La Belle Jardinière – Eugène Grasset, 1896

The Twelve Months of the Year, colour chromotypographs designed by Eugène Grasset in 1894 and published by G. de Malherbe. Size (each image): approx. 20.5 × 15.5 cm.

This refined series presents twelve stylized female figures – one for each month of the year – each depicted as a ‘belle jardinière‘: an elegant young woman tending to a garden, dressed in seasonal attire adorned with motifs from the plant world. Their graceful poses reflect the hallmarks of Art Nouveau: strong composition, decorative filling of the picture plane, and an organic interplay between man and nature. Zodiac signs are subtly integrated into the fabric patterns, referencing the corresponding time of year.

The designs are by Eugène Grasset (1845 – 1917), a key figure in the revival of the applied arts at the fin de siècle. Grasset championed an art rooted in the past – especially medieval traditions and Japanese woodblock prints – while also drawing renewed vitality from nature to shape a contemporary visual language.

In 1896, the illustrations were repurposed for a luxurious calendar issued by the Parisian fashion house La Belle Jardinière. Located on the banks of the Seine near the Pont Neuf, the department store offered ready-to-wear clothing to a new middle-class clientele and enjoyed great success for several decades. The company was acquired in 1972 by Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy.

Price: Euro 2.450,- (complete set of 12 prints)