Alphonse Mucha

The Art Nouveau movement has become synonymous with Alphonse Mucha though he never attested to be directly involved in what he termed a ‘new art’. A Prague museum is dedicated to Mucha’s work and there was renewed interest in the nineteen sixty’s in his reproduction posters and wallpaper composed of his imagery.

Alphonse Mucha was born in 1860 in – what is now – the Czech Republic. Mucha’s passion for ecclesiastical works fuelled his interest in art once he had left school. He was to briefly pursue the wishes of his father and follow a career as a court clerk, however he left for Vienna to work as a scene-painter after the Prague Academy of Fine Arts turned him down. In 1883 he gained patronage and relocated once again, this time to Paris, where in 1887 he studied at the ‘Academie Julian’ and the at the ‘Academie Colarossi’. Mucha then lost backing financially. Work and success was then somewhat spasmodic. From 1889 he worked as an illustrator, in 1889 moving to a studio in order to concentrate on magazine work for a theatrical publication called ‘Le Costume au Theatre and then productively for publisher, Armand Colin.

As Mucha’s style developed he began to give art lessons, based in the same studio, for a while, as Gaughin. To publicise a play, Gismonda by Sarah Bernhardt, Mucha produce his first work of note of the period in the form of a promotional poster of 1895. At this time the Art Nouveau Movement was in its infancy, though Mucha denied any involvement. However Art Nouveau and the earlier Arts and Crafts movement distinctly influenced his works. Natural colouring and sweeping, curving lines adopted by Nouveau lent well to Mucha’s continuing success in poster, stage and costume design, his sophisticated and distinctive works being quickly appreciated across Europe.

In 1898 he moved to a new studio at around the time of a Mucha exhibition and artworks being published. Work was exhaustive moving into the realms of such disciplines as jewellery design and the production of detailed documents about his personal application of design and style. After a number of trips to the States Mucha landed a commission to work on a series of murals to decorate the Prague, Lord Mayor’s Hall consisting of 20 extensive murals of an astounding twenty by thirty feet. Mucha endured political pressures as well as criticism from those involved in the developing Art Deco movement, which went against much of his ideology. Mucha was interrogated in 1939 by the Gestapo, but released shortly thereafter. Alphonse Mucha died in Prague on 14th July 1949.