Birth Year : 1860
Death Year : 1939
Country : Czech Republic
Alphonse Marie Mucha, a Czech-born artist, was raised in a strict Roman
Catholic environment, and the religious tradition of rich decoration was
later to play an important part in his art. Mucha's style is marked by
a wealth of luxurious details; he used muted colors, gold leaf, complicated
and delicate patterns, and intricately intertwined lines-the whole overlaid
with a feeling of mystic ritual. As a young man he studied at the Prague
Academy of Fine Arts, and later, under the sponsorship of Count Khuen,
at the Munich Academy. He came to Paris in 1887 and worked under Lefebvre,
Boulanger, and Laurens.
Mucha combined the principles of theatrical design that he had learned
in Prague with the classical technique taught to him in Paris, and developed
from them the elaborate Art Nouveau style for which he is known. In 1889,
at the Paris World Exhibition, Mucha first saw Japanese prints, which with
their flat surfaces and graceful curving outlines, influenced him deeply.
He gradually incorporated those elements into his own art. In 1892 he executed
his first lithographs. In 1894, almost by chance, he received his first
commission to design a poster-for Sarah Bernhardt's "Gismonda". Thus began
a lifelong collaboration with the celebrated actress, who was so delighted
with his initial work that she immediately contracted Mucha for six years
of poster, set, and costume designs for some of her plays.
The posters of Mucha's mature style were the ultimate expression of
Art Nouveau, what with their sinuous lines, subtle colorings and glorification
of a feminine ideal. Though is no mistaking the influence of Japanese prints,
the poster art of Eugene Grasset, and the Baroque churches of his childhood,
it was his association with Bernhardt that molded his style into a art
as widely recognizable as it is today.
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Alphonse
Marie Mucha
Salon
des Cent
Alphonse
Marie Mucha
Bieres
De La Meuse
Alphonse
Marie Mucha
Papier
a Cigarette Job
Alphonse
Marie Mucha
Les
Saisons
Alphonse
Marie Mucha
Poetry
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