The collection of photographs, drawings and text brought together in this monograph represents the most significant contribution to studies on Victor Horta in recent years. David Dernie and Alastair Carew-Cox present much new material and a fresh insight into the work of this most influential architect of late nineteenth-century Europe.

Their intention has not been to provide an encyclopaedic coverage of Horta's work, but to illuminate the themes, conflicts and inspirations which lie behind his most important buildings. In a series of essays David Dernie examines Horta's training and formative years in Paris and Brussels: the influence of Viollet-le-Duc, Alphonse Balat, and most importantly the new avant-garde movements and the dominant Symbolist aesthetic in Belgian art and literature which were powerfully synthesised in the annual exhibitions of Les XX.

Having thus provided a basis of the interpretation of Horta's oeuvre, the richly illustrated second section of the book presents the key buildings of his Art Nouveau period, from 1889 to 1923, including the Hotels Tassel and Van Eetvelde, and the Maison and Atelier Horta. The book has the full support of the Musee Horta in Brussels and almost all of the images are unpublished elsewhere, making this collection an invaluable source.