Alphonse Mucha

Alphonse Maria Mucha was born on 24 July 1860 in Ivančice, in South Moravia. The pictures set a standing figure among flowers and a halo. A floral headpiece, or a wreath in the hair, sits inside a round frame, on a tall color lithograph in a subtle pastel. In 1879 he went to Vienna to paint theater sets. Count Khuen-Belasi then supported him: Emmahof Castle in 1883, the Munich Academy of Arts from 1885, and the Académie Julian in Paris from 1887. In January 1889 the support stopped. He left school and worked as an illustrator, for Czech magazines and, after 1890, for publishers in Paris.

On 26 December 1894, while correcting proofs at Lemercier's printing works, he was asked for a poster at short notice. Sarah Bernhardt needed one for Gismonda, a drama by Victor Sardou at the Théâtre de la Renaissance. She stands full length in a Byzantine gown and a floral headpiece, a palm leaf in her hand. A mosaic halo frames her face and carries her name. From 1 January 1895 the poster was on hoardings across Paris. The Mucha Foundation timeline calls it the start of 'Style Mucha'. Bernhardt then signed a six-year contract for posters, stage sets, and costumes.

In 1896 F. Champenois of Paris printed The Seasons, his first decorative panels: four color lithographs. Spring stands under a blossoming tree in a white dress, white flowers in her hair, holding a lyre made from a branch, with three small birds sitting on it. Summer leans on a grapevine with red poppies in her hair. Autumn wears a wreath of chrysanthemums and gathers grapes. Winter, in a pale green cape, warms a small bird beside a snow-covered bush. The foundation calls them nymph-like women set against the countryside. Champenois asked for at least two more sets, in 1897 and in 1900. The same designs also went onto calendars, postcards, theater programs, and menus.

In February 1897 his first solo exhibition opened at the Galerie de la Bodinière with 107 works, and Sarah Bernhardt wrote the preface. In May the Salon des Cent showed 448 works, and a selection went to the Topič Salon in Prague. In 1900 he began the interior and facade of Fouquet's jewelry shop on Rue Royale. Documents décoratifs, a book of motifs for artists, followed in 1902. In 1903 he met Marie Chytilová in Paris, later his wife, and designed a set for Smetana's Libuše at the National Theatre in Prague. From 1906 to 1910 he taught in America and painted portraits there.

In 1910 he returned to Bohemia and painted The Slav Epic at Zbiroh Castle. In 1911 he finished the Mayor's Salon in the Prague Municipal House. The Mucha Museum calls that decoration the last great work in the Art Nouveau style in Prague. In 1918 he designed Czechoslovakia's first postage stamps. The complete Slav Epic was presented to Prague on 21 September 1928, and in 1930 he designed a stained-glass window for St. Vitus Cathedral. He died on 14 July 1939 and was buried at the Slavín Cemetery in Vyšehrad, Prague. His family established the Mucha Foundation in 1992.