Maurice Pillard Verneuil and the Art Nouveau

Illustration: M P Verneuil. Design work, 1897.

Maurice Pillard Verneuil was born in 1869 and showed early promise with his draughtsman-like quality drawing skills. He became an assistant to the great Swiss/French artist and graphic designer Eugene Grasset. Grasset himself was heavily influenced by the traditional flat design and block colour techniques of Japanese printmaking and from here Verneuil was to both follow and then create a style that was chiefly of his own construction..

Illustration: M P Verneuil. Design work, 1897.

Verneuil was soon producing poster work in Paris alongside the likes of Toulouse-Lautrec and Cheret. Although today Verneuil is very often not linked with the likes of Lautrec, he was at the time recognised as a talented decorative artist, as these designs produced by him in 1897, clearly show.

Verneuil has used a keen observant eye to capture the flora and fauna portrayed in his design work. Birds, fish, squirrels and other animals are ingeniously intertwined with luxurious plants and flowers, though none seem to actually touch each other, or if they do, it is with the merest wisp.

Illustration: M P Verneuil. Design work, 1897.

Verneuil has captured one of the major characteristics of the Art Nouveau style, namely its undulating and intertwining forms, and transformed it into an elegant ballet between flora and fauna.

The animals become motifs on a full, textured background, with the repeat being subtle enough not to appear as if as a formal and rigidly set stamp repeat, as it often can with so many lesser skilled patterned pieces.

Illustration: M P Verneuil. Design work, 1897.

These designs are from one of the many pattern books that were used in the nineteenth and well into the twentieth centuries, throughout Europe. The books are a great reference library of the stylistic routes that design took through the decades that saw the rise of Gothic medievalism, through the countless Victorian Revivals to Art Nouveau and then onto the Art Deco period.

What is interesting is that Verneuil was able to straddle both the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles. Not an easy task as the two styles although often appearing to have at least some similar traits, have many more differences in their main character.

Illustration: M P Verneuil. Design work, 1897.

Verneuil went on to produce work into the 1920s that was sharply abstract in style. The design work was Art Deco in nature, but like the work shown here, was much more than the standard fair with a convenient style name attached to it.

Verneuil, and others like him, should be better known today than they generally are. They consistently produced high quality design work over a long period, through many different styles and forms of decoration. Without them the design and decorative world would be a much poorer place.

Further reading links:
Maurice Pillard-Verneuil: Artiste decorateur de l'Art nouveau, 1869-1942 (French Edition)
Patterns and Designs from the Twenties in Full Color (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Art Nouveau Animal Designs and Patterns: 60 Plates in Full Color (Dover Pictorial Archive)
Laurenol No. 2 Art Print Poster by M.P. Verneuil
Abstract Art: Patterns and Designs
Water Lily II HIGH QUALITY CANVAS Print With Light Added BRUSHSTROKES M. P. Verneuil 10x18
Decorative Flowers: After the Plates by M.P. Verneuil
250 Authentic Art Nourveau Borders in Full Color (Pictorial Archive)
Arts And Crafts Oak MUSEUM WRAP CANVAS Print With Added Heavy BRUSHSTROKES M. P. Verneuil 18x24
Hazel Tree MUSEUM WRAP CANVAS Print With Added Heavy BRUSHSTROKES M. P. Verneuil 10x13
Water Lily I Art Poster PRINT M. P. Verneuil 10x18
M.p. Verneuil - Cardus Size 11.75x15.75 MUSEUM WRAP CANVAS Print With Added Heavy BRUSHSTROKES M. P. Verneuil 12x16