Henry van de Velde: The Overlooked Pioneer of Modernism

Key facts

• Henry van de Velde created a chrome teapot in 1904, now in a private collection, which predates the Bauhaus and the Werkbund.
• The teapot's handle is carved from ivory and shaped like a leaf, blending Art Nouveau with modernist reduction.
• Van de Velde was a founder of Art Nouveau and a founding member of the Deutscher Werkbund.
• He directed the Grand Ducal School of Arts & Crafts in Weimar.
• The 1914 Werkbund meeting saw a debate between van de Velde's artistic autonomy and Hermann Muthesius's standardization, with standardization winning.
• Van de Velde left Germany in 1917, moving to Switzerland and later Belgium.
• He resurfaced in the 1930s as Belgium's eminent architect, designing the Boekentoren in Ghent and the Charlemagne Building in Brussels.
• Walter Gropius, his successor at the Weimar school, downplayed van de Velde's contributions at the 1923 Bauhaus exhibition.
• Van de Velde died in Switzerland in 1957.
• The article argues that van de Velde's aesthetic became so influential that his work is now indistinguishable from the modernist landscape.