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Eugene Alain (E.A.) Seguy (1889-1985) (after)
Insect Prints
from Insectes
Editions Duchartre et Van Buggenhoudt, Paris: Mid 1920s
Pochoir prints
17.5 x 12.5 inches each
Prices on Request

Three from the series are shown here.  Our stock is constantly changing.  Please inquire as to current selection and specify the plate number you are interested in.

Brilliantly and boldly colored insects from around the world are shown in interesting arrangements in pochoir prints from a set of 20 plates by the French designer and author E.A. Seguy, together showing 80 insects and 16 decorative compositions.   Plates 1 to 16 show five large specimens per plate in colorful arrangements, often overlapping, emphasizing colors, patterns and shapes of wings and wing veins.  Plates 17 through 20 each display four designs incorporating insect-inspired patterns, which Seguy created as a demonstration of how this source material could suggest “innumerable combinations” to be utilized by decorative arts designers.

In his foreword to Insectes, Seguy asserts that apart from butterflies, insects had been overlooked by artists and designers.  His goal with this volume is to awaken interest in what he sees as a neglected “repertoire of forms and of colors of a sumptuous richness and a surprising variety” by presenting accurate depictions of colorful exotic species unfamiliar to most Europeans. He posits that the modern sensibility, attuned to the beauty of a well-designed machine, might be prepared to appreciate insects as “mechanical marvels in which the parts fit together with a precision, a harmony and an intelligence that emerges as soon as one looks through a magnifying glass.”  The plates are intended to make imagery available to designers who otherwise lack of access to the primary source material, which he obtained from “rare” scientific publications and by laboriously sorting through natural history collections containing vast numbers of specimens.  Also included with the set was a Table Des Noms Scientifiques [Table of Scientific Names], providing the species and genus names as well as the geographic regions of the species shown in Plates 1 through 16.  Insectes and a related volume, Papillons [Butterflies] were both first published in 1924, and both followed the format of 16 plates of specimens followed by four of decorative designs.

Eugene Alain Seguy produced eleven albums of illustrations and designs from the turn of the century to the 1930s, and his style reflected the influences of both Art Nouveau and Art Deco.  His various color portfolios of visual ideas for artists and designers often featured motifs based on the natural world, including flowers, foliage, crystals and animals. Although his compositions were design oriented, he made the depictions scientifically accurate. His later works showed an increased interest in geometric and cubist designs.  The prints in the portfolios were produced using the pochoir technique characterized by rich, intense color.  This printing process, utilized in the early 20th century for high quality prints, involved applying colors to each plate with a number of stencils.  Seguy’s works include Les Fleurs et Leurs Applications Decoratives (1900), Samarkande – 20 Compositions en Couleurs dans le Style Oriental (1914), Floreal (1920), Papillons (1924), Insectes (1924), Primavera --Dessins et Coloris Nouveaux (1929), Suggestions (1930), and Prismes - 40 Planches de Dessins et Coloris Nouveaux (1931).

Collections of prints like those produced by Seguy provided source material for designers of fabrics, wallpaper, ceramics, book illustrations, posters, and advertisements, and were popular in the late 19th and early 20th century.  The leading Victorian publication of this type was Owen Jones’s Grammar of Ornament, first issued in a folio edition in London in 1856. Other trendsetting styles in art, design, decoration and fashion in the second half of the 19th century, and early 20th century, came from Paris, Austria, and Germany, and many such print collections were published there, including designs by Emile Belet, Armand Guérinet, Ernst Haeckel, Arsène Herbinier, and Anton Seder.   To search our site for more Art Nouveau designs by such artists please type “Art Nouveau” into our search engine.

Full publication information: Editions Duchartre et Van Buggenhoudt 15 Rue Ernest-Cresson, 15 Paris.

Subtitle: Vingt planches en phototypie coloriées au patron donnant quatre-vingt insects et seize compositions décoratives. [20 plates…presenting 80 insects and 16 decorative compositions]

Condition: Generally very good, the colors overall very bright. Usual toning, handling, and slight brittleness of paper.  Some paper tones vary. Some minor general soiling, stray printer's ink, smudges. Some edges with minor chipping, short tears, bent or creased corners, now restored and can be matted out when framed. Some with minor mat toning from former matting, can be rematted out.  Please inquire as to specific condition of any print under consideration.

References:

Breidbach, Olaf, Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt and Richard Hartmann.  Art Forms in Nature: The Prints of Ernst Haeckel.  New York: Prestel, 1998.

Sear, Dexter. "E.A. Seguy Exhibition: 20 January - 21 March, 2003." Lancaster University Library. 18 February 2003. http://domino.lancs.ac.uk/INFO/LUNews.nsf/I/00001C1E (11 July 2003).

Seguy, E.A.  Foreword to Insectes.  Paris: Editions Duchartre et Van Buggenhoudt, 1924.

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