Czech Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha
Born on 24 July 1860 (died 14 July 1939), Alfons Maria Mucha, known in English as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist. In fact, he produced many paintings, illustrations, advertisements, postcards, and designs. When German troops moved into Czechoslovakia during the spring of 1939, Mucha was among the first persons to be arrested by the Gestapo. He died in Prague on 14 July 1939, due to lung infection, and was interred there in the Vyeehrad cemetery.

Painting and photography in the 19th century were closely linked. Photo originally gravitated to painting traditions of the golden age. Artists to create complex compositions often used photographs as a method of study and construction of figures and draperies, and arrangement of scenes and landscapes. Alphonse Mucha took up photography in Munich and has achieved much over the years in various forms of art. He was engaged in street shooting during travel (Munich – 1880, Paris, Moscow – 1913) doing portraits and self-portraits, photographed friends and family members in his studio; shooting landscapes, made sketches from models; created complex compositions for paintings on Slavic epic.

Photos by Alphonse Mucha featured unique and independent creativity. This is confirmed not only by technique, but also by the presence of non-ideal images, often physically imperfect models. Photos show with amazing accuracy what lurks on the other side of the mirror, we see the key figures of Belle Epoque: smiling young women whose faces and figures sometimes are quite rude. Alphonse Mucha’s posters were always made with elegance. It is worth noting that in those days the other photographers were shooting and printing their images by resorting to various technical tricks to hide unwanted naturalism of originals. Mucha did not set such goal, his photographic legacy is a unique example of shooting of this period – from the late 19th – early 20th century.

Czech Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha

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