Description

Art Nouveau billboard woman illustration with golden hair smoking.

This is perhaps one of Mucha’s best-known advertising posters, with numerous editions subsequently published in a variety of formats for international markets. This poster established the iconic image of the ‘Mucha woman’ with her swirls of exaggeratedly abundant hair.

JOB is a trademark for the Joseph Bardou Company, manufacturers of cigarette papers. JOB rolling papers are a popular brand of cigarette paper produced by Republic Tobacco in Perpignan, France.

In this poster, Mucha placed the prominent female figure against a background featuring Job monograms. Holding a lighted cigarette in her hand, the woman leans her head backward sensually, and the rising smoke forms an arabesque, intertwining with her hair and the company logo.

Mucha introduced a Byzantine effect, as seen in the Gismonda poster, with the border decoration inspired by mosaic work which adds an air of dignity to a commercial poster.

Alfons Maria Mucha (1860 – 1939), known internationally as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech painter, illustrator, and graphic artist. Living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, he was widely known for his distinctly stylized and decorative theatrical posters, particularly those of Sarah Bernhardt. He produced illustrations, advertisements, decorative panels, as well as designs, which became among the best-known images of the period. 

Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts, known in different languages by different names: Jugendstil in German, Stile Liberty in Italian, Modernisme català in Catalan, etc. In English, it is also known as the Modern Style. The style was most popular between 1890 and 1910 during the Belle Époque period that ended with the start of World War I in 1914.

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