La Trappistine

La Trappistine
Colour lithograph, 1897

‘La Trappistine’ was a liqueur made by Parisian distillers, Legouey & Delbergue, from a recipe inspired by Trappist monks. In designing this poster, Mucha used the same design formula as that of the Gismonda prototype with its tall format and the single figure of a woman on a raised platform. Mucha used a prominent halo decorated with circular motifs adapted from the Maltese cross to reference the religious order, thereby emphasising the mysterious source of this beverage. Furthermore, Mucha also introduced an idea of visual navigation here, with the use of a long strand of the woman’s hair that hangs down to guide the viewer’s eyes to the subject—a bottle of La Trappistine.