This exhibition shows the book L'animal dans la decoration (The animal in decoration). This is a collection of Chromolithographs created by the artist Maurice Pillard Verneuil in 1897. The book contains 60 plates, with each plate depicting different animals incorporated into many different designs.
This colourful work shows how animals fit into design and decoration. Art Nouveau was in its infancy at this time, a movement which was mostly known for its decoration within design, influencing especially the areas of Architecture and Graphic Design.
The Chromolithograph process that was used to make the plates is a close relation to the lithograph process of producing prints. A lithograph uses a combination of a greasy wax or ink to outline a design onto special stone and then the printer will use a combination of water and ink to roll the design onto paper. Chromolithographs employ the same process however different stones (sometimes as many as twenty) are used to print each of the different colours in the print.
Though the designs for the chromolithographs were created by the artist Verneuil, it can be seen how much of the creation of the book is also down to editor, E. Lévy and printers, Imprimerie Lemercier et cie who were based in Paris at the time. There is also an introduction to the book written by the Swiss artist Eugène Grasset.
The image library for the collections of Edinburgh Libraries and Museums and Galleries