Art nouveau artist alphonse mucha biography

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Drawing Toggle child menu Expand. Other Art Forms Toggle child menu Expand. Toggle Menu Close. Search for: Search. Job Cigarette Papers. Snake Bracelet with Ring. His work and artistic vision shifted the concept of poster from just advertising to an art form in its own right, producing legendary images that would define an era. Furthermore, Mucha left a strong mark in Slavic art as he devoted a big portion of his paintings towards depicting the history and the importance of Slavic cultures.

Alphonse Mucha was born on July 24,in the small town of Ivancice in southern Moravia — then a province of the Austrian Empire, nowadays part of the Czech Republic. Mucha grew up in a modest family, the oldest of 6 kids. However, the young Mucha was showing an early interest and talent in visual expression, and especially in music, which allowed him to pursue his education in a gymnasium in Breno, where he was sent to sing in a church choir.

There, he was educated in a very religious and nationalist environment, which would reflect in his later artistic work. In Breno, Mucha started designing flyers and posters for patriotic rallies. After finishing high school, he tried to enroll in the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague with no success and therefore decided to move to Vienna.

While he was working as a painter around Austria, Mucha met with Count Eduard Khuen Belasi, the nobleman who would become his main patron. Even though there are no recordings of Mucha actually studying at the Academy in Munich, he managed to get to know a number of successful Slavic artists there and build a strong community around himself. Although he enjoyed his time in Munich, he soon had to move out of the country, because of the tight political situation in Bavaria.

It also allowed him to express his Czech patriotism. His foreign name had caused much speculation in the French press, which distressed him. Sarah Bernhardt stood up on his behalf, declaring in La France that Mucha was "a Czech from Moravia not only by birth and origin, but also by feeling, by conviction and by patriotism. This pavilion displayed examples of industry, agriculture, and culture of these provinces, which inby the Treaty of Berlinhad been taken away from Turkey and put under the tutorship of Austria.

The temporary building built for the Exposition had three large halls with two levels, with a ceiling more than twelve meters high, and with natural light from skylights. Mucha's experience in theater decoration gave him the ability to paint large-scale paintings in a short period of time. Mucha's original concept was a group of murals depicting the suffering of the Slavic inhabitants of the region caused by the occupation by foreign powers.

The sponsors of the exhibit, the Austrian government, the new occupier of the region, declared that this was a little pessimistic for a World's Fair. He changed his project to depict a future society in the Balkans where Catholic and Orthodox Christians and Muslims lived in harmony together; this was accepted, and he began work. Mucha immediately departed for the Balkans to make sketches of Balkan costumes, ceremonies, and architecture, which he put into his new work.

His decoration included one large allegorical painting, Bosnia Offers Her Products to the Universal Expositionand an additional set of murals on three walls, showing the history and cultural development of the region. He did discreetly include some images of the sufferings of the Bosnians under foreign rule, which appear in the arched band at the top of the mural.

Whereas the work depicted dramatic events, the overall impression that it gave was one of serenity and harmony. His work appeared in many forms at the Exposition. Besides the posters for the official Austrian participation in the Exposition and the menu for the restaurant at the Bosnian pavilion and for the official opening banquet, he also produced displays for the jeweler Georges Fouquet and the perfume maker Houbigantwith statuettes and panels of women depicting the scents of rose, orange blossom, violet, and buttercup.

Art nouveau artist alphonse mucha biography

His more serious artworks, including his drawings for Le Paterwere shown in the Austrian Pavilion and in the Austrian section of the Grand Palais. His work at the Exposition earned him the title of Knight of the Order of Franz Joseph from the Austrian government, and he was named to the Legion of Honour by the French government. During the course of the Exposition, Mucha proposed another unusual project.

The French Government planned to take down the Eiffel Towerbuilt especially for the Exposition, as soon as the event ended. Mucha proposed that, after the Exposition, the top of the tower should be replaced by a sculptural monument to humanity constructed on the pedestal. However, the tower proved to be popular with both tourists and Parisians, and it was left in its original form after the Exhibit ended.

Mucha's many interests included jewelry. His book Documents Decoratifs contained plates of elaborate designs for brooches and other pieces, with swirling arabesques and vegetal forms, and incrustations of enamel and colored stones. Inhe collaborated with the jeweler Georges Fouquet to make a bracelet for Sarah Bernhardt in the form of a serpent, made of gold and enamel, similar to the costume jewelry Bernhardt had worn in Medea.

According to Jiri Muchathis bracelet was created to conceal Bernhardt's arthritic wrist. The spiraling design of the snake is a nod to Mucha's swirling Art Nouveau painting style. After the Exposition, Fouquet art nouveau artist alphonse mucha biography to open a new shop at 6 Rue Royale, across the street from the restaurant Maxim's.

He asked Mucha to design the interior. The centerpieces of the design were two peacocks, the traditional symbol of luxury, made of bronze and wood with colored glass decoration. To the side was a shell-shaped fountain, with three gargoyles spouting water into basins, surrounding the statue of a nude woman. The salon was further decorated with carved moldings and stained glass, thin columents with vegetal designs, and a ceiling with molded floral and vegetal elements.

It marked a summit of Art Nouveau decoration. The Salon opened injust as tastes were beginning to change, moving away from Art Nouveau to more naturalistic patterns. It was taken apart inand a replaced by a more traditional shop design. Fortunately most of the original decoration was preserved, and was donated in and to the Carnavalet Museum in Paris, where it can be seen today.

Mucha's next project was a series of seventy-two printed plates of watercolors of designs, titled Documents Decoratifswhich were published in by the Librarie Centrale des Beaux-arts. They represented ways that floral, vegetal and natural forms could be used in decoration and decorative objects. In about he had begun to teach at the Academy Colarossiwhere he himself had been a student when he first arrived in Paris.

His course was precisely described in the catalog: "The object of the Mucha course is to permit the student to have the necessary knowledge for artistic decoration, applied to decorative panels, windows, porcelain, enamels, furniture, jewelry, posters, etc. Mucha made a considerable income from his theatrical and advertising work, but he wished even more to be recognized as a serious artist and philosopher.

He was a devoted Catholic, but also was interested in mysticism. Shortly before the Exposition, as he wrote in his memoirs, "I had not found any real satisfaction in my old kind of work. I saw that my way was to be found elsewhere, little bit higher. I sought a way to spread the light which reached further into even the darkest corners. I didn't have to look for very long.

The Pater Noster Lord's Prayer : why not give the words a pictorial expression? Le Pater was published on 20 Decemberonly copies were printed. The original watercolor paintings of the page were displayed in the Austrian pavilion at the Exposition. He considered Le Pater to be his printed masterpiece, and referred to it in the New York Sun of 5 January as a work into which he had "put his soul".

Critic Charles Masson, who reviewed it for Art et Decorationwrote: "There is in that man a visionary; it is the work of an imagination not suspected by those who only know his talent for the agreeable and charming. His intent was to find funding for his grand project, The Slav Epicwhich he had conceived during the Exposition. When he landed in New York, he was already a celebrity in the United States; his posters had been widely displayed during Sarah Bernhardt's annual American tours since He rented a studio near Central Parkin New York, made portraits, and gave interviews and lectures.

He also made contact with Pan-Slavic organizations. He commissioned Mucha to make a portrait of his daughter in a traditional Slavic style. More importantly, he shared Mucha's enthusiasm for a series of monumental paintings on Slavic history, and he became Mucha's most important patron. When Mucha designed the Czechoslovak billshe used his portrait of Crane's daughter as the model for Slavia for the koruna bill.

From New York, he wrote to his family in Moravia: "You must have been very surprised by my decision to come to America, perhaps even amazed. But in fact I had been preparing to come here for some time. It had become clear to me that that I would never have time to do the things I wanted to do if I did not get away from the treadmill of Paris, I would be constantly bound to publishers and their whims He still had commissions to complete in France, and returned to Paris at the end of May He finished his commissions and returned to New York in early Januaryand made four more trips between andusually staying for five to six months.

He remained in the U. Their first child, their daughter Jaroslavawas born in New York in His principal income in the United States came from teaching; he taught illustration and design at the New York School of Applied Design for Womenat the Philadelphia School of Art for five weeks, and became a visiting professor at the Art Institute of Chicago.

In posters for perfume, beer, biscuits, bicycles, and Job Cigarettes he blurred the barrier between fine art and commercial art, between commerce and philosophy. Drawing from the influences of the Pre-RaphelitesHans Makart, and Japanese wood cuts Mucha developed his unique style. His style was organic and ornate, graceful and dynamic, with curving, swooping lines and Byzantine borders, lettering, and frames.

His iconic 'Mucha woman' had curves, flowing hair, pastel robes, and often a halo of light or flowers, which recall the haloes from the religious icons he saw throughout his boyhood. Mucha's women burst with life; in stark contrast to the Symbolist femme fatalessuch as Edvard Munch's Madonna Mucha's women are not a dangerous temptation to be resisted.

His innovative decorative panels, The Seasonsfurther pushed art into private homes. Inspired by friends such as Auguste RodinMucha experimented with sculpture and partnered with the goldsmith Fouquet to produce fantastic jewels from gold, ivory, and precious stones. He even created a radiant "Mucha world" in Fouquet's Rue Royale boutique where his statues, stained glass, fountains, mosaics, sculpture, and lighting turned shopping into a theatrical experience.

After exhibitions in Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Munich, Brussels, and London, he was hailed as the world's greatest decorative artist. To spread his ideas he issued two template books Documents Decoratifs and Figures Decoratifs These books were filled with designs for jewelry, wallpaper, stained glass, furniture, and figures, and together they became the Art Nouveau bible.

In spite of his association with Art Nouveau, Mucha rejected the label, insisting that art was eternal. At the turn of the century Mucha explored his spiritual beliefs in his illustrated book Le Paterwhich was a reinterpretation of the Lord's Prayer decorated with Byzantine, Catholic, and Masonic symbols. The book reflects Mucha's belief that art had moral and political purpose.

It was meaningless if, as he put it, "my homeland was left to quench its thirst on ditch water. To fund his monumental painting epic, Mucha made multiple trips to the USA to find a patron. By executing society portraits in Mucha finally found his man, the philanthropist Charles Crane, who would finance him for the art nouveau artist alphonse mucha biography twenty years.

Mucha returned to Prague in and dedicated himself to his Slav Epicwhile simultaneously executing projects such as the Lord Mayor's Hall ceiling which bore the inscription: "Though humiliated and tortured you will live again, my country! Delighted, he set about designing the new nation's postage stamps, banknotes, and coat of arms. In a studio in Zbiroh Castle he toiled at his giant canvases, some of which measured 6x8 meters, and were rigged like ship's sails to haul them up and down.

His work required research, and he made regular field trips throughout the Balkans and to consult with historians to ensure that every battle and costume was depicted accurately. His works began to give the Pan-Slavic vision international attention. In the first phase of his epic work was on tour in the USA, attracting 50, visitors per week.

In Mucha completed his final canvas, No. In at the nation's 10 th anniversary celebrations he donated the Slav Epic to the City of Prague and proceeded to execute a stunning stained glass window in St. Vitus Cathedral As the decade progressed his hope of security was threatened by the Nazis but, still a believer in the power or art, he began a triptych The Three Ages to argue for reason, wisdom, and love as the paths to peace.

The Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in put an end to Mucha's hopes, work, and ultimately his life. Classed as a 'reactionary' he was interrogated by the Gestapo, and, already weak with a lung infection he died in Under Nazi occupation the Slav Epic was hidden underground, and under Communism his art continued to be viewed as decadent and bourgeois and did not receive public display.

His son Jiri Mucha, devoted much of his life to reviving his father's reputation. Mucha has also been acknowledged as an influence by the Stuckist painter Paul Harvey and also on cartoon and fantasy art, as that of Japanese Manga artists like Naoko Takeuchi. Content compiled and written by Jen Farren. Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Ellen Hurst.

The Art Story. Ways to support us. Movements and Styles: Art Nouveau. Important Art. Job Cigarette Papers The Seasons Snake Bracelet with Ring Le Pater Slavia The Slavs in Their Original Homeland