Original vintage poster 1896

JOB Alphonse Mucha

Alphonse Mucha, This is a beautiful advertisement for cigarette paper, a very prosaic object to say the least. The background of a dull imperial purple, perfectly highlights the gVintage curls of the young smoker, whose strands are spread over the image, like the fine filigree of an Indian bracelet.

This poster, one of the most famous, popularized the "young mucha woman"; her hair with its ravishing curls became the artist's trademark. Note the meticulously executed detail of the letter "JOB" skillfully harmonized with the purple background.

The standard version cost 3 francs and was printed on a purple or lavender background. As the variants indicate, there were also luxury prints of the original, which was used in a variety of ways. As for the specific uses, their list is almost unlimited: we see this drawing on an oval celluloid box which serves as a support for a thermometer, placed at the bottom right of the object. we also see it on a long strip of paper, in fact a range of color tests drawn for the account of the printing press manufacturer L. Chambon, for the Universal Exhibition of 1900, one can read there in top the name of its agent Toulouse Pauilmac, and in bottom the text Pierre BARDOU-JOB. Bridges also cites a calendar but no copy of this variant has ever been found.

Source: Alphonse Mucha, Jack Rennert and Alain Weill p82

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