E.A. Seguy was an artist and designer active in Paris during the first three decades of the xxth century. Very picayune is known about him, fifty-fifty his bodily proper noun and birth/death dates are in dispute. During my search for more information, I fifty-fifty stumbled across an odd theory that blames the confusion on the presence of non ane but two E.A. Seguy's living and working in Paris during this fourth dimension period. Regardless of the mystery and speculation surrounding his life, what we do know about Seguy can be found in the design folios he left behind.
Seguy produced 11 albums of nature themed illustrations and patterns, drawing inspiration from papillons and other insects, flowers, leafage, crystals and animals. Seguy was one of few artists that successfully combined both Art Deco and Art Nouveau styles in his work. His brightly colored geometric patterns were intended to be used as inspiration for such decorative items as textiles and wallpaper.
Dover Publications reproduced Seguy's albums in a volume entitled Seguy's Decorative Butterflies and Insects in Full Color. The publisher had this to say about Seguy: "His aim was to make available dozens of examples of extremely colorful exotic animals that had been unjustly neglected by occidental decorative artists because of their rarity in life and in analogy. It is interesting to notation that Seguy, while confident that collywobbles would exist readily accustomed, made the special plea for the other insects that were constructed like wonderful machines and were thus entitled to the same consideration as an plane fuselage, an ocean liner or locomotive; nature was a successful industrial designer!"
While I have long admired Seguy'south brilliant bold colors and pattern aesthetic, it wasn't until I had the take a chance to view his prints in person rather than reproduced in a volume or on a screen, that I gained a true appreciation for how beautiful they really are.
Seguy's albums were created using a unique printing process called pochoir, which was popular in France at the plow of the 20thursday century. Pochoir is a procedure that utilizes the method of applying pigment to paper through the use of stencils. First, the creative person created an paradigm in watercolor or gouache. The pattern was then analyzed to decide the necessary colors and number of stencils needed. The stencils could be cut from any number of materials, including copper, zinc, oiled cardboard, or celluloid. The pigment was practical through the stencils by brushes or pompons. The prints were produced entirely past hand assembly line mode, and each one was individually examined and approved upon completion.
While simple in concept, pochoir could become quite complex in do, with some images requiring the employ of 100 or so stencils to produce a single print. The technique was regularly used to produce plates in French fashion journals as well as existence used to illustrate industrial design, textile, interiors, and architecture folios.
Pochoir is thought to be a reaction to what was seen as a full general debasement of automobile printing engineering during the time menstruum. Jean Saudé, the private who virtually influenced the pochoir technique, believed that pochoir was the only procedure which translated the creative person's original intent because it was entirely done by mitt. Saudé considered the procedure to be a type of hyphen betwixt the artist and the public. After viewing the original pochoir prints of Seguy'south piece of work, it is easy to come across exactly what Saudé was referring to. Pochoir allows for characteristics such as defined surface elevation through the use of thick pigment, visible brush strokes, texture, gradation and transparent colors. When
one views an original pochoir print, especially ane designed past an artist of Seguy'southward talent, it feels as if you are holding an original one of a kind painting in your mitt. The impress has a certain texture and surface quality akin to original gouache and watercolor paintings that is hard to notice in other reproduction methods.
Pochoir'south popularity lasted but through the 1930'south. The characteristics that made pochoir prints so magnificent were also the medium's eventual downfall. The pochoir process was expensive and quite labor intensive and was shortly replaced by techniques such every bit lithography and serigraphy.
The Walter Havighurst Special Collections is home to several folios of Seguy'southward work, containing the original pochoir prints. 1 cannot truly appreciate Seguy's artistic talent nor the unique qualities of the pochoir printing process without the ability to view these materials outset paw.
Ashley Jones
Preservation Librarian
jonesab2@miamioh.edu
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