Documents Decoratifs
Documents Decoratifs
Documents Decoratifs

Artist: Alphonse Mucha Czech (1860-1939)

Title: Documents Decoratifs

Plate: DD.13

Description: Condition A
Original Lithograph, Plate 13 from "Documents Decoratifs",
published by Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, 1902
signed in the plate lower right.

Reference: Rennert / Weill A8, Lendl p. 247, Mucha / Henderson 87 (var), Mucha / Bridges L31.13.

Presented in 16 x 20 in. acid free, archival museum mat, with framing labels. Ready to frame. Shipped boxed flat via FedEx
Certificate of Authenticity. 

Sheet Size: 12 in x 17 1/2 in 30.5 cm x 44.4 cm

Price: $3400.00

Sold for $4750.00 US Swann Auctions , N.Y. Jan 2017

This plate, like so many in the portfolio, is a tour-de-force of design wherein Mucha shows his incredible talent as a draughtsman and his masterly use of the vertical format. ‘Documents Decoratifs’ epitomizes Mucha’s technical skills and expertise in capturing the organic and curvilinear style characteristic of Art Nouveau. 


"This poster design is one of the most sought-after individual plates from 
Documents Décoratifs. Like the other plates in the portfolio, it was created as a teaching method, "advertising a purely mythical product" (Rennert / Weill p. 390), which visually encapsulated Mucha's whole oeuvre of commercial design. Although it never appeared as a full-sized poster, it contains all of his classic, stylistic Art Nouveau trademarks - a woman with stylized hair, a decorative halo behind her, dressed in a flowing gown, with text grouped at the top and bottom of the image, within a vertical format and with sophisticated decorative elements that support the vertical structure of the design." (Swann)

"Documents Décoratifs, published in 1902 by the Libraire Centrale des Beaux-Arts (72 original colour lithograph plates where included), was Mucha's artistic creed, that authoritatively set down the precepts of Art Nouveau and it's decorative elements…it influenced a whole generation of artists..." (Rennert/Weill)


"[Documents Décoratifs is] . . . an encyclopedic source for Mucha's style in every branch of decorative and applied art and one of the few books on design where even individual plates are sought after by collectors." — Marina Henderson, The Graphic Style of Alphonse Mucha