Czech Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha

Sarah Bernhardt. 1896. Color lithograph. Czech Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha

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.

Sarah Bernhardt sketch. Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha

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

Mucha himself and his daughter, Jaroslava reference for poster, 1926

Photo Portrait of Jaroslava, c, 1930

Portrait of Jaroslava, c. 1930. Oil on canvas, 82×65 cm. Mucha Museum, Prague, Czech Republic

Cloches de Noel et de Paques (Bells of Christmas and Easter), 1900

The Regional Fair at Ivancice. Poster, 1912

The Slavonic epic poem – Jan Milic of Kromeriz (1372). Étude photographique

The Slavonic epic poem – Jan Milic of Kromeriz (1372). Étude

Winter, 1896

A sumptuous frontis piece for a magazine, 1897

Artist Alphonse Mucha in his studio

Calendrier Doskočil a Stachý pour 1924

Czechoslovakia, 50 korun, 1929. Designed by Alfons Mucha, engraved by Karel Wolf. Collection of Vsevolod Onyshkevych

De Forest Phonofilm

Emerald c.1909 Pictured alongside Mucha’s black & white photograph of his model sitting for the painting

Étude pour l’affiche, 1911. Encre et aquarelle sur papier, 114×84 cm

Étude. 29 x 21,5 cm. Collection privée

Modèle photographique pour Naše písen. 1921

Modèle photographique

Poster for The Spring Festival of Song & Music in Prague, 1914

Reference For Regional Exhibition in Ivancice Poster.

Documents Décoratifs, Plate 1, 1899

Naše písen. 100×138 cm. N.b. la composition est officiellement datée de 1930, toutefois les éléments figurant ci-dessous indiquent une date d’achèvement proche de 1922.