The Seasons. 1896. Alphonse Mucha.Each: 21 1/8 x 40 ¾ in./53.6 x 103.5 cmThis larger form

The Seasons. 1896. Alphonse Mucha.

Each: 21 1/8 x 40 ¾ in./53.6 x 103.5 cm

This larger format is rare; rarer still is a large version of the 1896 Seasons with such exceedingly fresh colors! You can feel the chill of Winter, the little birds huddling for warmth; the dewy wakefulness of Spring, fashioning herself a lyre, on which those little birds are expectantly perched; Summer is indolent, sleepy in the heat; but Autumn, Autumn, lush and fecund with her auburn hair, indulges the harvest by plucking the grapes from the vine, straight into her cup. It’s not only the passage of time that makes this series rare: these images were difficult to find even at the time of their publication. The editor of The Poster couldn’t help a reader locate this set back in 1899, concluding: “they are getting scarce” (January 1899, p. 42). This is the larger variant with the Seasons text at bottom.

Available at auction February 25, 2018.