HECTOR GUIMARD | AN IMPORTANT VITRINE

Galerie du Luxembourg, Paris 

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Franco Borsi and Ezio Godoli, Paris 1900, New York, 1978, pl. 228

Edith Mannoni, Mobilier 1900-1925, n.d., p. 54 (for a related model) 

Philippe Thiébaut, Guimard, exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 1992, p. 402 (for the present lot illustrated in a period photograph) 

Hector Guimard, a celebrated architect and designer, is without a doubt the quintessential figure of the Art Nouveau movement in Paris. Born in Lyon in 1867, Guimard studied architecture at the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs and the École des Beaux-Arts where he studied the work of 19th Century architect Viollet-le-Duc. It was after travelling to Belgium, where he discovered the work of Victor Horta at the Hôtel Tassel, that Guimard’s style shifted from Neoclassicism to Art Nouveau. He limited his projects to small constructions where ornamentation was an integral component of the architectural structure. His first creation in this vein was the Castel Béranger (1898), which perfectly illustrates his transition towards organic ornamentation. As Guimard himself noted: “It is not the flower that I like to use as an ornament, it is the stem,” which dramatically distinguished him from his contemporaries from the École de Nancy. One could say that Guimard reinvented Art Nouveau, making it more abstract, less floral, and distilling its exuberance by emphasizing undulated lines. Publishing the book L’art dans l’habitation moderne (1898) and winning the gold medal at a prestigious Paris-based architectural competition in 1899 certainly helped Guimard establish a solid reputation as an architect at the turn of the century. Guimard enjoyed a number of commissions which allowed him to develop a unique and distinct ornamental vocabulary. The architectural principles that he put forward were also applied to interior decoration, furniture and smaller objects, which he started to produce towards the end of the 1890s together with commissioned houses and buildings. His gesamtkunstwerk vision culminated with the Hôtel Guimard (1909), a house that he built as a wedding present for his wife, which shows a complete interdependence between architecture, furniture and decoration. As pictured in the above period photograph, the present vitrine was prominently displayed in the living room of the private residence. The piece is a superior example of Guimard’s practice as a cabinetmaker, displaying the organic forms and unique sense of proportions that contributed to his success as an architect and a designer.