Villa Majorelle has reopened

The dining room on the ground floor of the Villa Majorelle • MEN2020 / SIMÉON LEVAILLANT / PRESS SERVICE

A jewel of Art Nouveau in Nancy, the Villa Majorelle, built in 1901-1902, has just reopened to the public after major works.

Louis Majorelle (1859-1926), who was a cabinetmaker and decorator, wanted a house that reflected the spirit of his work:modern, dynamic and simple. He asked Henri Sauvage, a young architect influenced by Hector Guimard, to design and create it.

The villa plays on the contrasts between the austerity of the stone and the polychromy of the bricks, joinery and ironwork. Built on three levels, with semicircular windows, floral motifs that cover the exteriors, stained glass windows, numerous ironwork, arched bay windows, the villa is bright and asymmetrical, the architect having shattered the cubic structure.

A unique experimental work

Very quickly, the Villa Majorelle established itself as a unique experimental work. It is representative of the school of Nancy which, at the crossroads of art and industry, was the spearhead of Art Nouveau in France.

This school, created at the very beginning of the XX ^th century, invests the fields of architecture and furniture, and its activity was essential during the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1889. It took nature as one of its main sources of inspiration, with in particular the recovery of decorations Medieval florals. Louis Majorelle was one of the founding members and the vice-president.

After his death, in 1926, the house was sold to the State and it housed various administrative services until 2017. The rediscovery of the Art Nouveau heritage made it possible to obtain the classification of the villa as a historical monument in 1996.

Owned by the city of Nancy since 2003, it obtained the label "maison des illustrés" in 2011. Today, it presents to the public the original decorations, and the furnishings of the reception rooms and the bedroom. restores the intimacy of the family while offering an immersion in the Nancy of the 1900s.