Gismonda

On the day after Christmas 1894, Sarah Bernhardt demanded a new poster by New Year and the only artist in the shop was an unknown Czech. Mucha gave her something nobody had seen: a tall, narrow, almost life-size panel, pale and Byzantine, the actress standing calm and full-length in a palm-frond crown with a mosaic arch behind her — no shouting, no crowded advertising. Paris woke up to them on the walls and collectors bribed the billstickers to cut them down. Bernhardt signed him for six years. A single overnight commission, and a style was born with a name attached to it.

Maker

Alphonse Mucha (1860 to 1939)

Date

1894

Medium of the original

Painting

Original held by

Published Paris (Lemercier) for the Théâtre de la Renaissance

Credit

Published Paris (Lemercier) for the Théâtre de la Renaissance · via Wikimedia Commons

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00623