Gilded

My husband and I recently visited an art museum in a museum in a museum…a triple whammy. We had no idea what we were getting into.

This wondrous adventure began when I read about an art exhibit entitled Hector Guimard: Art Nouveau to Modernism. Being lovers of the sensuous, sinewy Art Nouveau style, we headed to downtown Chicago for the sole reason of seeing the show.

The exhibit was housed in the Nickerson Mansion, an elegant building that dates to 1883, shortly before the Art Nouveau movement took over Europe. “But,” I thought as we were driving down, “I’ve seen Robber Baron mansions before, I’m focused on the exhibit.” How wrong I was; the mansion was a fantastic destination in itself. The library room alone would have been worth the trip.

The next surprise was the Richard H. Driehaus Museum which is housed in the Nickerson Mansion. Driehaus bought the mansion in 2003, restored it and filled it with selected objects from his personal art collection which contains over 1,500 decorative objects from the Gilded Age. His acquisitions include one of “America’s most significant collections of Louis Comfort Tiffany.” Again, worthy of a journey to see.

And, finally, we arrived at the exhibit on Hector Guimard which was displayed on the second and third floors of the mansion. It was not an anticlimax.

Guimard (1867-1942) was the leading architect of the Art Nouveau Movement in France. One of his best known works are the iconic entrances to the Paris metro stations.

No aspect of design was left untouched by Guimard. He designed his wife’s engagement ring, the invitation to their wedding and her wedding dress. Then he designed a four-story townhouse, his dream home for his bride, and filled it with furniture, carpets and decorative objects of his design. The house still stands at 22 Mozart Avenue in Paris.

His fortune was made designing homes for the wealthy, but in his later years, Guimard focused on creating modest homes from modular blocks for ordinary people. Unfortunately, his idea never caught on. It still hasn’t, and how ironic it was to be standing surrounded by the epitome of luxurious living and reading about affordable housing. All in all, a mind-blowing, serendipitous day.

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