Albert Racinet

Albert Racinet (July 20, 1825 - October 27, 1893) was an observer of French costumes, illustrator, painter and author of works on costumes and ornaments reprinted several times.

He worked for the publisher Firmin Didot et Cie, as an engraver and artistic director from 1869 to 1888, and his two major works are L'Ornement polychrome and Le costume historique.

He was first trained by his father, Charles-Auguste Racinet, as a lithographer and draftsman. He then took courses at the School of Drawing in the city of Paris. From 1849 to 1874, he participated in the annual exhibitions of the Paris Salon , but it was as an engraver of scholarly works, particularly costumes, that he distinguished himself.

He began working in this field in the 1840s with his father, collaborating on the boards of the painter Ferdinand Séré (1818-1855) and the historian Charles Léopold Louandre, under the title History of costume and furnishings in the Middle Ages . After Séré's premature death, Les Arts sumptuaires by the publisher Hangard-Maugé appeared in 1857-1858, then History of costume and furnishings and the arts and industries related to them , two volumes of texts and plates. Another part of his work was published with a text by Paul Lacroix in five volumes from 1848 to 1851 under the title The Middle Ages and the Renaissance, history and description of morals and customs, commerce and industry, sciences , arts, literature and fine arts in Europe, followed by the ten volumes of Historical Costumes of France according to monuments...

Albert Racinet received the Legion of Honor onAugust 5, 1878.