?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
ALPHONSE MUCHA (1860-1939) OESTERREICH AUF DER WELTAUSSTELLUNG / PARIS 1900. 39 1/2x27 3/4 inches, 100 1/2x70 1/2 cm. Kunstanstalt S. Czetger, Vienna. Condition B+: creases and abrasions in margins and image; staining along edges. Framed. The image is virtually unique among Mucha's work, as it doesn't display a woman posing on her own, but a young ephebe unveiling a generously proportioned lady. It surpasses Mucha's normal, passively evocative images and begins to border on the overtly suggestive and sexual. Contemporary publicity explained the image as "Paris revealing Austria to the world," and it is a marvelous revelation indeed, superbly drawn by Mucha and bathed in a palette of soft, warm earth tones. The right side of the poster was designed by the architect G. Rossman, and depicts architectural renderings of Austria's different buildings at the Paris world's Fair of 1900. When the poster originally appeared, many collectors cut the piece in two and kept only the sensuous half designed by Mucha. Rennert/Weill 66 DFP II 649.
