Study For a Poster; Fruit 

Alphonse Mucha, around the turn of the century, made this pastel drawing as a study for a poster. The powdery, soft texture of pastel lends itself to the Art Nouveau style, a commercial aesthetic movement which favored elegant lines and naturalistic forms. But pastel also suited the industrial printing process known as lithography, which was the main means of poster production. In lithography, the artist draws directly onto a stone or metal plate. The image is then transferred to paper using ink. Pastel's ability to create subtle tonal variations made it an ideal medium for these mass-produced images, perfectly meeting the demands of commercial advertising. Mucha’s drawing features the figure of a woman surrounded by bountiful fruit. Though seemingly an artwork, it was destined for the streets of Paris, and a poster such as this reflects how materials, and their modes of reproduction, can collapse the distinction between fine art and everyday life.