Culture
Words by Michel Wlassikoff
Grasset’s Histoire des Quatre Fils Aymon
Bibliophiles initially disdained the innovative, beautifully illustrated Histoire des quatre fils Aymon by Eugène Grasset, despite its original use of the “gillotage” printing process and its then-novel influences from medieval art and Japanese prints.
Bibliophiles initially disdained the innovative, beautifully illustrated Histoire des quatre fils Aymon by Eugène Grasset, despite its original use of the “gillotage” printing process and its then-novel influences from medieval art and Japanese prints.
From 1881 to 1883, Eugène Grasset (1844–1917) illustrated Histoire des quatre fils Aymon, Très nobles et très vaillants chevaliers, which benefits from an innovative printing process, “gillotage”, allowing color reproductions of good quality and far away from chromolithography. He also designs the initials, ornaments, headers, cul-de-lampe, and puts text and images into a set of previously unpublished reports.
Like William Morris, his contemporary, Grasset tackles almost all forms of decorative art : designs for fabrics, wallpaper, furniture, ironwork, stained glass and books. He is also a lover of medieval art and Japanese prints, influences that we find in this masterpiece of the illustrated book, but whose edition of two hundred copies is then disdained by bibliophiles.
Document:
Histoire des quatre fils Aymon, Très nobles et très vaillants chevaliers, illustrated by Eugène Grasset, Paris, H. Launette publisher, 1883.
École Estienne library
