Lot 139: MAURICE P. VERNEUIL LA PLANTE ET SES APPLICATIONS ORNEMENTALES. 1895. 72 plates in 12 portfolios, each with an original cover. E. Levy, Paris.

MAURICE P. VERNEUIL LA PLANTE ET SES APPLICATIONS ORNEMENTALES. 1895. 72 plates in 12 portfolios, each with an original cover.
E. Levy, Paris.
Condition varies. Plates A. Covers separated along spine with losses and chipping at edges.
By the late 1890s Eugene Grasset had two studios in Paris. In addition to his own design studio he also operated a studio where his senior students worked on projects like this one, under his supervision. This portfolio was a key element of the propagation of the Art Nouveau Style in France and in continental Europe. Each student was assigned a specific approach. M. P. (Maurice Pillard) Verneuil (1869-1942), the most obviously talented, designed highly detailed plates of each plant seen from every angle. (Later, once on his own, Verneuil designed L'Animal dans la Decoration, 1897, which he dedicated to Grasset.) The other plates give examples of the use of the same plant to designs for wallpaper, textile, glass, silver, furniture, etc. They bear the signatures of lesser-known artists, such as Milisi, Hervegh, Poidevin, and two young ladies Marcelle Gaudin and Anna Martin. Beautifully printed and stencil colored, this work stands with Alphonse Mucha's Documents Decoratifs as one of the key manuals of the Art Nouveau movement. Arwas p. 67ff, Murray-Robertson p. 92-93, Verneuil p. 25 ff.