Plate n°37 from "Les Documents Décoratifs".
To the general public, Alphonse Maria Mucha (1860-1939) is perhaps best known for his posters of Sarah Bernhardt and magnificient décorative panels such as « The Seasons » - works that continue to grow in popularity and value as the resurgence of interest in Art Nouveau increases. Among graphic artists and commercial designers, Mucha is praised for the innovative style books that pioneered the use of Art Nouveau in commercial packaging, design and ornament.
The most important of these style books was Documents Décoratifs, published in 1901 at the height of Mucha’s fame as the high priest of the Art Nouveau movement. While the artist’s fame rests largely on his posters, it is in the smaller works of the style books, or design portfolios, that the refinement of his technique can best be appreciated. This book contains 72 plates of the Documents Décoratifs portfolio. Included are designs for jewelry, wallpaper, stained glass, furniture and tableware, figure and botanical studies ; and a sélection of Mucha’s famous panneaux décoratifs. Eighteen of the plates are in full color, while the remaining 54 are reproduced in two or more color tones.
In addition to numerous innovative designs for pratical and décorative objects, the elegant draftmanship and meticulous exécution that characterized all of Mucha’s work is évident in studies of langorous nudes, portrait sketches, delicately rendered plant and animal motifs, exquisite modeling of drapery and cloth, and the flowing, fantastic forms created as experiments in pure design.
« Documents Décoratifs » is an encyclopedic source for Mucha’s style in every branch of décorative and applied art and one of the few books on design where even individual plates are sought after by collectors.
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