?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 12,000 - $ 18,000
ALPHONSE MUCHA (1860-1939) LA DAME AUX CAMELIAS. 1896. 79 7/8x29 inches. F. Champenois, Paris. Condition B+: creases in margins and image; faded. Two sheets. Framed. Sarah Bernhardt's favorite play was Alexandre Dumas' masterpiece, La Dame aux Camelias. The poster Mucha designed for the 1896 revival also turned out to be one of Bernhardt's favorites (ten years later she used the same image to advertise her American farewell tour). True to form, Mucha captures the spirit of the production in his graphics, depicting the camelias both at the bottom of the poster and behind the actress's ear. He also includes two hearts in the decorative border to remind viewers that the play is a dramatic love story. And as was his custom, he groups the typography together at both the top and bottom of the image. Here, however, he also adds them genius touch of an artist with the deepest admiration for his subject, depicting Bernhardt in all of her grace and elegance, clothed in a magnificent costume and placed sublimely against a delicate background of silver stars. A masterpiece of Art Nouveau design. Rennert/Weill p.13, Lendl/Paris 4, Mucha/Art Nouveau 8, DFP-II 267, Maitres 144, Weill p. 40, Maitres 1900 p. 24.
