Artist · 4 prints
Auguste Racinet Prints
About Auguste Racinet
Auguste Racinet, full name Albert-Charles-Auguste Racinet, was a French illustrator, painter and writer, born in Paris and active in the second half of the nineteenth century. He died in 1893. He worked for the Paris publisher Firmin-Didot.
Racinet is best known for two great illustrated reference books. L'Ornement polychrome (Polychrome Ornament), first published in 1869–1873 with a second series in 1885–1887, gathers around 2,000 decorative motifs from many cultures and periods, printed in colour, gold and silver. Le Costume historique (Historic Costume), issued between 1876 and 1888 in six volumes with 500 plates, surveys dress around the world.
Auguste Racinet prints: reproductions of chromolithograph plates from L'Ornement polychrome, the nineteenth-century book of decorative patterns by the French illustrator Auguste Racinet. The collection includes the plates Renaissance, Middle Ages, Arabian and Chinese.
This selection takes plates from different decorative traditions, European and Asian, so they can be compared side by side. Each plate gathers many small motifs, borders and panels from that culture, laid out on one page and printed in rich, flat colour. The designs are dense and precise.
The detailed patterns suit libraries, studies, dining rooms and hallways, and the plates hang well together as a set or in a row. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with low-glare acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
