Mucha, Alphonse Marie

Documents décoratifs. Préface de Gabriel Mourey.  Paris: Librarie Centrale des Beaux Arts, (1902)



4 vols, unbound as issued (18 x 13 in.; 458 x 330 mm).  Title-page printed in red and black, 72 suberb plates after Mucha in various techniques including etching, heliogravure, lithograph, and others, on wove paper, some plates on laid colored paper attached to support sheets; some minor finger soiling or very light browning at edges (not affecting images).  4 publisher's pictorial wrappers; some wear to edges.  Publisher's cloth-backed portfolio, printed front cover, ribbon ties; rubbed and soiled.

A complete set of the four volumes of Mucha's great compendium of Art Nouveau design, with the plates in very good condition. The work of the Moravian artist and designer Alphonse Maria Mucha (1860–1939) came to symbolize the full flowering of the Art Nouveau movement in Vienna, Munich, and Paris.  He excelled as a poster artist thanks in large part to the relatively new color printing process, chromolithography.  In addition, he produced book illustrations, calendar art, and other decorative designs.  His sensational poster of Sarah Bernhardt in Gismonda (1895) was a phenomenal success and made Mucha a celebrity.

Documents décoratifs, published in Paris in 1902 and printed by Emile Levy, is a visual statement of Mucha's artistic creed.  The four portfolios were used for years by many art schools as a textbook, and it influenced a whole generation of artists.  The great success of this work as a teaching tool has meant that complete copies in good condition are relatively scarce.