Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Hotel Guimard, located at 122 Avenue Mozart in Paris, is a private hotel built by Hector Guimard, a major figure of Art Nouveau in France. Sponsored by the architect himself after his wedding in 1909 with Adeline Oppenheim, a rich heiress and painter, the project aims to house their home, Mrs. Guimard's workshop and the architect's offices. The building permit was deposited on June 14, 1909, and the couple resided there from 1913 to 1930. The building, designed on a triangular and narrow plot, innovates by its "free plan" inside, liberated from traditional carrying walls, and its elevator serving the floors instead of a staircase.

In 1930, the Guimards left the hotel, and Hector proposed without success to give it to the state to make it a museum of Art Nouveau. After her death in 1942, Adeline Guimard tried to achieve this project, but in the face of the authorities' refusal, she dispersed the furniture and archives. The rooms are donated to French (Lyon, Nancy, Paris) and American museums, while the building, registered with historical monuments in 1964 and partially classified in 1997, is divided into apartments. The facades, degraded by time, are subject to partial restorations in 2006, then more complete works from 2016.

The interior of the hotel, now dispersed, was a successful example of the Guimard style: mouldings, stained glass, furniture and fabrics were designed for total harmony, typical of Art Nouveau. The first floor ovoid dining room, the oval reception rooms, and the third floor workshop of Adeline Guimard illustrated this aesthetic research. The elevator, which is now gone, and the absence of interior bearing walls showed a rare technical audacity for the time. Despite the transformations, the hotel remains a symbol of the architectural innovation of Paris in the early twentieth century.

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