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Amazing Art Nouveau Animal designs, Maurice Pillard Verneuil Prints

These beautiful art nouveau animal designs are from the book “L’animal dans la Décoration” by Maurice Pillard Verneuil. The book was published in 1897.

Maurice Pillard Verneuil was a French artist and interior designer predominantly associated with the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements. There is a collection of his art nouveau flower prints and designs on Pictureboxblue.

The collection here is the Maurice Pillard Verneuil designs and patterns inspired by the animal kingdom. These art nouveau prints celebrate the wide variety of designs in nature. They are heavily influenced by plant and animal forms such as birds, fish, insects, flowers, trees and other living creatures.

By closely studying these natural forms, Verneuil created a wonderful collection of colourful and striking decorative prints. These were primarily designed to be used by interior designers, to be used for wallpaper, textiles, ironwork, painted borders and friezes, like those of William Morris.

Free Art Nouveau Prints

Maurice Pillard Verneuil

Verneuil was born in France in 1869. But after the first world war, he moved to Switzerland until he died in 1942. Before he became a well-known designer, he studied his craft with the Swiss designer Eugène Grasset.

Grasset was a Swiss designer considered a pioneer in Art Nouveau design. Art Nouveau design started in the 1890s and was widely used in interior design, graphic arts, furniture, glass art, textiles, ceramics, jewellery and metalwork. 

This artistic movement was superseded by Art Deco design in the 1920s. Verneuil also contributed greatly to this artistic mode later on in his career.

Inspired by Japanese art and nature, particularly the sea, Verneuil loved colourful, bold geometric patterns, a strong theme throughout his designs.

How To Download the Maurice Pillard Verneuil Prints

All the prints in this collection are in the Public Domain, and you can print and use them as you wish. From the New York Public Library and Rawpixel.

To download a design, click on the title above the designs you want. A higher-resolution image will open as a new window in your browser. If you click on that image with your mouse, the menu option to save that image to your device will appear.

They can either be printed at home or uploaded the file to an online print shop. Unless you have an exceptionally excellent home printer, I recommend getting the prints done professionally. Online printing is very affordable; choose a high-quality paper option for your images.

These patterns are great designs for crafting, scrapbooking and decoupage.

The Art Nouveau Animal Designs

1. Fish, Seaweed and Peacocks

Fish and seaweed, rooster, spandrel; peacocks and vines; hares, dogs and brambles in border from design.

Art Nouveau pattern fish peacocks

2. Pigeon and Poppies Stained Glass

The art nouveau animal designs in this plate are, fish and seaweed, wallpaper; pigeon and poppies, stained glass border.

Pigeons and Poppies

3. Frogs and Lilies

Frogs and water lilies, border; dragonflies, stencil; flying fish, dragonflies, borders.

Frogs and lilies art nouveau animal designs

4. Swans and Mushrooms

Mushrooms and butterflies, border; swans, irises and water lilies. An Art Nouveau animal design for cloisonné enamel.

Swans and Mushrooms

5. Art Nouveau Animal Design Red Mullet

Red Mullet

6. Snails Border

Snails, border, dragonfly and reeds, wallpaper and seagulls.

Snails pattern border

7. Maurice Pillard Verneuil Print Butterflies

Butterflies are a very common theme in Art Nouveau designs.

Papillons by Maurice Pillard Verneuil.

8. Eagle and Macaw

Eagle and oak, macaws and corn, borders. Fish and birds, frieze.

eagles and macaws pattern

9. Swans and Deer

Swans border. Butterflies and foliage, fabric. Deer and hinds, frieze from L’animal dans la Décoration (1897) illustrated by Maurice Pillard Verneuil.

Swans and Deer Art Nouveau animal designs

10. Fishes and Cockatoos

Fishes, stencilled frieze. Cockatoos and lemons.

Sulphur crested cockatoos are one of my favourite animals and I will be adding this print to my collection of cockatoos.

Fish and Cocatoos L'animal dans la décoration (1897)

11. Jellyfish and Seaweed

An art nouveau animal design of jellyfish and seaweed, stained glass. Cicadas and lilies, peacocks and laburnum, borders.

The illustrations of the zoologist Ernst Haeckel influenced the art nouveau movement. If you check out Haeckel’s jellyfish paintings, you can see why.

Art Nouveau Animal Designs jellyfish and seaweed

12. Peacocks in Rowan Trees

Peacocks in rowan trees, stencil; fish and seaweed, border from L’ animal dans la Décoration (1897) illustrated by Maurice Pillard Verneuil.

Peacocks and rowan tree

13. Squirrels

Swifts and honeysuckle, border. Squirrels and hazel, wallpaper. Birds and hazelnut in bloom, border.

Art nouveau squirrels pattern

14. Cicadas and Thistles

Crows, stenciled border; cicadas and thistles.

Maurice Pillard Verneuil Cicadas and thistles s

15. Kingfishes

Kingfishers, dragonflies and flowerhead in umbrellas, borders; butterflies, fabric.

kingfishes wallpaper pattern

16. Eagles and Oak

Eagles and oak, wallpaper. Antelopes, tigers, cacti and palm trees.

Eagles and oak

17. Birds and Wisteria

Birds and wisteria, wall hanging. Lizards and ivy, border.

birds and wisteria wallpaper pattern

18. Butterflies and Grasshoppers

Butterflies and poppies, translucent enamel night light. Peacocks, cloisonné enamel vase. Birds wall hanging. Capricorns, bottom game. Grasshoppers, border.

Art-nouveau-animal-design-butterflies and grasshoppers

19. Fly Birds and Orchids

Dragonflies, flower bud, water lilies, panel. Fly birds and orchids, fabric. Birds border.

Maurice-Pillard-Verneuil- flybirds-orchids

20. Cockatoo and Dogs

Cockatoo, border. Dogs, deer and wild boar, embossed and gilded leather.

cockatoos and dogs

21. Bats

Bats and poppies, wall hanging. Butterflies and bellflowers, wallpaper.

Art-nouveau-animal-design-bats

22. Cockatoos and Magnolia

Cockatoos and magnolia, border. White mice.

Cocaktoos and Magnolia

23. Golden Pheasant

Birds, background game. Snails and mushroom. Ladybugs fabric. Golden pheasant and iris, border.

Golden-pheasant-art-nouveau-pattern

24. Deer and Trees

Art nouveau design pattern of deer and trees, wallpaper. Squirrel birds and rowan, border.

Deer and Trees

25. Kingfishes and Horses

Art nouveau animal design patterns of kingfishers and flowering rush, wallpaper. Horses and trees, border.

kingfishes-horsest-art-nouveau-pattern

26. Doves

Doves and lilies, printed art nouveau fabric design.

Doves

27. Flying fish and waves

Flying fish and waves, wallpaper. Cicadas and pine, wallpaper. Nautilus shells, border.

28. Clouds and Eagles

Clouds eagles and pigeons, wallpaper. Seashells and seaweed border.

clouds-eagles-art-nouveau-pattern

29. Gurnard

Art nouveau animal designs of peacocks and poppies, border. Gurnard, seaweed and shells, cloisonné enamel dish.

Gurnard

30. Woodpeckers

Woodpeckers and tree, vertical border. Rabbits and leaves, border. Jellyfish, sea anemones and algae, mud. Insects, background.

Art-nouveau-animal-design-woodpeckers

31. Pheasants and Foxes

An art nouveau animal design is described as, ordinary pheasants, foxgloves, ferns and dandelions for printed fabric. The border is a fox, birds and vine pattern.

Verneuil art nouveau print

The Arts and Crafts movement proceeded Art Nouveau, and Martin Gerlach’s vintage plant art from that time had similar plant patterns with animals.

If you enjoyed these gorgeous colourful art nouveau design prints, don’t forget to check out the many other art and design collections on Pictureboxblue, including the Alphonse Mucha advertisement posters. Especially these Art Nouveau pochoir butterfly prints and Seguy’s insects.

Verneuil was greatly influenced by Japanese art and design, so you might want to check out the Japanese vintage collection on Pictureboxblue. And the Chinoiserie interior prints from Brighton Pavilion.

Art-nouveau-animal-designs-

HAMEL, CLARE LOUISE

Tuesday 15th of August 2023

These are spectacular and you can definitely see William Morris in some of the backgrounds. The colours and designs are just wonderful. Thank you so much for making these available online

claire

Tuesday 15th of August 2023

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoy them.

Peter

Saturday 9th of July 2022

Just a big big big thank you love what you give &sending to me love them all & most doing my little art project with them . Thanks again Peter Scotland xx

claire

Monday 11th of July 2022

Thank you, you're art project sounds interesting.

Laura

Saturday 16th of October 2021

These are so beautiful, thank you so much for sharing them! Just what I was looking for!

claire

Saturday 16th of October 2021

Yes, they are beautiful designs.

Rebecca Payne

Sunday 1st of August 2021

I love all of these. Thank you for sharing.

claire

Monday 2nd of August 2021

Thank you so much.

andrew

Sunday 1st of August 2021

Thanks once again for some lovely additions to my collection.

claire

Sunday 1st of August 2021

Thank you, glad you are enjoying the art prints.