“Beauty has power over every activity”, van de Velde wrote in 1899 in a popular article. The Belgian architect and theoretician, who studied in Antwerp and Paris, was one of those polyglot personalities who became pioneers of new design in the reform fever that swept through Europe in the years around 1900. Under the influence of the English arts & crafts movement, van de Velde turned his attention to the applied arts and became one of the prominent early representatives of Jugendstil. His house in Uccle (1895) already exhibited the light, elegant flow of line that distinguished his style and can also be found in furniture like the Bloemenwerf chair. Soon the young architect was well-known in Germany as well, especially through the

contracts coming from Berlin, such as the ones for furnishing the gallery of art dealers Keller & Reiner and the premises of the Havana Company in the finest Jugendstil. These interiors weren’t merely a feast for the eyes and an attraction for customers, but also an attempt to suspend the hierarchy of the arts by putting art in the service of everyday life. The Nietzsche follower created his furniture in the spirit of free design and as a total work of art – but in spite of that, he remained a realist.