French Art Nouveau Lithographs titled "The Four Seasons" by Mucha

A set of four French Art Nouveau lithographs titled Les Saisons ("The Seasons") by Alphonse Mucha. This set is one of three that Mucha designed to represent the four seasons. Here, the seasons are depicted as sumptuous young women with surroundings that symbolize the seasons which they are allegories for. All four of the brilliantly colored panels are signed. Spring is depicted as a beautiful, rosy-cheeked woman with long blonde hair that reaches almost down to her ankles. The contrapposto figure is fashioning a lyre from a verdant green branch, using her luscious golden hair as strings. Songbirds flock to the allegorical figure, adding to the aural aura that this airy piece emits. Summer sits lethargically at the side of a pond, dipping her feet into the cool water and resting on a branch of ivy. She wears a crown of crimson poppies and her thin white robes appear to be falling off with the heat of the summer day. Autumn's hair is a deep, rich, reddish-brown, which echoes the colors of the dried leaves in the trees and on the ground below her. The allegorical figure is not looking directly into the viewers eyes, but rather to the bountiful grapes she holds in her hand. She is crowned with the fall-blooming flower, chrysanthemum. Winter is wrapped in an icy blue shawl and is surrounded by snowy branches. The viewer is left to wonder if the allegorical woman is quietly whispering to the birds to teach them the song of spring to come; or, if she is using the songbirds that once celebrated new life with her as sustenance to make it through the bitter winter. Pictured in: "Alphonse Mucha: The Complete Posters and Panels", by Jack Rennert and Alain Weill, G.K. Hall & Co., Publishers, Boston, pages 90-97, cat. 18.