Henry Clemens van de Velde (Dutch: [ɑ̃ːˈri vɑn də ˈvɛldə]; 3 April 1863 – 15 October 1957)[1] was a Belgian painter, architect, interior designer, and art theorist.

Van de Velde spent the most important part of his career in Germany and became a major figure in the German Jugendstil.

[3] As a young painter he was strongly influenced by Paul Signac and Georges Seurat and soon adopted a neo-impressionist style, and pointillism.

During this period he developed a lasting friendship with the painter Théo van Rysselberghe and the sculptor Constantin Meunier.

[5] Their first house, Bloemenwerf in Uccle, was van de Velde's first attempt at architecture and was inspired by the British Arts and Crafts Movement.

Van de Velde was strongly influenced by John Ruskin and William Morris's English Arts and Crafts movement[2] and he was one of the first architects or furniture designers to apply curved lines in an abstract style, rather than based on nature.

He also designed the interior of the Folkwang Museum in Hagen (today the building houses the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum) and the Nietzsche Archive in Weimar.

In 1899,[citation needed] he settled in Weimar, Germany, where he was employed as artistic advisor to William Ernest, Grand Duke Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

[citation needed] Van de Velde was a proponent of incorporating logic into all facets of design, taking inspiration from engineers application of reason and calculation.

For instance, the reading room floor was executed in marble instead of the black rubber Van de Velde originally intended.

Leidenschaft, Funktion und Schönheit: Henry van de Velde und sein Beitrag zur europäischen Moderne, Neues Museum Weimar, 24 March – 23 June 2013 Henry Van De Velde played the role in elaborating an aesthetic theory a synthesis of the two opposite poles of rational conception associated with particular understanding of the ornamental function.