Victor Horta (January 6 1861 - September 9 1947) was a Belgian architect. John Julius Norwich described him as "undoubtedly the key European Art Nouveau architect".

Natural around Ghent, he was first attracted to the architectural professiin whenever he helped his uncle on the building site at the age of dozen. He exposed around Ghent, however left to be an interior designer living in Montmartre in Paris. There, he was inspired per emerging impressionist and pointillist artists, and besides per possibilities of working around steel and glass.

After Horta's father died inside 1880, he returned to Belgium and moved to Brussels, to study at a academy of art. He married, and fathered 2 girl.

Around Brussels, Hortthe built a friendly relationship by using Paul Hankar, later as well to embrace Art Nouveau. Horta did easily around his studies, & was taken in as an supporter by his professor Alphonse Balat, architect to Léopold II of Belgium. Together, it designed a royal Greenhouses of Laeken, Horta's first act to use glass & steel.

By 1885, Horta was working on his have, & designed iii houses which were built that year. He so decided to keep away from residential operate for moneyed clients & instead devoted himself to competitions for public function, including statuary and even tombs. He focused on the curvature of his designs, believing that the forms he produced were extremely practical & non artistic affectedness. In a cycle of this period, Horta socialized widely & joined the freemasons. This ensured water of clients while he returned to designing housing and shops from 1893.

Fallowing Art Nouveau misplaced favor, several of Horta's buildings were destroyed, virtually all notably a Maison du Peuple (1896-1909) built for a progressive political person, the Parti Ouvrier Belge and demolished within 1965. 4 of his personal houses (hôtels) come UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Hôtel Tassel, designed and built for Prof. Émile Tassel within 1892–93. Hôtel Solvay, designed and built 1895-1900 Hôtel van Eetvelde, designed and built 1895 – 98 Maison and Atelier Horta, designed in 1898) now a Horta Museum, dedicated to his work.

Victor Horta was interred in the Ixelles Cemetery in Brussels.