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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
Alphonse Mucha |
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Oxford Grove Art:
Alphonse Mucha |
(b Ivancice, Moravia, 24 July 1860; d Prague, 14 July 1939). Czech graphic artist and painter, active in France. In 1877 he attempted unsuccessfully to enter the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, and afterwards set about travelling and working. He went first to Vienna, where he worked for a company that produced stage sets, and where he discovered the work of Hans Makart. After being made redundant he left in 1882 for Mikulov, where he earned a living painting portraits of important local figures. He met Count Khuen-Belassi, who invited him to paint murals at his home (1882-4; some panels in Brno, Mus. City), later sending him to the Akademie der Bildenden K?nste in Munich (1885-7) and to Paris in autumn 1888. Mucha enrolled at the Acad?mie Julian and worked in the studios of Jules Lefebvre and Jean-Paul Laurens. When his grant was cut off at the end of 1889, he stayed in Paris and briefly attended the Acad?mie Colarossi; to finance himself he produced a variety of illustrations, collaborating on La Vie populaire and the children's review Le Petit Fran?ais illustr?.
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Oxford Dictionary of Modern Design:
Alphonse Mucha |
Czechoslovakian born graphic designer and illustrator Mucha is widely known for his Art Nouveau posters in the 1890s and early 1900s, particularly those portraying the actress Sarah Bernhardt. Major clients also included Job cigarette papers (1898) and the champagne house of Moët & Chandon (1899). Flowing lines and two-dimensional organic forms characterized much of his work, the term ‘le style Mucha’ becoming almost synonymous with Art Nouveau. He worked across the full range of graphic media, including illustration, packaging, and postage stamp design, as well as involvement in the fields of jewellery and textile design. After commencing his career in theatre set painting he studied in Munich (1884-7) and in Paris from 1888, where he experienced the striking poster designs of Eugène Grasset and Jules Chéret, including the latter's renderings of Sarah Bernhardt in La Bihe en bois and Loie Fuller dancing at the Folies Bergère. Mucha's own first poster of Bernhardt was produced in 1894 when she was appearing in Gismonda, leading to a six-year contract with the actress. Mucha's reputation, widely disseminated through reproduction in the periodicals press, was further enhanced by a travelling exhibition of his posters, originating in Paris in 1897 before travelling to Prague, Brussels, Munich, London, and New York. In 1897 he opened his own design school in which he taught until 1904 during which time he was commissioned to design the Bosnia-Herzegovina Pavilion at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle where he also exhibited scent bottles, jewellery, and carpet design. The jewellery was commissioned by Georges Fouquet, whose shop in the Rue Royale in Paris Mucha designed as a total unified entity, including furniture, lighting, and stained glass. After a period in which he travelled in Europe and the United States Mucha returned to Czechoslovakia in 1910 and worked on a series of murals depicting Slav history. He also designed postage stamps celebrating Czechoslovakia's freedom in 1918.
Oxford Companion to the Photograph:
Alphonse Mucha |
Mucha, Alphonse (1860-1939), Czech painter and graphic artist who also practised photography for nearly 50 years, from the 1880s to the 1930s. But it was only c. 1892, in Paris, that he began using it in an organized way, often to make studies for his paintings and illustrations. Much of his output consists of indoor photographs of models, either nude or, in photographic tableaux, in period costumes connected with an ongoing work. However, his photographic archive, still in private hands, reveals a much wider range of subjects.
— Quentin Bajac
Bibliography
Columbia Encyclopedia:
Alphonse Mucha |
Bibliography
See biography by his son, J. Mucha (1966); his posters and photographs, ed. by J. Mucha et al. (1972); his graphic work, ed. by J. Mucha (1974); his work in general, ed. by A. Husslein-Arco, J. L. Gaillemen, M. Hilaire, and C. Lange (2009).
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Alphonse Mucha |
| Alphonse Mucha | |
|---|---|
 Alphonse Mucha |
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| Birth name | Alfons Maria Mucha |
| Born | 24 July 1860 Ivančice, Moravia, Austrian Empire (present Czech Republic) |
| Died | 14 July 1939 (aged 78) Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia |
| Nationality | Czech |
| Field | Painting, Illustration, Decorative art |
| Training | Munich Academy of Fine Arts Académie Julian Académie Colarossi |
| Movement | Art Nouveau |
| Works | The Slav Epic (Slovanská epopej) |
| Patrons | Count Karl Khuen of Mikulov |
| Influenced by | Neoclassicism |
| Influenced | Paul Harvey Kevin Wasden |
Alfons Maria Mucha[1][2] (Czech pronunciation: [ˈalfons ˈmuxa] (
listen); 24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939), known in English as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist,[3] known best for his distinct style. He produced many paintings, illustrations, advertisements, postcards, and designs.
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Alphonse Maria Mucha was born in the town of Ivančice, Moravia (the present Czech Republic). Although his singing abilities allowed him to continue his education through high school in the Moravian capital of Brno, drawing had been his main hobby since childhood. He worked at decorative painting jobs in Moravia, mostly painting theatrical scenery. In 1879, he relocated to Vienna to work for a major <hd3>Viennese</hd3> theatrical design company, while informally augmenting his artistic education. When a fire destroyed his employer's business during 1881 he returned to Moravia, to do freelance decorative and portrait painting. Count Karl Khuen of Mikulov hired Mucha to decorate Hrušovany Emmahof Castle with murals, and was impressed enough that he agreed to sponsor Mucha's formal training at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts.
Mucha moved to Paris in 1887, and continued his studies at Académie Julian and Académie Colarossi. In addition to his studies, he worked at producing magazine and advertising illustrations. About Christmas 1894, Mucha happened to go into a print shop where there was a sudden and unexpected need for a new advertising poster for a play featuring Sarah Bernhardt, the most famous actress in Paris, at the Théâtre de la Renaissance on the Boulevard Saint-Martin. Mucha volunteered to produce a lithographed poster within two weeks, and on 1 January 1895, the advertisement for the play Gismonda by Victorien Sardou was posted in the city, where it attracted much attention.[4] Bernhardt was so satisfied with the success of this first poster that she began a six-year contract with Mucha.
Mucha produced a flurry of paintings, posters, advertisements, and book illustrations, as well as designs for jewelry, carpets, wallpaper, and theatre sets in what was termed initially the Mucha Style but became known as Art Nouveau (French for 'new art'). Mucha's works frequently featured beautiful young women in flowing, vaguely Neoclassical-looking robes, often surrounded by lush flowers which sometimes formed halos behind their heads. In contrast with contemporary poster makers he used pale pastel colors.[5] The 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris spread the "Mucha style" internationally, of which Mucha said "I think [the Exposition Universelle] made some contribution toward bringing aesthetic values into arts and crafts."[6] He decorated the Bosnia and Herzegovina Pavilion and collaborated with decorating the Austrian Pavilion. His Art Nouveau style was often imitated. The Art Nouveau style however, was one that Mucha attempted to disassociate himself from throughout his life; he always insisted that rather than maintaining any fashionable stylistic form, his paintings were entirely a product of himself and Czech art.[4] He declared that art existed only to communicate a spiritual message, and nothing more; hence his frustration at the fame he gained by his commercial art, when he most wanted to concentrate on more artistic projects.
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Mucha married Maruška (Marie/Maria) Chytilová on 10 June 1906, in Prague. The couple visited the U.S. from 1906 to 1910, during which time their daughter, Jaroslava, was born in New York City. They also had a son, Jiří, (born 12 March 1915 in Prague; died 5 April 1991 in Prague) who later became a well known journalist, writer, screenwriter, author of autobiographical novels and studies of the works of his father. In the U.S., Alphonse expected to earn money to fund his nationalistic projects to demonstrate to Czechs that he had not "sold out".[4] He was assisted by millionaire Charles R. Crane, who used his fortune to help promote revolutions and, after meeting Thomas Masaryk, Slavic nationalism. Alphonse and his family returned to the Czech lands and settled in Prague, where he decorated the Theater of Fine Arts, contributed his time and talent to create the murals in the Mayor's Office at the Municipal House, and other landmarks around the city. When Czechoslovakia won its independence after World War I, Mucha designed the new postage stamps, banknotes, and other government documents for the new state.
Mucha considered his publication Le Pater to be his printed masterpiece, and referred to it in The Sun of 5 January 1900 as what he had "put [his] soul into". Printed on 20 December 1899, Le Pater was Mucha's occult examination of the themes of The Lord's Prayer and only 510 copies were produced.
Mucha spent many years working on what he considered his life's fine art masterpiece, The Slav Epic (Slovanská epopej), a series of twenty huge paintings depicting the history of the Czech and the Slavic people in general, bestowed to the city of Prague in 1928. He had wanted to complete a series such as this, a celebration of Slavic history, since he was young. Since 1963 the series has been on display in the chateau in Moravský Krumlov the South Moravian Region in the Czech Republic.
The rising tide of fascism during the late 1930s resulted in Mucha's works, as well as his Slavic nationalism, being denounced in the press as 'reactionary'. When German troops moved into Czechoslovakia during the spring of 1939, Mucha was among the first persons to be arrested by the Gestapo. During his interrogation, the aging artist became ill with pneumonia. Though released eventually, he may have been weakened by this event. He died in Prague on 14 July 1939, of a lung infection, and was interred there in the Vyšehrad cemetery.[3]
At the time of his death, Mucha's style was considered outdated. His son, author Jiří Mucha, devoted much of his life to writing about him and bringing attention to his art. In his own country, the new authorities were not interested in Mucha. His Slav Epic was rolled and stored for twenty-five years before being shown in Moravsky Krumlov and only recently has a Mucha museum opened in Prague, managed by his grandson, John Mucha.[4]
Mucha's work has continued to experience periodic revivals of interest for illustrators and artists. Interest in Mucha's distinctive style experienced a strong revival during the 1960s (with a general interest in Art Nouveau)[7] and is particularly evident in the psychedelic posters of Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, the collective name for British artists Michael English and Nigel Waymouth, and Bob Masseю[8]
It is a strongly acknowledged influence for Stuckist painter Paul Harvey.[9]
The Japanese manga artist Naoko Takeuchi released a series of official posters depicting five of the main characters from her manga series Sailor Moon mimicking Mucha's style. Another manga artist, Masakazu Katsura, has also mimicked Mucha's style several times. Comic book artist and former Marvel Comics Editor in Chief Joe Quesada also borrowed from Mucha's techniques for a series of covers, posters, and prints.
The band Soilent Green used a picture by Mucha for the cover art of their album Sewn Mouth Secrets.[10]
Mucha's work is also a visible influence on heavy metal cover artist/guitarist John Baizley.
One of Mucha's paintings, Quo Vadis or alternately Petronius and Eunice, was the subject of a legal dispute in 1986. The judgment by Richard Posner describes parts of Mucha's life and work biographically.[11]
Among his many other accomplishments, Mucha was also the restorer of Czech Freemasonry.[12]
On 1 January 2010, his published works went out of copyright and entered the public domain.
On 24 July 2010, he was honored with a Google Doodle in memory of his 150th birthday.[13]
] of Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, BC. This document is in the public domain and may be used by anyone, in whole or in part, without permission and without charge, provided the source is acknowledged |
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 | Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Oxford Grove Art. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art. Copyright © 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Oxford Dictionary of Modern Design. A Dictionary of Modern Design. Copyright © 2004, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Oxford Companion to the Photograph. The Oxford Companion to the Photograph. Copyright © 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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| Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Alphonse Mucha. Read more |
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