A rarely seen and much sought-after work by the French designer and illustrator Mathurin Méheut (1882-1958). "Méheut was born into a family of artisans in Lamballe, Brittany, and apprenticed to a house painter before entering the École des Beaux-Arts de Rennes in 1898, from which he graduated at age 20. He then attended the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris, working for the revue Arts et Décoration to finance his studies. In 1906 he exhibited with the Société des Artistes Français. From 1910 to 1912 Méheut collaborated with naturalists at the Roscoff marine biology station to depict marine life. This period culminated in a book ( Etude de la Mer, Flore et Faune de la Manche et de l’Océan) [this work] and 450 works exhibited at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 1913. In 1914 he was awarded a travel scholarship by the Foundation Albert Kahn for visits to Hawaii and Japan in 1914, but his trip was cut short by World War I. In 1921 Méheut became the French Ministry of Defence's official painter and in 1925 began decorating commercial passenger ships, including the SS Normandie. Between world wars, he illustrated books for authors including Colette, Maurice Genevoix, and Pierre Loti, and created ceramics at Henriot in Quimper, at the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, and at Villeroy & Boch in Sarre. During the 1940s he taught at the École des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, served as decorator for the Institut de Géologie de Rennes, and completed his celebrated illustrations of Florian Le Roy's Vieux métiers Bretons. The Musée Mathurin Méheut in Lamballe, created in 1972, preserves his work" (Wikipedia). This work deals with the marine fauna and flora of the French Atlantic coast, and in particular of the English Channel. The fine illustrations show scenery, fish, and seaweeds (Volume I), and molluscs (mussels, sea snails, squid, octopi), crustaceans (crabs, lobsters), echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins), etc. (in Volume II). The text was written by the French designer and illustrator Maurice Pillard Verneuil (1869-1942), one of the foremost French Art Nouveau artists. It shows that Verneuil could rely on a thorough biological knowledge which on many occasions was of use for his own nature-based artwork. Provenance: With a pictorial, architectural bookplate of Anthony Heinsbergen (1894-1981). "Heinsbergen was an American muralist considered the foremost designer of North American movie theatre interiors. Born Antoon Heinsbergen in Haarlem (the Netherlands), he emigrated with his family to the United States in 1906 where they settled in Los Angeles. Heinsbergen began painting while still a boy; and, as a young man he worked as an apprentice painter and was one of the first students to take formal training from Mrs. Nelbert Chouinard at her Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. His area of interest in which he developed a renowned expertise was the painting of murals and in 1922 he went into business for himself. read more