Hector Guimard was a French architect, who is now the best-known representative of the Art Nouveau style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
He was devoted to the ideal of harmony and continuity, which caused him to design the interior furnishings and decoration of his buildings.
Guimard was a precursor of industrial standardization, insofar as he wished to diffuse the new art on a large scale. His greatest success here was his famous entrances to the Paris Metro, based on the ornamented structures of Viollet-le-Duc (French architect famous for been an important figure in the gothic revival style) . The idea is taken up – but with less success – in 1907 with a catalogue of cast iron elements applicable to buildings : Artistic Cast Iron, Guimard Style.
