Serrurier-Bovy (1858-1910)
The Belgian furniture designer and decorator Gustave Serrurier-Bovy (1858-1910) is one of the first representatives of the Art Nouveau style in Continental Europe. The son of an entrepreneur in joinery, he studied fine art. As a young man, Gustave Serrurier went to Great Britain where he became fascinated by the British Arts and Crafts movement led by William Morris. Upon his return to Belgium, he decided to abandon architecture, his original profession of choice, and to concentrate instead on interior decoration.
In 1884, after his marriage to Maria Bovy, the Serrurier-Bovy firm was established in Liege. Gustave Serrurier progressed from importing furniture and decorative objects from Great Britain and Japan, to designing them. In 1894, at the Salon de la libre esthétique in Brussels, he presented pieces of furniture - a "cabinet de travail" (furniture for a study) and a "Chambre d'artisan" (bedroom) - that bore no signs of influence from earlier styles. Europe's critics hailed his originality. At the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris, in collaboration with the architect René Dulong, Serrurier designed a restaurant, Le Pavillon Bleu, whose exuberant, very Art Nouveau decor, contrasted with the sobriety of the white lacquer furniture.
For the 1905 World Exhibition in Liege, Serrurier, a supporter of "art for everyone", created a set of working man's furniture for social housing built especially for the occasion; this was met with much enthusiasm by the leaders of the Belgian Labour Party. The 1910 World Exhibition in Brussels was the last public event in which Gustave Serrurier would participate. The furniture he presented there had lost its curves and displayed a new geometry: an early glimpse of the transformation that would begin after the First World War and would culminate in the creation of Style 1925. A page had turned in the history of furnishing. Art Nouveau had had its time: and as its life came to an end so did that of the master. A few years after his sudden demise, Serrurier's business also disappeared.
