ALPHONSE MUCHA (1860-1939) CASSAN FILS. 1896. 18 x 7 inches. [Cassan Fils, Toulouse.] Condition A-: repaired tear through left margin. Matted and framed. Cassan was the largest and most important lithographer in the Southwest of France. His firm, which had an office in Paris, handled major accounts and also represented some of the best artists of the day, including Jane Atche and Lucien Baylac. In 1896, Cassan identified a brand new superstar in the firmament of Art Nouveau, Alphonse Mucha, and employed the young posterist. The result is an elaborate and exquisite self advertisement for the printer, featuring a seamless blend of allegorical printing imagery with fantasy. "The muscular printer is an allegorical figure, representing the [printing] industry. An unusual border of eyes in the mosaic background probably is meant to indicate the multitude of readers for whom the printing trade works. It is also one of the mystic symbols used by Mucha in several other works." (Rennert/Weill p. 70). The young lady is herself representative of the public which patronize printers. She is marked by her beauty, a state of semi-undress, and stylized cascading hair. In a brilliant self-referential detail, she is pulling prints straight off the press, which feature other young women with equally flowing locks, as if Mucha was indicating how his archetypical treatment of female tresses was about to take over the industry. This is the smaller format. Rennert/Weill 11, DFP II 640.
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