Thomas Negovan's Le Pater book features a glow-in-the-dark cover

Le Pater Alphonse Mucha Symbolist Masterpiece Art Nouveau Book by Thomas Negovan

Century Guild

Le Pater

Alphonse Mucha's Symbolist Masterpiece and the Lineage of Mysticism

$179.00 USD

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Product variants

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Le Pater: Alphonse Mucha’s Symbolist Masterpiece and the Lineage of Mysticism offers an unprecedented view of Mucha’s 1899 Le Pater series in definitive expanded edition. Each image captured directly from the original artworks in the Century Guild collection using museum-grade imaging practices and presented in a luxurious bibliophile volume designed to dramatically recreate the experience of the original 1899 presentation.

The ultimate edition of this epic study of Mucha's most personal series features the entirety of Alphonse Mucha's 1899 series of artworks, faithfully reproduced to scale, with an original body of research that reveals the mystical systems and encoded symbols behind every page.

Featuring a thorough historical narrative outlining mystical symbolism from Albrecht Dürer and Wiliam Blake to the 19th century occult artworks of the Salon Rose+Croix, the artworks and theories of Jacob Böhme, Robert Fludd, and the Invisible College, and the codings of sacred geometry and Hermeticism, author Thomas Negovan provides readers with the language necessary to interpret the symbols and imagery of Alphonse Mucha's artworks.

With photographs from private collections that have never before been printed, rare historical artifacts, mystical artworks, and Mucha's original sketches and theories, Le Pater: Alphonse Mucha's Symbolist Masterpiece and the Lineage of Mysticism is a beautiful tribute to the artist who defined the Art Nouveau movement and a necessary addition to every art book collection.

Product information

We use sturdy, reinforced packaging to protect your item(s) in transit. Every order is carefully inspected and packed personally by our team to ensure quality and guarantee the safe arrival of your books, artworks, and other items.

No cost is spared in producing our books with exceptional quality. Century Guild's painstaking material selection process pushes the limits of today's printing standards, resulting in premium treatments for a luxury experience.

Artwork

Ultra-high-resolution images captured directly from the original artworks in the Century Guild collection

Dimensions

12 inches x 16 inches, printed to scale with the original 1899 Le Pater artworks

Pages

Over 224 full-color pages

Binding

Durable Smyth-sewn binding for lay-flat reading

Treatments

Treatments include glow-in-the-dark cover art (Hardcover Edition), hand-marbled endpapers (Clamshell Edition), and gilded page edges

Text

Original body of previously unpublished research and commentary by Thomas Negovan

Compare Both Editions

Hardcover

Available in a limited edition
Ultra-high-resolution images captured directly from the original artworks
Giant 12 × 16 in. hardcover, printed to scale with the original Le Pater series
Fine cotton paper with advanced color correction, deluxe varnishes, ribbon bookmark, and gilt highlighting
Leather-style cover with gilt lettering and hubbed spine

Deluxe Clamshell

Everything in the hardcover edition, plus:

Limited to 333 copies, signed and numbered by author on vellum sheet

Full leather-style cover with gilt lettering and hubbed spine

Custom-designed, hand-marbled endpapers by master artist Renato Crepaldi

Presented in an archival fabric clamshell box, designed to recreate the original 1899 presentation

Includes archival facsimile print of Amen by Alphonse Mucha

Exceptionally Produced

No cost is spared in producing our books with exceptional quality. Century Guild's painstaking material selection process pushes the limits of today's printing standards, resulting in premium treatments for a luxury experience.

In 1899, Alphonse Mucha created an intensely personal series of occult-themed artworks as a love letter to the close of the century and a message of hope to the future.

This mystical and non-denominational exploration, titled Le Pater, was both praised and reviled by Mucha's contemporaries as his most controversial and meaningful work.

Published in an edition of 510 copies on December 20, 1899, Mucha called his visionary interpretation of the Lord's Prayer "the thing I have put my soul into." Now, 120 years later, Le Pater is celebrated as his rarest and most powerful creation.

Most of the images in this book are taken directly from the rare, original period artworks in the Century Guild collection, and are printed at the absolute highest resolution possible. We take extensive care in our image processing and color correction to ensure that the artworks are presented with accuracy and detail.

This book is a unique journey through over two decades of mindful collecting, curation, and original research, making this volume a true permanent exhibition you can hold.

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PRAISE FOR LE PATER'

"I AM HONESTLY in awe of this book. I am almost afraid to open it, let alone write about it. It is profound and beautiful, and is amongst the very few of its kind I cherish; it is a source of beauty and intellectual inspiration."

Michael Moorcock, Author (Elric of Melniboné series, Jerry Cornelius novels)

"Alphonse Mucha is an astonishing genius. I love his work, and have half a dozen books about him (plus probably twenty more where he is featured). He was a supreme craftsman enjoying incredible technical facility, a unique sense of design, and a sublime aesthetic judgement– yet his masterful illustrations and decorations for The Lord’s Prayer remain relatively unknown. Hopefully this book will change that. Thomas Negovan’s beautiful book is probably my all-time favourite exploration of an artist who brought joy and beauty into the world and– simply put– played his part in making the world a better place."

Roger Dean, Artist and Designer

"There's a whole lot of talk about magick and the occult these days, but very few recognize just how much work and artistry go into development of a true sigil. This stunning homage to Le Pater not only reveals the intricacies and depth of Alphonse Mucha's Symbolist Masterpiece, it also demonstrates the sort of research, decoding, dedication, and precision required to embark on a mystical journey of this magnitude."

Douglas Rushkoff, Author (Team Human, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus)

"Bravo to Thomas Negovan for his in-depth study of this Symbolist masterpiece of Alphonse Mucha. This is an exquisitely designed and well thought-out tribute to the Father of Art Nouveau. This book is truly a thing of beauty!"

Thomas Blackshear, Illustrator and Fine Artist