#hcl arts collection

TREASURES FROM THE VAULTS

Pochoir Prints by E.A. Séguy

Earlier this week we held Special Collections tours featuring treasures from our rare book collections. Favorites for many were the folio sets of colorful insects and butterflies by E.A. Séguy.

E.A. (Emile-Allain) Séguy was a French designer during the Art Deco and Art Nouveau movements of the early 20th century. He was known for his patterns for textiles, inspired by the natural world, especially insects. Because of this, he is often confused with Eugene Alain Séguy, a French entomologist active in Paris during the same time. The vividly colored butterflies and insects in Séguy’s books were created using a printing process called pochoir—French for “stencil”—which is a complex, labor-intensive technique of applying layers of paint through stencils, sometimes dozens of stencils, to produce a single print. The popularity of this technique only lasted through the 1930s and was soon replaced by screen printing. Though we have seen a bit of a resurgence in the technique—including a recent acquisition in the Book Arts and Fine Press Collection—When the World Was Asked to Shelter, by Julie Baugnet (2021).

Findmore of Séguy’s work at the Hennepin County Library.

Pochoir prints from E.A. Séguy’s Insectes (1929) and Papillons (1928) from the Arts Collection in the Hennepin County Library Special Collections.