DOI Heft:
No. 98 (May, 1901)
DOI Artikel:Khnopff, Fernand: Josef Hoffmann - architect and decorator
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19787#0301
Josef Hoffmann
Viennese decoration, which was certainly seen at
its best in the recent Paris Exhibition, and attracted
the immediate and close attention of the judicious
visitor.
What is called " the new art," or " the modern
style," is no longer on its trial. From all quarters
have come praise and blame — both frequently
excessive; but it is certain that this interesting
experiment has produced many things which are
quite inadmissible. Some writers have bluntly de-
clared that nothing has come of the new style : what
was beautiful was not new, and what was new was
not beautiful ! " The modem style," it has been
said, "is essentially a submarine style, because the
only forms which appear really novel belong, as the
submarine animals do, to the invertebrate class."
PORTION OF
SCULPTURE GALLERY DESIGNED BY JOSEF HOFFMANN
264
CABINET DESIGNED BY JOSEF HOFFMANN
Hoffmann's works cannot be criticised in this
fashion. He is essentially rational and reason-
able in all he does. His compositions are never
extravagant, never intentionally loud, as are
those of some of his more western confrlres.
He confines himself to studying proportion and
decoration, and thus is enabled to add to the
beauty of the original lines of construction with-
out addition and without alteration.
One's first impression on arriving in London
is a realisation of the still-prevailing Roman in-
fluence, which extends far beyond the Metro-
polis itself—the sense of dominion and conquest,
of power, in a word. Vienna, on the other
hand, immediately suggests Bj-zantium — an
open-air Byzantium. The word that exactly
describes it is fcsch, of which the nearest
rendering perhaps is chic — for everything in
Viennese decoration, which was certainly seen at
its best in the recent Paris Exhibition, and attracted
the immediate and close attention of the judicious
visitor.
What is called " the new art," or " the modern
style," is no longer on its trial. From all quarters
have come praise and blame — both frequently
excessive; but it is certain that this interesting
experiment has produced many things which are
quite inadmissible. Some writers have bluntly de-
clared that nothing has come of the new style : what
was beautiful was not new, and what was new was
not beautiful ! " The modem style," it has been
said, "is essentially a submarine style, because the
only forms which appear really novel belong, as the
submarine animals do, to the invertebrate class."
PORTION OF
SCULPTURE GALLERY DESIGNED BY JOSEF HOFFMANN
264
CABINET DESIGNED BY JOSEF HOFFMANN
Hoffmann's works cannot be criticised in this
fashion. He is essentially rational and reason-
able in all he does. His compositions are never
extravagant, never intentionally loud, as are
those of some of his more western confrlres.
He confines himself to studying proportion and
decoration, and thus is enabled to add to the
beauty of the original lines of construction with-
out addition and without alteration.
One's first impression on arriving in London
is a realisation of the still-prevailing Roman in-
fluence, which extends far beyond the Metro-
polis itself—the sense of dominion and conquest,
of power, in a word. Vienna, on the other
hand, immediately suggests Bj-zantium — an
open-air Byzantium. The word that exactly
describes it is fcsch, of which the nearest
rendering perhaps is chic — for everything in