Alphonse Mucha

The look we call Art Nouveau on a poster is largely Mucha's: a tall, narrow format, a woman framed by a halo-like circle, hair in whiplash curves, and a mosaic of flat pastel colour. It began with a rush job over Christmas 1894, a poster for Sarah Bernhardt's play Gismonda, which so pleased the actress that she signed him to a six-year contract. Printed lithographs for biscuits, champagne and cigarette papers followed, and the style was copied so widely that Parisians simply called it le style Mucha.