Architect Hector Guimard (1867-1942) was commissioned in 1900 to design a series of metro entrances which gave Paris and the metro its typical Art Nouveau style.
The Art Nouveau movement appeared in the wake of the industrial revolution and rejected classical models in favor of the nature-based approach taken by Gothic and Japanese artists.
Hector Guimard created a catalogue of wrought-iron, organic structures shaped liked beetles, tulips, lily of the valley, dragonflies and interwoven branches