The Art Nouveau artistic movement gave rise to the poster and advertising graphics. Always alive and constantly moving, the ornamentation appears balanced. With the industrial expansion of the 20th century and the growth of the consumer public, poster art proved to be a powerful means of advertising and propaganda. Taking advantage of the effective elements of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles, poster creators in the following decades gave their works an unmistakable style and great diversity.

The Art Nouveau poster was complex, mannered and sophisticated, executed with a great wealth of graphic and coloristic means. It had a great visual impact, this phenomenon gaining momentum towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the next. After the invention of polychrome lithography, in 1879, quality posters began to be reproduced in large series. Such technological innovations led to a good collaboration between printers and artists, contributing to a real flowering of poster art between 1870 and 1939.

The poster was inspired by Japanese drawings and, in particular, by the paintings of the Nabis, offering the authors of the genre particularly bold solutions. The French graphic artist Jean Carlu believed that the poster was "the graphic expression of an idea."
Whether commercial or cultural, the advertising poster is more than present in the life of contemporary man. When it was created, the poster was conceived as a communication tool for the declared purpose of selling a product or an idea.

The Belle Époque period is marked by a real "craze for posters", an explosion of poster exhibitions, the proliferation of poster shops and dealers to satisfy the public's love for this art form. In France, the cult of cafes became ubiquitous, and numerous artists, of different orientations and temperaments, became poster creators. Artists such as Eugene Grasset, Theophil Steinlen, Paul Berthon, but especially Alphonse M. Mucha, gave nobility to the art of the poster.

The French artist of Czech origin, Alphonse Maria Mucha (1860-1939), was one of the great figures of the Art Nouveau movement, the creator of an original and diverse body of work. He approached several artistic genres, excelling in graphics and creating some of the most famous posters of his time. He studied at the Royal Academy in Munich, and from 1888, he began attending classes at the Académie Julian in Paris.

During his studies, he supported himself by working as a book illustrator. He participated in numerous exhibitions and was awarded the silver medal at the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris for his furniture for the Bosnia and Herzegovina pavilion. In 1901, he was awarded the Legion of Honor, and in 1902, he published the book "Documents décoratifs", a model book for his ornamentation, containing suggestions for its practical application.

His work combines the style of Byzantine art and features of Art 1900, through a diaphanous chromatics, pertinent symbols, managing to make a personal mark, later taken over by other European artists. Young women with dreamy expressions, draped in vaporous garments, are his trademark. Mucha creates the feminine prototype of Belle Époque that comes to dominate all of Paris. Through his work, this ideal goes beyond the borders of France, imposing itself throughout the world.

A former student of the French painter and sculptor Jean-Paul Laurens (1838-1921), he ventured, by chance, into the art of posters, and his success was immediate. Mucha's style is reminiscent of Viennese Art Nouveau. It is characterized by an ornamentation of artificial flowers and a universal elegance of representations, combined with a symmetrical treatment of surfaces and lines, and a dependence on color effects.

The poster made for the French actress Sarah Bernhardt in 1894, entitled Gismonda, is among the most famous works. The drama of this poster for the play by Victorien Sardou caused a great sensation and led the actress to offer the author an exclusive contract. Many spectators will often have the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the Divine, nicknamed "the golden voice of French theater", portrayed on gigantic posters, displayed on the facades of buildings in a Byzantine-floral style unknown until then. Mucha assumed responsibility not only for the artist's posters, but also for her theater sets and costumes. From that moment on, he was assailed by graphic orders, advertising posters, calendars, book illustrations, magazine titles and decorative panels.

Alphonse Mucha's fame led the future sovereign of Romania, Princess Maria, to purchase some of his most representative works, such as the four panels of The Seasons, others of Moments of the Day and the imposing poster for the show Gismonda, exhibited in Pelișor Castle. Sarah Bernhardt was one of the young crown princess's favorite actresses, Maria often imitating her in her attire and allure. She was repeatedly invited by Queen Elizabeth to musical and literary events organized at Peleș Castle.

The poster represents the actress Sarah Bernhardt, in Byzantine imperial costume, in the role of Gismonda, the dramatic work signed by Victorien Sardou. She wears a rich, ample cloak, and on her head a wreath of irises. In her right hand she holds a palm branch, and the left is brought to her chest. In the background, above her head, the actress's name appears inscribed, in an arc. The lower part presents a grotesque character leaning on a ribbon bearing the name of the theater.

The play "Gismonda" had its first performance on January 4, 1895, at the Renaissance Theater in Paris.

Through his impeccable drawing technique, the science of composition and the use of color tones, Alphonse Mucha remains the most important representative of Art Nouveau in European graphics.