Henry van de Velde
Although he began his professional life as a painter, Henry van de Velde became immersed in the social convictions of the British Arts and Crafts Movement and in time turned his attention to the decorative arts. He produced his first furniture in 1894. At around the same time, influential Paris entrepreneur Siegfried Bing commissioned van de Velde to design three furnished rooms (a dining room, smoking room, and art collector's study) to be exhibited at the opening of Bing's new gallery, Maison L'Art Nouveau.
The designer's influence in France was further established when famed art dealer Julius Meier-Graefe engaged him to design both the façade and the interior of his showrooms, "La Maison Moderne" only a few years later.
The son of an Antwerp apothecary, Henry van de Velde set out to be a painter but found his true calling as an architect and interior designer during the Art Nouveau era. As a young man, he studied painting at the Antwerp Académie des Beaux-Arts After a year or two working as an artist in Paris and the Barbizon area, he joined and exhibited with the Brussels Neo-Impressionist group, "Les Vingts" (The Twenty).
Van de Velde's furniture was light and shapely but flat and simple, as if Iit were designed with machine manufacture in mind. His jewelry designs were far more sensuous and fluid, in keeping with the nature of the materials. Ceramic designs were generally functional forms with simple glazes, an organically integrated rim or handle, and flattened organic motifs that embrace the overall form at the neck or base.
In 1900 van de Velde moved to Berlin where he established a crafts seminar that became the School for the Applied Arts in 1907. He published his book, "On the New Style" and taught his students to incorporate organic elements with functional forms. When the school closed in 1915 due to the war in Europe, van de Velde moved to Switzerland. In the ensuing years he continued to teach and design on commission in Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. In 1947, he retired to Lake Ägeri, south of Zurich, where he remained until his death ten years later. During his last years, he wrote his memoirs, which were published posthumously in 1962 as "The Story of My Life."