Alphonse Maria
Mucha (born 1860 Ivancice, Moravia (Czech Republic); died
1939), was a Czech artist. Alphonse Maria Mucha was a prominent
figure of the Art Nouveau Movement. Although most famous for his
posters and paintings, Mucha worked in a variety of media,
including jewelry, textiles, furniture, sculpture, and stage sets.
He first started his training taking drawing lessons at the Academy
of Visual Arts in Prague. In 1890 he moved to Paris, where he
enrolled at the Academie Julien and studied with J.P. Laurens,
Gustave Boulanger, and Lefebvre.
He found immediate
success when he was commissioned to create a poster for the actress
Sarah Bernhardt; she was extremely pleased with the way it turned
out and as a result Mucha secured a 6 year contract working for the
actress. Even though Mucha's work is seen as one of the
leading examples of
Art Nouveau,
the artist is often associated with the
Symbolist,
Movement for his philosophy and overly romanticized images. He was
influenced by such artists as
Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
Carlos Scwabe, and Eugene Grasset as well as
Byzantine
and
Japanese
art. In 1910 he returned to his homeland,
and during this time he worked on his most famous work, The Slav
Epic, which consisted of 20 paintings that featured major points in
Czech history and of other Slavic countries. The Slav Epic took
Mucha eighteen years to complete, supposedly inspired by his
experience working at the Bosnian pavilion at the Paris World Fair
in 1900.
After the Czech
Republic won independence in 1918, Mucha designed the
country's money and stamps at no charge. In 1939 Mucha was
arrested by the Gestapo at the onset of World War II and was
released, but he did not last much longer, dying in Prague of that
year.