Paul Cauchie

Paul Cauchie , architect, painter and Belgian decorator born in 1875 with Ath and deceased in 1952 with Etterbeek (Brussels).

It was one of the outstanding figures of the Art nouveau in Belgium. Its architectural style, contrary to those of Victor Horta or Paul Hankar which used hones the wrought iron and it to suggest vegetable volutes, is characterized by a geometrical rigor compensated by the richness of pictorial decorations.

Biographical elements

The fact that Paul Cauchie left the section of architecture of the academy of the fine arts of Antwerp after two years of study (1891-1893) to follow the courses of painting of Christian Montald to Brussels (1893-1898) undoubtedly indicates a maturation of its vocation. It is eighteen years old and feels more hooked atoms with painting that with the drawings of architect. It did not follow from there less of the courses to the royal Académie of the Art schools of Brussels, where it had as a school-fellow Gabriel van Dievoet. Undoubtedly it is allures by the effervescence which reigns then in the world of contemporary painting.

Its architectural work is more reduced besides: three house-workshops in Brussels and two twin villas at the Belgian side. Not what to ensure its passage the posterity.

On the other hand, in the field of the decoration of frontage and, in particular, of the technique of the sgraffite given to the honor by the movement art nouveau, it gives all its measurement and is most talented and the most prolific craftsman in Belgium.

During the second part of his life, Paul Cauchie works much in the Netherlands where it decorates and piece of furniture of prefabricated small houses.

Master of the sgraffite

Paul Cauchie was a Master pioneer of the rebirth of the technique of the sgraffite at the XIXe century, decorative mural fresco worked by scraping in a fine mortar bed of color, whose practice goes back to Antiquity. He carried out itself several hundreds and taught his technique of it. One owes him, in particular, the plank of the Museum of the fine arts of Ghent or, more close to us, the elegant reasons for the Maison Delune, those of the old Delhaize warehouse or the facing of frontage of a house modern style which occurred Malibran with Ixelles.

Its most known work is the Maison Cauchie built in 1905 to be used of dwelling and workshop with Paul Cauchie and his wife Caroline Voets , itself painter of talent called Lina. Regarded today as one of the most beautiful achievements of the art nouveau in Brussels, the house is marked multiple creations of the couple: murals, decorations, embroideries, pieces of furniture, chandelier factories and sgraffite. After the disappearance of the couple, the frescos are covered with wallpaper and partially destroyed furniture, the house is then left with the abandonment and is degraded strongly. A request for demolition is introduced in 1971 by the heirs. Saved accuracy and classified, it will be repurchased in 1980 by a couple of private individuals, Léo and Guy DESSICY, who undertook his long and difficult restoration. There after having imagined to install a Tintin museum with the enthusiastic agreement of Hergé, Guy Dessicy founds finally the Belgian Center of the cartoon, installed since 1989 in the Anciens stores Waucquez. Today saved, the Cauchie house shelters at the ground floor and in the old workshop a showroom.

Some achievements

1. Structure

House Cauchie, street of the Francs, 5 in Etterbeek (1905)
House with workshop, avenue of Hunting, 141 in Etterbeek (1912)
twinned Villas " Bella" and " Nueva" in Duinbergen (1914)
House with workshop, street of Cambers, 177 in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre (1926)

2. Sgraffites

Delune House, Franklin avenue Roosevelt, 86 in Brussels (1904)
Warehouse of the Delhaize stores, place of the Ship-owners in Brussels (1912)
House modern style street Malibran in Ixelles

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