Auguste Racinet
French, 1825-1893
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Albert Charles Auguste Racinet was a French costumer, illustrator, painter and author of several works on costume and ornament history that are still reprinted to this day.
He was initially trained as a lithographer and draftsman by his father, Charles-Auguste Racinet, and received further training at the École de dessin in Paris. From 1849 to 1874 he participated in the annual exhibitions of the Paris Salon, but he gained his importance through his contributions as an illustrator of scientific works, especially art and costume history.
His work in this area began in the 1840s with his father on a work with plates based on models by Ferdinand Séré (1818-1855) and texts by the historian Charles Léopold Louandre, entitled Histoire du costume et de l' ameublement au Moyen Âge. After Séré's untimely death, Les Arts somptuaires was published by Hangard-Maugé in 1857-1858. Histoire du costume et de l'ameublement et des arts et industries qui s'y rattachent in 2 volumes of text and 2 plates. Another part of the planned work appeared with text by Paul Lacroix in five volumes from 1848 to 1851 under the titleLe Moyen âge et la Renaissance, histoire et description des moeurs et usages, du commerce et de l'industrie, des sciences, des arts, des littératures et des beaux-arts en Europe, followed by the ten-volume Costumes historiques de la France d' après le monuments les plus authentique … Avec un texte descriptif précédé de l'histoire de la vie privée des Français depuis l'origine de la monarchie jusqu´à nos jours et suivi d´un recueil curieux de pièces originales, which appeared between 1852 and 1860.
He found a job in the publishing house Firmin-Didot et Cie, where he worked from 1869 to 1888 as an engraver and artistic director, and where his two main works L'Ornement polychrome and Le costume historique were created and published.
Racinet became a member of the Legion of Honor on August 5, 1878.