Frantz Jourdain (1847 - 1935) Belgian architect and author

Albert Besnard (French, 1849–1934), Portrait of Frantz Jourdain, 1905. Black chalk on thin tan paper,

Frantz Jourdain (1847 – 1935) was an architect and author from Belgium. He is best known for La Samaritaine, an Art Nouveau department store designed in three stages between 1904 and 1928 in Paris’s 1st arrondissement. He was regarded as an Art Nouveau expert.

Biography

In 1847, Frantz Jourdain was born. He attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the 1860s. In 1870, he became a French citizen.

Critic

Jourdain was an Art Nouveau theorist. He began writing about the arts in 1875. By the end of his life, he had written nearly 200 articles in sixty magazines and journals, initially as news items but later as critical articles. He shared his opinions on art. In 1886 and 1931, some of these were collected into collections. His writings were eclectic. He wrote a picaresque romance, two collections of short stories, a novel, a play, and two groups of artist portraits in addition to writing on artistic issues.

Jourdain was at the forefront of the effort to renew and synthesise the arts between 1880 and 1910. He was instrumental in developing new ideas. He discovered obscure late-nineteenth-century painters and was a significant fan of Ferdinand Dutert and Victor Contamin’s Exposition Universelle (1889) Galerie des Machines. He became a member of the Société des gens de lettres in 1887. By the 1890s, he had established himself as a well-known and widely quoted art critic, a critic of academic training and the English Arts and Crafts movement. He despised institutions that stifled new talent, such as the Beaux-Arts. He felt the Prix de Rome, which sent artists to the Villa Medici to study well-known antiquities, was a waste of time.

View on Art in Society

In 1928, Frantz Jourdain wrote a history of the Salon d’Automne. In it, he said, “The exclusive presentation of painting, sculpture, graphics, and architecture cannot give a true and complete picture of the aesthetics of an era.” “It is only a small part of the intellectual work of a civilisation that is condensed, not the whole thing.” Giving one art more power than others is a grave and dangerous mistake (Arwas, 1980).

Architect

Ernest Cognacq opened La Samaritaine, a department store, in 1870 after leasing a small portion of a building for commercial purposes. He then purchased the house and, in stages, the building across the rue de la Monnaie. In 1885, he commissioned Jourdain to rebuild the original structure while also beginning to upgrade the exterior. Cognacq agreed to expand the store in 1904.

Jourdain was tasked with creating the most space possible in the shortest amount of time and for the least amount of money. He devised a radical steel structure to do so. His uncle, the decorator Francis Jourdain, the painter Eugène Grasset, the metalworker Edouard Schenck, and the ceramist Alexandre Bigot were responsible for the striking exterior decoration. While it attracted criticism from a new generation of architects who resisted Art Nouveau, his glass and exposed steel frame in this design were radical and practical (Arwas, 1980).

Palais de la Découverte Project, Paris, France (Plan of upper level and exhibits) by Paul Nelson, Frantz Jourdain, Oscar Nitzchke

His work was included in the architecture section of the 1912 Summer Olympics art competitions.

Source

Arwas, V., Russell, F. D. (1980). Art Deco. United Kingdom: Academy Editions.

Wikipedia contributors. (2021, February 24). Frantz Jourdain. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:21, April 3, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frantz_Jourdain&oldid=1008644664

Design Books – Amazon

* This website may contain affiliate links, and I may earn a small commission when you click on links at no additional cost. As an Amazon and Sovrn affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

More on Architect/Designers

Antonia Astori (b.1940) co-founded Driade

Antonia Astori co-founded Driade with her brother Enrico and Adelaide Acerbi in 1968. She was able to create a unique network of furniture designers, galleries, and shops.Read More →
Peter Behrens (1868 – 1940) – German architect/designer

Peter Brehens (1868 – 1940) was a German graphic artist, architect and designer. He studied at the Karlsruhe and in Düsseldorf and Munich.Read More →
Peter Behrens (1868 – 1940) – German architect and designer

Peter Brehens (1868 – 1940) was a German graphic artist, architect and designer. He studied at the Karlsruhe and in Düsseldorf and Munich.Read More →
Frantz Jourdain (1847 – 1935) Belgian architect and author

Frantz Jourdain (1847 – 1935) was an architect and author from Belgium. He is best known for La Samaritaine, an Art Nouveau department store designed in three stages between 1904 and 1928 in Paris’s 1st arrondissement. He was regarded as an Art Nouveau expert.Read More →
Otto Wagner (1841 – 1918), Austrian architect and designer

Architect Otto Wagner was one of the leading figures in the Vienna Secession. After studying architecture at the Vienna Technical High School (1857–1860) and the Vienna Academy (1861–183), he worked in various historical styles for many years until he joined the Secession.Read More →
Maya Lin (b.1959) an American architect and designer

Embed from Getty Images Maya Lin is an American architect. She was born in Athens,Read More →
Sydney Opera House – Design Classic

The design of the Sydney Opera House (1956-73), which he won in an international competition, was Utzon’s crowning achievement. He envisioned a solid sculptural building made of a series of giant interlocking billowing white ‘sails’ inspired by the ships of Sydney Harbour.Read More →
Max Ernst Haefeli (1901-1976) – Swiss architect and designer

Max Ernst Haefeli (1901-1976) was a Swiss architect and designer born in Zurich. He worked in the Otto Bartning studio in Berlin between 1923-24.Read More →
Sigfried Giedion (1888 – 1968) – Swiss art historian and designer

Sigfried Giedion (1888-1968) was a Swiss art historian and designer. He was born in Prague. Read More →
Henry Varnum Poor (1887 – 1970) American Designer & Artist

Henry Varnum Poor (1887-1970) was an American architect, painter, sculptor, muralist, potter, and architect. He was the grandnephew of Henry Varnmum Poor, a founding member of the company that became Standard & Poor’s.Read More →
Helen Abson (b.1942) Australian Architect and Fabric Designer

Helen Abson, who trained as an architect, is an Australian designer. She pursued architecture for five years; founded ZAB Design where she designed fabrics that exhibited a preoccupation for texture achieved through pattern and colour.Read More →
Nigel Coates (b.1949) English architect and designer

He co-founded Branson Coates Architecture with Doug Branson in 1985 before opening his architecture and design studio in 2006. He was a partner in the Branson Coates architecture and design studio and the founder of the radical NATO (Narrative Architecture Today, established in London in 1983) design group (established in 1985).Read More →
Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007) Father of Anti-Design

Although trained and active as an architect, Sottsass secured a permanent place in pop culture with his designs of everyday items. From 1957, he was a consultant designer at Olivetti, where he designed computers, adding machines, typewriters, and systems furniture. Read More →
Arata Isozaki (b. 1931) is a Japanese architect, urban designer

Arata Isozaki is a Japanese architect, urban designer, and theorist from Ōita. He was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1986 and the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2019.Read More →
Eliot Noyes (1910 – 1977) American industrial designer

Eliot Noyes (1910 – 1977) was an industrial designer from the United States. From 1928 to 1932, he studied architecture at Harvard University, followed by stints at the Graduate School of Design from 1932 to 1935 and 1937 to 1938. Read More →
Pierre Vágó (1910 – 2002) Hungarian Architect and Designer

Pierre Vago was a Hungarian Architect and designer. He studied at the École Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris. He settled in France in 1928, where he was editor-in-chief on three issues of the review L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui. After World War 2, he was active in reviving the journal and set up his architecture office. In 1948 he left…
Gino Valle (1923 – 2003) Italian architect, designer and town planner

Gino Valle (1923 – 2003) was. Italian architect, designer, and town planner. He was born in Udine. He studied at the Instituto Universitario di Architettura, Venice, to 1948. From 1951, he was at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Read More →
Kurt Thut (1931 – 2011) Swiss Designer and Manufacturer

Kurt Thut (b. 1931-2011) was born in Möriken, Switzerland. In his father’s workshop, while attending the School of Art and Design in Zurich, Thut improved his carpentry skills.Read More →
Tom Ngo’s Architectural Absurdity

“Common sense and conventional practice prohibit the evolution of architecture.” This is the first quote you find reading Tom Ngo’s Master’s thesis: The Dinner Address, A Venture into Architectural Absurdity. Read More →
Nani Prina Italian Architect and Graphic Designer

Nani Prina is an Italian architect and industrial and graphic designer. He was born andRead More →

You may also be interested in

Francis Jourdain (1876 – 1958) – painter, furniture maker, interior designer, ceramicist – Encyclopedia of Design
Francis Jourdain (1876 – 1958), the son of architect Frantz Jourdain, was born on November 2, 1876. His father created the Salon d’Automne collection. He benefited from his parents’ friendships with prominent intellectuals (Émile Zola, Alphonse Daudet) and artists of the time (the circle of Alexandre Charpentier).

Silver and twentieth-century design – Encyclopedia of Design
The impact of silver metal technology has driven the development of modern furnishings throughout the 20th century. The transformation of a chair into a sculptural statement, for example. Within a multi-function, interior metal objects have not always been at the forefront of modern design.