In the world of antique print collecting, the difference between pochoir and color lithography is more than a technicality — it defines how we interpret, date, and value a work. For Eugène Grasset’s La Plante et ses Applications Ornementales (1896), this distinction is especially critical. Many sellers and even some collectors describe the prints from La Plante as pochoir — a term that conjures up vivid, hand-applied color and Art Deco elegance. But this is incorrect.
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La Plante et ses Applications Ornementales: Eugène Grasset and the Birth of Modern Botanical Design
In the golden age of Art Nouveau, few works embody the marriage between art and nature as perfectly as La Plante et ses Applications Ornementales (1896). Conceived under the direction of Eugène Grasset, one of the movement’s most influential figures, this stunning folio of botanical plates redefined the role of natural forms in the decorative arts.
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Émile-Allain Séguy and Prismes: Art Deco Geometry in Full Color
At the intersection of biology, modernism, and decorative arts, Émile-Allain Séguy occupies a singular place. Best known for his striking Art Deco portfolios created through the labor-intensive pochoir technique, Séguy's work represents a unique synthesis of natural form and stylistic innovation. Among his lesser-known yet most visually compelling series is Prismes, a dazzling collection of 40 pochoir plates first published in Paris in 1931. At Prantique, we are proud to present a nearly...
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Émile-Allain Séguy: Nature, Color, and the Decorative Avant-Garde
A Life Between Science and Style. Séguy’s art is more than decoration. It is a reminder that even in the age of machines, nature remains the most enduring source of pattern, color, and wonder.
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Eugène Grasset and the Art of Nature: The Origins of Modern Floral Design
In the heart of the Art Nouveau movement, Eugène Grasset stood out as one of the first artists to merge scientific observation with ornamental beauty. With his celebrated 1896 work La Plante et ses Applications Ornementales, Grasset created a bridge between the botanical world and the applied arts, transforming natural plant forms into decorative masterpieces. In this article, we introduce the man behind the work and the enduring relevance of this iconic collection.
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Ernst Haeckel and the Sublime Art of Das System der Medusen
A scientific monograph that became a gallery of natural elegance. The German biologist Ernst Haeckel was fascinated by medusae, the umbrella-shaped animals commonly called jellyfish. For Haeckel, whose imagination was shaped in the Romantic era, medusae expressed the exuberant yet fragile beauty of Nature.