Atelier Mourlot

Still Life after Josef Nigg: Luxurious arrangement of carnations, primroses, tulips, lilies, roses and peonies with butterflies, grapes and peaches.

At a young age Josef Nigg began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Professor Johann Drechsler, an accomplished botanical artist. Nigg would be heavily influenced, as Drechsler had been, by the preeminent Dutch artist Jan van Huijsum whose style would dominate botanical still lifes until the mid 19th century. From around 1800 Nigg began painting botanicals in enamel on porcelain for the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory and by 1818 he’d reached such acclaim his porcelain panels were presented to the Prince Regent (later George IV) by Francis II, Emperor of Austria. Nigg continued painting as well as teaching throughout the so called Austrian Biedermeier era which emphasised the genteel, comfortable majesty of simple pleasures. In 1851 Nigg presented on behalf of the manufactory a large botanical on porcelain to the Great Exhibition of 1851 but the factory was increasingly unable to compete with more innovative manufacturers and was dissolved by the Austrian parliament a year after Nigg’s death.

Established in 1852 Mourlot Freres originally produced wallpapers and then branched out into labels and stationery. In the 1920’s, under the direction of Fernand Mourlot, the studio of Atelier Mourlot was established focusing on fine art lithography and commercial posters particularly for exhibitions. Artists were invited to collaborate with lithographers and soon the Atelier was attracting some of the most innovative Parisienne artists from Matisse to Picasso becoming known for its high-quality colour or chromo-lithography. The Nigg Bouquets were issued shortly after the end of WWII at a time of heightened artistic nostalgia; issued in limited numbers with each bouquet requiring nearly thirty printings for each colour, the set exemplifies the mastery of the Atelier’s artisans.