Note 376 — CHAPTER 16 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ART NOUVEAU: VICTOR HORTA

The wallpaper was probably one of those designed by Heywood Sumner, possibly his ‘Tulip’ according to Elizabeth Aslin of the Victoria and Albert Museum. This was one of the considerable range of English papers shown by Jeffrey & Company at the Salon de l’Association pour l’Art d’Anvers in Antwerp in the winter of 1892-3. These papers, which included designs by most of the English leaders in the field of decorative art, had already been shown at the Paris Exposition of 1889. It is hard to believe that Horta became aware of them only when the Tassel house was nearly finished and not earlier in Antwerp or in Paris. For the Antwerp showing, see Van de Velde, H., ‘Artistic Wallpapers’, L’Art moderne, XIII (1893), 193-5. This article was copied in L’Emulation, XVIII (1893), 150-1, the most advanced Belgian architectural journal, where the Tassel house itself was published in 1895. It introduces the name of another important Belgian figure besides Horta in the story of the Art Nouveau.