Palais Stoclet (1906 - 11)

Street front of Palais Stoclet (1906 - 1911) in Brussels.
© from: "Wien 1900 - Kunst, Architektur, Design", Kirk Varnedoe, Taschenverlag 1987

View of the dining room of Palais Stoclet with mosaics by Gustav Klimt.
© from: "Wien 1900 - Kunst, Architektur, Design", Kirk Varnedoe, Taschenverlag 1987

Suzanne and Adolphe Stoclet, a young couple living in Vienna, knew the villas which had been built by Josef Hoffmann on the Hohe Warte to the north of the city centre towards Kahlenberg and commissioned him to build a villa. Then Stoclet's father died and Alphonse had to return to Brussels to take over the family business.

Before the Sanatorium Purkersdorf was completed the Wiener Werkstätte was commissioned to design a town house in Brussels; an object of art was to be constructed, only the most precious materials were to be used and only the most skilful craftsmen and ingenuous artists to be employed.

The exterior walls were panelled with Norwegian Turili marble, the interior walls with yellow-brown Italian Paonazzo marble. After a construction period of five years, the most characteristic and brilliant achievement of Vienna Art Nouveau was complete .