Full-Color Floral Designs in the Art Nouveau Style (Dover Pictorial Archives)

E. A. Seguy was one of the foremost French designers of the first third of the twentieth century. He produced many splendid albums of designs over a long and distinguished career. This book reproduces in full color 40 plates from the two color portfolios called Les fleurs et leurs applications décoratives [c. 1902] - one of the high points in Art Nouveau design. The 40 plates included here contain 166 decorative Art Nouveau patterns. Lacy and delicate interpretations of flowers ranging from arum and arrowhead to water lily and wisteria, these patterns offer such color combinations as a blue-petaled flower with green leaves on a mustard background, salmon-colored flower with robin's-egg-blue leaves on a beige field, and royal-blue flowers with golden leaves on golden stems silhouetted in light blue-green on a deep blue-green field. The colors in this volume are strong and bold, prefiguring such later influences as Persian art and the Ballets Russes. Twenty of the plates in the original portfolios contained ordinary realistic renderings of 30 plants, and they have been omitted from this volume. The wide variety of flat designs are perfect for textiles, wallpapers, and packaging, and offer many ideas for mosaics, stained glass, rugs and bookbindings. Containing borders, circular designs, repeats, allovers, and "spots," this collection has something to interest everyone in the graphics field.