Print, Plate 20, from "Figures Decoratives"

This collotype is a plate from Alphonse Maria Mucha’s book Figures Decoratives (1905). The book, published by Librairie Central des Beaux-Arts, was something of a design handbook. Mucha would later recall that “[m]ore and more frequently I was asked to design all sorts of objects in every type of material from wood, gold, and ceramics to paper and tapestry. It was impossible to meet all these requests so I decided to publish a special work containing decorative elements and items where these elements could be used so that everybody would find what he wanted ready made.” The first of these books, Documents Decoratifs, featured decorative motifs and was published in 1902. Figures Decoratives, comprising 40 plates, was published subsequently. Mucha used the different plates as an opportunity to explore a variety of poses for the human body, incorporating geometric forms into his renderings of female figures and children. This particular plate, which features four separate figures staring contemplatively into the distance, demonstrates the languid, harmonious line that Mucha remains best known for.

Print, Plate 20, from "Figures Decoratives"; Alphonse Maria Mucha (Czech, 1860–1939); Published by Librairie centrale des beaux-arts; France; collotype on paper; 36.8 x 26.4 cm (14 1/2 x 10 3/8 in.); Gift of Harry C. Sigman; 2013-21-43