?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
Mucha, Alphonse M. (1860-1939) Le Pater.
Limited edition, folio; number 198 of 400 copies on papier à la forme du Marais (510 total); entirely illustrated with elaborate title pages, calligraphic decoration, and devotional images; in original pictorial wrappers (lacking spine panel, slight wear to edges and wrappers; some pages reinforced with archival tape along inner edge; staining to covers); 16 x 12 in.
A masterpiece of Art Nouveau that Mucha regarded as one of his most successful and significant works. Le Pater was meant to be Mucha's message to future generations about the progress of mankind. Through the archetypal Christian prayer, he wished to present man's search for the Divine Ideal, the highest state in the spiritual world. Mucha analyzes each of the seven verses in a set of three pages (each printed on one side of a leaf). The first of each set in color shows an original verse in Latin and French, framed in a border sumptuously decorated with flowers and a symbolic female figure. The second, also in colour, is Mucha's own text interpreting the verse with initial letter and floral decoration. The third monochromatic page, printed in photogravure, contains a full-page allegorical drawing, which depicts his philosophical response to the verse." (Mucha Foundation).
Mucha / Art Nouveau 72.Condition A-: slight wear to edges and wrappers; some inside pages reinforced with archival tape along inner edge; staining to covers. Hand-numbered 198.
