La Plante et ses Applications Ornementales (1896)

About La Plante et ses Applications Ornementales (1896)

Grasset, Swiss-born and working in Paris, taught decorative design, and the plates of the 1896 book he edited were drawn by his students under his direction. It was meant as a manual for the applied arts: a plant is first studied from nature, then turned into borders, panels and repeating patterns for textiles, wallpaper and other decorative work. One of those students, Maurice Pillard Verneuil, applied the same approach to animals in “L’Animal dans la décoration”, and two plates here carry that title.

Animals and plants are often paired: fish with cockatoos and lemons, swifts and squirrels among hazel flowers, butterflies with bellflowers. “Rouget”, with its red mullet, and “Papillons” have plates to themselves. The ornamental plates are made to order in Berlin as giclée prints with pigment inks, on matte 210 g/m² fine art paper or 400 g/m² cotton canvas, in sizes A4 to A0.