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ALPHONSE MUCHA (1860-1939)
196
●
WORLD’S TOUR OF M’
ME.
SARAH BERNHARDT. Circa 1914.
80
1
/
8
x39
3
/
4
inches, 203
1
/
2
x101 cm. Carey Print,
New York.
Condition B / B-: extensively-overpainted and restored
margins; repaired tears, restored losses, creases and
overpainting along vertical and horizontal folds. Two-
sheets. Framed. Unexamined out of frame.
Sarah Bernhardt made her first American tour in
1896, by which point she was already an
international star, taking with her a variation of
one of the posters Mucha had designed for her
in Paris. “As was the case with all these versions,
it mentioned no name of the play, nor did it
mention that the plays for which the design was
originally used were presented on this tour”
(Rennert / Weill p. 108). Among Mucha’s famous
posters for the actress that were reused to promote
her American appearances were Gismonda (see
previous lot),
La Dame aux Camelias
,
Tosca
and
this, the
RAREST
featuring an image of
Lorenzaccio
.
This “tour” which was in many ways the actress’s
final act, as she was already in her late 60s, World
War I had broken out, and in 1916 she had her
leg amputated below the knee, but kept
performing. In fact, it is uncertain how much if
any of this tour actually took place, which might
explain the scarcity of the image. Note how it is
referred to as a “World’s Tour” and not an
American Tour. Rennert and Weill cite a poster
that sounds identical to this one, as being used
for the actresses 1910-1911 tour, but it is not
pictured and no image has ever surfaced. For this
poster, the anonymous American lithographer
knew that they would be unable to match the
sophistication and skill of French lithographers,
so they interpreted the poster in a simplified
manner. Some of the ornamentation from
Lorenzaccio’s robe has been removed and the
color scheme has been radically altered to consist
solely of shades of blue and green. The result is
excellent, as the figure of Lorenzaccio stands out
much more clearly than in the original. Although
a copy was reproduced in The Spirit of Art
Nouveau (see page 54), this is
RARE
, as we have
seen no other copies at auction. Spirit of Art
Nouveau p. 54, Brno 6 (var), Mucha / Henderson
61 (var), Mucha / Bridges A10 (var), Reade 7
(var), Lendl p. 47 (var), Triumph des Jugendstils 6
(var), Art Nouveau p. 111 (var), DFP-II 626 (var).
[7,000/10,000]