Heidsieck & Co Monopole Poster – Vintage Champagne Poster – Alphonse Mucha Wall Art – 1901
At the start of the 20th century, Alfons Maria Mucha, better known internationally as Alfonse Mucha, was already highly acclaimed for his poster designs. He gained notoriety almost overnight in 1896, with his popular, beautiful and highly revered art nouveau poster for an upcoming Sarah Bernhardt American Tour. Even before the turn of the century, Mucha had created stunning artwork for other champagne producers such as Moet & Chandon and Ruinart. Heidsieck & Co decided Alphonse Mucha would be the perfect fit for them too. They weren’t wrong. This Heidsieck & Co Monopole Poster is now one of the artist’s most prized and treasured poster designs with rare original copies selling for many thousands of pounds and even some reproduction prints fetching up to £500!
The 1901 Heidsieck & Co Monopole Poster stands out for its unique Art Nouveau style that depicts a small group of friends sitting around a table in a high-class establishment. They are enjoying a taste of the high life, each other’s company, and of course the Heidseike Champagne. The aspirational image is illustrated in a muted colour palette with hues of greens and browns that reflect the colours of the grapes and vines in a vineyard. The swirling ornate border is also reminiscent of intertwining vine branches. The elegant, intricate, circular border provides us with a window into an elite world. An aspirational world of luxury, status and wealth. The hand-lettered writing reads Heidsieck & Co. Walbaum, Luling, Goulden & Co Succrs. Monopole, Reims. Maison Fondee en 1785.
To this day this 1901 advertising poster for the Heidsieck Champagne company remains one of Mucha’s most famous and popular works. Another testament to the power of Mucha’s work and influence in art history.
Alphonse Mucha posters
Alphonse Mucha was born on 24 July 1860 in Ivančice in southern Moravia in the Austrian Empire, now part of the Czech Republic. Following his education, Mucha moved to Paris in 1888 where his career began as an illustrator for magazines such as La Vie Populaire, Le Petit Francais Illustre, La Costume au théâtre and Art et Decoration. His illustrations began to give him a regular income and led to book illustrations, including works for Guy de Maupassant’s novel The Useless Beauty, Charles Seignobos’s book Scenes and Episodes of German History, and a children’s book of poetry by Eugène Manuel.
At the start of 1895, Mucha’s career took a significant upturn when he created a poster for the French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt. The story tells that Bernhardt called Maurice de Brunhoff, the manager of the publishing firm Lemercier which printed her theatrical posters. She rang on 26 December 1894 to order a new poster for her upcoming tour in the New Year. Because of the holidays, none of the regular artists were available, which forced Brunhoff to ask Mucha to quickly design the new poster for Bernhardt. What Mucha came up with is simply outstanding. The Sarah Bernhardt American Tour Poster was more than life-size; a little more than two meters high, with Bernhardt in the costume of a Byzantine noblewoman. She was portrayed in an orchid headdress and floral stole, holding a palm branch in the Easter procession near the end of the play. One of the innovative features of the posters was the ornate rainbow-shaped arch behind the head, almost like a halo, which focused attention on her face; this feature appeared in all of his future theatre posters. Probably because of a shortage of time, some areas of the background were left blank, without his usual decoration. The only background decoration was the mosaic tiles behind her head. The poster featured extremely fine draftsmanship and delicate pastel colours, unlike the typical brightly-coloured posters of the time. The top of the poster, with the title, was richly composed and ornamented and balanced the bottom, where the essential information was given in the shortest possible form: just the name of the theatre.
When the poster appeared on the streets of Paris on 1 January 1895 it caused an immediate sensation. Bernhardt was thrilled with the reaction and ordered four thousand copies of the poster in 1895 and 1896. She also gave Mucha a six-year contract to produce more. He went on to design posters for each successive Bernhardt play including La Dame aux Camelias, Lorenzaccio, Meda, La Tosca and Hamlet.
Mucha’s newfound fame also brought Mucha commissions for many other companies. His clients included JOB cigarette papers, Ruinart Champagne, Lefèvre-Utile biscuits, Nestlé baby food, Idéal Chocolate, the Beers of the Meuse, Moët-Chandon champagne, Trappestine brandy, and Waverly and Perfect bicycles. With his Champenois lithographic print, Mucha created a print that contained no text and wasn’t created to advertise anything. Published in large print runs and sold for a modest price, the ‘decorative panel’ was a new kind of product, a lithograph print to be used purely for decoration. Mucha’s first decorative panel series was The Seasons, published in 1896, depicting four different women in extremely decorative floral settings representing the seasons of the year. In 1897 he produced an individual decorative panel of a young woman in a floral setting, called Reverie, for Champenois. He also designed a calendar with a woman’s head surrounded by the signs of the zodiac. The Seasons series was followed by The Flowers, The Arts (1898), The Times of Day (1899), Precious Stones (1900), and The Moon and the Stars (1902).
Although Mucha’s work stands alone in the Art Nouveau field, his beautiful and romantic posters and paintings influenced many artists and epitomise the Art Nouveau movement. Beautiful women posed against sensuous, botanical backdrops in a colour palette of subdued pastels, florid lines, decorative elements, and natural forms all became Mucha’s signature trademark.
