art nouveau

Alphonse Mucha(1860 - 1939)

Alphonse (Alfons) Mucha (1860-1939) was a prolific Moravian painter of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries and a key figure in the Art Nouveau movement. His style of painting influenced an entire generation of painters, graphic artists, draughtsmen and designers and in the minds of many, his work epitomizes the Art Nouveau. He himself came to resent his fame as an artist of the utilitarian, believing that true art should be elevated and epic.

Alfons Mucha was born on July 24, 1860, in the town of Ivancice, Moravia, then part of Austro-Hungary. His father was a court usher, and the family had but modest means. The future painter was raised in an atmosphere of strict Roman Catholicism, and this would later be reflected in the symbolism he employed in his work.

In 1871, Mucha joined the choir at St. Peter's Cathedral in Brno, where he was attending grammar school. He pursued singing seriously for a while, but was forced to abandon it after his voice started cracking in 1875. Instead, Mucha took up drawing lessons. Soon afterwards, he returned to Ivancice where, in the meanwhile, he found work as a municipal clerk.

In 1877, the young man applied to the Academy of Visual Arts in Prague, but was unable to gain admission. This did not discourage him, however, and he continued attending drawing classes. In 1879, he got a job in Vienna as an assistant in a firm that made stage sets, which is where he gained familiarity with theatre and the art of interior decoration. He was laid off in 1882, after a fire in the Burg Theater -- where the company had been working -- put the firm in difficult financial straits.

At this point, Mucha was feeling confident enough in his artistic skills to take up portrait painting. He moved back to Moravia, to the town of Mikulov, and it was there that he met Count Karl Khuen-Belassi, a local nobleman, who commissioned him to decorate the Emmahof Castle. The Count was so impressed with Mucha's work that he agreed to sponsor the artist's formal education. In 1884, after touring northern Italy and Austria with his patron, the painter entered the Academy of Visual Arts in Milan.

While at the Academy, Mucha became chairman of the Association of Slavic Painters, a first sure sign of his patriotic views.

In 1888, Mucha visited Paris for the first time. Paris, Europe's undisputed artistic capital of the time, was an essential step in the education of any "serious" painter. Mucha studied at the Academie Julian and the Academie Colarossi, focusing on academic historical painting. He was also involved with the Symbolists and artistic circles close to them.

Although he was a technically adept painter, academic art was long past its peak of popularity, and, as a means of supporting himself, Mucha began to draw illustrations for books and magazines.