Josef Hoffmann's unknown masterpiece: the garden of Stoclet House in Brussels (1905—1911)

摘要

In June 2009 Stoclet House complete with its furnishings and its garden was declared part of Unesco's World Cultural Heritage. Nearly one hundred years after the completion of the ensemble in 1911, such a declaration is the crowning point in the ensemble's legendary history, which started in 1904 when Adolphe and Suzanne Stoclet commissioned the Austrian architect Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956) and the Wiener Werkst'dtte — a group of avant-garde artists and craftsmen formed in 1903 — to design, build and fully furnish a house and garden for them (figures 1 and 2). It is the group's chef-d'oeuvre and the only ensemble still extant in the state in which it was first delivered to the owners.2 The dining hall of Stoclet House still shelters Gustav Klimt's famous 'Tree of Life' frieze (see figure 35), and among the gardens by Hoffmann the Stoclet garden is the largest and the best preserved, executed with most unusual sophistication.