Émile-Alain Séguy

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.

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.