?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
ALPHONSE MUCHA (1860-1939) [UNTITLED.] Pencil, ink and watercolor on paper. 15x10 inches. Condition A. Paper. Framed. Originally this image was intended to grace the cover of the catalogue of the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, which it never did. The Mucha Trust possesses a more finished version which reads "Dessin avant servi de menu au banquet officiel a l'Exposition de 1900." (Spirit of Art Nouveau p. 249). It clearly was never used in that capacity either, or additional copies of the menu would show up on the market. Recently an engraved version of this image surfaced in Paris. It was the menu for a small banquet for the Ministry of Commerce held during the exposition. While Mucha was under contract with Champenois to print his lithographs, his was free to pursue other, non-lithographic printing projects wherever he wanted. This menu was engraved by Stern, a printer who specialized in letterheads and luxurious invitations for the aristocracy. This study lacks some of the finished decorative elements and details, including an elaborate border along the right side of the image, and the date "1900," which ended up in the decorative circle at the bottom. Mucha must have liked this image of an elegant young lady, with the Alexander III bridge and other Parisian landmarks laid out behind her, as it appears as plate number one in his 1902 publication Documents Decoratifs. It also reappears, with slight changes, in 1905 on the cover of an American magazine, The Index. Spirit of Art Nouveau 81 (var), Mucha R30 (var).
![ALPHONSE MUCHA (1860-1939) [UNTITLED.] Pencil, ink and watercolor on paper. 15x10 inches.](https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//819\583819.jpg)
