ALPHONSE MUCHA (1860-1939) SALON DES CENT. 1896. 24x16 inches. Condition A: crease in image, Signed and numbered. Framed. This poster represents the start of a long collaboration between Mucha and La Plume. In 1897 the magazine dedicated an entire issue to Mucha, in which Leon Deschamps, La Plume's publisher, describes what he saw when he went to visit Mucha while he was working on this poster. Deschamps reported seeing "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-servingly continued that he stated "print it as it is and you will produce a masterpiece of the illustrative decorative poster" (La Plume-Mucha Special Issue, 1897, p.4). All of La Plume's Salon des Cent posters were available for sale to the public. Regular copies were generally sold for 2.5 francs, but they also produced some deluxe editions, on Japan paper or vellum. In addition to being printed on special paper, these deluxe editions were signed by the artists and numbered (although no print-run was ever expressed, it is universally believed that the number was 50). This image is number 22 of the deluxe, vellum edition. Rennert/Weill 12 (var. 1).
