Auguste Faguet
Encyclopedia
Auguste Faguet produced fine botanical wood engraving
Wood engraving
Wood engraving is a technique in printmaking where the "matrix" worked by the artist is a block of wood. It is a variety of woodcut and so a relief printing technique, where ink is applied to the face of the block and printed by using relatively low pressure. A normal engraving, like an etching,...
s to illustrate the works of Henri Ernest Baillon
Henri Ernest Baillon
Henri Ernest Baillon was a French botanist and physician. He was born in Calais on November 30, 1827 and died in Paris on July 19, 1895.Baillon spent his professional life as a professor of natural history, and he published numerous works on botany...
. For the "Dictionnaire de botanique", which appeared in 34 fascicles between 1876 and 1892, he produced 32 chromolithographed plates, published with each fascicle.
Faguet's drawings involve accurate perspective, his skill creating persuasive depth. Faguet's other work for Baillon included "Recherches des coniferes" of 1860, 1186 woodcuts in "Traite de botanique medicale phanerogamique" 1883-1884, 370 woodcuts in "Traite de botanique medicale cryptogamique" of 1889, "Loganiacees" of 1856 and "Bignoniacees" of 1864. Henri Faguet also did illustrations for Edouard Bureau's "Monographie des bignoniacee" of 1864, Alfred Grandidier
Alfred Grandidier
Alfred Grandidier was a French naturalist and explorer.From a very wealthy family, he and his brother, Ernest Grandidier , undertook a voyage around the world...
's "Histoire physique, naturelle et politique de Madagascar" of 1875 and his "Histoire naturelle des plantes" that appeared between 1886 and 1903. Faguet also collaborated on a periodical, "L'Horticulteur Francais", between 1851 and 1872. His excellent woodcuts were overtaken by the renewed use of metal printing plates for botanical illustrations. Thiebault and Faguet illustrated Henri Baillon's "Histoire des plantes" (1866-1895). Faguet supplied engraved text figures for Georges Octave Dujardin-Beaumetz (1833-1895) & Egasse's "Les plantes medicinales indigenes ex exotique" of 1889, and contributed to "The Floral Register", a periodical which appeared between 1825 and 1851.