Art Nouveau
www.alfonsmucha.org

Czech painter, graphic artist and decorative artist, probably the most recognized artist of the Art Nouveau era Mucha was born in Moravia and moved to Vienna where he worked as a scene painter in the theater during his late teens.
After early education in Brno, Moravia, and work for a theatre scene-painting firm in Vienna, Mucha studied art in Prague, Munich, and Paris in the 1880s. Like every aspiring artist of the day, Mucha ended up in Paris in 1887. He was a little older than many of his fellows, but he had come further in both distance and time. A chance encounter in Moravia had provided him with a patron who was willing to fund his studies. After two years in Munich and some time devoted to painting murals for his patron, he was sent off to Paris where he studied at the Academie Julian. After two years the supporting funds were discontinued and Alphonse Mucha was set adrift in a Paris that he would soon transform. At the time, however, he was a 27 year old with no money and no prospects - the proverbial starving artist.
For five years he played the part to perfection. Living above a Cremerie that catered to art students, drawing illustrations for popular (ie. low-paying) magazines, getting deathly ill and living on lentils and borrowed money, Mucha met all the criteria. It was everything an artist's life was supposed to be. Some success, some failure. Friends abounded and art flourished. It was the height of Impressionism and the beginnings of the Symbolists and Decadents. He shared a studio with Gauguin for a bit after his first trip to the south seas. Mucha gave impromptu art lessons in the Cremerie and helped start a traditional artists ball, Bal des Quat'z Arts. All the while he was formulating his own theories and precepts of what he wanted his art to be.

He first became prominent as the principal advertiser of the actress Sarah Bernhardt in Paris. He designed the posters for several theatrical productions featuring that actress, beginning with Gismonda (1894), and he designed sets and costumes for her as well.
Mucha designed many other posters and magazine illustrations, becoming one of the foremost designers in the Art Nouveau style, his interpretation of Art Nouveau was called "le style Mucha".
His supple, fluent draftsmanship is used to great effect in his posters of female nudes, whose delicate features are framed by luxuriantly flowing strands of hair. The sensuous bravura of the draftsmanship, particularly the use of twining, whiplash lines, imparts a strange refinement to these nudes.

Between 1903 and 1922 Mucha made four trips to the United States, where he attracted the patronage of Charles Richard Crane, a Chicago industrialist and Slavophile, who subsidized Mucha's series of 20 large historical paintings (1912-30) illustrating the "Epic of the Slavic People." Mucha spent several years in America teaching, painting portraits, and working in the theater. After 1922 Mucha lived in Czechoslovakia, donating his "Slavic Epic" paintings to the city of Prague where he spent his final years. Mucha was always a patriot of his Czech homeland and considered his success a triumph for the Czech people as much as for himself.
Mucha's Art Nouveau legacy can be seen in the many books and albums he illustrated, including "Les Maitres de l'Affiche" 1896-1900; "Ilsee Princesse de Tripoli," 1897; "L'Estampe Moderne" 1897-1899; "Le Pater" 1899; "Documents Decoratifs," 1902; and, "Figures Decoratives" 1905. Publishing them, was his attempt to pass his artistic theories on to the next generation. ...

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