?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
ALPHONSE MUCHA (1860-1939) SARAH-BERNHARDT / LA SAMARITAINE. 1898. 46x16 3/4 inches, 117x43 cm. Condition A / A-: creases in margins. The complete documentation of the posters Mucha designed for Sarah Bernhardt extends only as far as the full-color graphic works he created to promote her plays. In addition, he also designed several stock posters, monochromatic images in which a large, blank, text area is surrounded by a decorative border and accompanied by a decorative vignette. The two best-known of these stock posters are the 1897 images for the Casino de Monte Carlo (Renert / Weill 33) and Theatre de la Renaissance (Renert / Weill 34). Various variations of those two exist, each within the same framework, but bearing different text. La Samaritaine was a drama written expressly for Sarah Bernhardt by her friend the playwright Edmond Rostand. Bernhardt premiered the play in April 1897, but clearly kept it in her repertoire for the spring of the following year. Mucha's vignette at the top of the poster was specially drawn for this production (as the writing in Hebrew indicates), suggesting that the design would not have been used in conjunction with any other performance. Previously unknown.
