In 1897, the French designer Maurice Pillard Verneuil released L’animal dans la décoration (The Animal in Decoration), a portfolio featuring traditional decorative flora and fauna, such as water lilies and peacocks. “The Art Nouveau style is characterized by organic designs based overwhelmingly on plants and flowers, which are patternized often through the flattening of forms into color planes defined by the use of strong outline, and its hallmark ‘whiplash’ curved lines” ( Saunders 2010 ), and Verneuil's work is a prime example.
