PHOTOS: The Villa Majorelle, an Art Nouveau jewel in north-east France

At the corner of the former rue du Vieil Aître, around 2km south-west of the oldest areas of Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), lies the villa whose name was later given to the street on which it lays.

Villa Majorelle, named after local furniture designer Louis Majorelle, is a radical departure from the other suburban houses on the street, which were built in the early 1950s with modern architectural techniques, straight lines and cheaper materials.

Standing four storeys high (cellar included) and covering 3,500m², this floral-inspired property is the result of a partnership between 13 different trades, creating an oeuvre d’art totale that was listed as a Monument historique in 1927.

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'A harmonious approach to the living environment'

It is the most prominent work of Ecole de Nancy, a group of Art Nouveau craftsmen whose architectural, design and craft projects are a valuable part of Nancy’s heritage.

The villa is one of 11 Art Nouveau buildings of the city, and the westernmost stop on a sightseeing walking tour offered by Nancy’s municipality.

It has been owned by the city since 2003 and is an annexe of the Musée Ecole de Nancy, a museum which examines the impact Nancy had on the Art Nouveau movement. 

It was renovated in 2019 and reopened in February 2020.

“The villa reflects the Art Nouveau movement’s contemporary and harmonious approach to the living environment, which was completely new,” said Valérie Thomas, conservation director of the museum since 1996.

It was the brainchild of Louis Majorelle, a respected cabinet maker and designer, who was inspired by naturalist painters and worked at his mother’s atelier in Nancy.

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In 1898 he commissioned Parisian architect Henri Sauvage to build the villa, which he intended to use as his craftshop.

Mr Sauvage drew the plans while Lucien Weissenburger, another architect and one of Majorelle’s friends, built it from 1901 to 1902. 

Majorelle nicknamed it Jika, borrowing the first letters of his wife’s initials – Jeanne Kretz.

Every aspect of the property, both inside and out, was inspired by Art Nouveau, the then-dominant architectural and artistic style.

It is made up of three distinctly separate spaces, including a large outdoor terrace leading to a workshop.

Sauvage broke many conventional rules of architecture, including the strict adherence to symmetry that had prevailed with the Beaux-Arts movement from the 1830s to the early 19th century. The gable roofs have different pitches, for example, while materials used for the facade take in beige Euville limestone, sandstone and bricks.

The villa’s best profile is its north face, showing the main entrance and stained-glass windows to the left, the glazed oval arch behind the terrace and, above that, the second-floor balcony and glass wall.

The asymmetry makes more sense inside, where each room was individually designed and crafted by artists of various trades.

Jacques Gruber was responsible for the windows, ceramicist Alexandre Bigot designed the ground floor dining room’s monumental fireplace as well as other decorative tiling, Majorelle himself oversaw furniture design, while Frantz Jourdain painted a mural in the stairway.

The overall effect plays with contrasts of colours, shapes, form, height, materials and inspiration.
From the wrought-iron front door to the sweeping wooden-balustraded stairway, the intimacy of the bedrooms to the natural light-filled ground-floor workshop, the bright white walls to the warm brown carpentry, Villa Majorelle is a “fantasy both delightful and spiritual”, Jourdain wrote in a 1902 article in Art et Décoration magazine.


Floral imagery

Another distinctive Art Nouveau feature in the property is the abundance of floral imagery and other designs inspired by nature.

Honesty is the most represented flower, depicted on everything from windows, to friezes, to the ornate ironwork of the front entrance.

The living room was decorated with pine cone imagery, while ears of wheat dominate in the dining room and ivy on door handles and the balcony supports. Even the guttering boasts a cast iron leaf motif.

Majorelle took up residence in 1902 and lived in the villa with his wife until her death in 1912. He then gradually deserted the house, which was partially destroyed following bombing in 1916.

It was eventually sold in 1931 and occupied by civil servants of the former Ponts et Chaussées ministry.

The Villa Majorelle's lost history

Very little else is known of the villa’s history, largely due to a near complete absence of historic or architectural records. One exception is a family photo album, bought by the museum in 2003.

It took a year of study by architect Camille André, who was commissioned for the villa’s recent €1.8million restoration, and the Service regional de l’Inventaire of the Grand-Est region, to work out how to faithfully restore the property.

“The renovation was about paying tribute to all the work Mr Majorelle did in the house,” said Ms André.

“Time had created so many contrasting colours with the white of the wall and the dark brown of the wood. We had to bring some harmony back,” added Ms Thomas.

“After we had cleaned the paintings on the ceiling, they glowed with unexpected clarity. I never expected that,” she added. “The villa became increasingly luminous.”

Among the 11 buildings listed as part of Nancy’s surviving Art Nouveau heritage, choosing the most significant is a source of endless debate.

The Crédit Lyonnais bank (1901), the Génin-Louis building (1901), the France-Lanord building (1902-04), the hôtel particulier Bergeret (1903-05) and several others on rue Félix Faure, the pharmacy Jacques (1903), the Maison Biet (1907) and the Brasserie Excelsior (1910) all vie for attention and admiration.

For Ms Thomas, however, there is no competition.

“The villa is the most emblematic building in Nancy, and the one which has had the greatest influence and impact on Art Nouveau.”

“It is a jewel,” agreed Ms André. “It is certainly one of the best projects I have worked on.”

The Musée de I’Ecole de Nancy offers virtual tours on its website, taking visitors room to room.

It is currently reviewing applications for an artist residence for the 2025/2026 season.