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Fine Art Auction at the Hotel de Paris

2011-10-28 13:18

What: Accademia Fine Art Auction
Where: Salon Beaumarchais, Hôtel de Paris
When: Monday 7 November (opens 1.30pm, auction at 7.00pm)
Showing from Sat 5 to Sun 6 August from 10am to 8pm

An original lithograph by the celebrated Czech artist Alphonse Mucha will be one of the star lots at the Accademia Fine Art Auction at the Hotel de Paris on 7 November. Expected to fetch between €13,000 and €15,000, the exceptional work - in the style which Mucha himself developed but which became known to the world simply as 'Art Nouveau' - has become one of the world's most reproduced poster designs. It was originally commissioned by the railway company Chemins de Fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée, whose name appears at the bottom right of the image, opposite that of the artist and the date 1897.

It shows a young girl, gazing up in rapture at the words 'Monte Carlo', surrounded by Mucha's trademark floral patterns - suggestive of the train, or of a roulette wheel, perhaps, while away and beyond her kneeling form we can make out the shoreline of Monaco and the (then relatively newly built) Casino of Charles Garnier.

This harmonious blend of colour and shape has become one of the defining images of the Art Nouveau period. To be able to get your hands on an original is a comparatively rare occurrence.


 

The auction, which begins at 7pm on 7 November at the Hotel de Paris, will present 230 lots in all, draw from a wide range of classic and contemporary works of art, spectacular jewellery, and fine wines.