Modern Print Monday: Maurice Pillard Verneuil

Nasturiums by Maurice Pillard Verneuil, late 19th century, France

Maurice Pillard Verneuil (1869–1942)

Daughter Vivianne was born in 1910.

Verneuil was born in Saint-Quentin dans l'Aisne in northern France. In Paris he studied at L'École Guérin under Art Nouveau graphic artist Eugène Grasse. Verneuil and Alphonse Mucha developed Grasse's ideas and imagery into the 20th century.

Floral repeats from Verneuil's pattern books

About 1920 he opened a studio and school in Switzerland in Chexbres overlooking Lake Geneva (Lac Léman). He remained in Switzerland until his death in 1942. His birth name was probably Pillard and he added the Verneuil later. A French reference: (Verneuil, Maurice pseudonyme de Pillard)

Design for Stencil, 1910

We know Verneuil mainly because of his many pattern books published between 1896 and 1927.

Animals in Design was published in 1897

Kaleidoscope: Abstract Ornament

was published in 1926...

Influenced by the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs.

A repeat pattern from Kaleidoscope

(Very Charles Rennie Mackintosh)

Verneuil's designs were republished in the late-20th-century revival of interest in Art Nouveau.

Verneuil did not actually design textiles that went into production but his design books influenced many artists who did produce wallpapers and fabrics.

With Alphonse Mucha and Georges Auriol he published a 1910 book on design repeat called Combinaisons ornementales or Ornamental Combinations Multiplied to Infinity with a Mirror.

Read Combinaisons Ornementales at the Internet Archive here:
https://archive.org/details/CombinaisonsOrnementales

The New York Public Library has many Vernueil plates in their online collection:
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?word=14042&s=1&notword=&f=13&sScope=Name&sLabel=Verneuil%2C%20M%2E%20P%2E%20%28Maurice%20Pillard%29

See more here in French:
http://www.meublepeint.com/maurice-pillard-verneuil.htm

You can buy a scarf derived from Verneuil's designs at the Metropolitan Museum Gift Shop:
http://store.metmuseum.org/neckerchiefs/art-nouveau-swirls-neckerchief/invt/80016232#.U4Hm3fldXJ4

A list in French of Verneuil's pattern books:

1897 Dictionnaire des symboles emblèmes et attributs, Éditions Slatkine
1898 L'animal dans la décoration, Ed. A.Lévy
1904 Documents ornementaux (publié sous la direction de M. Pillard Verneuil), Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts
1908 Étude de la plante, Librairie Centrale des Beaux Arts
1910 Étoffes japonaises tissées et brochées
1910 L'ornementation par le pochoir, Éditions Schmid et Laurens
1910 Combinaisons ornementales , Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts
1913 Le livre de la mer illustré, Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts
1927 L'art à Java : les temples de la période classique indo-javanaise, Éditions Vanoest