Seguy, Émile Alain

1877 – 1951
French

This brilliant designer of graphic arts worked in Paris from the beginning of the 20th Century until the 1930s.  Very little is known about his life or education, but his fabulous designs speak of a man with a genius for color and its application.

Seguy created decorative designs intended to inspire patterns for wallpaper, textiles, packaging and carpets.  His signature touch is the exquisite use of pochoir coloration to create the illusion of individually hand painted works.  Many of his pochoir designs were collected in albums and his single plates are considered exceptional examples of ornamentation and composition.

Seguy’s colorful designs were primarily floral although he did use butterflies and insects to great effect.  His work done around 1900 is truly Art Nouveau in style and this influence remained in his work throughout his career.  Although motifs from the 1920s are decidedly more geometric and Art Deco in feel, the languid lines of Art Nouveau are never far away.