He also designed perfume bottles for the Exposition universelle—small, abstract sculptures in glass—for the F. Millot company. His embrace of industrial processes and his interest in designs that could be mass-produced identified Guimard as a modern, 20th-century architect.
Driehaus Museum. Republished by permission of Yale University Press. Drawing, Villa of M. Hemsy, St. Cloud, Plan du Rez de Chaussee; pen and black ink, graphite on paper; Gift of Mme. Hector Guimard; He was particularly attracted to the molding and production possibilities of cast iron, which allowed him to replicate designs—either linear or sculptural—rapidly and in quantity.
Guimard installed the cast-iron elements on many of his own buildings; other architects of the period used the products as well, though not so widely as the designer may have hoped. The second work was the Cerny Vase. Its crystalline glaze, in subtle, earthy tones of brown, rust, and green; its undulating form; and the perforated elements at its rim were inspired by nature. Guimard applied for a design patent in France on June 9, , and in Great Britain on July 7 of the same year, for his invention of icicile-like suspended glass pendants for use in lamps.
In , Madame Guimard gave a copy of the page catalogue, which illustrates in hand-tinted photographs the luminous ensembles of bronze, copper, or iron with glass, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The shaped armatures and glass pendants of the lighting fixtures represented le style Guimard , as noted by some of the catalogue captions. National Design Awards. Reserve Tickets. Plan Your Visit. Getting Here. Family Programs. School Programs. Teen Programs. Adult Programs. Accessibility Programs. Professional Development. Learning Resources. Explore the Collection.
