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sheet recto overall
JOB Cigarette Paper (Papier JOB Cigarette)
sheet recto overall
sheet recto overall

JOB Cigarette Paper (Papier JOB Cigarette)

Artist Alphonse Mucha (Czech, 1860 - 1939)
Printer Imprimerie Champenois (Paris, act. 1859 - 1927)
Date1898
MediumColor lithograph
DimensionsImage: 55 × 35 7/8 inches (139.7 × 91.12 cm)
Sheet: 61 × 41 inches (154.94 × 104.14 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. George C. Dillon
Object number64-21/2
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 130
Collections
Exhibition History

Paris: A Collage, University of Kansas, Student Union Gallery, Lawrence, KS, January 25–February 13, 1976, no 53, as Job Cigarette Poster.

 

Posters and Modern Color Prints, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 5–December 29,1985, no. 17.

 

Art on the Avenues: Posters from the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 16–July 28, 1996, no. 16, as Paper Job Cigarette.

 

Art of Advertising, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 22–July 17, 2011, no cat.

 

Spectacle and Leisure in Paris: Degas to Mucha, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, February 10–May 21, 2017, no. 27, as JOB.

 

Reflections of Nature: Monet’s Water Lilies and Art Nouveau, part of the series Monet in Conversation, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, May 2, 2026–May 2, 2027, no cat.

Gallery Label

In this advertisement, Alphonse Mucha frames the model’s body with whiplash curves of billowing tendrils. Similar twisting and turning organic forms can be found in the vegetation in Monet’s Water Lilies nearby.

Mucha’s alluring figure evokes desire and emphasizes the attractiveness of the product. The repeating pattern in the background underscores the cigarette brand’s logo. Designed as founder Jean Bardou’s initials, J. B., styled with a diamond in the middle, many consumers read it as JOB. Bardou didn’t change it, turning it into an iconic brand that still exists today.

Provenance

George Chaffee (1922–2013) and Joan (née Kent, 1925–2009) Dillon, Kansas City, MO, by June 1, 1964;

Given by the Dillons to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1964.
Published References

L’Estampe et l’Affiche (1898), p . 92.

 

La Plume (DATE 1899): 294, (repro.).

 

“Annonces,” Cocorico (January 15, 1899): 3.

 

Album d’Affiches et d’Estampes (Paris: La Plume, 1900), 15.

 

Paris: A Collage, exh. cat. (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas, 1976), unpaginated, as Job Cigarette Poster.

 

Ruth Malhotra, Marjan Rinkleff, and Bernd Schälicke, eds., Das Frühe Plakat in Europa und den USA (Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1977), 2: 634.

 

Ann Bridges, ed., Alphonse Mucha: The Complete Graphic Works (London: Academy Editions, 1980), no. A36, pp. 67, 156, (repro.), as JOB.

 

Alain Weill, Alphonse Mucha: Toutes les Cartes Postales/All the Postcards/Alle Postkarten (Uppsala : Hjert und Hjert, 1983), 111, 113, 115.

 

Jack Rennert and Alain Weill, Alphonse Mucha: The Complete Posters and Panels (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1984), no. 51, pp. 204–05, (repro.), as JOB.

 

Posters and Modern Color Prints, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1985), 7, as Paper Job Cigarette.

 

Art on the Avenues: Posters from the Permanent Collection, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 6, as Paper Job Cigarette.

 

George L. McKenna, The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Prints 1460–1995 (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in association with The University of Washington Press, 1996), 298, as Papier Job Cigarette.

 

Elizabeth C. Childs, ed., Spectacle and Leisure in Paris: Degas to Mucha, exh. cat. (St. Louis: Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, 2017), 32–33, 35, 93, (repro.), as JOB.

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


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