Peter Duggar Suzanne Reynolds

Suzanne Reynolds

Art 1020-07

November 15, 2012

Alphonse (Alfons) Mucha

Alphonse Mucha was born in Ivančice, Moravia (present day Czech Republic) on the 24^th of July, 1860. Although Mucha loved to draw and paint from a very early age, most of his youth was spent as an amateur choir performer. He admired the art in the local churches he performed in, and after he finished high school, he realized that some of the art was actually done by living artists at the time. This discovery led him to seek a life as an artist, despite his father’s wishes.

In Moravia, Mucha began his artistic career as a theatrical set painter, but relocated shortly to Vienna to work for a theatrical design company (1879). That job was short-lived due to a fire that destroyed the headquarters where the company was located, causing Mucha to return to Moravia (1881). Soon, he then had a chance encounter with a wealthy Count Karl Khuen, who commissioned Mucha to paint some murals for the Count’s estate. The Count was so impressed with Mucha’s work that he decided to sponsor Mucha’s continued art education that took place in Munich.
Mucha spent two years studying in Munich at the Academy of Fine Arts and continuing to paint murals Count Khuen, but then Mucha was cut off from the funding from the Count. Mucha then moved to Paris in 1887 to further his studies at the Académie Julian and then the Académie Colarossi.

For five years, Mucha played the part of the starving artist. He worked for little pay, doing illustrations for popular magazines, he borrowed money, he lived off lentils, and he bounced back and forth between sickness and health. All the while, friends and art flourished. This was the point where Mucha was formulating his thoughts on what he felt art was, and is supposed to be.

In 1894, a break came Mucha’s way. He managed to walk into a shop that needed a poster designed for an upcoming play, Gismonda, featuring Sarah Bernhardt (right.) Mucha volunteered to design the poster, and January 1^st, 1895, the poster was put up, and much attention would find Mucha immediately thereafter. Bernhardt was also so pleased with the poster that she contracted Mucha to produce works for her for the following six years.

At this point, the Art Nouveau movement had begun really taking rout. Artists all over decided that art shouldn’t be limited to certain media such as canvas, sculpture, architecture, etc… Instead, artists decided that anything and everything should be art; from wallpaper to wine bottles, and everything in between. Mucha began to produce a flurry of paintings, posters, advertisements, book illustrations, jewelry designs, carpet designs, architecture and theater set designs; Mucha did it all.

At this time, Mucha began becoming known for his numerous works that featured beautiful young women, adorned in Neo Classical-looking robes, with swirling hair, flowers, and scenery that often formed halos around them (often referred to, lovingly, as the “drape-y women.)

Although Mucha’s work at this point became synonymous with the Art Nouveau movement, Mucha himself disavowed himself it. He claimed that he did the art “his way,” and that it was based off of sensuous curves derived from nature, refined decorative elements and natural colors.

By 1898, Mucha had as many commissions as he could handle. He set up a new studio and began publishing with a printer shop, Champenois, which was more than anxious to promote Mucha’s work. In 1900, Mucha designed the Bosnia-Herzegovina Pavilion for the World’s Fair in Paris.

During this time of success, Mucha ended up marrying Maruška (Marie/Maria) Chytilová in 1906, at the age of 46. The couple visited the U.S. from 1906 to 1910, during which time their daughter, Jaroslava (left,) was born in New York City. Later, they would also have a son, Jiří, born in 1915 in Prague. Jiří later became a journalist, writer, screenwriter, author of autobiographical novels and studies of the works of his father (Mucha.)

Mucha and his family ended up in Prague, where Mucha started to put much more of his time and talent into promoting Slavic nationalism. He decorated the Theater of Fine Arts, he created murals for the Mayor’s Office, and he designed several other landmarks around the city. Czechoslovakia won its independence after World War I, and Mucha designed postage stamps, banknotes, and other government documents to be used by the new state.

Around 1909, Mucha began designs for a project that he would deem to be his “life's fine art masterpiece,” The Slav Epic. The Slave Epic is a series of twenty huge paintings depicting the history of the Czech and the Slavic people in general, which Mucha bestowed to the city of Prague in 1928. He had wanted to complete a series such as this, a celebration of Slavic history, since he was young. Since 1963 the series has been on display in the chateau in Moravský Krumlov the South Moravian Region in the current Czech Republic.

Shortly after WWI, there had begun a rising tide of fascism that, in effect, resulted in a denouncement of Mucha’s works and Slavic nationalism; in the press, they were considered to be “reactionary.” Mucha retained much persuasion, and therefore found himself a target of the Gestapo shortly upon Czechoslovakia’s invasion by German troops in 1939. Mucha was arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo, and because Mucha was fairly aged at this point, he succumbed to pneumonia during his incarceration. Mucha was eventually released, but it is speculated that the event left him weakened and ill. Mucha then died in Prague on 14 July 1939, due to lung infection, and was interred there in the Vyšehrad cemetery.

Mucha’s life and work is nothing short of remarkable. He has had a profound influence on the art world that sees constant revivals of his style and movement. Many prolific artists point to Mucha as an inspiration to their craft. While I may not be prolific, I also look to Mucha’s works as a strong influence on my own work.