Seated Woman, plate no. 48 from Documents Décoratifs 1901

Alphonse Mucha made this lithograph as part of a decorative portfolio, and you can see how the whole thing is built from lines: delicate, ornamental lines. The drawing, the colors, everything feels thought out, planned, but not overworked. Look at the cascading folds of her gown, how they pool around her feet, that tassel swinging in the space beneath her chair, or the stylized patterns of the background. It's all about capturing the overall essence and feeling of the scene, rather than trying to be hyper-realistic. The lines create shapes and forms, but they also bring movement and energy to the composition. There is a dialogue between the flat decorative forms and the illusion of three-dimensionality. Think about contemporaries like Gustav Klimt, who was also experimenting with decorative patterns and surface ornamentation around the same time. But where Klimt's work feels dense and layered, Mucha's has a lightness and airiness to it. It's a dance between representation and abstraction, where neither one takes precedence.