Verneuill and the Full Decorative Experience

Illustration: Maurice Pillard Verneuill, 1897.

Some of the most dazzlingly decorative pattern work produced in recent times is that by designer Maurice Pillard Verneuill. From about the end of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, Verneuill produced a consistently high standard of decorative work that could be used as both a source for practical application as well as an even richer source of inspiration.

All five of the examples shown in this article were originally published in 1897 and although to all intents and purposes Verneuill's style can be firmly placed within the realms of Art Nouveau, there is always usually much more to the work of a designer than a handy period name in which to place them. In some respects decorative art periods and eras can often be seen as more of a convenient framework in which to coral creative people of their day, rather than being necessarily and entirely accurate. Therefore, many designers can for example be dropped into Gothic, Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Modernism, etc. However, many are placed into these categories when only one facet of their creative style fits the period, most creative people are multi-faceted and have an annoying tendency, at least to writers of coffee table books, of not entirely fitting the mould of the decorative period. Often these annoying extras are conveniently ignored or briefly explained away as a one off anomaly, or even as some form of negative quality within their career. However, this is to ignore the complexity of the individual creative who often brings in design elements from any number of sources including childhood, literature, past and present likes and interests, family, friends, cultural and religious connections, and many more. It is the complexity and the ability through that complexity of not fitting entirely and conveniently into decorative periods that have usually been designated long after the style era has passed, that should be both celebrated and widely acknowledged as the human creative condition.

Illustration: Maurice Pillard Verneuill, 1897.

To see it within a contemporary framework, at some point in the future our own era will have a name attached to it, which will be neatly packaged and designed, leaving no untidy extras. Most of us will be forced to inhabit this style era even though many may well feel that they had little if anything in common with the designation. However, as we may all be long dead by then, we will have little in which to argue otherwise. It does raise the rather complex issue of future generations having a decidedly different view of events as well as individuals and their creative careers. Do we and our descendants forcibly manipulate the past creative world to suit our own agendas and tidy world view, placing everyone within eras such as Art Nouveau, Art Deco, etc.? Every creative person would like to be seen, and probably deserves to be seen as an individual, outside of the constraints of an imposed design era. Unfortunately, that won't happen anytime soon and so we are left with the inexact and often crude decorative style eras imposed by others.

Illustration: Maurice Pillard Verneuill, 1897.

To be fair, to some extent at least it could be said that Verneuill fits well into these imposed decorative eras, particularly with his portfolio work which was meant to be practically applied by designers and companies through a range of disciplines. Therefore, he produced a number of portfolios of work throughout the period of the 1890s and 1900s that clearly followed at least the generalised ideals of Art Nouveau. He was still popular in the 1920s and was by then producing much more Modernist influenced work which appealed to the new post World War I decorative era, what would eventually be classed in the 1960s as Art Deco. However, as already stated, this can only ever be an approximation and there are far too many internal and external factors regarding the individual creative, to make labels either altogether meaningless, or an unhappy approximation.

Illustration: Maurice Pillard Verneuill, 1897.

Although much of the portfolio work that Verneuill produced in 1897 contained pages of either singular or multi-patterned choices, I have chosen five examples that give what appears to be an almost all-encompassing decorative experience. Here Verneuill has allowed the page to become a set in which a number of factors of decoration have been allowed to enter, interestingly inclusive of decoration for three dimensional pieces, ceramics in particular. Although many ceramicists did use Verneuill's work and others to decorate a range of practical and decorative ceramic ware, many of the portfolios gave only flat pattern as examples. Verneuill has interestingly expanded this to include vessels with idealised pattern work. All of which gives these pages in particular an overall feeling not so much depth, which is passed over quite lightly with a superficial perspective, but a genuine depth of pattern that almost luxurious in its rich use of line and colour. 

 Illustration: Maurice Pillard Verneuill, 1897.

In some respects, these pages which to all intents and purposes were meant as a practical and technical tool, have taken on a distinctive appeal all of their own. They give a genuine understanding of why decoration and pattern is so important not only to the decorative artist and designer, but to humanity as a whole. These pages are a celebration by Verneuill of the appeal, passion, even necessity of decoration which is shown to be both timeless and within its time. By this I mean that although Verneuill produced work that was obviously influenced by his own contemporary world, one that was heavily intrigued by the many differing aspects of Art Nouveau, he also incorporated elements of design and decoration that made contacts with not only previous decorative eras, but previous cultures. Creative people rarely limit themselves to their own contemporary era and often gain inspiration from either the physical survivals from the ancient past, or even that daydreamed from ancient cultures and eras. It all adds to the vocabulary of the creative individual and their resulting work, which in turn adds to the full decorative experience. Although Verneuill may not be as well known today as perhaps he should be, these pages must surely give an indication as to the high status he naturally held as a decorative designer.

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Franz Metzner and the Structure of Carpet Design

Illustration: Franz Metzner. Carpet design, c1906.

The German sculptor Franz Metzner was a relatively important artist of his time and was particularly influential during the period that incorporated the Jugendstil. His sculpture which was very often incorporated within an architectural setting, both inside and out, tended towards a form of semi-abstraction, with figures often appearing to be rooted within the framework of a building.

Although Metzner was almost exclusively seen as a fine art sculptor, he did produce a certain amount of design work, particularly in carpet design. It is always an interesting diversion in the career of fine artists, to see work that was not necessarily focused on the absolute and the unrepeated. Although, to some extent Metzner could be classed as working at least within some of the confines of architecture, a design discipline, particularly due to his close association between sculpture, ornamentation and architectural detail, he would still be better categorised as a fine artist.

The three carpet designs shown in this article were produced by Metzner in the first decade of the twentieth century. Interestingly, they all show a severe limitation in any real form of expansive decoration or pattern work. Although in Germany there was certainly an element within the design structure of the period towards the limiting and even containment of the more expansive and stylised areas of Art Nouveau, some would even say affectation, even in Germany this was often treated with a certain amount of creative licence.

Illustration: Franz Metzner. Carpet design, c1906.

Metzner seems to have foreshadowed at least elements of carpet and rug decoration that were to be seen a decade or so later in the Art Deco period. This form of extreme geometry that works so well on the flat surface of a rug or carpet, particularly when seen within some of the starker Modernist interiors of the early twentieth century, came to dominate large sections of the textile market which included woven and printed textiles, carpet and rug, tapestry and even embroidery.

The limited and all-over pattern work produced by Metzner, paid little attention to the traditions of carpet and rug design. Whilst he was still capable of using such conventions as borders, as well as using the rectangular or square format, he made those conventions work for him. The practical vertical and horizontal nature of a carpet was used by Metzner to produce his pattern work. He did not insist on using the dimensions of the carpet in order to compose a freestyle composition that paid little attention to the formula of the discipline. Instead, he made the decorative pattern work a feature of the weaving process by creating a vertical and horizontal network that strictly adhered to the technical aspects of the carpet, as you often find in woven materials, but less so in carpet and rug design.

By placing more emphasis on the structure of the underlying practical aspects of the carpet, in many ways Metzner cleverly reflected what were often seen, and still are, as the limiting aspects of textile design. It is often thought that the technical rules of a discipline hinder creativity, but in many respects those same practical rules of limitation can also lead to levels of creativity that are more profound to the discipline than if they were intentionally ignored.

Illustration: Franz Metzner. Carpet design, 1910.

By understanding perhaps that a carpet or rug was basically a structured framework rather than a blank canvas in which to impose a composition, Metzner produced a set of decorative carpet designs that could be seen as strikingly original, whilst at the same time being also grounded within the perceived limitations of the discipline. By flowing with the discipline, rather than against it, by expressing the underlying vocabulary of the structure of its construction through the visual language of pattern and decoration, rather than trying to fight against its natural rules and limitations, we can achieve design work that is far from limited in its scope and direction. Whatever textile discipline we choose to work in and from whatever direction we have arrived at that discipline, using the natural boundaries of the craft as a theme, guide, or starting point of inspiration can often lead to stronger, more centred and certainly more harmonious finished pieces than if we were to constantly struggle to impose a foreign concept to a discipline purely for the sake of it.

This is not to say that parameters should never be challenged, that has been the lifeblood of design, decoration and craft. It also does not necessarily mean that 'tradition' is the best formula in which to work. However, working within a discipline, understanding its vocabulary, both practical and ephemeral, allows an individual to take that discipline for a long creative walk whilst still within the framework of its natural traditions.

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