Villa Bloemenwerf

The Villa Bloemenwerf^[1] (Dutch: [ˈblumənwɛrf]) is the former residence of the Belgian painter, architect and interior designer Henry van de Velde, built in 1895. It is located at 102, avenue Vanderaey/Vanderaeylaan in the Uccle municipality of Brussels, Belgium. Van de Velde designed the house and its interior, as well as the furnishings,^[2] partially drawing inspiration from William Morris' Red House in Bexleyheath, London.^[2] Maria Sèthe, his future wife, designed the garden surrounding the house.^[3]

Villa Bloemenwerf
General information
Architectural style	Arts and Crafts
Address	Avenue Vanderaey / Vanderaeylaan 102
Town or city	1180 Uccle, Brussels-Capital Region
Country	Belgium
Coordinates	50°47′44.9″N 4°20′36.3″E
Construction started	1895 (1895)
Completed	1896 (1896)
Client	Henry Van de Velde
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Henry Van de Velde

History

The Villa Bloemenwerf, built in 1895, was Henry Van de Velde's first creation as an architect.^[4][5] The exterior of the house was inspired by the Red House in Bexleyheath, south-east London, the residence of the British writer and theorist William Morris, the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement. Trained as a painter, Van de Velde turned to illustration, then to furniture design, and finally to architecture. For the Villa Bloemenwerf, he created the textiles, wallpaper, silverware, jewellery, and even clothing, that matched the style of the residence.^[2][6]

The Villa Bloemenwerf was Van de Velde's private residence (with his wife Maria Sèthe and their child) and served as a workshop for him and his collaborators, as well as a centre for meetings with the European intellectual and artistic elite of the time. Van de Velde left the Bloemenwerf and Brussels for Weimar, Germany, in 1900.

Chair by Van de Velde for the Villa Bloemenwerf (1895)

See also

• Belgium portal

• Art Nouveau in Brussels
• History of Brussels
• Culture of Belgium
• Belgium in the long nineteenth century

References

1. "Villa Bloemenwerf – Inventaire du patrimoine architectural". monument.heritage.brussels (in French). Retrieved 24 October 2023.
2. Debora Silverman (1992). Art Nouveau in Fin-de-siècle France. University of California Press. p. 272. ISBN 0-520-08088-2.
3. Henry Van de Velde, Récit de ma vie: Anvers, Bruxelles, Paris, Berlin I. 1863–1900, ed. Anne Van Loo (Bruxelles; Paris: Versa; Flammarion, 1992), 289.
4. Sachar, Brian (1984). An Atlas of European Architecture. Van Nostrand Reinhold. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-4422-8149-6.
5. Champigneulle, Bernard (1976). Art Nouveau. Barron's Educational Series. pp. 115, 121. ISBN 978-0-8120-5111-7.
6. Cite web Unesco website Archived 28 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine

Further reading

• Amy Ogata (2001). "Artisans and Art Nouveau in Fin-de-siècle Belgium". In Lynda Jessup (ed.). Antimodernism and Artistic Experience. University of Toronto Press. pp. 173–174. ISBN 0-8020-8354-4. ISBN 9780802083548.

External links

• Media related to Villa Bloemenwerf at Wikimedia Commons
• UNESCO website