Mucha painted this portrait of Maude Adams as Joan of Arc to promote a one-night gala performance of a translation of Friedrich Schiller's Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans).

Maude Adams was one of the most successful and highly-paid performers of her day, and the play was put on for a crowd of around 2000 spectators in a one-night gala performance at Harvard University Stadium on June 22, 1909.  Mucha was also responsible for the production’s costumes and sets. The original painting is held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.