Alphonse Mucha "Reverie" Lithograph
$47,500
Titled "Reverie" (or "Dream"), this lithograph by Alphonse Mucha is one of his most noted and most desirable printed designs. The original use of the design was as an in-house poster for the printer Champenois, used to usher in the new year of 1898. The design shows an elegant woman in repose, leafing through what may be a sample book of printer's designs, while confronting the viewer with a soft and alluring gaze. The circular halo surrounding her, decorated with intricate floral motifs, is one of the most elaborate Mucha ever used, as well as one of the largest in terms of its relation to the size of the picture.
- Product Details
- Curator's Notes
Item #: ML-20039
Artist: Alphonse Mucha
Country: France
Circa: 1898
Dimensions: 35" height, 30" width (19.2" height, 25.7" width unframed)
Materials: Lithograph paper, Giltwood gesso frame
Signed: “Mucha”
Literature: Lithograph pictured in Alphonse Mucha, The Complete Posters and Panels, by Jack Rennert and Alain Weill, Abage Publishers, Chicago, p. 163, figure 39, variant 2
As stated by the Mucha Foundation; "Like Zodiac, this lithograph was originally designed to serve as the 1898 Champenois company calendar. However, its immediate popularity led to its swift publication by the magazine La Plume as a decorative panel with the title Reverie (daydream).
Mucha's design shows a dreamy-eyed young woman leafing through a book of decorative designs, possibly printers' samples. The prominent disk behind her is elaborately decorated with flowers and their stems forming a lace-like pattern."