Alphonse Mucha: The Complete Story
Alphonse Mucha was a Czech artist whose flowing posters of elegant women framed by flowers and swirling hair came to define Art Nouveau, the decorative style that swept Europe around 1900.
His look is so recognizable it became a whole visual language: soft pastels, halo like circles behind the figure, and ornament everywhere. To many people, Art Nouveau simply means Mucha.
The poster that changed his life overnight
On New Year's Day 1895, Paris woke to a tall, slender poster for the actress Sarah Bernhardt in the play Gismonda. Mucha had designed it in a rush over the holidays.
Parisians loved it so much they reportedly bribed bill stickers to get copies. Bernhardt signed him to a six year contract, and Mucha became the most famous poster artist in the city.
What Art Nouveau means
Art Nouveau, French for new art, was a style based on natural, curving lines: vines, flowers, flowing hair. It ran through posters, jewelry, buildings and furniture.
Mucha worked mainly in lithography, a printing method that let his designs reach huge numbers of people on posters and packaging. His art was made to be everywhere, not locked in a gallery.
The serious work he cared about most
Mucha grew tired of being known only for pretty posters. He was a proud Czech patriot, and he poured 18 years into a series of 20 enormous canvases called The Slav Epic.
They tell the history of the Slavic peoples on a monumental scale. He gave the whole cycle to the city of Prague, hoping it would inspire his nation.
A patriot to the end
When Nazi Germany took over Czechoslovakia in 1939, Mucha was one of the first people arrested and questioned by the Gestapo, partly because of his patriotic art.
The strain ruined his health, and he died later that year, aged 78.
Alphonse Mucha, quick questions
What is he known for? Defining the Art Nouveau poster style.
What made him famous? His 1895 Gismonda poster for Sarah Bernhardt.
What is The Slav Epic? Twenty huge canvases on Slavic history.
When did he live? Born in 1860, died in 1939.
If Mucha's world charmed you, these are next:
Gustav Klimt, his great contemporary in golden, decorative Vienna.
Aubrey Beardsley, the other master of the elegant turn of the century line.
What is Symbolism in Art, the dreamlike current running beneath Art Nouveau.
One last thing. Mucha was almost embarrassed by his fame as a poster artist, calling that work mere decoration. Yet today his swirling women are far more famous than the patriotic epic he believed was his true life's work.