When I learned about the Capital of Art Nouveau Brussels 2023, I booked my train tickets immediately. Capital of Art Nouveau Brussels is an extensive, yearlong program of Art Nouveau exhibitions, house visits, and other events around the city. I walked my tootsies off for two days, walking close to 40,000 steps to get in as many sights as I could.
This is going to be a two-part blog, and today I am writing about three former, private houses, turned into museums, which displayed supreme examples of Art Nouveau.
I checked into the Le Louise Hotel Brussels – MGallery Hotel Collection, which was ideally located, just 20 minutes or less by walking or by tram to all the attractions I visited. My spacious room on the sixth floor had a king-size bed and a picturesque city view. Best of all they gifted me a box of heavenly chocolates from a boutique chocolate shop, Elisabeth.
Le Louise Hotel Brussels Av. de la Toison d'Or 40 https://www.le-louise-brussels.com/en
To give you some context, the start of the Art Nouveau movement in Brussels begins with the architect and interior designer Victor Horta. His first big project was the Tassel townhouse, built in 1893, and it was the launchpad of his career. He eventually designed some of the most iconic Art Nouveau buildings in Brussels including Hotel Aubecq, Hotel Solvay, Magasins Waucquez (a former department store that is now the Comic Book Center), Maison du Peuple (the headquarters for a political organization), \and finally, his most extended project was Brussels Central Train Station, which took 40 years to build.
Hotel Solvay was about a 15-minute walk from the hotel, located in the upscale, Louise quarter lined with top designer boutiques. The son of industrialist Ernest Solvay, Armand Solvay, chose Horta to design a family home in 1894. With an unlimited budget, Horta took eight years to complete the construction of the house, designing every aspect including the outside, the furniture, and light fixtures, and he personally chose the marble, plus it was the first house in Belgium to have electricity.
The ground floor had practical rooms such as the kitchen, cloakroom, bathroom, and office. The magnificent gray and white marble staircase going up to the second floor had metal swirls and handsome, mahogany banisters and leading to a massive, Impressionist style painting by Belgian artist Theo Van Rysselberghe, followed by a stunning stained-glass awning, resembling butterfly wings, on the third floor.
The sumptuous reception rooms on the second floor included the salon/ smoking room, dining room, living room, billiard room, and music room, and most of them had the original furniture, artwork, carpets, and hand-painted canvas lining the walls. In between the second and third floors, the winter garden room was encased in Tiffany-like stained glass along with sofas and potted plants. A master bedroom on the third floor had wood-lined walls and a gorgeous, velvet chaise trimmed with satin fringe.
Unfortunately, the Art Nouveau style went out of fashion in the 1950s, making way for the more contemporary and simpler mid-century period, and the Solvay family sold the house to couturiers, Louis and Berthe Wittamer-De- De Camps in 1958. They set up their atelier and showroom and the home is still owned and maintained by the next generation of the Wittamer family.
Note: Tickets are timed for a 40-minute visit at every hour and only 22 people are allowed per time slot, so reservations are highly recommended. I was required to put a covering over my shoes, and visitors are only allowed to take photos during the last 10 minutes of the visit.
Hotel Solvay Av. Louise 224, 1000 https://hotelsolvay.be/en/
Next up was the Horta house and workshop in the Saint-Gilles quarter, where Horta bought two plots of land and built a five-story workshop and home, side by side, with 21 rooms, from 1898-1901.
Horta’s workshop on the ground floor was outfitted with simple furniture and bookcases, sculptures, and his desk. The grand, white marble staircase, a Horta signature architectural detail, unexpectedly has stained-glass windows imported from the United States. The layout of the rooms on the upper floors was typical of the time with a salon, music room, family room, smoking room, and boudoir, but in addition, there was another series of unique rooms such as a draftsman’s workshop, photo lab, and a sculpting studio.
I was very disappointed to learn that photos were prohibited, so I can't post any photos of Horta House.
Like Hotel Solvay, tickets are timed for a 40-minute visit, and only 15 people are allowed per time slot.
Horta House Rue Americaine 27 https://www.hortamuseum.be/en/Welcome
Extending my Art Nouveau tour into the evening, I went to Brasserie La Porteuse d'Eau, an Art Nouveau gem, for dinner. I devoured a classic carbonadde flamande (a Belgian beef stew cooked in beer), served with the famous, double-fried, Belgian, frites, while swooning at the architecture of stained-glass windows, painted murals, dark wood, carved booths, and a handsome, winding staircase.
La Porteuse d'Eau Av. Jean Volders 48, 1060 Saint-Gilles https://laporteuse.eu/en
The next afternoon, the mansion tour continued with the piece de resistance, Maison Hannon in the Saint Gilles neighborhood. A lot smaller in scale and size, more like a townhouse, Maison Hannon was the home of brother and sister, Marie and Edouard Hannon, and Edouard was an engineer and photographer. It was designed by a friend of the family, architect Jules Brunfaut, and built between 1902 and 1904.
After passing through the heavy, velvet curtains, I gasped at the breathtaking staircase with a three-story, hand-painted fresco, depicting the Hannons as shepherds, and below the staircase is an intricate, circular-shaped mosaic floor. The airy, winter garden on the second-floor room has white marble and mosaic tile floors and stained-glass panels designed by glassmaker Raphael Evaldre, who was taught glassmaking by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Objects and furniture from some of the rooms were removed for a temporary, Art Nouveau exhibition with works, some never seen by the public before, from some of the top designers, artists, and sculptors of the time.
Maison Hannon Av. de la Jonction 1, 1060 Saint-Gilles https://maisonhannon.be/fr
After the exhibition I tooled around the side streets near the museum, discovering a slew of Art Nouveau doors, which I posted two weeks ago. CLICK HERE to view if you missed them.
