Théo van Rysselberghe

Artists not backed by the official Académie de peinture et de sculpture in charge of the exhibits at the annual Salon, or without support supplied by actual political constellations, had little chance to advance during the Second Empire.

From year to year the number of artists working in Paris, the number of artists submitting works to the official Salon and the number of works refused by the jury increased, but neither the Second Empire nor the Third Republic had found an answer to this situation.

For years, the artists had counted on official support.

In 1884, finally, the artists begin to organize themselves, and a "Group of independent artists" is authorized by the Ministry of Fine Arts to arrange an exhibition, while the City of Paris agrees to supply rooms for the presentation.

So, from May 15 through July 15, the first "free" exhibition of contemporary art shows more than five thousand works by more than four hundred artists.

Paul Signac, not yet twenty-one, helps found the Salon des Artistes Indépendants, an association “with neither jury nor prizes,” in 1884.

Here, he meets Seurat, whom he initiates into the broken-color technique of Impressionism.

Other founding members of the Société des Artistes Indépendants, which will accept the work of any artist who wishes to participate in its annual Salon, include Camille Pissarro, Henri-Edmond Cross, Albert Dubois-Pillet, Maximilien Luce, and Théo Van Rysselberghe.

The group's first show, held in the pavilion of the city of Paris, includes paintings by Odilon Redon, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent van Gogh, Cross, Seurat, and Signac.

Signac had given up the study of architecture for painting when he was eighteen, and, through Armand Guillaumin, had became a convert to the coloristic principles of Impressionism.

Victor Horta applies his rich, elegant style to the Hôtel Solvay at 224 Avenue Louise (1895-1900), notable for the plastic treatment of its façade.

The large Art Nouveau town house had been commissioned by Armand Solvay, the son of the wealthy Belgian chemist and industrialist Ernest Solvay.

Designing every single detail—furniture, carpets, light fittings, tableware and even the doorbell—Horta uses expensive materials such as marble, onyx, bronze, tropical woods, etc.

For the decoration of the staircase, Horta cooperates with the Belgian pointillist painter Théo van Rysselberghe.

After this project, he simplifies his style, using decoration more sparingly and eliminating exposed iron.