Alphonse Mucha Pair of "Byzantine Heads" Lithographs
Regular price
$32,500
A pair of French "Byzantine Heads" lithographs by Alphonse Mucha. The mastery evident in creating two archetypes of the female form against a decorative background confirms Mucha's artistic maturity. Both women, portrayed in profile, have their heads decorated with delicately rendered but majestically scaled jewelry, the richness and oriental nature of which suggested the name Byzantine Heads for the series. In this version, the rarest of all variants, Mucha adds a background of a sumi-e (japanese ink painting) of a bushel of bamboo, and two calendarium's, empty panels for a calendar, in the lower left corner.
Item #: ML-21754
Artist: Alphonse Mucha
Country: France
Circa: 1897
Dimensions: 16" width x 22" height (unframed), 24" width x 30" height (framed)
Materials: Lithograph paper, Giltwood gesso frame
Signed: "Mucha"
Literature: Pictured in "Alphonse Mucha, The Complete Posters and Panels, by Jack Rennert and Alain Weill," page 167, cat. 40, variant 2.
Item #: ML-21754
Artist: Alphonse Mucha
Country: France
Circa: 1897
Dimensions: 16" width x 22" height (unframed), 24" width x 30" height (framed)
Materials: Lithograph paper, Giltwood gesso frame
Signed: "Mucha"
Literature: Pictured in "Alphonse Mucha, The Complete Posters and Panels, by Jack Rennert and Alain Weill," page 167, cat. 40, variant 2.
The subtle differences in details between the images are worth noticing. This is the first appearance of the perfect form of Mucha's often-used motif, a circle framing each head interrupted by a strand of hair. With this device, it is as if Mucha's unreachable beauties have broken the magic border between themselves and their admirers and suggest the possibility that they might, perhaps, meet.
The subtle differences in details between the images are worth noticing. This is the first appearance of the perfect form of Mucha's often-used motif, a circle framing each head interrupted by a strand of hair. With this device, it is as if Mucha's unreachable beauties have broken the magic border between themselves and their admirers and suggest the possibility that they might, perhaps, meet.
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