Printed: 2024-12-10
Sneyers, Léon
Identity
Category
Person (Male)
Alternative name or descriptor
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Status
- Amateur / Connected
Details
Life dates
Brussels, 1877 - Brussels - Uccle, 1948
Activity
1898 - 1912 Bruxelles, Rue des Ursulines, 39
Jean Philippe Léon, ° 23.7.1877; + 24.9.1948. Architect-decorator, designer, art dealer and publicity agent, active from 1894. Also supplies for photographers at this address, according to the Mertens directory. Initiated into photography as an adolescent, when only 17 years old he was the president of a camera club for students, the "Detectiv-Club Belge". Pictorialist. Landscapes, portraits and nudes. Secretary and leading light of the "Cercle d’art photographique l’Effort" (see that name). Member of the "Club d'amateurs photographes de Belgique", which published several of his photographs in its "Bulletin".
Both pupil and emulator of Paul Hankar, he discovered Viennese Secession architecture at the Turin exhibition in 1902. His surviving art nouveau buildings in Brussels include a house-cum-studio for the painter Albert Cortvriendt, Rue de Nancy, 6-8 and a shop front for Majolaine, Rue de la Madeleine, 7.
Commissioned by the government to design and decorate the science installation at the International Exhibitions in Liège, 1905, Brussels, 1910, and Ghent, 1913, and to design the Belgian installation at the exhibitions in Turin, 1902, Milan, 1906 and Venice, 1906-1907. He became a propagator of Viennese art nouveau via "L'Intérieur", his art studio in Brussels at Rue de Namur, 9 which opened in 1906 and closed in 1918; thereafter Galerie Sneyers, Boulevard de Waterloo, 9 from 1918 to 1926. Collections of drawings and photographs in the "Archives d'Architecture Moderne" (AAM), Brussels. These constitute the small proportion of Sneyers' archives saved from destruction in 1969.
Jean Philippe Léon, ° 23.7.1877; + 24.9.1948. Architect-decorator, designer, art dealer and publicity agent, active from 1894. Also supplies for photographers at this address, according to the Mertens directory. Initiated into photography as an adolescent, when only 17 years old he was the president of a camera club for students, the "Detectiv-Club Belge". Pictorialist. Landscapes, portraits and nudes. Secretary and leading light of the "Cercle d’art photographique l’Effort" (see that name). Member of the "Club d'amateurs photographes de Belgique", which published several of his photographs in its "Bulletin".
Both pupil and emulator of Paul Hankar, he discovered Viennese Secession architecture at the Turin exhibition in 1902. His surviving art nouveau buildings in Brussels include a house-cum-studio for the painter Albert Cortvriendt, Rue de Nancy, 6-8 and a shop front for Majolaine, Rue de la Madeleine, 7.
Commissioned by the government to design and decorate the science installation at the International Exhibitions in Liège, 1905, Brussels, 1910, and Ghent, 1913, and to design the Belgian installation at the exhibitions in Turin, 1902, Milan, 1906 and Venice, 1906-1907. He became a propagator of Viennese art nouveau via "L'Intérieur", his art studio in Brussels at Rue de Namur, 9 which opened in 1906 and closed in 1918; thereafter Galerie Sneyers, Boulevard de Waterloo, 9 from 1918 to 1926. Collections of drawings and photographs in the "Archives d'Architecture Moderne" (AAM), Brussels. These constitute the small proportion of Sneyers' archives saved from destruction in 1969.
Locations
1898 - 1912 Bruxelles, Rue des Ursulines, 39
Exhibitions
Caen, 1897; Dunkirk, 1897; Roanne, 1897; Brussels, 1898; Nancy, 1898; Caen, 1899; Ghent, 1899; Brussels, 1901; Caen, 1901; Effort, 1901; Groningen, 1901 Kunst; Brussels, 1902; Effort, 1902; Paris, 1902; Turin, 1902 (gold medal); Antwerp (CEPSA), 1903; Budapest, 1903; Effort, 1903; Hamburg, 1903; Lille, 1903; Marseille, 1903; Paris, 1903; Saint Petersburg, 1903; Effort, 1904; New York, 1904; The Hague, 1904; Effort, 1905; Genoa, 1905; Paris, 1905; Vienna, 1905; Vienna, 1905 CAM; Milan, 1906 (hors concours).
Genres / subject matter
Techniques
Bibliography/Webography
CULOT, M. "Léon Sneyers (1877-1949) ou la Sécession importée", Bulletin des Archives d'Architecture Moderne, n° 8, 1976, pp. 11-16.
Context
Affiliations
Management
Record source
DIRECTORY_1997#3912
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation/revision
SFJ revised 27.1.2017, 6.7.2018, 1.1.2019, 27.2.2019 & 1.2.2021; SFJ revised 17.4.2021, 1.3.2023 & 6.3.2023 based on information supplied by M. Demaeght; MD revised 9.3.2023; SFJ revised 18.6.2023 & 21.7.2024 based on information supplied by M. Demaeght