Henry van de Velde studied painting at the Koninkliijke Akademie voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp from 1880–1884. After graduation, van de Velde worked in graphic design and in 1888 he was admitted to the Brussel-based avant garde group Les XX – also known as Les Vingt.
In 1894, van de Velde abandon painting and in the following year he designed his own house, including interior fittings, called the Bloemenwerf in Uccle near Brussels. After Bloemenwerf van de Velde designed numerous interiors for among others, the art dealer Siegfried Bing and the art historian and journalist Julius Meier-Graefe.
In 1897 van de Velde founded the Société anonyme H. van de Velde, a decorating firm and in the following year he also founded the Henry van de Velde G.m.b.H Kunstwerkstätten in Berlin. During the early 1900’s van de Velde designed the interior of the Folkwang-Museum (Osthaus Museum) in Hagen Germany , was appointed arts and crafts advisor to Wilhelm Ernst, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and founded the Kunstgewerbliches Seminar in Weimar, Germany.
From 1906-1936 van de Velde taught at the Großherzogliche Kunstgewerbeschule in Weimar, worked as a professor of architecture at the University of Ghent in Belgium and was also the director of the Institute supérieur des arts decoratifs in Brussel, which he also founded.
From 1936 to 38 he designed a museum for the Kröller-Müller couple in Otterlo, the Netherlands. In 1937 and 1938 van de Velde designed the Belgian pavilion for the World’s Fair in Paris and New York. Van de Velde passed away in 1957 at the age of 94.
Henry van de Velde is represented as a designer among other the Vitra Design Museum in Veil am Rhein, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
