Papillons: 1 Smyrna blomfildia - Mexique 2 Papilio policenes - Guinea 3. Cyrestis elegans - Madagascar 4. Coloenis dido - Brasil 5 Tithorea bonplandi - Colombie.

Born in France in around 1877, Emile-Alain Seguy studied at the School of Decorative Arts in Paris and later oversaw the Decorative Arts department of the Grand Magasin Au Printemps, Boulevard Hausmann. Seguy was a highly influential practitioner who became known for his sophisticated catalogues imbuing the elegant curves and nuances of the Art Noveau as it was giving way to the geometric clarity and exuberance of the Art Deco. Emphasising the science in art and the art in science, he produced eleven catalogues with natural history themes.

Papillons included sixteen plates of deceptively precise large-scale depictions of butterflies from all parts of the world, intended to act as ‘source’ plates for designers who hadn’t the necessary knowledge or access to specialist collections of the more exotic specimens, with four further plates demonstrating combinations for decorations, textiles and wall papers.
Seguy’s catalogues employed the expensive and time consuming Pochoir stencil technique. Stencils had been in use since the 16th century but it was the influence of Japanese printing in the 19th century that saw the process refined to create the Pochoir technique, which required numerous stencils cut by a ‘découpeur’ from aluminium, copper, or zinc and eventually celluloid or plastic. These were then arranged by ‘coloristes’ who used a variety of brushes and application methods to lay the pigments and create the finished article.

At the height of its popularity, the Paris graphic design studios employed more than five hundred découpeurs and coloristes with all Parisian Grands Magasins employing an ‘ensemblier’ or ‘artiste decoratuer’, forerunner of the Interior Designer. The Pochoir technique remained immensely popular throughout the 1920’s in Paris until the crash of the stock market in 1929. The Great Depression not only heralded the demise of the majority of studios but also their costly and laborious technique of choice. Seguy continued working to the mid twentieth century moving away from the Art Noveau and Art Deco eventually focusing on Cubism but it is for these rich, vibrant Pochoirs for which he is best known today.