Template:POTD/2014-07-29
A poster advertising an 1896 play, starring Sarah Bernhardt, based on Alexandre Dumas's 1848 novel The Lady of the Camellias. Bernhardt starred in Paris, London, and several Broadway revivals of the story, as well as a 1911 film directed by André Calmettes and Henri Pouctal. The title role of the tragic courtesan Marguerite Gautier became coveted amongst actresses, and Bernhardt coached Ida Rubinstein in it before her death.
This poster was designed by the Czech Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha. Mucha had signed a six-year contract with Bernhardt in 1895, following the success of his poster for Victorien Sardou's Gismonda, in which Bernhardt starred. Mucha used pale pastel colors and frequently featured beautiful young women in flowing, vaguely Neoclassical robes in his posters; these women were often surrounded by lush flowers which sometimes formed halos behind their heads.Poster: Alphonse Mucha; restoration: Adam Cuerden