Background

Mucha was born in Ivančice, Austro-Hungarian Empire (today a region of the Czech Republic). He was the son of Ondřej Mucha and Amálie Muchová. His family had a very modest income. Mucha's father was a court usher, and his mother was a miller's daughter. Alphonse Mucha had three sisters, Anna Kuberová, Antonie Muchová and Anděla Remundová, and a brother, August Mucha.

Education

Alphonse Mucha showed his talent for drawing at an early age. A local merchant, impressed by his skills, provided him with paper for free, although it was considered a luxury at that time. In 1871, Mucha joined a choir of the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in Brno. There he received his secondary school education. Mucha became highly religious, and wrote about it later, "For me, the notions of painting, going to church, and music are so closely knit that often I cannot decide whether I like church for its music or music for its place in the mystery which it accompanies."

Mucha was raised in an environment of intense Czech nationalism in all forms of art, from literature to music and painting. He produced designs of flyers and posters for patriotic demonstrations. His singing abilities made it possible for Alphonse Mucha to continue his musical education at the Gymnázium Brno in the Moravian capital of Brno, but his true desire was to become a painter.

In 1878 Alphonse Mucha tried to enter the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, but without success, as he was rejected and advised "to find a different career". In September 1885 Mucha went to Munich for formal training, Count Eduard Khuen Belasiwas the one who paid for his tuition and cost of living at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. He befriended a number of notable Slavic artists there, such as the Czechs Karel Vítězslav Mašek, Ludek Marold and the Russian Leonid Pasternak, father of the famous novelist Boris Pasternak. Mucha co-founded a Czech students' club, and contributed political illustrations to nationalist publications in Prague.

Mucha was very happy and satisfied with the artistic environment of Munich. He later wrote to his friends, "Here I am in my new element, painting. I cross all sorts of currents, but without effort, and even with joy. Here, for the first time, I can find the objectives to reach which used to seem inaccessible." However, the Bavarian authorities imposed some restrictions upon foreign students and residents, so he had to leave the country.

With further Count Belasi's financial support, Mucha moved to Paris in 1888 where he became a student of the Académie Julian (now a part of ESAG Penninghen) and the following year of the Académie Colarossi. Among his first professors at the Académie Julien were Jules Lefebvre who specialized in female nudes and allegorical paintings, and Jean-Paul Laurens, who created historical and religious paintings in a realistic and dramatic style. At the end of 1889, as he approached the age of thirty, his patron, Count Belasi, decided that Mucha had received enough education and ended his sponsorship.

Career

Mucha found his first employment in the 1870s, designing theatrical scenery and other decorations. In 1880, when he was 19, the artist travelled to Vienna to work for a leading Viennese theatrical design company, which made sets for Vienna theatres. While in Vienna, he explored the museums, palaces, churches, and particularly theatres, which he visited for free due to his employment. He also got to know about Hans Makart, who was a remarkable academic painter, who created murals for many of the palaces and government buildings in Vienna. His style turned Alphonse Mucha in a new artistic direction that influenced his later works. He also started his experiments with photography.

When a fire destroyed the Ringtheater, the major client of his firm, in 1881 he returned to Moravia. There he began making portraits, decorative art and lettering for tombstones. His work was recognized, and he was commissioned by Count Eduard Khuen Belasi, a local landlord and nobleman, to decorate Hrušovany Emmahof Castle with murals, and then at his ancestral home in the Tyrol, Gandegg Castle. Belasi, who was also an amateur painter, was impressed by the work and took Mucha on expeditions to see art in Venice, Florence and Milan. In addition, he introduced him to many artists, including the famous Bavarian romantic painter, Wilhelm Kray, who was a resident of Munich.

Later Mucha moved to Paris, where he found shelter with the help of the large Slavic community. Mucha decided to follow the example of another Czech painter he knew from Munich, Ludek Marold, who had made a successful career as an illustrator for magazines. Between 1890 and 1891 Mucha started to contribute illustrations for the weekly magazine La Vie popular. He produced an illustration for a novel by Guy de Maupassant called The Useless Beauty, which became its 1890 edition cover. He also worked as an illustrator for Le Petit Français Illustré, which published stories for young people in both magazine and book form.

His illustrations started to provide him with a regular income. He managed to save some money to purchase a harmonium to continue the development of his musical talents as well as his first camera, which used glass-plate negatives. He took pictures of himself and his friends, and also regularly used it when he worked with the composition of his future drawings.

Mucha became friends with Paul Gauguin, a French post-Impressionist artist, and shared a studio in the summer of 1893. In late autumn 1894, he also befriended the playwright August Strindberg, both were interested in philosophy and mysticism.

Alphonse Mucha was commissioned to produce illustrations for Scenes and Episodes of German History by historian Charles Seignobos. Four of his illustrations, including one depicting the death of Frederic Barbarossa, were chosen for the 1894 Paris Salon of Artists. After that, he received his first official recognition. He continued to publish illustrations for his clients, including illustrating a children's book of poetry by Eugène Manuel, and illustrations for a magazine of the theatre arts called La Costume au théâtre.

At the end of 1894, the artist's career took an exciting and unforeseen turn, as he began to work for Sarah Bernhardt, a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Bernardt wanted to commission a poster to advertise the prolongation of the theatrical run after the Christmas break. Because of the holidays, none of the regular Lemercier artists were available.

Mucha was the only artist who agreed to create the necessary poster, Gismonda. The poster was more than two meters high, with Bernhardt in the costume of a Byzantine noblewoman. It appeared on the streets of Paris on 1 January 1895 and was a great success. Bernhardt was satisfied with the reaction of the public and ordered four thousand copies of the poster in 1895 and 1896. Moreover, she gave Mucha a six-year contract to produce more.

Amid the Belle Epoque posters, Mucha's style was a hit. Numerous collectors stole his posters from billboards, trying to dub his style known as "Le Style Mucha." In posters for beer, perfume, biscuits, bicycles he blurred the barrier between fine art and commercial art.

Alphonse Mucha designed posters for each successive Bernhardt play, including La Dame aux Camelias (September 1896), Lorenzaccio (1896); Medea (1898); La Tosca (1898) and Hamlet (1899). In addition to posters, he produced designs of theatrical programs, costumes, sets, and even jewellery for Bernhardt.

Thanks to his enormous success with the Bernhardt posters, Mucha received plenty of commissions for advertising posters. He designed posters for Lefèvre-Utile biscuits, Nestlé baby food, Idéal Chocolate, the Beers of the Meuse, Moët-Chandon champagne, JOB cigarette papers, Ruinart Champagne, Trappestine brandy, and Waverly and Perfect bicycles. The artist also invented a new kind of product, a poster without text, purely for decoration. His first series was The Seasons, published in 1896. The series was followed by The Flowers The Arts (1898), The Times of Day (1899), Precious Stones (1900), and The Moon and the Stars (1902). In the majority of his posters, Alphonse Mucha depicted beautiful women in lavish settings.

The prominence of his posters led to Mucha's success in the world of art. The artist was invited by Léon Deschamps, the editor of the art review La Plume, to present his artworks in the Salon des Cent exhibition in 1896, and then, in 1897, to have a major retrospective in the same gallery displaying 448 of his works. The magazine La Plume produced a special edition devoted to his oeuvre, and his exhibition travelled to Munich, Vienna, Prague, Brussels, London, and New York, earning him an international reputation.

His book Le Pater was published on 20 December 1899, with only 510 copies being printed. The original watercolour paintings of the page were displayed in 1900. Mucha himself considered Le Pater to be his printed masterpiece, and described it in the New York Sun of 5 January 1900 as the work into which he had "put his soul".

In 1900 he took part in the Paris Universal Exposition, known as the first grand showcase of the Art Nouveau. It gave him an opportunity to move in an entirely different direction, toward the large-scale historical paintings. It also helped him express his Czech patriotism. Mucha applied to the Austrian government and received a commission to execute murals for the Pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Exposition. The temporary building created for the Exposition had three large halls with two levels, with a ceiling more than twelve meters high, and with natural light from skylights. Due to his experience in theatre decoration, he was able to paint large-scale paintings in a short period of time.

At the Paris Universal Exposition, among his artworks were also the posters for the official Austrian participation in the Exposition, the menu for the restaurant at the Bosnian pavilion, and menu for the official opening banquet. Furthermore, he produced displays for the jeweller Georges Fouquet and the perfume maker Houbigant. Alphonse Mucha's more serious artworks, such as his drawings for Le Pater, were shown in the Austrian Pavilion and in the Austrian section of the Grand Palais.

In about 1900 Alphonse Mucha also began to teach at the Academy Colarossi. In March 1904 Mucha sailed for New York, hoping to find funding for his grand project, The Slav Epic. He rented a studio near Central Park, produced portraits, and gave interviews and lectures. There he met Charles Richard Crane, a wealthy businessman and philanthropist, who was a passionate Slavophile. Crane commissioned Mucha to painted his daughter in a traditional Slavic style. Even more important, he shared Alphonse Mucha's passion for a series of monumental paintings on Slavic history and became his most substantial patron.

The artist moved back to Paris at the end of May 1904. He completed his commissions and again migrated to New York in early January 1905. He made four more trips from 1905 till 1910, usually staying for five to six months. He made for a living in the United States working as a teacher. He taught illustration and design at the New York School of Applied Design for Women, at the Philadelphia School of Art for five weeks, and then became a visited professor at the Art Institute of Chicago.

During this time period, Mucha rejected most commercial proposals. He only accepted one proposal in 1906 to design boxes and a store display for Savon Mucha, a soap bar. In 1908 he also took part in one large decoration project, for the interior of the German Theater of New York. He created three large allegorical murals, in the Art Nouveau style, representing Tragedy, Comedy and Truth. Additionally, he made graphic designs, stage and costume designs.

Alphonse Mucha started his work on the Slav Epic in 1908 and in February 1910 Charles Crane agreed to fund his project. Meanwhile, in 1909, the artist was commissioned to paint murals on the interior of the new city hall of Prague. The Lord Mayor's Hall was finished in 1911, and Mucha was able to devote his attention to what he considered his most important work; the Slav Epic. The series consisted of twenty paintings, half devoted to the history of the Czechs, and ten to other Slavic peoples. The canvases were immense; the finished artworks measured six by eight meters. While working on them, he rented an apartment and a studio in the Zbiroh Castle in western Bohemia, where he stayed until 1928.

The artist worked throughout World War I, when the Austrian Empire was at war with France, despite wartime restrictions, which made canvas hard to find. Mucha continued to work after the war was over, when the new Republic of Czechoslovakia was created. The cycle was eventually finished in 1928. Under the conditions of his contract, Alphonse Mucha donated his artwork to the city of Prague.

Due to the political turmoil, Mucha's oeuvre received little attention in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s. Nevertheless, a major retrospective was held in Paris at the Jeu de Paume museum in 1936. During this exhibition 139 of his works were displayed, including three canvases from the Slav Epic.

When Hitler and Nazi Germany started to menace Czechoslovakia. Alphonse Mucha started to work on a new series, a triptych depicting the Age of Reason, the Age of Wisdom and the Age of Love. He worked on the series from 1936 to 1938, but never completed it. On 15 March 1939, the German army declared the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Mucha was the main prime target for Nazis. As a result, he was arrested, interrogated for several days, and then released. By then he had serious problems with health, that led to his death.

Achievements

• 

  Alphonse Mucha made a huge contribution to the world of art. He produced advertisements, illustrations, decorative panels and designs which became among the best-known images of his period. Today, his unique style enjoys great popularity. Mucha is also credited with restoring the movement of Czech Freemasonry.
  
  His work at the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition earned him the title of Knight of the Order of Franz Joseph I from the Austrian government and he also received the Legion of Honour from the French Government.
  
  Mucha's style was a great inspiration for posters created for Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band. The artist also influenced painter Paul Harvey and cartoon and fantasy art, particularly, Japanese Manga artists like Naoko Takeuchi.
  
  To commemorate his artistic achievements, Mucha museum was opened in Prague; it was managed by his grandson, John Mucha.
  
  Today, the artist’s artworks are included in the collections of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Art Institute of Chicago, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York, among others. The National Gallery in Prague now displays the Slav Epic, and has a considerable collection of his work.
  
  One of the largest collections of Alphonse Mucha's paintings is possessed by former professional tennis player Ivan Lendl, who began collecting his artworks upon meeting Jiří Mucha in 1982. His collection was exhibited publicly for the first time in 2013 in Prague.

Works

More photos

• design

  • The New York Daily News

  • Cover for the book's timeless songs of Paul Redonnel

  • Coverage for the volume of grandmothers Songs

  • Cover composed by Mucha for the french literary and artistic Review La Plume

• painting

  • France Embraces Bohemia

  • The Judgement of Paris

  • Fruit

  • Madonna of the Lilies

  • Jan Amos Komensky

  • The Printing of the Bible of Kralice in Ivancice

  • Amethyst

  • Heidsieck

  • Study of a Woman Sitting in an Armchair

  • Season

  • Heraldic Chivalry

  • 6th Sokol Festival

  • Holy Mount Athos

  • Luchon

  • Rose

  • Moravian Teachers' Choir

  • Chocolat Ideal

  • Lefevre Utile

  • Portrait of a Girl

  • Byzantine Head. The Blonde

  • Girl with Loose Hair and Tulips

  • Lily

  • Evening reverie (nocturnal slumber)

  • Master Jan Hus Preaching at the Bethlehem Chapel

  • Age of Reason

  • Zodiac

  • Austria

  • Portrait of Mucha by himself

  • Dance

  • Champagne Printer Publisher

  • Weeping Girl

  • Byzantine Head. The Brunette

  • Studies

  • Study of Figures

  • Fate

  • Standing Figure

  • Salome

  • Iris

  • Iris

  • Painting

  • Emerald

  • Muse

  • Carnation

  • Portrait Of Milada Cerny

  • The Apotheosis of the Slavs

  • The Moon

  • Age of Wisdom

  • The Coronation of the Serbian Tsar Stepan Dusan as East Roman Emperor

  • Cropped print of four panels each depicting one of the four seasons personified by a woman

  • Contemplation

  • Ruby

  • Dusk

  • Music

  • Cow slip

  • Maria Young Girl In A Moravian Costume

  • Cycles Perfecta

  • Winter

  • Amethyst

  • Winter

  • Portrait charge

  • Laurel

  • The Evening Star

  • The Introduction of the Slavonic Liturgy

  • Defense of Sziget against the Turks

  • Studies

  • Self-Portrait

  • The Trappistine

  • Morning Star

  • Topaz

  • Brightness of Day

  • Novem

  • The rose

  • Study of Drapery

  • Two Standing Women

  • The Autumn

  • The Slavs in Their Original Homeland

  • Daughter

  • The Red Cape

  • Spirit Of Spring

  • Portrait of Jaroslava

  • Jaroslava and Jiri The Artist s Children

  • Prophetess

  • Portrait of Marushka, Artist s Wife

  • Self-portrait

  • Salammbô

  • Summer

  • The Abolition of Serfdom in Russia

  • Flower

  • The Slav Epic

  • Carnation

  • Wrestler

  • Spring

  • Dawn

  • North Star

  • Woman with a Burning Candle

  • The seasons (Spring, Summer)

  • Maude Adams as Joan of Arc

  • Easter Chimes Awaken Nature

  • Envisage

  • Age of Love

  • Portrait of Jiri

  • Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 25, featuring studies of lily

  • Head of a Girl

  • 8th Sokol Festival

• poster

  • General German poster exhibition for trade, industry and agriculture

  • Moet and Chandon White Star

  • A quartier latin

  • The west end review

  • Beer of the Meuse

  • Thistle from the Sands

  • The Samaritan

  • Salon of the Hundred

  • The Lady of the Camellias

  • Calendar Champagne

  • Chandon Cremant Imperial

  • Heather from Coastal Cliffs

  • Sarah Bernhardt

  • Monaco Monte Carlo

  • Soap factory of Bagnolet

  • Regional Exhibition in Ivancice

  • Zdenka Cerny

  • Bénédictine

  • Slavia

  • Salon of the Hundred

  • Lance parfum Rodo

  • Medea

  • Poster for Victorien Sardou`s Gismonda starring Sarah Bernhardt at the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris

  • Poster for the Brooklyn Exhibition

  • Biscuits Lefevre Utile

  • Hamlet

  • Biscuits Champagne Lefèvre Utile

  • Calendar of cherry blossom

  • Lorenzaccio

  • The Pater

  • Nestlé's Food for Infants

  • Job

  • Poster presentation of Andersen's Snow Queen

  • Chocolat Masson

  • Flirt Lefevre Utile

  • Amants

  • Bleu Deschamps

  • Art nouveau color lithograph poster showing a seated woman clasping the hand of a Native American

  • Princess Hyacinth

• sculpture

  • The Nature

  • Head of a Girl

  • Nude on a Rock

  • Nature

Religion

Alphonse Mucha was a devoted Catholic, and wrote that for him "the notions of painting, going to church, and music are so closely knit that often I cannot decide whether I like church for its music, or music for its place in the mystery which it accompanies."

Views

Mucha felt art must do more than be visually pleasing; it must communicate a spiritual message and uplift its viewers.

Quotations: "To talk in my own way to the spirit of the nation, to its eyes which carry thoughts most quickly to the consciousness."

"The purpose of my work was never to destroy but always to create, to construct bridges, because we must live in the hope that humankind will draw together and that the better we understand each other the easier this will become."

"Every nation has a palladium of its own embodying past and future history. Ever since my boyhood I felt and saw in the architectural lines of St. Vitus Cathedral built so close to the castle, a powerful interpretation of our national symbol."

Membership

Alphonse Mucha joined the Paris masonic lodge of the Grand Orient de France in January 1898.

• 

  Grand Orient de France , France

  January, 1898

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Sarah Bernhardt: "[Mucha was] a Czech from Moravia not only by birth and origin, but also by feeling, by conviction and by patriotism."
  
  Christian Brinton: "His [Mucha's] art is a sumptuous art, floral, astral, feminine; it reflects with tender nonchalance the fluid beauty of form and the delicately veiled secrets of the soul."
  
  Charles Masson reviewed Le Pater: "There is in that man [Alphonse Mucha] a visionary; it is the work of an imagination not suspected by those who only know his talent for the agreeable and charming."
  
  "What is it, Art Nouveau?... Art can never be new."

Interests

• philosophy, mysticism, music, jewellery

• Artists

  Hans Makart, William Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Connections

Mucha married Marie Chytilová on 10 June 1906, in Prague. Their first child, Jaroslava, was born in New York in 1909. They also had a son, Jiří, who was born on 12 March 1915 in Prague. Jiří Mucha later became a writer, journalist, screenwriter, author of autobiographical novels and studies of the artworks of his father.

Father:

Ondřej Mucha

Mother:

Amálie Muchová

Spouse:

Marie Chytilová

Sister:

Anna Kuberová

Sister:

Anděla Remundová

Brother:

August Mucha

Sister:

Antonie Muchová

Daughter:

Jaroslava Muchová Syllabová

Jaroslava Muchová Syllabová (1909-1986) was a Czech artist. She assisted in the creation of the Slav Epic, is a cycle of 20 large canvases painted by Alfons Mucha between 1910 and 1928.

Son:

Jiří Mucha

Jiří Mucha (1915-1991) was a Czech writer, journalist, screenwriter, as well as author of autobiographical novels and studies of the artworks of his father, Alphonse Mucha.

References

• Alphonse Mucha This volume surveys the entire breadth of Alphonse Mucha’s work - from illustration and decorative arts to his photography and the historical paintings that were his life’s passion.
  2014
• Alphonse Mucha The catalog explores the development of Mucha’s career and overall achievements as a multifaceted and visionary artist.
  2018
• Mucha This book is the first comprehensive overview of his life and work and is published in association with the Mucha Museum in Prague.
  2005