Artist: Alphonse Mucha Czech (1860-1939)
Title: Biscuits Lefèvre-Utile
Plate: BLU
Original stone lithograph, backed on Linen.
Printed by Imp. F. Champenois, Paris 1897
Signed in the stone lower left
Shipped rolled.
Certificate of Authenticity.
Reference: Rennert/Weill, 22; Lendl/Prague, p. 71; Weill, p. 42; Gold, 59 (var); Champenois, 90 (var);
Sheet Size: 17 5/8 in x 24 1/2 in / 44.76 cm x 62.23 cm
Price: Temporarily out of stock
I can usually source this poster. If you are interested please contact me. GregSame version sold for $14,400 US Poster Auctions International, N.Y. Feb 2020
“One of Mucha’s most personable young ladies, her hair cascading irrepressibly in fine style, is offering a dish of wafers. The design of the girl’s dress incorporates sickle and wheat emblems... appropriate to the subject” (Rennert/Weill, p. 113). This is the original version of the poster with the 1897 calendarium.
"All of the firm's designs featured the initials 'LU' somewhere, and in this case they are incorporated into the golden arch that protrudes into the picture. The girl's dress has a pattern of sickles and wheat, and she even has some wheat stalks in her hair, ideal to indicate the origin of the product" (Lendl p. 70).
"Mucha’s fame as a poster artist led him to commissions for packaging design. He became a regular artist for Lefèvre-Utile, the major French biscuit company founded in Nantes in 1846. He designed publicity posters and calendars for them and around 1900 Mucha’s task was expanded to packaging design, which included labels, box tops and the decoration of biscuit tins." (Mucha Foundation)