Fantaisies Décoratives
Not on view
Habert-Dys was a pivotal figure in the French decorative arts in the transitional period from Japonisme to Art Nouveau. During the 1880s, he produced several portfolios of designs, most famous of which is his Fantasies Décoratives (1886/87). The publication was aimed at an international audience, with separate editions coming out in Paris, London, Milan, Berlin and, eventually New York. The color lithographs showing pattern and object designs were initially published as 12 separate fascicles of 4 plates each, wrapped in a blue paper cover. In this album, all plates are bound in sequence using the blue cover of the first fascicle as the title plate for all 48 plates. The other 11 wrappers are bound in at the back of the album. At the back is also included a double-sided plate with the table of contents, which includes translations of the subject of each plate in French, German, English, Dutch, Italian and Spanish.
