ALPHONSE MUCHA JOB. 1898.

58x38 inches. Champenois, Paris.
Condition A-: faded. Matted and Framed.
Jean Bardou, the owner of Job rolling papers (the company's name, in fact, a contraction of his initials), was a man with great artistic taste who commissioned Pal, Cappiello and even Toulouse-Lautrec to design posters for his company. Mucha designed two posters for Bardou. The first, in 1896, is a charming, small-format piece featuring the bust of a woman with typically extravagant hair. This poster, done two years later in large format, is Mucha's best advertising piece. Other posters of his, like Cycles Perfecta, are powerful images for sure, but here Mucha provides the viewer with three levels of reading that constantly reinforce the brand. A girl sitting in a circle with brown hair that contrasts with her skin and pink dress is eye-catching in and of itself, as is the big, bold lettering across the top bearing the company's name. But as viewers looks more closely at the image they discover that Mucha has also included the company name in the wallpaper behind the figure, that she is holding a package of the product in her hands and, finally, that her brooch also bears the Job logo. A masterpiece of commercial art. Rennert / Weill 51, DFP II 634, Modern Poster 9, Wine Spectator 74.