Jules Brunfaut

Jules Brunfaut was born in Brussels on November 16, 1852. After finishing high school at the Royal Athénée in Brussels, Brunfaut followed the courses of the School of Civil Engineering of the University of Ghent. In the midst of the exact sciences, he drew the principles of logic and reason.

While following the courses of Félix Laureys (1820–1897) at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1873 to 1879, he completed four years of professional practice with Henri Beyaert.

In 1879, after receiving a scholarship from the Belgian government to the laureates to encourage the decorative arts, Brunfaut chose the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris to acquire a knowledge of the conceptions of the past. Here, he met some of his friends from the Académie royale des beaux-arts de Bruxelles, Ernest Acker, George De Larabie, and Oscar Raquez, who gave him the curriculum for the classes since he was a free student. From 1879 to 1881, he studied the architect Henri Magne to Taigne, the draftsman and engraver Charles Blanc and Henri Mahieu.

Brunfaut enriched his knowledge during trips to Florence, Rome, and Venice, along with the Sicilian cities of Agrigento, Selinunte, Palermo, and Monreale from 1881 to 1882. He would bring back sketchbooks that would serve as his repertoire of decorative motifs from these trips, along with details of elements of the Renaissance and Antiquity.

In 1889, J. Burnay appealed to Jules Brunfaut for the restoration of the "Quinta do Trinidade" in Seixal, and for the construction of his house in Lisbon. Brunfaut then resided in Portugal, constructing the hotel of Mr. L. Ribeiro and built the art gallery of Count Daupias.

Returning to Brussels, Jules Brunfaut would go on to erect bourgeois houses, mansions, castles, villas, utility buildings, industrial buildings for Solvay factories, exhibition pavilions in Belgium and abroad from 1880 to 1919.

Brunfaut then closed his office in order to travel with his wife, Victorine Castaigne(1867–1930), along with his three daughters in order to devote himself to his writings and at the meetings of the commissions of which he was a member. Jules Brunfaut died in his mansion on Molière Avenue, in Brussels, after a prolonged illness on January 4, 1942.

He is a member of the Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique, Fine Arts Class.

•1902–1903: Hotel Hannon-Located in Saint-Gilles, Belgium, the Hotel Hannon was Brunfaut's most famous structure, being his only Art Nouveau project. It was built for Edouard Hannon, who was a friend of Brunfaut.