HOTEL HANNON

In 1902, Edouard Hannon (1853-1931), an engineer with Solvay, buys a corner plot of land and asks his architect friend Jules Brunfaut (1852-1942) to design a townhouse whose every detail - interior and exterior - should reflect the style of Art Nouveau.

The plans for the Hotel Hannon break with the traditional schema of the Belgian house, with its layout of three successive rooms, the middle one of which is always and inevitably sombre. In the Hotel Hannon, the circular entrance hall serves as a meeting point for the ground floor reception (smoking, living and dining) rooms. Both the smoking room and the entrance hall communicate with the winter garden by means of a bay window. A large fresco by painter and Rouen native Paul-Albert Baudouin decorates the entrance hall, whose beautiful tessellated mosaic floor features brown, green and white marble and recalls the mosaics of Roman times. The smoking room boasts an elegant Baudouin fresco in tones that recall the painting of Pompeii.

The Hotel Hannon’s special position within the larger framework of Brussels’ Art Nouveau heritage links it to another Art Nouveau establishment, the École
de Nancy in eastern France. Emile Gallé (1846-1904) and Louis Majorelle (1859-1926), two famous artists who were part of that school, designed furniture for Hannon’s home. He met them while he was working in the Solvay factories in Dombasle, near Nancy. A local and very specific Art Nouveau school had developed there, taking its inspiration from flora and vegetation (Emile Gallé, the founder of the École de Nancy, was a great botanist). It contrasted sharply with Belgian Art Nouveau, as testified by Horta, who wrote in his memoirs, “I’d choose the plant’s stem.” To him, the flower was too baroque.

The Hotel Hannon’s sumptuous stained glass windows are by Raphaël Evaldre (1862-1938), who used the Tiffany’s “American glass” technique, working the glass with a small roller while it was still warm. This process results in a mottled, chenille-like effect that allows light to shimmer through the stained glass.

At the time of the Hotel Hannon’s completion in 1903, Art Nouveau had already reached had its heyday in Brussels, making the building a latecomer on the scene.

There is equilibrium between the different elements of the façade, between the plenums and vacuums and the ornamental style referencing styles from the past, even the gothic. Under the cornice lies a Victor Rousseau bas-relief, entitled “La Fileuse,” an allegory of the passing of time.

Edouard Hannon was also a photographer, and has left us with a photographic legacy of immeasurable value. He was an art collector too, and decorated his home with works by the best contemporary Belgian artists of the time (James Ensor, Emile Claus, Hippolyte Boulenger, Franz Courtens, and Maurice Hagemans).

After the death of Hannon’s daughter in 1965, the building was abandoned only to eventually fall into the hands of property developers who envisaged its demolition. But growing public interest in the conservation of our architectural heritage and the attention of a neighbourhood committee ensured that the building was saved. It was listed by the Royal Commission for Monuments and Sites in 1976, and then bought with the aim of restoration by the Commune of Saint-Gilles. Renovations of the exterior and the roof were completed in 1982, but the building was to be under construction until 1988, when the restoration of the interior was completed. Since then, the building has been home to the Espace Photographique Contretype, see chronology, here