Moët & Chandon White Star

Moët & Chandon White Star is a late 19th century poster designed by Czech painter and illustrator, Alphonse Mucha. He would produce huge numbers of similarly styled pieces to promote various luxury brands over a period of several years.

This design features a tall model posing in an elegant dress whilst holding some grapes. Behind and around her is a series of flowers and plants which follow the shape of her body in a romantic, natural image. Around her ankles are some particularly stunning flower heads which add to the feminine theme found in this design. The model's dress is long in the extreme, and gathers around her feet, whilst the details about the specific brand of drink are then displayed at the bottomof the poster. Mucha signs the piece in the bottom left corner using his consistent signature which may have helped others to discover his career via these widely published advertisements.

Artist Alphonse Mucha took commissions from a large number of companies who wanted his assistance in promoting their products. Most of these businesses would be focused on aspirational products, and therefore required an artist who worked in a suitable style. Mucha's delightful Art Nouveau approach was perfect for such items, many of which fell into the food and drinks industry, though in the luxury bracket of that. Champagne would be one example, and Mucha also covered several other alcoholic drinks and his reputation started to spread across Europe. Moet et Chandon offers another example of Mucha's partnership with this luxury brand, and his posters would be printed off and distributed around major city centres. The city of Paris would provide him with plenty of work as they had a growing middle class who wanted to be seen enjoying the 'right' products as they sought to continue their rise up the social levels. Moet and Chandon White Star, itself, was completed by Alphonse Mucha in 1899.

Whilst most know Mucha only as an Art Nouveau figurehead, this artist actually worked in a variety of styles across his career and also covered different content as well. His history paintings were highly successful and arrived prior to him developing the signature look which is displayed in paintings such as Moët & Chandon White Star. He would later return to similar types of historical content within his Slav Epic series which helped to draw attention to the Slavic people and visually tell the story of their progression over many centuries. He took a long time before the original idea for this project could be financed and used the success of other parts of his career to help build a list of wealthy patrons who might be willing to support his more ambitious projects.