Editing Art Nouveau (section)

===Art Nouveau in Belgium===
{{Main|Art Nouveau in Brussels|Art Nouveau in Antwerp}}
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200px">
File:Belgique - Bruxelles - Hôtel Van Eetvelde - 01.jpg|[[Hôtel van Eetvelde]] in Brussels by [[Victor Horta]] (1895–1901)
File:Belgique - Bruxelles - Hôtel Van Eetvelde - 20.jpg|Detail of the Winter Garden of the Hôtel van Eetvelde
File:Henry van de velde, sedia, belgio 1896.JPG|Chair by [[Henry van de Velde]] (1896)
File:Philippe Wolfers, Plumes de Paon, KMKG-MRAH.jpg|[[Philippe Wolfers]], {{lang|fr|Plumes de Paon}} ('Peacock Feathers'), belt buckle (1898)
File:Old England facade, Brussels (DSCF7544).jpg|Former [[Old England (department store)|Old England]] department store in [[Brussels]] by [[Paul Saintenoy]] (1898–99)
File:Gustave Serrurier-Bovy.jpg|Bed and mirror by [[Gustave Serrurier-Bovy]] (1898–99), now in the [[Musée d'Orsay]], Paris
File:Maison Saint-Cyr (DSCF7558).jpg|[[Saint-Cyr House]] in Brussels by [[Gustave Strauven]] (1901–1903)
File:Maison Cauchie-445.jpg|[[Cauchie House|House]] of the architect Paul Cauchie in Brussels, featuring [[sgraffito]] (1905)
</gallery>

Belgium was an early centre of Art Nouveau, thanks largely to the architecture of [[Victor Horta]], who designed one of the first Art Nouveau houses, the [[Hôtel Tassel]] in 1893, and three other townhouses in variations of the same style. They are now [[Major town houses of the architect Victor Horta (Brussels)|UNESCO World Heritage sites]]. Horta had a strong influence on the work of the young [[Hector Guimard]], who came to see the Hôtel Tassel under construction, and later declared that Horta was the "inventor" of the Art Nouveau.{{Sfn|Fahr-Becker|2015|p=136}} Horta's innovation was not the façade, but the interior, using an abundance of iron and glass to open up space and flood the rooms with light, and decorating them with wrought iron columns and railings in curving vegetal forms, which were echoed on the floors and walls, as well as the furniture and carpets which Horta designed.{{Sfn|Fahr-Becker|2015|pp=136–137}}

[[Paul Hankar]] was another pioneer of Brussels' Art Nouveau. His house was completed in 1893, the same year as Horta's Hôtel Tassel, and featured [[sgraffiti]] murals on the façade. Hankar was influenced by both [[Viollet-le-Duc]] and the ideas of the English [[Arts and Crafts movement]]. His conception idea was to bring together decorative and fine arts in a coherent whole. He commissioned the sculptor Alfred Crick and the painter {{Interlanguage link|Adolphe Crespin|fr|Adolphe Crespin}} to decorate the façades of houses with their work. The most striking example was the house and studio built for the artist Albert Ciamberlani at 48, {{lang|fr|rue Defacqz|italic=no}}/{{lang|nl|Defacqzstraat|italic=no}} in Brussels, for which he created an exuberant façade covered with [[sgraffito]] murals with painted figures and ornament, recreating the decorative architecture of the [[Quattrocento]], or 15th-century Italy.<ref name=":0" /> Hankar died in 1901, when his work was just receiving recognition.{{Sfn|Fahr-Becker|2015|p=140}}

[[Gustave Strauven]] began his career as an assistant designer working with Horta, before he started his own practice at age 21, making some of the most extravagant Art Nouveau buildings in Brussels. His most famous work is the [[Saint-Cyr House]] at 11, {{lang|fr|square Ambiorix|italic=no}}/{{lang|nl|Ambiorixsquare|italic=no}}. The house is only {{convert|4|m}} wide, but is given extraordinary height by his elaborate architectural inventions. It is entirely covered by [[polychrome]] bricks and a network of curling vegetal forms in [[wrought iron]], in a virtually Art Nouveau-Baroque style.{{sfn|Culot|Pirlot|2005|p=87}}

Other important Art Nouveau artists from Belgium included the architect and designer [[Henry van de Velde]], though the most important part of his career was spent in Germany; he strongly influenced the decoration of the [[Jugendstil]]. Others included the decorator [[Gustave Serrurier-Bovy]], and the graphic artist [[Fernand Khnopff]].<ref name="unesco-horta" />{{Sfn|Lahor|2007|p=91}}<ref>Sterner (1982), pp. 38–42.</ref> Belgian designers took advantage of an abundant supply of [[ivory]] imported from the [[Belgian Congo]]; mixed sculptures, combining stone, metal and ivory, by such artists as [[Philippe Wolfers]], was popular.{{Sfn|Riley|2004|p=323}}