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Alphonse
Mucha Biography
Alphonse Mucha (1860 - 1939) Alphonse
Mucha was born in 1860 in Ivancice, Moravia, which is near the city
of Brno in the modern Czech Republic. It was a small town, and for
all intents and purposes life was closer to the 18th than the 19th
century. Though Mucha is supposed to have started drawing before he
was walking, his early years were spent as a choirboy and amateur
musician. It wasn't until he finished high school (needing two extra
years to accomplish that onerous task) that he came to realize that
living people were responsible for some of the art he admired in the
local churches. That epiphany made him determined to become a painter,
despite his father's efforts in securing him "respectable" employment
as a clerk in the local court. Like every aspiring artist of the day,
Mucha ended up in Paris in 1887. He was a little older than many of
his fellows, but he had come further in both distance and time. A
chance encounter in Moravia had provided him with a patron who was
willing to fund his studies. After two years in Munich and some time
devoted to painting murals for his patron, he was sent off to Paris
where he studied at the Academie Julian. After two years the supporting
funds were discontinued and Alphonse Mucha was set adrift in a Paris
that he would soon transform. At the time, however, he was a 27 year
old with no money and no prospects - the proverbial starving artist.
For five years he played the part to perfection. Living above a Cremerie
that catered to art students, drawing illustrations for popular (ie.
low-paying) magazines, getting deathly ill and living on lentils and
borrowed money, Mucha met all the criteria. It was everything an artist's
life was supposed to be. Some success, some failure. Friends abounded
and art flourished. It was the height of Impressionism and the beginnings
of the Symbolists and Decadents. He shared a studio with Gauguin for
a bit after his first trip to the south seas. Mucha gave impromptu
art lessons in the Cremerie and helped start a traditional artists
ball, Bal des Quat'z Arts. All the while he was formulating his own
theories and precepts of what he wanted his art to be. On January
1, 1895, he presented his new style to the citizens of Paris. Called
upon over the Christmas holidays to created a poster for Sarah Bernhardt's
play, Gismonda, he put his precepts to the test. The poster, at left,
was the declaration of his new art. Spurning the bright colors and
the more squarish shape of the more popular poster artists, the near
life-size design was a sensation. Art Nouveau ("New Art" in French)
can trace it's beginnings to about this time. Based on precepts akin
to William Morris' Arts and Crafts movement in England, the attempt
was to eradicate the dividing line between art and audience. Everything
could and should be art. Burne-Jones designed wallpaper, Hector Guimard
designed metro stations, and Mucha designed champagne advertising
(at right) and stage sets. Each country had its own name for the new
approach and artists of incredible skill and vision flocked to the
movement. . Overnight, Mucha's name became a household word and, though
his name is often used synonymously with the new movement in art,
he disavowed the connection. Like Sinatra, he merely did it "my way."
His way was based on a strong composition, sensuous curves derived
from nature, refined decorative elements and natural colors. The Art
Nouveau precepts were used, too, but never at the expense of his vision.
Bernhardt signed him to a six year contract to design her posters
and sets and costumes for her plays. Mucha was an overnight success
at the age of 34, after seven years of hard work in Paris. Commissions
poured in. By 1898, he had moved to a new studio, illustrated Ilsee,
Princess de Tripoli (see image at left), had his first one-man show
and had begun publishing graphics with Champenois, a new printer anxious
to promote his work with postcards and panneaux - sets of four large
images around a central theme (four seasons, four times of day, four
flowers, etc. - see below for Stars). Most of these sets were created
for the collector market and printed on silk. There was a World's
Fair in Paris in 1900 and Mucha designed the Bosnia-Hercegovina Pavilion.
He partnered with goldsmith Georges Fouquet in the creation of jewelry
based on his designs. The bronze, Nature (at right) is from this time
period. He also published Documents Decoratifs and announced Figures
Decoratives. Documents Decoratifs was his attempt to pass his artistic
theories on to the next generation. In actuality, it provided a set
of blueprints to Mucha's style and his imitators wasted no time in
applying them. His fame spread around the world and several trips
to American resulted in covers and illustrations in a variety of U.S.
magazines. Portraiture is also commissioned from U.S. patrons. At
the end of the decade he is prepared to begin what he considered his
life's work. Mucha was always a patriot of his Czech homeland and
considered his success a triumph for the Czech people as much as for
himself. In 1909 he was commissioned to paint a series of murals for
the Lord Mayor's Hall in Prague. He also began to plan out "The Slav
Epic" - a series of great paintings chronicling major events in the
Slav nation. Financing was provided by Charles Crane, a Chicago millionaire.
Mucha had hoped to complete the task in five or six years, but instead
it embraced 18 years of his life. Twenty massive (about 24 x 30 feet)
canvasses were created and presented to the city of Prague in 1928.
Covering the history of the Slavic people from prehistory to the nineteenth
century, they represented Mucha's hopes and dreams for his homeland.
In 1919 the first eleven canvases were completed and exhibited in
Prague, and America where they received a much warmer welcome. History
hasn't been kind to either Mucha or to the Czechs - as the current
unrest in the area at the turn of this century shows. Mucha's bequest
to his country was received with unkindly cold shoulders. The geopolitical
world ten years after World War I was very different from the one
in which Mucha had begun his project. Moravia was now a part of a
new nation, Czechoslovakia (Mucha offered to help the new country
by designing its postage stamps and bank notes). The art world was
just as changed. And just as the proponents of "Modern Art" cast their
slings and arrows at the oh-so 19th century style, varying political
groups brought out their personal arsenals of vitriolic prejudice
in damning one aspect or other of Mucha's work. The public seemed
to appreciate them, but political agendas seldom give much weight
to public opinion. To this day, they have never found a permanent
display site and languish, rolled up in various storerooms. The rest
of Mucha's life was spent almost as an anachronism. His work was still
beautiful and popular, it just was no longer "new" - a heinous crime
in the eyes of the critics. When the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia,
he was still influential enough to be one of the first people they
arrested. He returned home after a Gestapo questioning session and
died shortly thereafter on July 14, 1939.
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