JOB

JOB by Alphonse Mucha: Hair, Smoke and a Brand Name

A woman tilts her head back and holds a lit cigarette near her face. Her orange hair pours across the lower half of the sheet, while smoke rises past her profile and the three letters JOB loom behind her. Alphonse Mucha made this colour lithograph in 1896 to advertise the JOB brand of cigarette papers.^[1] The picture has become a familiar example of Art Nouveau design, but its first job was direct and commercial: make a brand memorable at a glance.

The woman, letters and border are difficult to separate once you start looking. Hair curls into a dense pattern, smoke traces a freer line across it, and the repeated small monograms make even the background part of the advertisement. Mucha gives the figure room to command attention, then keeps returning the eye to the product name.^[1]

At a Glance

• ArtistAlphonse Mucha
• DesignPoster for ‘Job’ cigarette paper
• Date1896
• Mediumcolour lithograph
• PrinterF. Champenois, Paris
• Dimensions66.7 × 46.4 cm in the Mucha Foundation’s object record
• Purposeadvertisement for JOB cigarette papers

These details identify the 1896 design. Individual surviving sheets can differ in size or printed lettering: the Bibliothèque nationale de France records a 1896 example measuring 64 × 46 cm as a “variant of lettering.”^[2] Musée Jenisch Vevey's 1896 impression has a 66.8 × 46.3 cm support but a smaller 51.6 × 39 cm printed image.^[7] Measuring the image rather than the sheet changes the number even when the composition belongs to the same design. These figures belong to catalogued objects, not automatically to the reproduction on this page.

JOB in Mucha’s career

Work dates

18901900191019201930

Gismonda

1894 design

JOB

1896 design

Zodiac

1896 design

The Seasons

1896 series

Médée

1898

Le Pater

1899

Apotheosis of the Slavs

1926

Contents

1. What the picture sells
2. The company behind the initials
3. Following the hair and smoke
4. Letters in the image
5. A poster for the Paris market
6. The 1896 poster and the later JOB
7. Looking again

Look closer: JOB

This owner-supplied copy reproduces the first JOB composition associated with 1896; the close reading refers to the lettering visible here.

123

Details from JOB

Select a detail image to open the full-size gallery, then use the arrows to compare views.

1

Letters behind the head

The enormous JOB letters share the upper field with her pale hair; the brand is built into the composition rather than placed in a separate caption box.

2

Cigarette and smoke

The small cigarette and thin smoke cross the dark ground. Her lifted hand gives the advertised product a visible role without displacing the portrait.

3

Hair as ornament

The strands spread across the lower half in long loops, answering the repeated geometry of the border. The Champenois imprint is visible at lower left in this copy.

What the picture sells

JOB was a trademark, and cigarette papers were the product. The poster does not need a long sales pitch. A single woman occupies nearly all the available space, with a lit cigarette providing the connection between the image and what a customer might use the papers to make. The large letters can be read immediately; the smaller repetitions keep the name in view as the eye explores the design.^[1]

The cigarette is easy to overlook in a small reproduction. It sits delicately in her raised hand, close to the face and to the first upward movement of smoke. Mucha turns that thin trail into one of the poster’s organising lines. It leads past the cheek and into the curls, linking a recognizable action to the most lavish part of the design. The product is present in the scene, but the advertisement works through the image’s appeal and its repeated brand mark rather than through an explanation of the paper itself.^[1]

That distinction matters when looking at the work today. The graceful lines do not remove its tobacco advertising purpose. They show how carefully a late nineteenth-century poster could dress a consumer product in an attractive visual world. Mucha’s drawing invites sustained attention, while the company name remains large enough for a passing viewer to remember.

The company behind the initials

The name behind the brand needs care. The Mucha Foundation calls JOB a trademark of the Joseph Bardou Company.^[1] A closer contemporary business record points elsewhere. The French international jury's published report on the 1900 Paris Exposition identifies the trademark as the exclusive property of the Pierre Bardou-Job company, based in Perpignan.^[15] The Hamburg Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe also names Pierre Bardou-JOB Co. as commissioner of Mucha's separate 1898 poster.^[12] This article therefore uses JOB for the product and does not assign the 1896 commission to Joseph Bardou personally. The Foundation's company attribution and the period report remain a documented discrepancy.^[1][12][15]

The jury report gives an unusually direct account of how the trademark was understood at the time. It says Jean Bardou sold his cigarette paper in small booklets whose covers carried his initials with a diamond between them; consumers read the diamond as an O, making JOB.^[15] That is the report's origin story, written more than sixty years after the business began, rather than an explanation derived from Mucha's poster. For this design, the practical result is clear: three short letters could be enlarged into a street-readable name and repeated as ornament across the background.^[1][15]

The same report says the Perpignan company held a separate BOJ mark for Russia and distinguished the firm that assembled and sold JOB booklets from a related paper-making partnership with Pauilhac in Toulouse.^[15] Those are company and product distinctions, not evidence that Mucha drew a BOJ version of this poster. They do, however, place the internationally circulating image within a business that was already managing different markets and marks. The poster's global reprints should be traced impression by impression rather than assumed from the firm's reach.^[1][15]

Following the hair and smoke

The profile provides a clear centre. Against a dark purple field, the pale face and neck are easy to find before the intricate curls take over. The hair seems to begin as something physical, falling from her head and over her shoulders. Soon its coils spread across the sheet and behave almost like ornament. Some loops turn inward; others reach the patterned frame. The line is full of movement, yet the face stays calm.^[1]

Smoke supplies a different kind of movement. It is thinner and less solid than the hair, but both can be followed as continuous curves. Their meeting point gives the picture much of its energy. A curl could almost become a wisp of smoke, and smoke can look like another strand. Mucha uses that uncertainty without losing the basic story: a woman holds a cigarette and its smoke rises around her.^[1]

There is a useful tension between freedom and control in these lines. Hair appears to spill beyond any neat arrangement, while the surrounding letters and border hold it in place. The shoulder and arm also give the composition a human structure beneath the pattern. A viewer can enjoy the decorative surface and still see how deliberately its parts direct attention toward the face, cigarette and name.

Letters in the image

The giant JOB initials occupy the upper half of the sheet. They sit behind the figure, but they are too bold to serve merely as background. The hair crosses their space; the face interrupts the area between them. As a result, the brand and the woman are read together. Remove the letters and the pose becomes a decorative portrait. Remove the figure and the remaining trademark loses much of its visual appeal.^[1]

Smaller JOB monograms repeat over the purple ground. They turn an empty field into a branded pattern without competing equally with the main letters. The arrangement lets the name operate at two distances. From across a street, the large initials are the message. Close to the sheet, the smaller signs keep surfacing between the body and curls. Mucha makes typography part of the pictorial rhythm rather than placing a separate caption under an illustration.

The outer border does another kind of work. Its bright, mosaic-like pattern gives the flowing hair a firm edge and makes the entire advertisement resemble a carefully framed image. The Mucha Foundation connects this decorative treatment with the Byzantine effect he used in Gismonda. The resemblance is visible in the rich surface and designed enclosure, though the two commissions needed different messages: one named a theatrical performance, the other a commercial brand.^[1][4]

A poster for the Paris market

The 1890s were a strong period for printed advertisements in Paris. Better colour lithography offered designers and printers a way to fill public posting spaces with vivid, repeatable images. JOB commissioned more than one artist. The Musée du Pays Rabastinois records Jane Atché's different cigarette-paper poster on view at a November 1896 Reims poster exhibition, alongside works by Mucha and other designers.^[8] Its text dates Mucha's first JOB work to 1897, whereas the Foundation, BnF and Musée Jenisch catalogue the design discussed here as 1896.^[1][2][7][8] The conflict cannot establish which artist's image was first conceived. It does show that the brand's visual campaign was broader than one famous Mucha sheet. The Mucha Foundation places JOB among the varied products Mucha advertised, from drink and food to perfume and transport. Its record names F. Champenois as the printer of this 1896 sheet.^[1][3]

AWARE's biographical account of Atché goes further, saying her JOB design preceded both Mucha designs for the brand.^[19] That is a claim about artistic sequence, while the object catalogues above supply dates for particular works and the Rabastens museum documents a public exhibition. None of these texts gives a dated commission or first printing for each artist. The safe conclusion is that Atché's work belongs in the early JOB campaign and that priority should not be inferred simply from the best-known poster's 1896 catalogue date.^[1][8][19]

Printing is part of the design’s story. The curls, letterforms and border had to survive reproduction in colour, not just look persuasive in a single drawing. The solid dark ground helps the lighter face and hair stand forward; the repeated shapes remain legible as a pattern even where fine detail would be lost to a distant viewer. This poster could be encountered quickly in a public setting and still reward a longer look.

A held copy makes that public purpose more concrete. Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris catalogues a 1896 Champenois JOB lithograph, inventory 12662.2, as an advertisement commissioned for posting in France.^[13] Its record gives 66.2 × 46 cm for that sheet and notes the printed Mucha signature at lower right and Champenois's printer credit at lower left. The museum acquired this copy through Roger Braun's 1941 bequest. That acquisition date belongs to the object's later collecting history, not to its original advertising campaign. The museum's separate use, manufacture, inscription and provenance fields also show why a poster catalogue can establish more than a reproduction's appearance alone.^[13]

Mucha also made decorative panels intended for interiors. Some used a related visual language of women, flowing hair and ornamental surrounds, but were issued without a product name. The distinction is useful here. JOB’s beauty and its commercial purpose are inseparable in the printed design: its biggest shapes are the letters of the brand, and its most delicate line begins with the cigarette.^[1][3][5]

The 1896 poster and the later JOB

Mucha designed another JOB poster in 1898, often called the “Great JOB.” It is a separate composition, not a new date for the woman shown here. The Mucha Foundation catalogues the two designs separately. That matters because images and captions online can easily bring material from the later poster into an account of the earlier one.^[1][6]

The Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg gives the later composition a specific physical anchor: its 153 × 98 cm JOB lithograph, inventory EP2014.2051, is catalogued as designed by Mucha and printed by Champenois in 1898.^[12] That much larger sheet is evidence for the scale of one surviving later poster, not the size or printing date of the 1896 profile design. Keeping the museum objects separate prevents “Great JOB” from becoming a label for any unusually large reproduction of the earlier work.^[1][6][12]

This page concerns the 1896 image with the large letters behind a profile, small monograms on a purple field and long orange hair crossing the lower sheet. The BnF’s 1896 catalogue entry adds a further caution: even within this design, a surviving print can be identified as a lettering variant. A reproduction that shows the general composition does not by itself reveal which physical state was photographed.^[2]

The Foundation notes that the 1896 poster was republished in different editions and formats for international markets.^[1] A BnF record gives a particularly concrete example: a Spanish-language JOB variant, printed by Champenois and catalogued as 1896, measures 58.5 × 42.5 cm.^[9] Its Spanish wording is evidence of a different lettering state, not proof that the image on this page reproduces that specific sheet.

The Alphonse Mucha Museum in Sakai, which holds a substantial Mucha collection, describes the 1896 design's wider circulation in a Japanese museum bulletin.^[14] It says the design was also issued for sale and reused on calendars and postcards. The bulletin reports an ordinary print price of 3 francs and a version using additional gold ink at 3.5 francs. Those are the museum's reported historical edition prices, not values for a surviving print today. Its account also mentions promotional text in Greek and Arabic, in addition to French. Read beside the BnF's separately catalogued Spanish wording, this supports a broader international campaign; it does not establish the sequence, print runs or destinations of each language state.^[9][14] More work on period sales lists and actual held examples would be needed to map that circulation completely.

A 2012 Japanese museum exhibition checklist lists another paper lithograph of the first JOB design at 65.8 × 46 cm, attributed to the Suntory Poster Collection and Sakai City Cultural Hall.^[11] Its date is printed cautiously as [1896/1897], unlike the Foundation's firm 1896 design date. The bracketed span describes that exhibited object in the checklist, not a reason to redate every impression. It also provides a third sheet measurement beside the Foundation, BnF and Vevey entries, reinforcing why those numbers must remain attached to named holdings.^{[1][2][7][11]}

The design also entered a format meant for poster collectors. The Caumont Centre d'Art's Mucha exhibition guide identifies it as plate 202 of Les Maîtres de l'Affiche, issued in February 1900 and measuring 40 × 29 cm.^[10] A smaller collector lithograph and a street advertisement have related imagery but different publication histories. Date, size and lettering need to be tied to the exact record when precision matters.

The BnF holds plate 202 within a group of six Mucha contributions to Les Maîtres de l'Affiche. Its catalogue names the Chaix printer, gives 39.5 × 28 cm for the grouped prints and notes a blind stamp at lower right.^[16] The Caumont measurement describes its exhibited plate; the BnF's figures and stamp describe another catalogued group. Both show that the collector issue had its own physical identity apart from a Champenois street sheet.^[10][16]

Even specialist descriptions disagree about which original JOB design plate 202 reproduces. The Caumont guide calls it the 1896 poster, as does the bilingual catalogue of the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, which labels its February 1900 plate a reproduction of the earlier JOB.^[10][17] Pavel Nosek's bibliography instead labels plate 202 a reproduction of the 1898 JOB.^[18] The BnF group record supplies the plate number but does not settle that design attribution.^[16] The two exhibition catalogues support the earlier identification used here, but the conflict should remain visible until an original plate and its source composition are collated without relying on labels alone.

A poster collected and reconsidered

By 1939, JOB had entered a different setting from its original advertising sites. The catalogue for the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers exhibition “L'affiche en couleurs de Chéret à nos jours” lists JOB among Mucha's posters, alongside theatre sheets for Bernhardt and his Salon des Cent design.^[20] Its brief entry names Champenois as printer and records a Mucha signature at lower left. The surrounding introduction treats Mucha as a maker of a distinctive graphic style, showing how a cigarette-paper advertisement could be presented as part of poster history within a technical museum. The catalogue does not identify the JOB composition by year or give its dimensions; it therefore cannot resolve the 1896/1898 distinction or the dispute about the collector plate.^[20]

A 1980 Lyon museum bulletin describes a later revival of interest in Mucha after a period when Art Nouveau had lost favour.^[21] Its author cites a recent high auction price for the “small” JOB poster as one sign of that market. This is evidence of collecting taste in the late twentieth century, not of the poster's first sale price, print quantity or street reception in the 1890s. The contrast with the Japanese museum's reported 3-franc issue price makes the change in context clear, but the two monetary figures belong to different eras and kinds of transaction and should not be compared as equivalent prices.^[14][21]

Looking again

The quickest way into JOB is to follow the smoke from the cigarette. It leads to the hair, which leads outward into the border and back toward the oversized letters. In a few movements of the eye, the picture joins person, product and trademark. That is the visual achievement of the poster, and also the mechanism of its advertisement.

For a theatre poster made only two years earlier, see Gismonda. Its still figure and named role show another way Mucha joined image and lettering. The wider poster collection places JOB among his other public commissions, while Mucha and Art Nouveau explores the lines and ornament that made his work so recognisable.

Watch: Alphonse Mucha

Compare a later JOB design with museum introductions to Mucha’s advertising and Art Nouveau work.

1898 Alphonse Mucha JOB Poster

PBS Antiques Roadshow

A look at a different JOB poster, dated 1898; useful for comparing the tobacco brand’s Mucha designs.

Watch on YouTube

▶01 · Compare a later JOB poster1898 Alphonse Mucha JOB PosterPBS Antiques Roadshow▶02 · Art Nouveau overviewAlphonse Mucha: Plongez dans l’Art nouveau !Grand Palais▶03 · Paris and designAlphonse Mucha: Art Nouveau in ParijsKunstmuseum Den Haag

Artworks directory

292 artworks

Search artworks Medium All media Drawing Painting Reset

Name	Date	Medium
'Accept Love and Enthusiasm from Your Son, Mother of the Holy Nation': study for the mural 'By Own Strength III' at the Lord Mayor's Hall, Obecní Dům, Prague	1910-1911	Pencil and charcoal on canvas
'By force towards freedom, with love towards unity!': study for the mural 'By Own Strength II' at the Lord Mayor's Hall, Obecní Dům, Prague	1910-1911	Pencil and charcoal on canvas
'The Passing Wind Takes Youth Away': design for a fan and the façade of the 'Pavilion of Man' (unrealised)	1899	Colour lithograph
'Through humiliated and tortured, you will live again, my country!': study for the mural 'By Own Strength II' at the Lord Mayor's Hall, Obecní Dům, Prague	1910-1911	Pencil and charcoal on canvas
1918-1928: Poster for the 10th Anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Czechoslovakia	1928	Colour lithograph
6th Sokol Festival	1912	Colour lithograph
8th Sokol Festival	1925	Colour lithograph
After the Battle of Grunwald	1924	egg tempera on canvas
After the Battle of Vitkov Hill	1923	egg tempera on canvas
Age of Love	1936–1938
Age of Reason	1936–1938
Age of Wisdom	1936–1938
Amants	1895	Colour lithograph
Apotheosis of the Slavs	1926	Egg tempera on canvas
As Hamlet	1899	colour lithograph
Au Quartier Latin	1898	Magazine cover
Banknotes of Czechoslovakia, designed by Mucha: 500 crown; 50 Crown; 10 Crown	1929	Banknotes
Bieres de la Meuse	1897	Colour lithograph
Biscuits Champagne Lefevre Utile	1896	Colour lithograph
Biscuits Lefevre Utile	1896 design for 1897 calendar; Foundation object/Carnavalet 1897	Colour lithograph
Blessed are the Pure in Heart	1906	Printed magazine illustration
Bleu Deschamps	1903 (deposit)	Colour lithograph
Bosnia & Herzegovina Pavilion - illustration featured in 'Le Figaro Illustré' (1 March 1900)	1900	Reproduction from Le Figaro Illustré after watercolour original
Bosnia-Herzegovina Pavilion: cartoon for the mural 'The Roman Period and the Arrival of the Slavs'	1899-1900	ink and crayon on paper
Bosnia-Herzegovina Pavilion: fragment of the upper frieze featuring Ivo and Anica, characters from Bosnian legends	1899-1900	tempera and watercolour on canvas
Bosnian Legends: Death of Hasanaga's Bride	1899	Charcoal on paper
Bosnian Legends: Murcia - The Plague Lady	1899	Charcoal on paper
Bosnian Pavilion Restaurant at the Paris Exhibition 1900: design for the menu	1900	Pencil and watercolour on paper
Boutique Fouquet (interior design)	1901	Shop interior design
Boutique Fouquet: sketches of the shop's signboard and decorative details	c.1900	Pencil, ink and watercolour on paper
Box for Lefèvre-Utile biscuits: Gaufrettes Vanille	c.1900	Tin box covered with lithographed label
Box for Lefèvre-Utile biscuits: Madère	c.1900	Tin box covered with lithographed label
Brightness of the Day	1899	Colour lithograph
Broach with Pendant	1900	Gold, ivory, mother-of-pearl and semi-precious stones
Byzantine Head - The Blonde	1897	Colour lithograph
Byzantine Heads (pair)	1897	Colour lithograph
Byzantine Heads: Brunette	1897	Colour lithograph
Bénédictine	1898 (BnF deposit); Hamburg 1899; MNAC 1896 or 1898	Colour lithograph
Champagne Ruinart	1896	Colour lithograph
Chocolat Ideal	before or in 1897 (catalogue conflict)	Colour lithograph
Chocolat Masson (1897 calendar)	1896–1897	Colour lithograph
Choirboys at Petrov Church, Brno	1905	Watercolour on cardboard
Cloches de Noel	1900	Illustrated book
Comedy: study for a mural for the German Theatre, New York	1908	Oil on canvas
Cours Mucha: poster advertising Mucha's art classes held at the Académie Colarossi, Paris	1900	colour lithograph
Creative Force - Jan z Pernštýna: study for a pendentive of the Lord Mayor’s Hall, Obecní Dům, Prague	1910-1911	Oil on canvas
Crucifixion	c.1868	Pencil, crayon and watercolour on paper
Cycles Perfecta	1897 or 1902 (catalogue conflict)	Colour lithograph
Dance	1898	Colour lithograph
Dead Couple - Abandoned	c.1899-1900	Charcoal and pastel on blue paper
Defense of Sziget against the Turks by Nicholas Zrinsky	1914	egg tempera on canvas
Design for a champagne poster	c. 1896	Charcoal and pastel on paper
Design for a display stand at the Paris Exhibition 1900	c.1899-1900	Pencil and wash on paper
Design for Champagne Ruinart	c. 1896	Pencil, watercolour and gold leaf on paper
Design for the cover of the magazine 'Fantaz'	1882	Ink and watercolour on paper
Design for the heading of the cover of the magazine 'Krokodil'	1885	Pen and ink on cardboard
Design for the poster for the Mucha Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, January-February 1921	1920	Pen and ink and watercolour on paper
Designs for cutlery	c.1900	Charcoal and white on card
Designs for tableware	c.1900	Charcoal, coloured pencil and white on card
Diadem for 'La princesse lointaine'	1895	metal and pearls
Diploma of Ivančice: Mock diploma honouring a local celebrity, with illustration of the first line of 'May', a poem by Karel Hynek Mácha	1882	Pen and ink and watercolour on paper
Documents décoratifs: designs for a watch and accessories (unused)	1901-1902	Pencil, ink and white on paper
Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 25, featuring studies of lily	1901-1902	Pencil on paper
Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 43	1901-1902	Pencil, ink and wash, heightened with white on paper
Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 49	1901-1902	Pencil and white on paper
Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 50	1901-1902	Pencil and white on paper
Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 60	1901-1902	Pencil, ink and wash, heightened with white on paper
Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 63	1901-1902	Pencil and white on paper
Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 67	1901-1902	Pencil and white on paper
Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 71	1901-1902	Pencil and white on paper
Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 72	1901-1902	Pencil and wash, heightened with white on paper
Documents décoratifs: line drawing for Plate 33, featuring lily motifs	1901-1902	Pencil, pen and ink on paper
Documents décoratifs: Plate 54	1902	Lithograph
Dreaming of Freedom: study for a Panel of the Small Reception Room at the Lord Mayor’s Hall, Obecní Dům, Prague	1910-1911	Pen and ink and watercolour on paper
Dusk	1899	Colour lithograph
Evening	1899	Colour lithograph
F. Champenois (Rêverie imprint)	1898	Colour lithograph
F. Guillot-Pelletier calendar (1898)	1897–1898	Colour lithograph
Feather	1899	Colour lithograph
Figures décoratives: final study for Plate 2	1904-1905	Pencil and white on paper
Figures décoratives: final study for Plate 3	1904-1905	Pencil and white on paper
Figures décoratives: final study for Plate14	1904-1905	Pencil with white on paper
Figures décoratives: sketch study for Plate14	1904-1905	Blue pencil on paper
Flirt Lefevre Utile	1899 (Foundation design); BnF legal deposit 1900	Colour lithograph
Flower	1897	Colour lithograph
Flower: final study for decorative panel	1897	Pencil, ink and watercolour on paper
France Embraces Bohemia	1918	oil on canvas
Fruit	1897	Colour lithograph
Georges Fouquet (1858-1929), Paris, after design by Mucha: Ornamental Chain with pendants	1900	Gold, enamel, fresh-water pearls, mother of pearl and semi-precious stones
Georges Fouquet (1858-1929), Paris, after Mucha design: 'Peacock' Ring (Exhibited at the Paris Exhibition 1900)	1900	Opal and gold
Girl Weeping	c.1899-1900	Black chalk and pastel on paper
Girl with Loose Hair and Tulips	1920	Oil on canvas
Gismonda	1894	Colour lithograph
Head of a Girl, statue for the stand of the Houbigant Perfumery at the Paris Exhibition 1900	1900	Bronze, silver and parcel gilt
Head of Sarah Bernhardt: Study for 'Lorenzaccio'	1896	Pencil on paper
Heather from Coastal Cliffs	1902	Colour lithograph
Heidsieck & Co	1901	Colour lithograph
Holy Mount Athos	1926	Egg tempera on canvas
Ilsée, Princesse de Tripoli	1897	Illustrated book
In the Desert: Study for an illustration for the Světozor magazine	1889	Pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper
Incantation (Salammbô)	1897	Lithograph
Independence - Jiří z Poděbrad: study for a pendentive of the Lord Mayor’s Hall, Obecní Dům, Prague	1910-1911	Oil on canvas
Interior and furniture designs	c.1900	Pencil on paper
Interior of Boutique Fouquet: design for a wall-mounted display cabinet with statuette and mirror	c.1900	Pencil on paper
Interior of Boutique Fouquet: design for the fireplace with statuettes, mirror, and the ornamental details of the wall	c.1900	Pencil and watercolour on cardboard
Interior of Boutique Fouquet: sketches of the fireplace with statue, mirror, display cabinet, and the ornamental details of the wall	c.1900	Pencil, pen and ink on paper
Ivy	1901	Colour lithograph
Jan Milic of Kromeriz	1916	egg tempera on canvas
Jaroslava and Jiří, the Artist’s Children	1918	Oil on canvas
JOB poster	1896	Colour lithograph
Judgement of Paris (calendar for Vieillemard printing company)	1895	Colour lithograph
Justice - Master Jan Hus: study for a pendentive of the Lord Mayor's Hall, Obecní dům, Prague	1910-1911	Oil on canvas
L'Annee Qui Vient	1897	red chalk on paper
L'Illustration magazine - cover for Christmas 1896/1897	1896	Magazine cover
L'Illustré Soleil du Dimanche	1897	Magazine cover
La Dame aux Camélias: designs for cover and interior of special programme	1896	Pencil and watercolour on paper
La Nature	1899-1900	Bronze and amethyst
La Plume	1897	Magazine cover
La Samaritaine	1897	colour lithograph
Lance Parfum Rodo	1896; Albertina print c. 1900	Colour lithograph
Laurel	1901	Colour lithograph
Le Monde Illustré	1900	Magazine cover
Le Pater	1899	Illustrated book
Le Pater: early study for the 1st allegorical scene 'Our Father who art in Heaven' (1899) (Mucha Foundation object 300)	1899	Pencil on paper
Le Pater: early study for the 1st allegorical scene 'Our Father who art in Heaven' (1899) (Mucha Foundation object 302)	1899	Pastel on paper
Le Pater: study for the 6th allegorical scene 'Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors'	1899	Charcoal and ink wash on paper
Lefevre Utile	1904	Advertisement
Leslie Carter	1908	Colour lithograph
Letem Českým Světem	1898	Printed book
Lorenzaccio	1896	Colour lithograph
Luchon poster (attributed to Mucha)	1895	Colour lithograph
Madonna of the Lilies	1905	Tempera on canvas
Master Jan Hus Preaching at the Bethlehem Chapel	1916	egg tempera on canvas
Maude Adams	1908	Lithograph, hand-coloured in watercolour and gouache
Maude Adams as Joan of Arc	1909	Oil on canvas
Medea	1898	Colour lithograph
Menu for the Bosnian Pavilion Restaurant at the Paris Exhibition 1900	1900	Colour lithograph
Militancy - Jan Žižka: study for a pendentive of the Lord Mayor's Hall, Obecní dům, Prague	1910-1911	Oil on canvas
Military Camp in Winter, near a City on Fire	c.1899-1900	Pastel on paper
Moet et Chandon	1899	Colour lithograph
Monaco Monte Carlo	1897	Colour lithograph
Moon	1902
Moravian Teachers' Choir	1911	Colour lithograph
Morning Alphonse Mucha Painting / AlphonseMucha.org	1899	Colour lithograph
Morning Star	1902	Colour lithograph
Moët & Chandon White Star	1899	Colour lithograph
Mrs Mucha’s Necklace	1906	gold, enamel and semi-precious stones
Mural for the Bosnia-Herzegovina Pavilion: The Roman Period and the Arrival of the Slavs	1900	tempera and watercolour on canvas
Murals by Mucha in the Lord Mayor's Hall, Obecní Dům (Municipal House), Prague (1910-1911)
Music	1898	Colour lithograph
Nativity	c. 1934	oil on canvas
Nestle's Food for Infants	1897	Colour lithograph
Night	1899	Colour lithograph
Nude on a Rock	1898-1899	Bronze
Official Banquet of the Paris Exhibition 1900: design for the menu featuring a fashionable woman wearing a Mucha-style jewellery	1900	Pencil, gouache and wash on grey paper
Ornamental motifs designed for 'Combinaisons Ornementales se Multipliant à l'Infini à l'Aide du Miroir' (1901)	c.1900-1901	Blue and red pencil on paper
Packaging for 'Savon Mucha Violette'	1906	Colour lithograph
Packaging for Lefèvre-Utile biscuits: Boudoir	1901	Colour lithograph
Page's Costume: study for an illustration for 'Le Costume au Théâtre'	1890	Pencil and watercolour on cardboard
Painting	1898	Colour lithograph
Peonies	1897–1898	Ink and watercolour
Petr Chelcicky at Vodnany	1918	egg tempera on canvas
Poetry	1898	Colour lithograph
Portrait of Jaroslava	c.1927-1935	Oil on canvas
Portrait of Josephine Crane Bradley as Slavia	1908	Oil and tempera on canvas
Portrait of Marie Chytilová (Maruška), Mucha's Future Wife	1903	pastel on paper
Portrait of Mucha's Sister, Angela	c.1880	Oil on canvas
Portrait of Mucha's Sister, Anna	c.1885	Oil on canvas
Portrait of Mucha's Son, Jiří	1925	Oil on canvas
Portrait of Mucha's Wife, Maruška	1908/17	Oil on canvas
Portrait of Woman	c. mid 1910s - 1925	Blue pastel on grey paper
Poster for 'Hommage Respectueux de Nestlé' (the Nestlé Company's tribute to Queen Victoria's 60th Jubilee)	1897	Colour lithograph
Poster for 'Imprimerie Cassan Fils'	1896	Colour lithograph
JOB poster (1898)	1898	Colour lithograph
Poster for 'La Dame aux Camélias'	1896	Colour lithograph
Poster for 'La Tosca'	1899	Colour lithograph
Poster for 'Regional Exhibition at Ivančice 1913'	1912	Colour lithograph
Poster for 'The Slav Epic Exhibition, Brno, 1930'	1928-1930	Colour lithograph
Poster for 'Waverley Cycles'	1898	Colour lithograph
Poster for the 'Lottery of the Union of Southwestern Moravia'	1912	Colour lithograph
Poster for the Austrian Pavilion at the Paris Exhibition 1900	1900	Colour lithograph
Prague Subjugated: study for a Panel of the Small Reception Room at the Lord Mayor’s Hall, Obecní Dům, Prague	1910-1911	Pen and ink and watercolour on paper
Primrose	1899	Colour lithograph
Primrose and Feather (paired image)	1899	Colour lithographs (paired image)
Princess Hyacinth (Princezna Hyacinta)	1911	Colour lithograph
Print proof for the Biscuits Lefèvre-Utile tin	1899	Lithograph
Reverie	1898	Colour lithograph
Russia Restituenda [Russia Must Recover]	1922	Colour lithograph
Salome	1897	Colour lithograph
Salon des Cent	1896	Colour lithograph
Salon of the Hundred	1897	Colour lithograph
Sarah Bernhardt - La Princesse Lointaine - Lefevre Utile	1903	Colour lithograph
Sarah Bernhardt as La Princesse Lointaine: poster for 'La Plume' magazine	1897	Colour lithograph
Sarah Bernhardt in the role of the Duc de Reichstadt in L’Aiglon	1900	Pencil on paper
Sarah Bernhardt: study of her full-standing figure	c.1896	Pen and ink on paper
Savonnerie de Bagnolet calendar	1898 (calendar)	Printed advertising calendar
Self-portrait (1899)	1899	Oil on board
Self-portrait (1907)	1907	Blue and white crayon on blue Ingres paper
Self-portrait, sketching in his apartment, Paris	late 1880s	oil on canvas
Sketches of flowers for Documents décoratifs	c.1900-1901	Pen and ink on paper
Slavia insurance poster	1907	Poster
Slavs in their Original Homeland	1912	Egg tempera on canvas
Snake Bracelet with a Ring	1899	Gold, enamel, opal, ruby and diamond
Société Populaire des Beaux Arts	1897	Colour lithograph
Song of Bohemia	1918	oil on canvas
St. Vitus Cathedral Stained-glass Window, Prague: final design for the central panels, featuring SS Cyril and Methodius	1931	Ink and watercolour on paper
St. Vitus Cathedral Stained-glass Window, Prague: final design for the central panels, featuring St. Ludmila	1931	Ink and watercolour on paper
St. Vitus Cathedral Stained-glass Window, Prague: final design for the central panels, featuring St. Wenceslas (Duke of Bohemia) kneeling next to his Grandmother, St. Ludmila	1931	Ink and watercolour on paper
St.Vitus Cathedral Stained-glass Window, Prague: final design for the bottom left panels	1931	Ink and watercolour on paper
St.Vitus Cathedral Stained-glass Window, Prague: final design for the bottom right panels	1931	Ink and watercolour on paper
Stained-glass Window designed by Mucha at St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague	Early 1930s	N/A
Study for 'The Age of Reason'	1936-1938	Pencil and watercolour on paper
Study for 'The Slav Epic cycle' No.19: The Abolition of Serfdom in Russia	1913-1914	Watercolour and gouache on paper
Study for 'The Slav Epic' cycle No.14: The Sacrifice at Szigetvár by Nikola Zrinski	c.1913-1914	Photographed drawings stuck together, tinted with watercolour and gouache
Study for 'The Slav Epic' cycle No.17: The Holy Mount Athos (1926)	c.1925-26	Charcoal heightened with white on cardboard
Study for 'The Slav Epic' cycle No.18: The Oath of Omladina under the Slavic Linden Tree	c.1925-1926	Pencil and watercolour on paper
Study for 'The Slav Epic' cycle No.1: The Slavs in Their Original Homeland (1912)	c.1910-1912	Oil on canvas
Study for 'The Slav Epic' cycle No.2: The Celebration of Svantovít	c.1910-1912	Oil on canvas
Study for 'The Slav Epic' cycle No.7: Jan Milíč of Kroměříž	c.1915-1916	Oil on canvas
Study for 'The Slav Epic' cycle No.9: Master Jan Hus Preaching at the Bethlehem Chapel. The Magic of the Word: Truth Prevails (1412).	c.1915-1916	Oil on canvas
Study for 'The Three Ages' triptych: Reason, Wisdom and Love [unfinished project]	1936-1938	Pencil and watercolour on paper
Study for 'Woman in the Wilderness' (c. 1922-1923) (Mucha Foundation object 315)	c. 1922-1923	oil on canvas
Study for 'Woman in the Wilderness' (c. 1922-1923) (Mucha Foundation object 316)	c. 1922-1923	oil on canvas
Study for Savon Notre Dame	c. 1896	pencil and watercolour on paper
Study for the poster 'Russia Restituenda [Russia Must Recover]'	1922	Pen and ink and watercolour on paper
Study of a Male Nude	1885-1887	Oil on canvas
The Abolition of Serfdom in Russia	1914	Egg tempera on canvas
The Arts (series)	1898	Colour lithograph
The Arts: study for 'Dance'	1898	Pencil and watercolour on paper
The Arts: study for 'Music'	1898	Pencil and watercolour on paper
The Arts: study for 'Painting'	1898	Pencil and watercolour on paper
The Arts: study for 'Poetry'	1898	Pencil and watercolour on paper
The Bohemian King Premysl Otakar II	1924	egg tempera on canvas
The Bulgarian Tsar Simeon	1923	egg tempera on canvas
The Burr McIntosh Monthly, 1907	1907	Magazine cover
The Celebration of Svantovit	1912	egg tempera on canvas
The Coronation of the Serbian Tsar Stefan Dusan as East Roman Emperor	1923	egg tempera on canvas
The Devil and Mr Twardowsky: study for an illustration for 'The Tale of Pan Twardowsky' (a variation of 'Faust')	c.1887-1888	Charcoal on paper
The Flowers (series)	1898	Colour lithographs
The Flowers: Carnation	1898	Colour lithograph
The Flowers: Iris	1898	Colour lithograph
The Flowers: Lily	1898	Colour lithograph
The Flowers: Rose	1898	Colour lithograph
The Hussite King Jiri of Podebrady	1923	Egg tempera on canvas
The Introduction of the Slavonic Liturgy	1912	egg tempera on canvas
The Last Days of Jan Amos Komensky (Comenius) in Naarden	1918	Egg tempera on canvas
The Light of Hope	1933	Oil on canvas
The Meeting at Krizky	1916	egg tempera on canvas
The Months (January-June)	1899	Colour lithograph
The Months (July-December)	1899	Colour lithograph
The Moon and the Stars (four-panel montage)	1902	Colour lithographs (four-panel montage)
The Moon and the Stars (series)	1902	Colour lithograph
The Moon and the Stars: study for 'The Evening Star'	1902	Ink and watercolour on paper
The Moon and the Stars: study for 'The Pole Star'	1902	Ink and watercolour on paper
The New York Daily News art supplement	1904	Printed art supplement
The Oath of Concord of the Slavs (unfinished)	1939	oil on canvas
The Oath of Omladina under the Slavic Linden Tree	1926, unfinished	Egg tempera on canvas
The Precious Stones (four-panel montage)	1900	Colour lithographs (four-panel montage)
The Precious Stones (series)	1900	Colour lithograph
The Precious Stones: Amethyst	1900	Colour lithograph
The Precious Stones: Emerald	1900	Colour lithograph
The Precious Stones: Ruby	1900	Colour lithograph
The Printing of the Bible of Kralice in Ivancice	1914	egg tempera on canvas
The Seasons (series)	1896	Colour lithograph
The Seasons (series) (1900)	1900	Colour lithograph
The Seasons (variation in screen format)	1896	Colour lithograph
The Seasons: Autumn (1896)	1896	Colour lithograph
The Seasons: Autumn (1900)	1900	Colour lithograph
The Seasons: Spring	1900	Colour lithograph
The Seasons: Spring (1896)	1896	Colour lithograph
The Seasons: Summer	1900	Colour lithograph
The Seasons: Summer (1896)	1896	Colour lithograph
The Seasons: Winter	1900	Colour lithograph
The Seasons: Winter (1896)	1896	Colour lithograph
The Slavonic Concord: study for the ceiling painting for the Lord Mayor's Hall, Obecní Dům, Prague	1910-1911	Oil on canvas
The Threat	1912	Colour lithograph
The Times of the Day (series)	1899	Colour lithograph
The West End Review	1897 (Foundation); 1898 promotional cover	Colour lithograph
Thistle from the Sands	1902	Colour lithograph
Théâtre de la Renaissance: design for poster advertising Sarah Bernhardt's theatre	c.1895	Pen and ink on paper
Tin for Lefèvre-Utile biscuits	1899	Circular tin with lid and handle; colour print on metal
Topaz	1900	Colour lithograph
Tragedy - study for a mural for the German theatre New York	1908	Oil and tempera on canvas
Trappistine Liquors	1897	colour lithograph
Wiener Chic	1905	Magazine cover
Woman in the Wilderness	1923	Oil on canvas
Woman masked in white head-scarf - study for the illustration of the Bosnia & Herzegovina Pavilion featured in 'Le Figaro Illustré' (1 March 1900)	1899	Pencil and wash heightened with white on paper
Woman with a Daisy - textile designed by Mucha	1900	Printed upholstery fabric
Zdenka Cerny	1913	Colour lithograph
Zodiac (La Plume calendar)	1896–97	Colour lithograph
Zodiac (textless decorative panel)	1896	Colour lithograph
‘At the sight of the two storks the owl rose.’ Study for an illustration for Contes de Grand-mères	1891	Watercolour and gouache on paper

Frequently Asked Questions

References

1. Mucha Foundation, “Poster for ‘Job’ cigarette paper (1896),” object record. View source.
2. Bibliothèque nationale de France, “Job [papier à cigarettes]: [affiche],” 1896 catalogue record, identified as a lettering variant. View source.
3. Mucha Foundation, “Advertising Posters,” thematic collection. View source.
4. Mucha Foundation, “Poster for ‘Gismonda’ (1894),” object record. View source.
5. Mucha Foundation, “Art Posters,” thematic collection. View source.
6. Mucha Foundation, “Poster for ‘Job’ cigarette paper (1898),” object record. View source.
7. Musée Jenisch Vevey, collection record for a 1896 JOB colour lithograph on card, inventory MAF-0589, with separate image and support measurements. View source.
8. Musée du Pays Rabastinois / Musées Occitanie, collection text for Jane Atché's separate JOB poster, 1896 Reims exhibition and a conflicting 1897 date for Mucha's first design. View source.
9. Bibliothèque nationale de France, catalogue record for a Spanish-lettered JOB variant, 1896, Champenois, 58.5 × 42.5 cm. View source.
10. Caumont Centre d'Art, Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau exhibition guide, identifying the 1896 JOB design in the February 1900 Maîtres de l'Affiche plate 202. View source.
11. National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, 2012 exhibition work list, English text, item 3070: first JOB design, bracketed [1896/1897], 65.8 × 46 cm, Suntory Poster Collection / Sakai City Cultural Hall. Work list PDF.
12. Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, JOB, EP2014.2051, later 1898 Champenois poster measuring 153 × 98 cm (German). Collection record.
13. Les Arts Décoratifs, Paris, Job, inventory 12662.2; 1896 Champenois poster, commission and posting function, printed credits, 66.2 × 46 cm and Roger Braun's 1941 bequest. Museum object record.
14. Alphonse Mucha Museum, Sakai City, Japanese museum bulletin, volume 3, page 3, on the 1896 JOB design, reported edition prices, calendar and postcard reuse, and Greek and Arabic advertising text. Museum bulletin PDF.
15. Exposition universelle internationale de 1900, Jury international, Rapports du Jury international, vol. 15, part 1 (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1902), group XV, class 92, “Société Pierre Bardou-Job”: trademark ownership, company structure, and contemporary account of the initials. Read digitised report.
16. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Les Maîtres de l'Affiche grouped Mucha record FRBNF40469980: plate 202, Chaix printer, grouped dimensions and blind stamp. View catalogue.
17. Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Mucha: O legado da Art Nouveau, pp. 50–51, bilingual catalogue identifying the February 1900 plate 202 as a reproduction of the 1896 JOB design. Read catalogue.
18. Pavel Nosek, Alfons Mucha: Books and Periodicals (1993; English translation 2012), Les Maîtres de l'Affiche entry identifying February 1900 plate 202 with an 1898 JOB. Read transcription.
19. AWARE / Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions, Marion Paoli, “Jane Atché (dite Jal),” account of the 1896 Reims exhibition and Atché's poster in relation to Mucha's JOB designs. Read biography.
20. Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, Exposition de l'affiche en couleurs de Chéret à nos jours (Paris, July–August 1939), catalogue p. 66, listing JOB among Mucha's posters and naming Champenois as printer. Read catalogue.
21. Dominique Recoules, “Panneaux décoratifs d’Alphonse Mucha,” Bulletin des musées et monuments lyonnais 6, no. 2 (1980), p. 29, on later Art Nouveau collecting and a recent JOB auction example. Read article.

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