This book is a reproduction of Alphonse Mucha's second commissioned portfolio that was published in 1905. It's main use was and continues to be to help artists with composing the body within unusual and interesting shapes. The bulk of the drawings are, as would be expected with Mucha, of women in various dress or in the nude. There are also a few examples of younger children. I found this book to be useful for practice as copying the various figures has helped me gain a better grasp of anatomy. My only complaint would be that there are no studies of men in the plates.

Mucha I love. His art is still very unique even today. It never seems old. This book is a good Dover book to see 40 plates by Mucha. They are presented in their original color. But I wouldn't recommend buying it because Dover has another book on Mucha which has 70 plates in original color. The 70 plates book is excellent and I recommend highly on getting it before it goes out of print.

The works presented in this book aren't too diverse. They are mostly tinted in either red or blue.