Octave Van Rysselberghe

Octave van Rysselberghe was one of the architects, who made Brussels the capital of Art Nouveau. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Gent. In 1875 and 1879, he won the 2nd Prix de Rome. After a stay in Italy, he participated in the construction of the Palace of Justice in Brussels. He built mansions and villas, including the Mansion Goblet d’Alviella in Saint-Gilles and the Maison Van Rysselberghe in Ixelles. He also designed the observatory in Uccle and the casino in Blankenberghe.

Van Rysselberghe was soon considered one of the leading exponents of Art Nouveau in Belgium. From about 1900 he was the chief architect of the Compagnie des Grands Hôtels Européens in Paris, for which he built hotels and casinos, for instance in Cherbourg, Monte Carlo, St. Petersburg, and Tunis. In 1903-04, he planned the development of the seaside resort of Westende with the Grand Hôtel Bellevue, but all buildings were destroyed in World War I. In his later designs, he tried to reconcile Art Nouveau and Modernism in his houses influenced by the English Cottage style.

Van Rysselberghe was a member of the Académie royale de Belgique and a corresponding member of the Institut de France. Octave was the elder brother of the Flemish painter Théo van Rysselberghe (1862-1926) and the younger brother of the Gent city architect Charles van Rysselberghe (1850-1920) and the inventor François van Rysselberghe (1846-1893).