JOB and Mucha

When Pierre Bardou, Jean's son, took over the company in 1878, publicity and awareness of JOB was just beginning to develop. This was when the upper classes of northern France and Catalonia became keenly interested in a new artistic movement called Art Nouveau. More avant-garde, the art nouveau preaches the beauty accessible to all, and that aesthetics must form an integral part of daily life.

As a close patron of the arts, Pierre Bardou contacted young artists to design art nouveau posters with the JOB brand. In this early stage of poster design, an artist named Alphonse Mucha strongly emerged. Mucha employed the same sources of inspirations : flowers, female faces and hair, lovely clothing, a young woman smoking a cigarette, her hair sensuously mixing with the smoke. At the time, this art is completely revolutionary.

Artist Mucha and the JOB Advertisement...