Manuel Orazi (born Emmanuel Joseph Raphaël Orazi; 1860 – 1934) was an Italian

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

illustrator, poster artist, and jewelry designer, and a set creator for theater and film. Not much is known about him and his background is obscure. He was born in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

on October 5, 1860. A September 1907

manifest Manifest may refer to: Computing * Manifest file, a metadata file that enumerates files in a program or package * Manifest (CLI), a metadata text file for CLI assemblies Events * Manifest (convention), a defunct anime festival in Melbourne, Au ...

from SS La Provence sailing from

Le Havre Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...

to Ellis Island mentions a wife residing in France: "''Mrs Orazi in

Fontainebleau Fontainebleau ( , , ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Functional area (France), metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the Kilometre zero#France, centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a Subprefectures in Franc ...

.''" According to his death certificate, at the time of his death he was married to Marie Agnan and lived in

Rue de l'Université ''Ruta graveolens'', commonly known as rue, common rue or herb-of-grace, is a species of the genus '' Ruta'' grown as an ornamental plant and herb. It is native to the Mediterranean. It is grown throughout the world in gardens, especially for ...

195, Paris.Entry N°1314 (Orazi) from 5th arrondissement of Paris' municipal death record.
1934 , Décès , 055D 256Paris Archives
He died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

on October 28, 1934.

Notable works

In 1895 he created the ''Calendrier Magique,'' an occult-themed calendar still noted for its graphic design. Limiting it to 777 copies, he collaborated with popular French author

Austin de Croze Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufactu ...

, who wrote the text. Sympathetic to the French

Decadent movement The Decadent movement (from the French language, French ''décadence'', ) was a late 19th-century Art movement, artistic and literary movement, literary movement, centered in Western Europe, that followed an aesthetic ideology of excess and artif ...

, as well as

Symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

and

Aestheticism Aestheticism (also known as the aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century that valued the appearance of literature, music, fonts and the arts over their functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be produced to b ...

, he contributed with illustrations and typographic ornaments in books and short stories such as: * ''Ma petite ville'' (1898) by

Jean Lorrain Jean Lorrain (9 August 1855 in Fécamp, Seine-Maritime – 30 June 1906), born Paul Alexandre Martin Duval, was a French poet and novelist of the Symbolist school. Lorrain was a dedicated disciple of dandyism and spent much of his time am ...

* ''Princesse d'Italie'' (1898) by

* ''Aventures merveilleuses de Huon de Bordeaux'' (1898) by

Gaston Paris Bruno Paulin Gaston Paris (; 9 August 1839 – 5 March 1903) was a French literary historian, philologist, and scholar specialized in Romance studies and medieval French literature. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901, ...

* ''Anne-Marie, La Providence'' (1899) by Daniel Laumonier * ''Les vierges de Syracuse'' (1902) by

Jean Bertheroy Berthe Jeanne Le Barillier (24 July 1858 – 24 January 1927), known by her pen name Jean Bertheroy, was a French classicist and writer. First noted for her poetry, she turned to the historical novel and then the modern novel. Her work, although l ...

* ''Névrose'' (1904) by Émile Morel * ''Henri de Régnier, biographie'' (1904) by Paul Léauteaud * ''Émile Faguet, biographie'' (1904) by Alphonse Séché * ''Camille Lemonnier, biographie'' (1904) by León Bazalgette * ''Théodora, impératrice de Byzance'' (1904) by

Charles Diehl Charles Diehl (; 19 January 1859 – 1 November 1944) was a French historian born in Strasbourg. He was a leading authority on Byzantine art and history. Biography He received his education at the École Normale Supérieure, and later taught c ...

* ''Le Nouveau Jeu'' (1905) by

Henri Lavedan Henri Léon Emile Lavedan (9 April 1859 – 4 September 1940), French dramatist and man of letters, was born at Orléans, the son of , a well-known Catholic and liberal journalist. Lavedan contributed to various Parisian papers a series of wit ...

* ''La danseuse de Pompéi'' (1905) by

* ''La Morphine'' (1906) by Victorien Du Saussay * ''Du Mystérieux au Tragique'' (1911) by

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

* ''L'Epouse du Soleil'' (1912) by

Gaston Leroux Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux (; 6 May 186815 April 1927) was a French journalist and author of detective fiction. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel ''The Phantom of the Opera'' (, 1909), which has been made int ...

* '' La guerre du feu'' (1913) by J.-H. Rosny * ''Les troix yeux'' (1919) by

Maurice Leblanc Maurice Marie Émile Leblanc (; ; 11 December 1864 – 6 November 1941) was a French novelist and writer of short stories, known primarily as the creator of the fictional gentleman thief and detective Arsène Lupin, often described as a French ...

* ''

Heroides The ''Heroides'' (''The Heroines''), or ''Epistulae Heroidum'' (''Letters of Heroines''), is a collection of fifteen epistolary poems composed by Ovid in Latin elegiac couplets and presented as though written by a selection of aggrieved heroin ...

'' (1919) by

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

* ''Le Butineur'' (1924) by Félicien Champsaur * ''Aphrodite'' (1931) by

Pierre Louÿs Pierre-Félix Louÿs (; 10 December 1870 – 4 June 1925) was a Belgian poet and writer, most renowned for lesbian and classical themes in some of his writings. He is known as a writer who sought to "express pagan sensuality with stylistic perf ...

* ''

Les Fleurs du mal ''Les Fleurs du mal'' (; ) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. ''Les Fleurs du mal'' includes nearly all Baudelaire's poetry, written from 1840 until his death in August 1867. First published in 1857, it was important in the ...

'' (1934) by

Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics, an ...

Orazi illustrated an early

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

French edition of the 1891 one-act play by

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

, ''

Salome Salome (; , related to , "peace"; ), also known as Salome III, was a Jews, Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II and princess Herodias. She was granddaughter of Herod the Great and stepdaughter of Herod Antipas. She is known from the New T ...

''. He made jewelry designs that were displayed at

Maison de l'Art Nouveau The Maison de l'Art Nouveau ("House of New Art"), abbreviated often as L'Art Nouveau, and known also as Maison Bing for the owner, was a gallery opened on 26 December 1895, by Siegfried Bing at 22 rue de Provence, Paris.Martin Eidelberg and Suzan ...

in 1896. In 1899 he designed some of the first pieces of jewelry for the Maison Arnould. His jewelry designs were also sold at La Maison Moderne. Orazi designed one of the best known posters for La Maison Moderne as well as the cover of one of La Maison Moderne's catalogs which features Cleo de Merode in profile, perhaps wearing a design by Henri Van de Velde. For her theater at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1900,

Loie Fuller Loie Fuller (; born Marie Louise Fuller; January 15, 1862 – January 1, 1928), also known as Louie Fuller and Loïe Fuller, was an American dancer and a pioneer of modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques. Auguste Rodin said of her, "Lo ...

commissioned Orazi to create the poster, which was printed in three editions and three color schemes. In 1921 he designed the sets and costumes for the silent film '' L'Atlantide'' and illustrated many promotional posters. Orazi contributed to publications such as anarchist satirical magazine

L'Assiette au Beurre ''L'Assiette au Beurre'' (literally ''The Butter Plate'', and roughly translating to the English expression ''pork barrel'') was an illustrated French weekly satirical magazine with anarchist political leanings that was chiefly produced between 190 ...

, Femina,

Scribner's Magazine ''Scribner's Magazine'' was an American periodical published by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons from January 1887 to May 1939. ''Scribner's Magazine'' was the second magazine out of the Scribner's firm, after the publication of ...

Je sais tout ''Je sais tout'' (meaning ''I Know All'' in English) was a French magazine established by Pierre Lafitte in 1905. It was noted for featuring the works of Maurice Leblanc, in particular the adventures of Arsène Lupin, which was first published ...

and

Les Maîtres de l'Affiche ''Maîtres de l'Affiche'' (Masters of the Poster) refers to 256 color lithographic plates used to create an art publication during the Belle Époque in Paris, France. The collection, reproduced from the original works of ninety-seven artists in a ...

References

External links

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/8984 19th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 20th-century Italian painters Italian illustrators Italian scenic designers Italian poster artists 1860s births 1934 deaths Art Nouveau illustrators Art Nouveau designers Painters from Rome 19th-century Italian male artists 20th-century Italian male artists Long stubs with short prose {{illustrator-stub