Le Cénacle by Victor Mignot, Art Nouveau Commedia dell'Arte lithograph, 1897

Elegantly-dressed society women observe silhouettes of Commedia dell’Arte characters Pierrot, Columbine, and Harlequin at the shadow play theater Le Cénacle. In a manner reminiscent of Georges de Feure (one of the leading artists to develop the Art Nouveau movement), Mignot’s composition focuses on elongated, sweeping female figures and textured washes of color. Mignot also utilizes Modernist background shapes alongside the shadowy, puppet-like figures in the background. While this poster was printed in multiple sizes and formats, this extremely scarce edition of 25 strikes on Japon paper from 1897 is the most desirable. The rare, small format poster lithographs created at this time were printed using rich, dense, lead inks, and the special Japon paper editions allowed the inks to rest upon its surface rather than being absorbed by a more permeable paper stock, resulting in a superior, jewellery-like boldly colored strike. This artwork is presented in archival rag mat. Notable museum collections featuring works by Victor Mignot include: The British Museum, London; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.