Alphonse Mucha — Carnation (1898) — Art Nouveau Print on Hahnemühle

In 1898, the Czech artist Alphonse Mucha created a quartet of decorative panels for the Paris market: La Rose, L'Iris, L'Œillet, and Le Lys — the Flowers. They were not made for galleries or wealthy collectors. Mucha had a deliberate philosophy about ordinary homes deserving beauty, and the Les Fleurs series was designed from the start to be printed in editions of thousands and sold inexpensively, so that working-class Parisians could put real art on their walls. The four panels became one of the most enduring statements of Art Nouveau decorative work — each one a young woman emerging from her flower, framed by ornamental vines, set against a luminous halo. L'Œillet is the curious one. Turned away from us in a coral-pink gown that falls bare-shouldered to her hips, she leans in to a single carnation held just at her lips — caught in the small private moment of breathing in a flower's scent. Her dark hair is coiled low at the nape; a belt of carnation-shaped medallions circles her waist; a tree rises behind her left shoulder. Around her ankles a dense bed of pink, white, and crimson carnations spills forward through long strap-like leaves, and a pale halo of soft green frames her against the cream ground. She is the one who turns her back to the world and finds the flower more interesting.

Source and provenance

This reproduction is taken directly from the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which holds an 1898 original printed by F. Champenois of Paris — Mucha's exclusive printer for the Les Fleurs series. The Champenois imprint at the top of the print and the BnF deposit stamp at the bottom are preserved on the reproduction, not removed. Most reproductions strip these marks out. We don't, because they are part of what the object actually is: a documented passage from a Paris print shop in 1898, through a national library's archive, to the wall it eventually finds.

Paper

The print is produced on Hahnemühle German etching paper, 310 gsm — a heavyweight cotton-based fine art paper from the German mill that has been making archival paper since 1584. Its slight surface tooth honors the lithographic tradition the original print emerged from, and it is the paper of choice for museum and gallery reproductions of historical lithographs. Printing is done with archival pigment inks intended to hold their color for a century or more under reasonable framing conditions.

Size and proportions

The print measures 16.1 × 38.4 inches (40.8 × 97.5 cm), reproducing Mucha's original 1:2.45 panel proportions rather than cropping the composition to fit a more common rectangle. The image carries a small white border on all sides, so that a framing mat can be added without covering the artwork or its provenance marks.

Framing

The dimensions fit cleanly inside a standard 16 × 40 inch frame with a small mat — a configuration available at most frame retailers (Michael's, Frame Destination, and similar) and conventional for matted fine art presentation. A mat is recommended; the print can also be framed flush against the glass without one. L'Œillet is one of four panels in Mucha's Les Fleurs series. Her companions — La Rose, L'Iris, and Le Lys — are offered separately in the collection.