(b Lyon, 1867; d New York, 20 May 1942). French architect, furniture designer and writer. After attending the Ecole Nationale des Arts D?coratifs in Paris, in 1885 he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts; he left four years later without a diploma, however, to work for a builder as both architect and site craftsman. The influence of Eug?ne-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc is evident in his early works, particularly the Ecole du Sacr?-Coeur (1895), in which the exposed cast-iron structure of V-shaped columns is an adaptation of a drawing taken from Viollet-le-Duc's Entretiens sur l'architecture (1863-72). These early commissions, built in a picturesque and eclectic manner, culminated in the Castel B?ranger block of flats, Paris, where his first use of the ART NOUVEAU style appeared in its decorative elements. He visited Brussels in 1895, where he met Victor Horta, whose Maison du Peuple was then under construction. After seeing Horta's work Guimard made changes to the original neo-Gothic decorative elements of the Castel B?ranger, introducing a colourful mixture of facing materials and organically derived embellishments, based on his belief that decoration is the more effective for being non-representational. Between 1899 and 1914 Guimard's style matured to a full-blooded Art Nouveau, although he also continued his picturesque manner in suburban villas, such as the Castel Henriette (1899), S?vres, and the chalet La Surprise (1903), Cabourg, in which boldly projecting eaves protect large areas of fenestration, and solid walls consist of random rubble and ornate half-timbering.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art. Copyright © 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.