Baron Philippe de Rothschild came up with the idea of having each year's
Château Mouton Rothschild label designed by a famous artist of the day. He started with Jean Carlu in 1924, but eventually dropped the idea when he faced a wave of critics regarding his novel idea. In 1946, this became a permanent and significant aspect of the Mouton image, but the illustrations were often informal, quickly drafted by the artists, sometimes on a table napkin. In 1955,
Georges Braque asked to design the next wine's label, and the wine's label went on to be designed by famous international artists since then. In the words of Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, “The artist must be like Mouton: an extremely well-known artist who does not need Mouton to promote his or her art”. Once, on a trip to the USA, Philippine de Rothschild saw that wealthy collectors of Château Mouton Rothschild had enlarged the bottles' labels and were displaying them in their houses' hallway. This gave the idea to the Baroness to organize, starting in 1981, fully-fledged exhibitions of the wine labels. A permanent exhibition was created in 2013 at the château. The popularity of the label images results in auction prices for older and more collectible years being far out of sync with the other first growths, whose labels do not change year to year. == List ==