Matthew Patay's
Note of the Month

 July 2003

Map and flag images provided by Graphic Maps

This month's featured note is from Belgium.
The denomination is 2,000 Francs and the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money (SCWPM) Number is P-151.

The note is not dated, but was placed into circulation in (1994).  Belgium is currently under the Euro monetary system.

(front)

The banknote is purple and blue-green on multicolored under print.  Architect Victor Horta  (born 1861, died 1947), is at left.   
----------

The following information was obtained from:
Great Buildings.com

Victor Horta

(b. Ghent, Belgium 1861; d. Brussels, Belgium 1947)

Victor Horta was born in Ghent, Belgium in 1861. After studying drawing, textiles and architecture at the Ghent Academie des Beaux Arts, he worked in Paris. He returned to Belgium and worked for the classical architect Alphons Balat, before he started his own practice.

Victor Horta created buildings which rejected historical styles and marked the beginning of modern architecture. He conceived modern architecture as an abstract principle derived from relations to the environment, rather than on the imitation of forms. Although the organic forms of Art Nouveau architecture as established by Horta do not meet our standard ideas of modern architecture, Horta generated ideas which became predecessors to the ideas of many modernist.

Horta was a leading Belgium Art Nouveau architect until Art Nouveau lost public favor. At this time he easily assumed the role of a neoclassical designer. Although many of Horta's buildings have been needlessly destroyed, his former assistant Jean Delhaye has worked to preserve what remains of his work. Delhaye has also secured the Horta residence as a permanent museum.

Horta died in Brussels in 1947.

References
Dennis Sharp. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and Architecture. New York: Quatro Publishing, 1991. ISBN 0-8230-2539-X. NA40.I45. p78.

----------

(back)

Flora and Art Nouveau design at left.

The following information was obtained from:
WWW.Trabel.com

BRUSSELS : The Horta Museum

This is not a museum in the traditional sense: a building where the objects exposed draw all the attention. Here it is the reverse : the building itself is the museum. The Horta Museum was actually the house that Victor Horta built for himself in the late 1890's. It's a true example of the architectural style that made Horta into one of the most acclaimed architects in Belgium.

The Art Nouveau style was popular in Europe, and especially in Brussels, between 1893 and 1918. The characterizations are: the use of industrial materials like steel and iron in the visible parts of houses, new decorations inspired by nature (e.g. the famous whiplash motive, which occurs very often in the Art Nouveau style and especially in the work of Horta), decorative mosaics or sgraffito on the façades of houses, etc... Most of these principles can be seen applied in the Horta Museum itself. This house also shows one of the great innovations of Horta: the rooms are built around a central hall. From the beautiful glass ceiling light falls into the house and thereby creating a much more natural illumination of the building than was the case in the traditional late 19th century houses in Brussels and Belgium.

This style has sometimes a different name in certain countries: Jugendstil in the German-speaking countries, Modern Style, Liberty Style in Britain, Estilo Modernista in Spain.

----------

return to main page

----------

Previous Note of the Month Pages:

return to main page