Alfons Mucha

>Alfons Mucha 2005-05-23T03:35:52Z Sheynhertz-Unbayg '''Alfons Mucha''' {{Audio|Cs-Alfons Mucha.ogg|listen}} ([[July 24]], [[1860]] - [[July 14]], [[1939]]) was a [[Czech Republic|Czech]] [[painter]] and decorative artist. His name is also sometimes rendered in English as '''Alphonse Mucha'''. Mucha was perhaps the most defining artist of the [[Art Nouveau]] style. [[Image:MuchaDancel898.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Lithographic poster by Mucha, ''Dancel'' 1898]] Alfons Maria Mucha was born in the town of [[Ivancice|Ivančice]], [[Moravia]] (now in the [[Czech Republic]], then part of the [[Austrian Empire]]). His singing abilities allowed him to continue his education through high-school in the Moravian capital of [[Brno]], however drawing was first love since childhood. He worked at decorative painting jobs in Moravia, mostly painting theatrical scenery, then in [[1879]] moved to [[Vienna]] to work for a leading Viennese theatrical design company, while informally furthering his artistic education. When a fire destroyed his employer's business in [[1881]] he returned to Moravia, doing 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 [[Academie Colarossi]] while also producing magazine and advertising illustrations. In [[1894]], he produced the artwork for a lithographed poster advertising [[Sarah Bernhardt]] at the Theatre de la Renaissance. Mucha's lush stylized [[poster art]] won him fame and numerous commissions. Mucha produced a flurry of paintings, posters, advertisements, and book illustrations, as well as designs for jewellery, carpets, wallpaper, and theatre sets in what came to be known as the ''Art Nouveau'' style. Mucha's works frequently featured beautiful healthy young women in flowing vaguely [[Neoclassical]] looking robes, often surrounded by lush flowers which sometimes formed [[halo]]es behind the women's heads. His style was often imitated. Mucha visited the [[United States|USA]] from [[1906]] to [[1910]], then returned to the Czech lands and settled in [[Prague]], where he decorated the Theater of Fine Arts and other landmarks of 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 nation. He spent years working on what he considered his masterpiece, ''The Slav Epic'', a series of huge paintings depicting the history of the Slavic peoples, unveiled in Prague in [[1928]]. He died in Prague [[July 14]], [[1939]] and was interred there in the [[Vysehrad cemetery|Vyšehrad cemetery]]. By the time of his death, Mucha's style was considered outdated and old fashioned, but interest in his art revived first in the [[1960s]], and continues to experience periodic revivals of interest and influence on contemporary illustrators. Much of the interest in Mucha's work can be attributed to his son, author [[Jiří Mucha]], who wrote extensively about his father and devoted much of his life to bringing attention to his father's art. ==External links== {{commons|Alfons Mucha}} * [http://www.mucha.cz/index.phtml?S=biog&Lang=EN Biography on Mucha Museum website] * [http://www.mucha.cz/index.phtml?S=home&Lang=EN Website of Mucha Museum in Prague] * [http://artchive.com/artchive/M/mucha.html Mark Harden's Artchive] webpage on Alfons Mucha [[Category:1860 births|Mucha, Alfons]] [[Category:1939 deaths|Mucha, Alfons]] [[Category:Artists|Mucha, Alfons]] [[Category:Czech painters|Mucha, Alfons]] [[bg:Алфонс Муха]] [[da:Alfons Mucha]] [[de:Alfons Maria Mucha]] [[eo:Alfons MUCHA]] [[fr:Alfons Mucha]] [[it:Alfons Mucha]] [[ja:アルフォンス・ミュシャ]] [[nl:Alphonse Mucha]] [[no:Alfons Mucha]] [[pl:Alfons Mucha]] [[fi:Alfons Mucha]] [[sv:Alfons Mucha]] [[ru:Муха, Альфонс Мариа]]