Alphonse Maria Mucha (1860 - 1939) was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist, most well known for his images of women. He produced many paintings, illustrations, advertisements and designs.
Alphonse Mucha singing abilities allowed him to continue his education through high school in the Moravian capital of Brünn (today Brno), even though drawing had been his first love since childhood. He worked at decorative painting jobs in Moravia, mostly painting theatrical scenery, then in 1879 moved to Vienna to work for a leading Viennese theatrical design company, while informally furthering his artistic education. When a fire destroyed his employer's business in 1881 he returned to Moravia, doing freelance decorative and portrait painting. Count Karl Khuen of Mikulov hired Mucha to decorate Hrusovany Emmahof Castle with murals, and was impressed enough that he agreed to sponsor Mucha's formal training at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts.
Mucha moved to Paris in 1887, and continued his studies at Académie Julian and Académie Colarossi while also producing magazine and advertising illustrations. Around Christmas 1894, Mucha happened to drop into a print shop where there was a sudden and unexpected demand for a new poster to advertise a play starring Sarah Bernhardt, the most famous actress in Paris, at the Théatre de la Renaissance on the Boulevard Saint-Martin. Mucha volunteered to produce a lithographed poster within two weeks, and on 1 January 1895, the advertisement for the play Gismonda by Victorien Sardou appeared on the streets of the city. It was an overnight sensation and announced the new artistic style and its creator to the citizens of Paris. Bernhardt was so satisfied with the success of that first poster that she entered into a 6 years contract with Mucha.
Mucha produced a flurry of paintings, posters, advertisements, and book illustrations, as well as designs for jewellery, carpets, wallpaper, and theatre sets in what was initially called the Mucha Style but became known as Art Nouveau. Mucha's works frequently featured beautiful healthy young women in flowing vaguely Neoclassical looking robes, often surrounded by lush flowers which sometimes formed haloes behind the women's heads. In contrast with contemporary poster makers he used paler pastel colors. The 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris spread the "Mucha style" internationally, of which Mucha said "I think (the Exposition Universelle) made some contribution toward bringing aesthetic values into arts and crafts." He decorated the Bosnia and Herzegovina Pavilion and collaborated in the Austrian Pavilion. His Art Nouveau style was often imitated. However, this was a style that Mucha attempted to distance himself from throughout his life; he insisted always that, rather than adhering to any fashionable stylistic form, his paintings came purely from within and Czech art. He declared that art existed only to communicate a spiritual message, and nothing more; hence his frustration at the fame he gained through commercial art, when he wanted always to concentrate on more lofty projects that would ennoble art and his birthplace.
Mucha considered Le Pater his printed masterpiece, and referred to it in the January 5, 1900 issue of The Sun Newspaper (New York) as the thing he had "put his soul into". Le Pater was Mucha's occult examination of the themes of The Lord's Prayer and only 510 copies were produced.
He spent many years working on what he considered his fine art masterpiece, The Slav Epic (Slovanská epopej), a series of twenty huge paintings depicting the history of the Czech and the Slavic peoples in general, bestowed to the city of Prague in 1928. He had dreamt of completing a series such as this, a celebration of Slavic history, since he was young. Since 1963 the series has been on display in the chateau at Moravsky Krumlovat the South Moravian Region in the Czech Republic.
The rising tide of fascism in the late 1930s led to Mucha's works, as well as his Slavic nationalism, being denounced in the press as 'reactionary'. When German troops marched into Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1939, Mucha was among the first people to be arrested by the Gestapo. During the course of the interrogation the aging artist fell ill with pneumonia. Though eventually released, he never recovered from the strain of this event, or seeing his home invaded and overcome.
By the time of his death, Mucha's style was considered outdated. However, his son, author Jiri Mucha, devoted much of his life to writing about him and bringing attention to his art. Interest in Mucha's distinctive style experienced a strong revival in the 1960s (with a general interest in Art Nouveau) and is particularly evident in the psychedelic posters of Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, the collective name for two British artists, Michael English and Nigel Waymouth, who designed posters for groups such as Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.
In his own country, the new authorities were not interested in Mucha. His Slav Epic was rolled and stored for twenty-five years before being shown in Moravsky Krumlov and only recently has a Mucha museum appeared in Prague, run by his grandson, John Mucha.
© 2021. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Alphonse Mucha or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only
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Alphonse Mucha |
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Mucha at work on The Slav Epic (1920s) |
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Mucha working on a poster for publishing house Cassan (1896) |
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Mucha's The Slav Epic today in the National Gallery of Prague |
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Flower 1897 |
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Four Seasons 1897 |
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Railroad poster advertising travel to Monaco and Monte-Carlo 1897 |
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Rèverie, poster for the publishing house Champenois 1897
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Zodiac calendar for La Plume 1897 |
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Cover design for the magazine La Plume 1898 |
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Poster for JOB cigarette papers 1898 |
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The Arts: Music 1898 |
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Illustration from Le Pater of "Lead us not into temptation" 1899 |
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The Arts: Dance 1898 |
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Cascade pendant designed by Alfons Mucha for Fouquet jewelers 1900 |
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Cover of Documents Decoratifs 1901
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Ideas for dish ware in Documents Decoratifs 1901 |
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Jewelry designs by Mucha in Documents Decoratifs 1901 |
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The jewelry shop Georges Fouquet, 1901
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The jewelry shop Georges Fouquet, 1901 |
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Decorated ceiling of Municipal House in Prague 1910–12 |
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Artwork on a 1920 Czechoslovak Republic 100 Czechoslovak korun note |
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Winter Night, depicting a Ukrainian peasant dying during a famine (detail) 1920 |
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Stained glass window by Mucha for Saint Vitus Cathedral, Prague 1931
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Mucha's The Slav Epic No.19: The Abolition of Serfdom in Russia 1914 |
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Mucha's The Slav Epic cycle No.18: The Oath of Omladina under the Slavic Linden Tree 1926 |
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Mucha's The Slav Epic cycle No.16: Jan Amos Komenský 1918 |
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Mucha's The Slav Epic cycle No.15: The Printing of the Bible of Kralice in Ivančice 1914
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Mucha's The Slav Epic cycle No.12: Petr of Chelčice 1918 |
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Mucha's The Slav Epic cycle No.11: After the Battle of Vítkov 1916 |
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Mucha's The Slav Epic cycle No.8-: Master Jan Hus Preaching at the Bethlehem Chapel- Truth Prevails 1916
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Mucha's The Slav Epic cycle No.5: King Přemysl Otakar II of Bohemia 1924
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Mucha's The Slav Epic cycle No.3: Introduction of the Slavonic Liturgy in Great Moravia 1912
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Mucha's The Slav Epic cycle No.2: The Celebration of Svantovít 1912
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Mucha's The Slav Epic cycle No. 1: The Slavs in Their Original Homeland 1912
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