Alphonse Mucha’s La Pater with Numerous Highly Decorated Pages

This wonderfully illustrated volume is Alphonse Mucha’s Le Pater. The work was published in Paris by Champenois et Piazza et Cie in 1899. The work was limited in publication to 510 copies of which this is number 57. Mucha felt that this work was his finest achievement as an illustrator and it was first religious illustrations.

The work is bound in full skin with midnight blue binding. There are three complete suites of plates, 1 on Japan paper, 1 on special paper à la form of the Marais, and 1 on China paper.

It was said of this work: “At this auspicious time, the turn of a century, Mucha wanted to deliver to future generations his reflections upon human life and man’s place in the universe. He wished to present the way that leads man to a gradual ascent to the divine ideal. He determined to fulfill these goals in his own version of the Lord’s Prayer.” (Mucha/Art Nouveau, p. 233)

The work contained a page that stated the Lord’s prayer, a page of Mucha’s interpretation of the verses, and his own philosphical response. Mucha illustrated each line of the Lord’s prayer using his designs (moon, eight pointed stars) and inspirations from Kabbalah and Masonic philosophy. Mucha represented God as a mysterious shadow representing him as everywhere but invisible. The illustration of the Woman is to represent love, which descends from Heaven.