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ALPHONSE MUCHA (1860-1939)
82
●
SALON DES CENT. 1896.
24
1
/
2
x15
1
/
2
inches, 62
1
/
4
x39
1
/
2
cm. F. Champenois, Paris.
Condition B+: minor creases, abrasions and mat staining in margins; minor restoration along vertical and
horizontal folds; ink stamp in text. Matted and framed.
Mucha's poster design for the Salon des Cent was the start of a long collaboration between the artist and
La Plume
. One year after he created this poster, the magazine dedicated an entire issue to Mucha and gave
him a one-man show. While Mucha was working on this poster, Léon Deschamps,
La Plume’s
publisher,
went to visit the artist at his studio. Deschamps recalls that the poster design he saw at that time featured
“a half-nude woman, her inclined head resting nonchalantly on one hand, her golden hair curling like
a halo in rich arabesques - those famous ‘macaroni’ which tomorrow would be celebrated and copied by
all the apes of art - a divine languor lingering over the clean outlines of her face, the whole emanating
an indefinable charm.” Mucha protested that the poster wasn’t finished, but Deschamps self-
aggrandizingly insisted “print it as it is and you will produce a masterpiece of the illustrative decorative
poster” (
La Plume
Mucha Special Issue, 1897, p. 4). Rennert / Weill 12, Lendl p. 133, Brno 7, Mucha
Grand Palais 13, Darmstadt 26, Mucha / Henderson 58, Mucha / Bridges A7, Reade 5, Jiri Mucha p.
94, Triumph des Jugendstils 19 (var), Art Nouveau p. 112, Salon des Cent 19 (var), Spirit of Art Nouveau
18, DFP-II 628 (var), Abdy p. 139, Schardt p. 129.
[7,000/10,000]