1893-1907

Eugène Autrique

Eugène Autrique was the oldest of four. A graduate in mechanical engineering, he had recently been given a chair at the École Polytechnique, a department in Brussels Université Libre. He was a colleague of Emile Tassel, whom he also knew through the Masonic lodge of the “Amis Philanthropes”. The Autriques were not that rich, and it has gone on record that Horta scaled down his fees in order to be able to use his chosen materials.
The house, though modest in the eye of the architect, was quite big enough for a small family: the Autrique couple had one son and would have no more children. They moved in during the year 1895, and lived there for about twelve years. It is more than likely that the chores went to a servant living in-house in the attic.

All in all, the Autriques are representative of that century’s middle-class families, with personal histories pretty much in line with contemporary life. Engineer Autrique’s life may well have been be to intents and purposes conventional but he was surrounded by a crowd of uncles, aunts and cousins, artists or industrialists, taking the name to the ends of the world, to Mexico or the Congo.

Eugène Autrique’s travels took an other form, for instance in his capacity as secretary of Constantinople Gas Company, or of the “Société Anonyme Luxembourgeoise des Chemins de Fer et Minières Prince Henri”, the forerunner to the current Luxembourg Railways, whilst being in charge of graphic design and topography at the Université Libre.

For obscure reasons, the family parted with the house in the autumn of 1907, when it was sold as the Autriques moved to Tervuren, on the outskirts of Brussels. They lived in a detached house surrounded by a magnificent garden. Unfortunately, Eugène Autrique had to resign his chair on grounds of ill-health in 1912: he was to die a few months later.