wealthy client between 1 895 and 1900. The fa<;ade is a complex
arrangement of flat and curved surfaces, with the ornament seeming to
grow out of the material
and stained
same
C^^H^*
"^^^Mw"
mood
~\ B w~
ii^^^r^
^^^^^3^^
(III.
88)
The handrail of the staircase, the newel post and Hght fitting
rocketing up from the post - all this is architectural, that is,
That the
famous and at the time publicized staircase in Horta's house in
the rue Paul-Emile Janson was the pattern is evident, and that
staircase with its slender iron pillar also is genuinely architectural.
Admittedly exteriors were not often up to the novelties of the
interiors - as had been the case of the Atelier Elvira - but if one
looks at the facade of Horta's own house of 1898-9, or the
former Hotel Solvay of 1 895-1900, one sees again the same
spindliness of iron supports, the same play of pliable iron
decoration round them and the same sense of transparency as
three-dimensional
///.
llh
88
90, 93
inside.
centre)
enough
is
Nouveau
a
interesting
is
decorative
as
well as
conjunction with
glass,
became
///.
32
the
Ills.
g4, 93
f
/
.^j*-
fe
ii
^'Hi
.ijM.''(
)if^
///.
93
///.
94
///.
g6
r^--'^^^.^8^.^i'ai
xr^"^^^
mn
"^S^
*.-.."
**fci^
rpi
'->^
lij
s^.
F^
!l
iWFiK
with the keenest sense of the potenof the new materials was Hector Guimard. It was a fine
show of a sense of topicaHty that the Paris Metro allowed him
for the relatively new purpose of a metropolitan underpavement
In France the architect
tiahties
97, gS
tenor
is
indeed
gg
new
material.
introduction to
The
general
fast transport.
But the
///.
in the
Gilbert's
details are
(IcTRorouTAfn
nETONS
1
'
eilipii
i,
^
The entrances designed by Hector Guimard for the Pans Metri> are today
probably the most insistent survivors from the age of Art Nouveau. Built
between 1899 and 1904 thev are still t-fTec rive signposts
97, 98
99-100 Guimard's
ornament is as distinctive
as
Horta's
amber
glass set in
shape of green-fmished
cast iron
.^/.-
^^m
'i
9
^>^ iTTr? ff UHH W'^
'
HuMliM'fe;'!
^^i.ifii-<^f/
UM f
fflitipffl 1
EmhII^iMI mm
^i'^
House
(III.
180) a favourite
twenties and
motif o[ the
thirties
static, solid
100
III.
102
III.
Sg
III.
101
who
///.
craftsman's will.
103 Plan of the ground floor of the Casa Mila by Gaudi, begun in 1905.
This remained flexible till the last, with partition walls inserted only after
the building was complete
is
a conceit
his
Ills.
103-3
overwhelming
104 Detail of the fac^adc of Gaudi's Casa Mila, of dark, pitted stone- deliberately
wave-like, with seaweed balconies
^:
.At-/'?
What
Ills.
104, 103
after
all is it
that startles
one
in the
in these fa(;:ades as
Paseo de Gracia?
one
A whole
lava,
said; as if
these
///.
oj
and volume.
placing of Gaudi within European Art Nouveau is
relatively easy as long as one confmes oneself to his work after
1903. But three years earlier he had started on the Giiell Park
and five years earlier on the chapel of Santa Coloma de Cervello
line
The
on an
Giiell. In the
///.
06
all is
sharp,
Coloma of
course qualifies.
also qualifies.
tiles,
blue-green
Ills.
83, 106
///.
///.
86
108
practitioners
Ills.
107, 108
-^'W^^fi
^^.
He
also
(see
III.
84)
architect's
///.
about 1887
in a free
in
loS
109 Gaudi's Palau Giicll (1844-9), two arches with massive ironwork in
the Catalan tradition. Gaudi used parabohc arches - the shape of the future both decoratively and structurally
It is
of importance to say
this
for recently
inventor.
And
part of Art
The
112
style
of Schinkel, the
style
of Semper, the
style
of Pearson,
the style of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts could be taught and used
two
in these pages
more than
once,
its
refusal to continue
own
inventiveness, and
its
its
courage
with the
in trusting
its
no
pavilions,
its
Ill In Britain a style of chaste straight Unes rivalled and indeed took the
place of the sensuous curves of Continental Art Nouveau. This desk by
Mackmurdo dates from 1886
114
CHAPTER THREE
New
It is in its concern with objects for use that Art Nouveau was
most decisively inspired by England. The n>essage of William
Morris was heeded everywhere. In other ways the relations
between the Enghsh and the Continental developments of the
1 890s are more complex. They deserve more than one close
look. The situation, it must be remembered, was that in the
art of design had reached its richest, most
1 880s Morris's
balanced maturity. A synthesis between nature and stylization
was achieved which has never been outdone. At the same time
in architecture Webb and Shaw had, at any rate in the field of
domestic building, defeated Victorian pomposity and reintroduced a human scale and sensitive or at least telling details.
And already before 1890 Morris as well as Shaw and Webb had
their successors. The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society had
started and the progressive architectural journals had begun to
illustrate the designs of Voysey, of Ernest Newton, Ricardo and
others. Meanwhile, however, this Arts and Crafts movement
had also benefited from those among the young who wanted to
go beyond the enlightened traditionalism of Morris and Shaw.
Mackmurdo, as we have seen, was their leader, and Mackmurdo
with his Wren title-page of 1 883 had started Art Nouveau. The
effect of the journal of his Century Guild, the Hohhy Horse, had
been great, and English book art right on to Beardsley was
indebted to it. But where Continental Art Nouveau of the 890s
acknowledged this debt freely and developed its own national
versions out of EngUsh precedent, England itself turned away
from it and followed Morris and Shaw rather than Art Nouveau.
Indeed, and this is perhaps the most surprising aspect of
Mackmurdo's situation, he himself, when it came to designing
buildings and furniture, did not apply the siiuiositv lU'his book1
115
///.
27
///.
j^o
112
2y
sufficient
ornament
evidence -
as
chair
designed
Wren
title-page,
///.
Ill
at least a
///.
;/j
and rectangular.
is
It is
Nouveau of a few
own way
as
far-
Mackmurdo
used a traditional
shape but with the
swirling plant forms
of his
influential
m\e-p2Lge( see
III.
27)
Mackmurdo
as
Annesley
1900.
///.
114
nnf
4 Studio in
1 )
115, 116 Voysey specialized in country houses Broadleys on Lake Windermere (right), of 1898, is remarkable for its plain bay windows with unmoulded mullions. The entrance of Vodin House, Pyrford Common,
;
even further
much of period
Ills.
113, 116
unexacting.
118
'^l^^wM^^^r
Mc
"'
U* j#?
"'"
ykLi
'
r-;
J:
^^S^^^^^^^^3^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^l
Others
in
England
at the
iiy
sympathy with
Occasionally the
bits
117 Home Place, Norfolk, by E.S. Prior (1904-6). Prior tried hard to
revive local styles and local materials, preferring to be known as a 'builder'
rather than an architect, but at Home Place his exotic mixture of flint, tile
and brick takes him far from any true vernacular - almost into the realm
of Gaudf
and
The
a
It
reigned in
otficial
nearly
everywhere.
111
Ills.
III.
IQ, 120
llS
_d '.A
^^^gfp'^ti
'^
A.
fi
^^0'
119 (left) Interior of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, iSv-^ ivu.s. IJerlagc
used traditional red brick with stone dressings in a deliberately massive.
angular style; the vast iron roof is exposed and unorn.imcnted
'
<!:
B?!"
!'
At
is
least as
by W.R.Lcthaby
at
Brockhainpton
///.
121
///.
122
structive thinker
Voysey about
with ivory
crown
is
inlay.
1906, of ebony
The openwork
and topped by
those
it
stands
on
1
1^;
123-5
knob and
899-1900, above
left)
it
was
of Hesse
in 1898
is
Duke
in the design
of the
///.
24
craftsmanship.
1-27
///.
^-'J
of Britain
Noiiveau,
at that
it
moment.
was the
On
painters rather
already at the
Webb-Shaw
///.
III
124
126
who
Hstened to Morris, hi
by the
architects, because
One
established.
compromise.
his
///.
127
McNair, and
///.
12S
others.
to these lean,
izg
stationery,
and the
work
as well.
Then
128 Mackintosh designed this diploma for the Glasgow School of Art Club
- the year in which Toorop's The Three Brides appeared in The
Studio. The influence is obvious, but Mackintosh's sparseness and angularity
are already unmistakable. Note too the compressed lettering
in 1893
-V
Ay
13
The
^0
///.
///.
732
///.
ijj
front of the Glasgow School of Art sets the theme for all
Mackintosh was to do in the next ten or twelve years.
Between 1900 and 191 1 he had plenty of work at Glasgow, a
number of private houses, a number of tea-rooms, a school, and
some interior work. England however remained closed to him,
and from about 1910 his star waned. He was a fascinating but a
difficult, erratic man, and he alienated clients' sympathies in the
dour city of Glasgow. For the last fifteen years of his life he had
hardly any commissions.
The front of the School of Art is primarily a wall of large
studio windows facing north. They have the English Tudor
motif of mulHons and transoms, but the mullions and transoms
are, like those of Voysey, completely unmoulded. The front
would be a functional grid, if it were not for the entrance bay or
frontispiece which is placed out of the centre and is a free,
asymmetrical composition of elements of the Baroque, of the
Scottish baronial past and of the Shaw-Voysey tradition. The
pediment on the first floor belongs to the first, the bare turret
to the second, the little oriel windows to the third. Moreover,
the functional grid and the sturdiness of the centre are relieved
by delightful, very thin metalwork, the area railings, the
handrail of the balcony and especially the odd hooks carrying
transparent, flower-like balls in front of the upper windows.
Their practical purpose is to hold boards for window-cleaning,
but their aesthetic purpose, like that of all the other metalwork
is to provide a delicate screen of light and playful forms through
which the stronger and sounder rest will be seen. Inside the
building too there are transparent screens of slender wooden
posts, sudden surprises of relations between forms, especially in
the boardroom, where pilasters are treated as an abstract grid
of a Mondrian kind below their perfectly harmless Ionic
capitals, and on the roof, where shapes are almost as bold and
abstract as Gaudi's and Le Corbusier's at Ronchamp, and there
are again the most unexpected curligigs of metal.
Once more only did Mackintosh design a building as functional as the School of Art - the Concert Hall for the Glasgow
that
130 Entrance of the Glasgow School of Art, 1897-9, by Mackintosh. Above the
is the window of the Director's study, and above that his studio. The main
door
windows
wn
mi t - ^
VBa>^
'^h,;vv.;rii^t|!
\%-'\'Wf^r^
131 Entrance lobby of the Glasgow School of Art, 1897-9. Mackintosh
used bold forms covered with smooth cement, with small tile or metalwork
inserts
/.x<:
A
133-5 Mackintosh's keen and completely modern sculptural sense appears
lamp bracket over the stairs in the Glasgow
School of Art (1897-9), (right) in the bold roughcast forms of an arch on the
roof of the School of Art (c. 1907), and (below right) in his revolutionary
and unrewarded design of 1898 for a circular concert hall with projecting
dressing-rooms etc.
(above) in a wrought-iron
///.
1J3
bedroom
as
his
chair with
39
///.
ij/
ij8
would
What
///.
all
close in
its
characterizes
grid as a cage
all
- the second
is
oval, with
two
small
///.
14J
///.
ijg
first
and white and rose, white and lilac, with black, and perhaps
silver and mother-of-pearl became Mackintosh's favourite
colours. These sophisticated, precious colours harmonize to
perfection with the sophistication of his slender uprights and
shallow curves. But the radicalism of ornamental abstraction
and the lyrical softness of the colours also contradict each other,
and it is the tension between the sensuous and the structural
elements that makes Mackintosh's decoration unique. But as
one looks at some of the most remarkable chairs by Mackintosh,
one's conviction might well be shaken that his use of grids is
indeed structural - in the sense of the skyscraper grids. The hard
verticals and horizontals must have been an attraction to
Mackintosh in themselves, an aesthetic counterpoint to his
tense curves, and a safeguard that the frail blooms and feminine
hues do not cloy.
Mackintosh's fame was greater on the Continent than in
Britain, let alone in England. The exhibition of 1900 in Vienna,
the competition of 1901 in Germany where he was placed
second - Baillie Scott won first prize - and the exhibition of
1902 in Turin have already been mentioned. What made it
possible for the Continent to admire him was precisely what
deprived him of patronage in England. He was too Art Nouveau,
and England, after the few years of her Art Nouveau avatit la
lettre had, as we have seen, turned away from everything outre.
Indeed, when in 1900 some mostly French Art Nouveau
furniture had been acquired from the Paris exhibition by a
private donation for the Victoria and Albert Museum, protests
140
a clean
the door
were published
saying that
in the press
'this
work
is
E. S. Prior,
They were
also right
own
it
who
terms of
on purely
aesthetic
141
///.
140
dome
///.
141
Mackintosh
for a
master Otto
Wagner, believed in
like his
and furnishings;
a
(left)
rectihnear interior
designed
c.
1900
!iS^iliiitB.tdtn
,:j
lover and which pubHshed Mackintosh's design was also in
Darmstadt. Looking at Mackintosh's designs one can understand why he took Germany and Austria by storm. Here was the
wilfulness and irregularity of Art Nouveau handled with an
of slender, erect
verticals
143
///.
142
of the book - and of Mackniurdo and ultimately Bcardsley on the other, and this
encouraged Art Nouveau rather than responsibility. Voysey
again stood for reason, domestic comfort and prettiness in the
design of interior furnishings; Ashbee and Baillie Scott a little
more floridly for the same. Mackintosh alone, to repeat, could
be a witness for the defence and for the prosecution of both Art
Nouveau and anti-Art Nouveau. Olbrich in 1901^^ defended
Art Nouveau against England: 'It is only if one can feel both
democratically and autocratically, that one can evaluate the
imaginative craftsman who wants to express in decorative art
responsibility, this time in the art
more
utility.
create in the
But
new
144
%^:
^
143
tlic
Wilii)\\
and
ca
Rooms,
panels
on white wood, he
steel
muted excitement
CHAPTER KJUR
Vienna was
first
on the Continent
path of the straight hne and the square and rectangle, and, being
Vienna, succeeded in preserving the elegance and the sense of
precious materials of Art Nouveau. In
Germany
the change
is
his brother-in-law,
architects.
170
///.
176
///.
1^4
of 1889 had
///.
still
147
///.
146
III.
145
first
^"^
(left) Eiffel's tower for the Paris Exhibition of 889, a virtuoso display
1 45-6
of ironwork 984 ft high; (below) the Firth ot" Forth Bridge by Fowler and
Baker, 188 1-7, the most splendid of" all cantilever bridges
1
not the
tirants,
first
showing
Monier worked on
posts
Ills.
149
147, 148
The
factory
was the
first
to use reinforced
concrete systematically in
trial
building.
It
is
non-indus-
combined with
The interior has
'WfK^r
still
incomplete,
in
1902 Auguste
Ills.
130, 132
It
has
throughout,
allowing vast
windows:
Fran(;ois
Hcnnebique's
spinning mill
at
Tourcoing, of 1895
mmi^^
su
iic iirst
of flats
aoincsiK
use-
(n J concrete >kLitU>ii.
Auj^u^u Perrel
to allow as
much window
block
U-shaped plan
surface as possible
153
///.
131
earliest
154
tiers
appear in section
152 In Ferret's rue Franklin flats the angular luitiine and projecting bays
by the concrete frame, but this is hidden behind terracotta
are determined
tiles
53 Tony Garnier's plan for a vast Industrial City, developed in 899-1 904
though not finished until 191 7, was revolutionary in its scope and its use
of reinforced concrete throughout. It was planned around the needs of
I
*|i
HUf
M.
154 Houses in Garnier's Cite Industrielle: simple cubic shapes of concrete,
surrounded by public gardens
Tony
///.
33
Rome
He won
the
in
in 1899,
91 7. Meanwhile, in 1905
Edouard Herriot,
a socialist like
Industrielle a
his
century
is
158
M
r
.::;:::^^iis^vLi^-m ^^f ^^k^f]; i 155 Railway station of the Cite Industrielle, with large windows, a bold
concrete tower and even bolder cantilevered roofs. This, however, was
designed shortly before 191 7, not in 1904^8
thirty-five
work
in
There
are plenty
///.
^54
III.
135
and ceilmgs.
'All the
would
not banished but remains 'completely independent of the construction'. Garnier never had an
revolutionary. Decoration
is
159
1^6
///.
1^8
moment,
///.
i^j
to be precise in
1910,
157 (fop)
Goods
allowed
is
by Simon Boussjron
of concrete, top-glazed, and concrete has
of thin
shells
daring cantilever
at
the side
felt
only
after the
Second World
War
156 (left) The closest Gamier came to building his industrial Clity: part ot
the vast slaughterhouse of La Mouche, Lyons, 1909-13. It includes a cattle
maricet. The buildings are of concrete, but the vault o\ the market hall
(span about 265
ft) is
of steel and
glass
161
Max
159-60
possibilities
Paris
Ills.
i3g, 160
162
v^l
in the
is
///.
161
161
Otto Wagner's early stations for the Vienna Stadtbahn display little
modern forms or the new mode of transport they served
interest in either
and
steel hall
iii^
in
of the Vienna
his ideal
Bank of
1905, with
its
its
curved
glass roof.
///.
The
162
M.
Stoclet in Brussels.
that the
a palatial
new
house
with
style,
bare straight lines, was as suitable for gracious living as for commerce.
Right, the dining-room, with marble veneers and mosaics by Klimt (see
its
III.
Ills.
i6j-$
///.
64
166)
below
right,
two
storeys
166
US
Qf
'
rs
-^I
W
^^Ki^^^^^tfl^l
L_ji
J\>J
9
n^^
most uncompromising
century
///.
166
///.
167
style.
initial
patron of the Werkstatte, the man who had put the necessary
money atxhe disposal of the founder, Mackintosh had designed
Ortmmctit
166
'['he
for the
tor a
mosaic
The
greatest contribution of
Germany during
these years
///.
169
III.
Ills.
68
17J-3
I70-6
Germany
world
led the
glass
designed
bottles
by Behrens
in
electric kettles
898, and
and fans
J\]
J'\
i
")
1\
ALLGEMEINE
ELEKTRICITAiTS-
GESELLSCHAET
BOGENIAMPENFABRIK
74
P wf
,*>^**T:
1!
'
L
44
.1
!
ti
R jjJ
fc^-^r\
i
*t
its
principles in earnest
175
llh. ijj,
ij^
all
is
even
purer, and more detached from motifs of the past, than Garnier's.
yg
///.
6J
that
is
in industrial
Movement.
176
'X
iiiaajtia
CHAPTER IlVt
Towards the
International Style
So Staircase in
it
19 1 4. entirely
Bruno Taut's
Glass
of glass bricks
{ci".
House
III.
at
101)
the C^ologne
and iron
Werkbund
Exhibition
Ills.
///.
iSo, iSi
iSi
iHi
(rij^ht)
store,
dominant
frame, clad
in
in
steel
a (since
display
windows
(see
III.
25)
known
///.
1S2
to
ii
saas
oggS
'"
PI
nnnnnga
"^SOH
p,p
ISCOTT^
i
i..^^#!dr
\C*.iAJ^
Vf^
183-4 Frank Lloyd Wright was in the office of Louis SulHvan when he produced the Charnley House, Chicago (i 891-2, helow left), with SuUivancsque
ornament on the balcony. It is still a closed design, but its low projecting
roof and general severity hint at his later buildings such as the Martin
House, Buffalo (above) of 1906, with its complex interpenetration of
indoor and outdoor space
///.
1S4
///.
iS^
///.
iSj
///.
u^^
these things in
of 1893 with far oversailing eaves but still closed; the Studio,
Oak Park of 1895, the first with a complex interlocked plan,
and so to the watershed of 1900-1 when the type was hurly
established and to the maturity of the Martin House at Buffalo
of 1906 and the Coonley and the Robie Houses oi' 1907-9.
I
S3
85 Plan of the
Martin House,
Buffalo, by Frank
Lloyd Wright (1906).
1
The rooms
interlock
in a spreading pattern
among
plantings.
The
servants'
quarters, top
left,
i^-k^
The view
is
in
from the
///.
184
far right
of this plan
n
r
F
F
184
H..
CARRIAGE PORCH
CONSERVATORY
LIVIhXS-ROOMS
DINING ROOM
RECEPTION HALL
OFFICE
KITCHEN
SERVIS DINING-ROOM
STABLE
PADOOCK
VEST:ei)LE
POPCH
'^^"""^
BICYCLES
LAVATORY
PERGOLA
SvW^'
^v^^
f^*\^\\s^
-\.
J.J. P.
Oud, 1917
De
Stijl,
was
started in
191 7, and
outside the
its
///.
iSS
III.
iS
III.
as
oi'
planes. Interaction
of
is
187
$6
Germany
Ills.
i8g, igi
///.
igo
90-1
(rij^ht)
Danish
f
IS9
Of the major nations of Europe only Italy has so far not been
mentioned in these pages. Her role during the years here under
consideration and up to 1909 had indeed been secondary, in
architecture as well as painting and sculpture. Medardo Rosso,
it may be argued, mattered internationally, and Sommaruga,
D'Aronco, Cattaneo made their Florealc in their own way out
of elements of the Vienna Secession and the naturalism of
French Art Nouveau. But their message was not essentially
different from the message of those who had inspired them.
The years 1909-14 changed all that. Futurism is one of the
constituent movements of the revolution which established the
192 Sant'Elia died too
young
to
iii)m;[:
^gjnn 1 j.i^d.
IP luj ijrLrrfpi
brilliant Futurist
ways linking
terraced
I
L
L
I
193
Sant'Elia's
projected
skyscraper
with recessed
storeys,
about 1919.
There is no
ornament
in
the early
alas,
the
Ills.
ig2, /9?
of the future.
tion to
town planning
///.
ig4
passionate
The
commitment
to the city.
flats at
dates
from 1850
streets
///.
93
195 Saltaire near Leeds, planned in 1850, was the first large industrial
estate in the world: 820 houses were built in a grid dominated by
the mill, the school and the institute, left, and the church, above the mill.
The sanitary improvement was great, with service lanes between the rows
of houses and a park across the river, but visually Saltaire contributed
housing
left, is later)
^-7^'
':.
-^" ^
^.
1i
Wv
196 Port Sunlight was begun by the firm of Lever's in 1888 on the
more
are
site.
of Lever's, and
in
1895,
was part of
the general scheme. This principle was extended and systematized in Ebenezer Howard's Tomorrow which came out in 1898,
and again as Garden Cities of Tomorrow in 1899. Now the phrase
was coined. Let us leave the old cities, vast, dirty, crammed,
noisy, and build new ones, to a manageable size and a human
scale, with their own factories and offices, gardens and spacious
Cadbury's. In these
parks.
19.S
///.
ig6
>??e.\*N
-!'>
mnm
-.^1
If
*l
197 At Letch worth Garden City, begun in 1904, Parker and Unwin
attempted to do on a large scale what Shaw's Bedford Park had done for an
elite: the houses are picturesque variants on the Enghsh cottage style
popularized by Voysey and Baillie Scott, mixing, brick, tile and roughcast,
in all sizes from single dwellings to small rows
///.
igj
igS
diagram, the
first
real
garden
city,
is
it is
a help even,
but
it is
not the
final solution.
The
big
city has
196
That
is
milestone as
much
as
Howard's Garden
Cities because, as
town on a
and because its designer is clearly as interested in
its industrial and commercial districts as in its public buildings
and houses. Howard's was a social reformer's contribution;
has already been observed,
it is
real site,
.'
198 The garden suburb became popular throughout Europe, and was the
pattern chosen by Richard Riemerschmid; below, his design for houses for
textile workers at Hagen, WestphaHa, of 1907, in entire accord with the
principles preached
by Raymond Unwin
here
and
finally to aeroplanes.
is
And
of
his
exhibition Citta
modern
up the
building like
gigantic machine
Lifts
must swarm
of
glass
mechanical simplicity
tumultous abyss, the street
metropolis connected for necessary transfers to metal cat-walks
and high-speed conveyor belts.'
Perhaps, in spite of Behrens and Gropius, the new style
needed someone to grow lyrical over it to win the day. The
Futurists provided that. The Expressionists took it on after the
.
and
all-glass skyscrapers,
With
life as
this,
architecture has
made
contribution to
Is
human
the contribution o{
painting and sculpture on the same level, and are the so-called
198
artist first
appeared.
first
came from
outsiders.
The
reason
why
it
came from
engineers
199
take us very
It is
were
///.
Ills.
42
136,
16 J, 178
Ills.
Ills.
68-g
48, 108
But
far.
different
full
and
It is
also
920s - after
among
the architects.
But
men and
all
Le Corbusier produced
the machine-worshippers
200
courtyard
is
no
substitute.
To
and was
that
is
the
of National-Socialist
20;
Beaux-Arts
reduits
meme
un
or
priticipe,
3
1747, p. 47.
The Analysis of Beauty,
PP- }2-34 A.
Lodoliana,
Memmi
Elementi
Rome
True Principles,
edited
Oxford
Burke,
Joseph
dell'
by
1955,
Architettura
1786, Vol.
i,
p. 62.
p. 26.
Owen Jones,
in the
the False
Decorative Arts, 1863 (lectures
49 Quoted from
p. 708.
11 J. of Des.
12
13
14 J. of Des. and
Manuf,
a remarkably early
Drawing Book of the
School of Design, by the Romantic or
Nazarene painter William Dyce,
pubHshed in 1842-3. The passage in
question was reprinted in the Journal
source,
10, etc.,
IV, as before.
the
17 Entretiens,
18 Entretiens,
I,
472.
289.
51
II,
Les Formules de
la
Beaute architecton-
19 Entretiens,
I,
388.
52
The Studio,
20 Entretiens,
I,
321.
53
21 Entretiens,
II,
114.
22 Entretiens,
II,
67.
23 Entretiens,
II,
55.
24 Remarks
25
26
27
28
29
54
Secular
202
1893, 236.
caption in The
and Domestic
Architecture, Present and Future, 1858,
pp. 224 and 109.
The Seven Lamps of Architecture The
Lamp of Obedience, par. IV and V.
Collected Works, xxii, 315.
Collected Works, xxii, 15.
Collected Works, xxii, 11.
J.W. Mackail, The Life of William
on
I,
II,
15.
and a stool, by
and in addition panelhng and settle by the Germans J.J.
Graf and Spindler and a chair designed by Eckmann for Bing.
an armchair,
a chair
Jallot a chair,
Zweckmassig
oder
phatitasicuolL,
quoted from H. Seling and others:
Jugendstil, Heidelberg and Munich,
1959, pp. 417-18.
56 InsLeeregesprochen, 1 897-1900, Inns55
bruck, 1932,
p. 18.
58
crete roofs
59 See C.S.
Concrete
on slim supports.
Whitney
Institute,
in Journal of the
Vol. 49, 1953,
p. 524.
61
Munich
1956, p. 154.
63
Supplementary
Report
on
Design,
p. 708.
64 Essays and
p. 178.
Lectures,
4th ed.,
191 3,
1882.
Location of Objects
Royal Collection (reproduced by gracious permission of Her Majesty Queen
II) 50; Amsterdam, Gemeente Musea 187; Berlin, Louis Werner 65;
Copenhagen, Georg Jensen A/S 190; Copenhagen, Kunstindustrimusect 45, 47,
48, 71; Copenhagen, H.P. Rohde 189, 191; Edinburgh, Mrs M.N. Sturrock 124;
Frankfurt, Museum fiir Kunsthandwerk 170; Glasgow, The House of Frazer 143;
Glasgow Museum and Art Gallery 129; Glasgow University Collection 136, 138;
Glasgow School of Art 137; Helensburgh, T. C. Lawson 139; Leicester Museum
and Art Gallery 123 Letchworth, Miss Jean Stewart 126; London. GefFrye Museum
122; London, A. Halcrow Verstage 10; London, Victoria and Albert Museum
i.
12, 13, 72, 124, 125; Lyon Musce des Beaux-Arts 153, 154, 155; Munich, I)r Kurt
Martin 83; Munich, Stadtmuseum 54, 80, 171; Nancy, Musee de TEcole 61, 62.
73, 74; New York, Lewyt Corporation 42; Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum 78; Paris, Coll. Bernard-Fort 46; Paris, Leon Meyer 68; Pans, Musce des
Arts Decoratifs 34, 35, 37, 38, 41, 63, 64, 66, 67, 70, 75, 76, 77; Pans, Musee de la
France d'Outremer 40; Paris, Musce National d'Art Moderne 69; Strasbourg,
Elizabeth
Musee des Beaux-Arts 166; Utrecht, Centraal Museum der Ciemeente 1S6;
Walthamstow, William Morris Gallery }2, }},
Washington, Freer Ciallery of
Art 28; Wolfsgarten, Prince Ludwig of Hesse 79; Zurich, Kunstgewerbemuseum 53.
1
'.03
Biographical Notes
owing
Ills.
to the First
World War.
See
124, 126.
Baker,
lish
various
stations
and
bridges.
opening
in
1890.
Baker was
also
as a
government
architect he
was
at
204
Ills. 173-8.
(1870-1947). As architect to
the town of Breslau he designed the
Centenary Hall for the 1913 exhibition. Later he withdrew from architecture. See Ills. 1S9-60.
Bhrg,
Max
BERLAGE,HendricusPetrus(i 856-1934).
Dutch architect, studied with Semper
and then in Italy. He placed great
importance on the honest use of
materials,
especially
brick.
His in-
was strongest in the Netherlands, where he published and lectured, and was charged with planning
the enlargement of The Hague (19078) and Amsterdam (from 191 3). See
fluence
III.
118.
Danish
designer.
An
architect
by
ever,
taneity. See
Ills.
47-8.
III.
157.
III.
4.
knowledge of
bilities.
See
III.
multifarious possi-
its
7.
(1853864-1930).
French glass-workers. Stimulated by
the success of Galle at the Paris
Exhibition of 1889, they began to
produce glassware in their works at
Nancy, and after the Chicago Exhibition in 1893 their work achieved an
international reputation. See Ills. 6g,
1909)
and
Antonin
(i
73-
Dutert, Ferdinand
architect.
(i
854-1906). French
rational use
III.
(i
(i
865-1902).
German
structure
Ills.
French
832-1923).
of irt^n
combination of precise calculations
and a keen feeling for function, Eiffel's
work is in the main line of rationalist
architectural development in France.
his use
See
Ills.
144-5.
(i 871-1925). German
studied philosophy and
Endell, August
designer.
as
an
He
artist
at first
he was self-taught.
inspired
by Obrist.
In
He was
1896 he
Munich.
Fowler,
1844,
pursuing
he worked
and glass works of his
took part in the Exhibition
which his technical mastery
classical studies
in the pottery
father.
He
of 1 878, at
and originality became known. He is
one of the chief exponents of Art
Nouveau, his specialities being glass
and furniture. See Ills. j6, j8, 74.
Garnier, Tony (i 869-1948). French
architect, engineer and theorist. Garnier
7.
EcKMANN, Otto
See
engineer. Eiffel
76.
Daum,
Gustave
Eiffel,
won
the Prix de
Rome
in 1899.
While
in
Italy
:os
Pont-Aven. Anxious to
get away from modern civilization he
left for Martinique in 1887. During a
second stay at Pont-Aven with Emile
Bernard and others he developed a
style of tapestry-like two-dimensionality with simple and unbroken
colours which sometimes comes near
to Art Nouveau, sometimes to the
Expressionism of the 1920s. He also
did sculpture of a deliberately primifirst
stay at
months
at Aries
Ills. 39-43.
Gilbert, Alfred
Among
(i
854-1934). Sculptor.
Ills.
49-50.
III.
123.
Modern movement.
It
removed
to
See
III.
179.
GuiMARD, Hector
architect
and
(i 867-1942). French
decorator. Guimard
chief
among them
the Castel
206
HoENTSCHEL,
Georges
(i 855-191 5).
French
designer
and
decorator.
Hoentschel was given the job of
designing the pavilion of the Union
pupil
by Mackin-
the
twentieth
tality
monumen-
century,
a'chieved. See
Ills.
141, 16J-5.
HOLABIRD,
William
(1854-1923).
American architect of the Chicago
School, trained by W. Le Baron
Jenney and then in the office of
partnership
with Martin Roche he pioneered the
structural and expressive use of thesteel frame in office buildings, devising
large
broad windows
In
ventilation
movable
introduce
curves into both his interiors and exteriors. His key works are the Hotel
Tassel of 1892, the Hotel Solvay of
1895, etc., and the Maison du Peuple
of 1896-9, all in Brussels. Later he
abandoned the Art Nouveau originality displayed by these buildings and
to
Vienna
88,
igo-i.
Ills,
(i
The
became its
between
and
Secession,
President.
relationship
Hoffmann's
Palais
See
Stoclet.
Ills.
164, 166.
from
title
de
which
to fame. See
Rome
made
d'art
III.
Henri
71.
(1801-75).
He was awarded
at
and spent
became the
a collec-
and took
architect.
win-
Ills.
Labrouste,
Belgian
architect. Horta built his first houses
in 1886. Three years later he began to
by 1910. See
Klimt, Gustav
for
to classicism. See
Jensen, Georg (1866-1 93 5). Danish goldsmith, Jensen was also a sculptor and a
ceramic artist. After a stay in Paris
(1900-1) he started to make jewellery
in collaboration with Magnus Ballin.
About 1904 he began to concentrate
on silverware. His fame spread almost
at once, and had become international
with
sides
('Chicago
went over
90-s.
French
the Prix
years
in
Italy.
He
studied at the
Beaux-Arts
in
Paris
motifs.
He
collaborated with
:07
selle.
Loos,
See
III.
Austrian
(1870-1933).
pupil of Otto Wagner,
studied in Dresden and in the
architect.
he
37.
Adolf
LuTYENS,
Sir
III.
167.
Voysey and
early
Shaw,
own.
to Palladianism
New
Delhi,
the
British
building
in
Washington
Cenotaph
in
Whitehall. See
Macdonald,
the
sisters
Embassy
and
III.
the
118.
Margaret
208
in
in
glass.
See
Ills.
127, i2g.
Studied
at
the
Art. Assistant
firm of
and designer.
Glasgow School of
and
Honeyman and
Keppie.
The
made
works
his
all
130-9, 142-3-
(1851-
and designer.
Mackmurdo travelled with Ruskin to
Italy. In 1882 he founded the Century
Guild, and two years later he also
founded the journal Hobby Horse.
1942). English architect
mics workshop of
his
father.
him
to
The
abandon
period imitation for original work.
His most interesting pieces date from
around the time of the Exhibition of
success of Galle led
1900
Paris.
See
III.
73.
William
(1834-96). English
designer, craftsman, poet and social
reformer, the fountam-head of the
rebirth of the crafts and of the sense of
Morris,
architect.
spired
Ills.
8,
10-
Nyrop,
Martin
849-1925). Danish
used traditional
motifs but experimented with the
(i
Nyrop
architect.
Parker,
III.
188.
Barry.
See
Unwin,
Sir
Raymond.
Paxton,
horticulturalist.
they developed
turally
ture. In
to
Munich
founders
for
an
all-but-abstract
monument
(i 867-1908).
Austrian architect, craftsman and
book-designer. Travelled to Rome
and Tunisia, then studied with Otto
Wagner in Vienna. Co-founder, with
Klimt, of the Secession whose building he designed. Called by the Grand
Duke of Hesse to Darmstadt, where
he designed the Mathildenhohe artists'
colony. See III. 140.
OuD, Jacobus Johannes Pieter (1890-
1963).
Dutch
architect,
member of
first
209
and silverware. As
Jensen
tor,
a collaborator with
he had a decisive influence on Danish design. See Ills. i8g,
(q.v.),
igi.
to the
churches,
buildings and houses in
Ills.
United
offices,
States.
pubHc
He
built
Stoughton
House
at
Cambridge,
German
then architect. In
1 897 he was one of the founders of the
Vereinigte Werkstatten fiir Kunst und
Handwerk and he took part in the Paris
Exhibition of 1900. He was Director
of the School for Decorative Arts in
painter,
tectural
among
De
design. See
Ills.
Roche, Martin
(i
186-7.
855-1927). American
Chicago by W.
Le Baron Jenney. As partner of
William Holabird (^.i^) he specialized
architect, trained in
in interiors. See
III.
24.
RoHDE, Johan (1856-1935). Danish designer. At first a painter, and considerably influenced by Maurice Denis,
he
210
later
at Milan in 191 4. A
he never fully shared the
aims of Futurism, with which his
Citta
Nuova,
sociahst,
name
associated.
is
the First
He was
killed in
of
his designs
was ever
in
Como.
Ills.
See
built, a
house
ig2-j.
in Pans,
including the house at no. 26 rue
Vavin of 1912-13. See III. ig4.
Sehring, Bemhard (i 855-1932). German architect. Sehring is primarily
known
g6.
New
Zealand Chambers in
London, his own house in
Hampstead, Swan House in Chelsea
with
ties
the City of
See
Ills.
856-1924). American
architect. Sullivan studied at the Ecole
Sullivan, Louis
(i
and
then
Art
introduced
about 1894 and very soon handled by
1886),
Nouveau
his
Favrile
exquisite
glass,
modem
Bing
stature
architecture,
though his
was recognized onlv after his
death. Frank Lloyd Wright was
trained under him from 1887 to 1893.
Sullivan's key works are the Auditorium Building in Chicago (1887-9),
memorable chiefly for its feathery
ornament, and the cellular Wain-
Ills.
880-1938). German
architect. Hic exhibition building of
19 1 4 is by far his most darmg work.
Later, for a short time, he designed in
the spirit of the then potent German
Expressionism. Soon, however, he
fell in with the Berlin group of those
believing in the International Modern
(housing estates, Berlin, especially the
Bruno
Taut,
Britz
(i
estate).
architect
at
introduced
He was made
Magdeburg and
strong
colours
in
city
there
the
Telford, Thomas
iSo-i.
(1757-1834). English
Ills.
See
III.
3.
in Paris.
While
Favrile
is
wholly
show
the
influence of Morris and of the Early
Christian and Italian Romanesque
styles.
Unwin,
See
III.
70.
Raymond
(i 863-1940) and
Parker, Barry (i 867-1947). English
architects and town planners. In 1904
they were commissioned to design
Letchworth, the first of the gardencities, and in 1907 the Hampstead
Garden Suburb. Raymond Unwin's
Sir
Vallin,
III. 73
de Velde, Henri (i 863-1957). Van
de Velde began in Belgium as a
painter, but around 1893 he turned to
architecture and craftsmanship. In
1896 Bing asked him to furnish a
room in his shop 'L'Art Nouveau',
and in 1897 he exhibited at Dresden.
His success in Germany was such that
he settled there in 899. In 90 he was
Van
called to
Weimar
Grand Duke.
In
as consultant to the
21
works
principal
are the
Wcrkbutid
Theatre
in
1914
in
as a theoretical writer.
He began
to
qualities. See
Ills.
52.
ings).
1904 he abandoned
In
curves,
and
Vienna
the
in
lush
Postal
Whbb,
Philip
( 1
83 -1 9 1
1
5)
English archi-
houses,
and
textiles;
in ten years he
of country
of them comfortable,
informal, and only in the most general
way still adhering to historicism, i.e.
the Tudor vernacular. Voysey's designs, carried out by factories, not by
craftsmen, are of great freshness and
crispness and had much influence on
the Continent. See Ills 55-6, 114-6,
all
122, 125.
Wagner, Otto
(1841-1918). Appointed
Professor at the Vienna Academy in
1 894, Wagner was already well known
as an architect inspired by the Italian
Renaissance. His book Moderne Architektur was based on his inaugural
lecture and became a classic of the
architectural revolution. His buildings between 1898 and 1904 are in a
212
more
elaborately, the
Edward Godwin
White, Stanford
can architect.
Richardson
Church
in
(i
853-1906). Ameri-
designing of Trinity
Boston. Joined McKim
in the
brilliant
III.
21.
are characterized
plans,
WiLLUMSEN,
1958).
During
his
stays
in
Paris
up to the twenties
were the Imperial Hotel at Tokyo
(1916-22) and Midway Garden, Chicago (19 14). Here a passion for
angular, abstract ornament and fanciful detail comes to the fore, and was to
dominate much of his later work
(Hollyhock House, Los Angeles 1920,
Price Tower, Bartlcsville 1953-6). He
largest buildings
(1888-9,
Pont-Aven
their
style,
and he
left
its
III.
45.
and then,
in the first
rarely
decade of
new
Modern
Guggenheim Museum
at
Church
fits
called International
by low spreading
in
New
York
at
Ills
183-5.
Photographic Acknowledgments
Aerofilms Ltd. 195; Amigos de Gaudf 81, 82, 84, 85, 86, 106, 108, no; Wayne
Andrews 21 Architectural Association, London (photo Yerbury) 160; Architectural
Press, London i Archives Photographiques, Paris 5; Arts Council of Great Britain
9; Jay W. Baxtresser 184; courtesy Mrs M. Bodelsen 39, 40, 41, 45, 47; Socictc des
Entreprises Boussiron, Paris 157; British Council (photos Wickham) 27, 32, 113,
130, 132, 133, 134, 135; British Rail 6; Cauvin 46; Chevojon 7, 145, 194; courtesy
;
Prof Carl
W.
4, 117,
213
Select Bibliography
For
my
bibliography see
a detailed
Pioneers of
General
Centuries
New
Architecture,
fPehcan
Harmondsworth
History
of
1968.
Milan 1956.
Klimt: F. Novotny and
Gustav Klimt, London and
classique
en
France,
l'
Archi-
vol.
C.
York
W.
Loos:
VII
York
Dobai.
J.
New York
1968.
Art.
i960.
Countries
USA
York
igth and
tecture
edition.
H.R. Hitchcock,
20th
1968.
1966.
Howarth,
T.
Mackintosh and the
Mackintosh:
Rennie
New
Charles
Modern
i960.
Morns: J.W.
P.
Morris,
1956.
1967.
M.
New
York
1967.
London
E.N. Rogers, August e
Milan 1955.
Perret:
P.
don and
London
Sullivan: H. Morrison, Louis Sullivan,
1959-
The
Ferret,
Chicago
School:
C.
W.
Condit,
Mag-
Historic
J.W. Rudd.
Ilhnois 1966.
Voyscy:
J.
Brandon-Jones, in Archi-
Webb: W.R.
Biographical
Gamier: C. Pawlowski, Tony Garnier,
Paris 1967.
214
his
LXXII,
1957-
Wnght: H.R.
of Materials,
New
York
1942.
Index
Paj^e
numbers
Endell,
August
86, 87,
go-i
200
Berg,
Max
162-j, 200
80, 82
Blake, William 43
Book-bindings
Boussiron,
47, 72-j
160, 161
Simon
Bunning, J.B.
52,
53-6, 67,
Leveille, E. B. 52
Lodoli, Abbate 9
Louis, Victor 1
Loos,
Adolf
Lutyens, Sir
82,
83
Coignet, Francois 150
Cole, Henry 10, 21, 27, 72
Contamin, V. 17, ig
Cranach, Wilhelm Lucas von
76
Darby, Abraham
Daum
12
Fran(;ois
104,
152, 160
Hogarth, William 9
Holabird, William 58, 5g
g2-6
Howard, Ebenezer
Jensen,
Georg
le
195, 197
Baron 58
i2g,
130,
Eiffel,
71, 84, 85
166-7,
i2g,
Mackmurdo, Arthur H.
/
14,
42,
18,
23
127,
130-1,
171-2,
22,
143, 194,
Newton,
Gustav
Margaret
200
Hermann
144, 149,
177, 179
EcKMANN, Otto
133-g, 140,
132,
Mackintosh,
Muthesius,
188, i8g
Klimt,
120,
188^^
Jenney, William
23,
Edwin
sisters, Margaret
and Frances I2g, 130, iji
Mackintosh, Charles Rennie
Maillart,
Hennebique,
i6g,
Macijonalu
43, 45,
162,
130, 131
Ceramics and
144,
176, 200
143-4, 145
14, 15
127
121
63, 66,
Gauguin, Paul
71, 200
Cieorges 70, 71
W.R.
Lethaby,
162,
150
15, 16,
Rene 74-6
Lemmen,
FiNLEY, James 12
Labrouste, Henri
Lalique,
88,
^<5^,
Ernest
Nyrop, Martin
121, 123
169
Koepping, Karl
78, 79
C^brist,
Hermann
67
215
Owen, Robert
44
192
Scott,
153-5,
Northmore
127,
140,
UNWiN.SirRaymond
142,
144, 196
Scott, Sir Gilbert 16, 17
Welby
9, 10, 13,
16,27
Richardson,
H.H.
Soufflot II
181, 183
Riemcrschmid,
84,
197
Thomas
186,
187
Dante Gabriel 18
Rosso, Menardo 190
Rousseau, Eugene 50-1
Ruskin, John 13, 18, 45
Rossetti,
216
66,
113,
Emanuel
16,
164
Voysey, C.F. A.
46, 47
34, 35
Richard
Rietvcld, Gerrit
Heywood
177, 179
Viollet-le-Duc,
Sumner,
70,
28,
Redgrave, Richard 10
169, 197
Baillie
22, 23,
59,
44-5
White, Stanford 35
Wiener, Rene 72-3
Wilde, Oscar 171
Willumsen,J.F. 58
Wright, Frank Lloyd
106,
10,
NIKOLAUS
PLLVSNliR
xz
U)|
-^
^t
O'
Os
a"
--
2
/
CO
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THE AUTHOR Nikolaus Pevsner was the first Professor of the History
of Art at Birkbeck College, University of London, retiring in 1967.
His Outlines oj European Architecture and Pioneers of Modern Design are
:
widely known.
A. PRAEGER, Publishers
Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10003
FREDERICK
III Pourth