Art gallery “Salon hundred” was organized in 1893 and was located in the premises of the art magazine “La Plume”, which actively pursued the ideas of Art Nouveau style. The task of the gallery was not only to declare a new style, but also to “democratize” the visual arts, called the “art for the home”.
Art gallery publications, lithographed albums and a series of issues of posters and decorative panels for interiors were available and inexpensive. They were printed in various lithographic workshops. Paris on paper of different varieties, which to a large extent determined their value. Among the hundred exhibitors of the gallery were famous artists – Bonnard, Toulouse-Lautrec, Steinlen, Ensor, Grasset, Russenfoss. Wanted to become a member of this group and Alphonse Mucha. Under the terms of the contract, he took up the execution of the poster for the twentieth exhibition of the Salon.
The poster led to the extraordinary delight of the gallery owner, Leon Deschanes, who visited the artist’s studio while working on the sketch. He persuaded Mukha to make two versions of prints: incomplete, without an inscription, and the actual poster of the exhibition. The rightness of Deshane, who estimated the image as a masterpiece of a decorative panel, confirmed its instant success with the public.
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