{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O137555"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O137555/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BB1797/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BB1797/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BB1797","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BB1799","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O137555/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O137555","accessionNumber":"E.261-1921","objectType":"Poster","titles":[{"title":"Gismonda: Bernhardt, Théâtre de la Renaissance","type":"popular title"}],"summaryDescription":"This poster belongs to a large collection assembled during the nineteenth century by Joseph Thacher Clarke, whose wife, Agnes, gave the collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1921. Clarke was one of the first poster collectors and organised several exhibitions of these works at The Royal Aquarium in London. In the introduction to one of the exhibition's catalogues, Clarke showed great foresight when he proposed that the medium would hold enduring appeal and significance:\r\n\r\n\"The finest posters are, indeed, not only exemplars of artistic originality, beauty, and excellence in technique, but actual records of the daily life and interests of the age. From these documents the future historian may derive the fullest information concerning our food (physical and intellectual), our clothing, our diseases, and our remedies therefor - in short, concerning our vocations, our amusements, and our morals. What would not the archaeologist be willing to give for a set of such documents, relating, let us say, to Pericleian Athens or to Augustan Rome?\"","physicalDescription":"Colour lithographic print on paper depicting a full length portrait of Sarah Bernhardt.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Mucha, Alphonse","id":"A5481"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Imprimerie Lemercier et Cie","id":"A17675"},"association":{"text":"printers","id":"AAT25732"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper","id":"AAT14109"}],"techniques":[{"text":"lithograph","id":"x39981"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Colour lithograph","categories":[{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"},{"text":"Posters","id":"THES252963"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006BB1797","2006BB1799"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"SHLN","id":"THES49063"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"poster","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"No","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"France","id":"x28849"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1895","earliest":"1895-01-01","latest":"1895-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Mrs J.T. Clarke","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"2160","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"753","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Mucha","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed"}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Colour lithograph poster by Mucha for Sarah Bernhardt as 'Gismonda' at the Théatre de La Renaissance.  Paris, 1895.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Coutts, Howard and Claire Jones  <u>Toulouse Lautrec and the art of the French Poster</u>.  Bowes Museum, 2004. 53 p., ill.  ISBN 0954818202."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"The following excerpt is from the Mucha Foundation, © Mucha Trust:\n\n'The Parisian actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) was the single most influential figure in Mucha’s life as an artist.  It was his first poster for her, Gismonda, that made him famous and he grew both as a man and an artist through his professional collaboration and friendship with the greatest stage personality of the era.\r\n\r\nMucha met Sarah Bernhardt for the first time in late 1894.  Legend says that on St. Stephen’s Day (26th December) Mucha, then a humble illustrator, was doing a favour for a friend, correcting proofs at Lemercier’s printing workshop, when the actress called the printer with an immediate demand for a new poster for her production of Gismonda. All the regular Lemercier artists were on holiday, so Mucha was turned to in desperation. Despite his lack of experience in designing posters, Mucha grabbed this opportunity and, to his own amazement, ‘La divine Sarah’ loved his work. \r\n\r\nMucha’s Gismonda posters were up all over Paris on the morning of 1st January 1895 and they were to revolutionise poster design. The long narrow shape, the subtle pastel colours and the stillness of the near life-size figure introduced a note of dignity and sobriety, which were quite startling in their novelty. The posters immediately became objects of desire to collectors, many of whom used clandestine methods to obtain them, either bribing bill stickers or simply going out at night and cutting them down from the hoardings.\r\n\r\nDelighted with the success of Gismonda, Sarah Bernhardt immediately offered Mucha a contract to produce stage and costume designs as well as posters.  Under this contract, Mucha produced six more posters for her productions: La Dame aux Camélias (1896), Lorenzaccio (1896), La Samaritaine (1897), Médée (1898), La Tosca (1898) and Hamlet (1899). Mucha applied to these posters the same design principle as that he had developed for Gismonda – the use of an elongated format with a single, full-standing figure of the actress placed in a raised shallow alcove like a saint.'"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.261-1921"],"accessionNumberNum":"261","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1921,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-07-14","recordCreationDate":"2007-07-18","availableToBook":false}}