Alfons Maria Mucha was born in the Czech town of Ivančice, near Brno,
in the family of a minor court official. The courthouse where the artist's father worked still stands today.
and now the Mucha Jr. Museum is open in it.
The boy drew well from childhood and tried to enter the Prague Academy of Arts, but was unsuccessful.
After high school, he worked as a clerk until he found a job as an assistant through an advertisement.
decorative artist at the Vienna Ringtheater and did not move to the capital of Austria-Hungary.
In Vienna, he attended drawing courses in the evenings and made his first illustrations
To folk songs. After the theater burned down, Alphonse was forced to move to
the Czech city of Mikulov, where he painted portraits of local nobles.
There he met Count Kuen-Belasi, a man who played a very important role in his life.
Mucha was decorating the count's castle, and the aristocrat was fascinated by his work.
As a result, Kuen-Belasi became a philanthropist young artist.
He paid for Alfons two years of study at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1888, Mucha moved to Paris and continued his education there.
Many at that time flocked to the capital of France - after all, then it was the center of new art:
Eiffel had already designed a three-hundred-meter tower, the World Exhibitions were noisy, and artists were breaking
canons and promoted freedom. However, the count's financial affairs worsened,
and Mucha was left without a livelihood.
In Paris, Alphonse Mucha took up design for the first time, established connections with publishing houses,
started creating covers and illustrations. He painted in oils
and his paintings were translated into woodcuts.
For a long time he got by with small orders, until Sarah Bernhardt appeared in his life -
brilliant French actress.
Perhaps Mukha would have achieved success without her, but who knows...
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt on Mucha's poster for the play Gismonda.
In 1893, before Christmas, Mucha received an order to create a poster for the play Gismonda.
Renaissance Theater, owned by Sarah Bernhardt.
The artist depicted a prima who played in the play main role, on an unusually shaped poster -
long and narrow. This emphasized her regal posture, the flowing hair of the actress Mucha
decorated with a wreath of flowers, placed a palm branch in his thin hand, and gave languor to his gaze,
creating a general mood of tenderness and bliss. Nobody had done anything like this before Mukha.
To get the poster, collectors bribed posters or cut “Gismonda” from fences at night.
It is not surprising that the actress wanted to meet the author and entered into a cooperation contract with him.
Bernard Alphonse worked at the theater for six years. "Lady with Camellias", "Medea", "Samaritan Woman",
“Lorenzachio” - all these posters depicting Bernard were no less popular than “Gismonda”.
Lady with camellias
Samaritan woman
Hamlet
He came up with sketches theatrical costumes and scenery, designed the stage and even participated in directing.
IN late XIX centuries the theater was the center social life, they talked about him and
they argued in salons, in the theater ladies demonstrated new toilets and
jewelry, and the men showed off the ladies -
in general, the theater was food for inspiration and gossip.
Gems
Amethyst
Emerald
In the same Art Nouveau style, the artist created colorful graphic series:
“Seasons”, 1896, “Seasons”, 1899, “Flowers”, 1897, “Months”, 1899, “Stars”, 1900,
which are still widely circulated in the form of art posters to this day.
Luxurious, sensual and languid “Mukha women” were replicated
instantly and sold in thousands of copies in posters, postcards,
playing cards. The offices of secular aesthetes, the halls of the best restaurants,
ladies' boudoirs were decorated with silk panels, calendars and prints by the master.
Success came to the artist.
Poetry
Painting
Music
A little later, Mucha also began to collaborate with the then famous
jeweler Georges Fouquet, who created jewelry based on the artist’s sketches
products. Mukha-style jewelry is still popular today.
During the same period, Mucha developed many packaging, labels and
advertising illustrations for goods and products of various kinds -
starting from expensive Moet & Chandon champagne and ending
toilet soap.
Cleopatra
Head of a Byzantine Blonde
These two compositions, one of which depicts the profile of a blonde, and the other of a brunette,
are among the most expressive works of Alphonse Mucha. In addition to skillfully captured faces
and richness of color nuances, their charm lies in luxurious and fantastic headdresses,
evoking the vanished splendor of Byzantine culture.
Head of a Byzantine Brunette
During the six-year collaboration between the actress and Alphonse Mucha
Warm and friendly relations arose, as evidenced by their
correspondence. And love? Did Sarah Bernhardt bewitch the Fly in the same way as
galaxies of many other men? Of course, reporters did not remain silent
the actress’s relationship with the Czech artist, especially since his name was
speaking in its own way: the same name of the character in the comedy Dumas the son
"Monsieur Alphonse", living off his mistresses.
Some even recommended that he change his name or sign with his godfather's name - Maria.
However, Mucha was not Alphonse in the meaning that Dumas put into this name.
In his correspondence with Bernard there is no hint of what was gossiped about in high society.
Zodiac
Daydreaming
Indeed, after concluding a contract with Bernard, orders began pouring in for Mukha,
he acquired a spacious workshop, became a welcome guest in high society, where he often appeared
in an embroidered Slavophile blouse, belted with a sash.
A. Mucha Self-portraits
He also had the opportunity to organize personal exhibitions.
In February 1897 in Paris, in a tiny room of a private gallery
"La Bordiniere", his first exhibition opens - 448 drawings, posters and
sketches. It was an incredible success, and soon the people of Vienna
Prague and London got the opportunity to see all this too.
Alphonse Mucha was a singer of female beauty. Women on
his lithographs are attractive and, as they would say now, sexy.
“Les Femmes Muchas” (“le femme Mucha”, “the women of Mucha”) -
languid, lush and graceful.
A complex interweaving of clothing folds, curls, colors, patterns.
Impeccable composition, perfection of lines and harmony of color.
The Czech artist Alphonse Mucha, like many other artists of his time,
pierced by the arrow of new art. It is interesting that the artist’s tastes required him to even
new technical solutions in the field of lithography. Art Nouveau, or Art Nouveau, swept Europe from
early 1880s, and only the First World War returned to the prose of life
lovers of beauty.
Ivy
Thistle
And then academic norms were collapsing, art critics were loudly arguing, fashion
included oriental motifs. Painters abandoned straight lines,
fantastic lilies, daffodils and orchids bloomed on the canvases,
Butterflies and dragonflies fluttered. Art Nouveau artists believed in the possibility of achieving
harmony with nature, simplicity and moderation, contrasting them with Victorian luxury.
Expressed in art, these virtues were supposed to contribute to the harmonization
relationships between people - after all, beauty now seemed not like something abstract,
beauty has become synonymous with truth.
And, of course, Prince Myshkin’s phrase “Beauty will save the world” was inscribed on the banners of supporters of everything new.
Flowers
One of the first theorists of Art Nouveau was the English painter and art critic John Ruskin.
His ideas were quickly picked up by British Pre-Raphaelite artists who followed
traditions of the Florentine masters of the early Renaissance (“Pre-Raphaelites”, that is, “before Raphael”).
Their brotherhood included John William Waterhouse, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti...
those of whom England is now proud. The Pre-Raphaelite brush created a new female image
la femme fatale (“la femme fatale”, “the fatal woman”) - mysterious, mystical and beautiful.
The artists' muses were Proserpina, Psyche, Ophelia, Lady of Shalott -
victims of tragic or unrequited love. And the painters drew inspiration from their stormy
personal life. It was these images that fascinated Alphonse Mucha.
Carnation
Princess Hyacinth
Moon
The series “Seasons”, “Art”, “Precious Stones”, “Moon and Stars” and
other interesting lithographs that were republished as postcards,
playing cards and sold out instantly - they all depicted women.
Mucha worked a lot with models, whom he invited to his studio, drew and photographed them
in luxurious draperies. He provided photographs of models with comments -
« beautiful hands", "beautiful hips", "beautiful profile" ...
and then from the selected “parts” he put together the perfect picture.
Often, while painting, Mucha covered the models’ faces with a scarf so that they
imperfection did not destroy the ideal image he had invented.
Nature
At the turn of the century, Alphonse Mucha became a real master, to whom he carefully
listened to in artistic circles.
Sometimes even the Art Nouveau style in France was called the “Mukha style.”
Therefore, it seems natural that the artist’s book was published in 1901
"Decorative documentation".
This is a visual guide for artists, on the pages of which
various ornamental patterns, fonts, drawings
furniture, various utensils, table sets, jewelry, watches, combs, brooches.
The original technique is lithography, gouache, pencil and charcoal drawing.
In 1906, Alphonse Mucha went to America to earn money.
necessary to make all his dreams come true creative life:
creating paintings for the glory of their Motherland and all the Slavs.
In the same year he married his student Maria Khitilova, whom he passionately loved and
who was 22 years younger than him.
Master Mucha among the female images of the “Four Seasons” series.
Image on the wall of a jewelry boutique in Austin, Texas.
About monumental historical paintings Few people know Alphonse Mucha.
but the world still admires his “women’s collections”,
although the artist himself considered only these paintings to be the main work of his life..
In 1910 he returned to Prague and concentrated all his efforts
on “Slavic Epic”. This monumental cycle was given to them as a gift
to the Czech people and the city of Prague, but was not successful with criticism.
At the same time, he developed a sketch for the stained glass window of St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague
(honoring Saints Cyril and Methodius)
and painted many portraits of his wife, two daughters, and son Jiri.
After the proclamation of the Republic in 1918, Mucha was entrusted with the production of the first Czechoslovak
postage stamps, banknotes and state emblem.
Panel from the cycle "Slavic Epic"
In the spring of 1913, Alphonse Mucha went to Russia to collect materials for future paintings in the cycle.
The artist visited St. Petersburg and Moscow, where he visited the Tretyakov Gallery.
The Trinity-Sergius Lavra made a particularly strong impression on him.
The choice of the year of travel to Russia was not accidental. In 1913, the three hundredth anniversary of the Romanov dynasty was celebrated.
Our Father
And one more very important side of the life of this great admirer of female beauty
(just look at his poetic portraits of women).
His personal family life. Against the backdrop of many loves, Mucha has always been
happy with love for the only one. In 1906, already forty-six years old,
famous, he married his young student in Paris and
compatriot Maria Shitilova. She was and remained until the end of her life
his favorite Muse, his model. She was 22 years younger than the artist. AND
adored him. Sincerely and selflessly. For by the time of their marriage his debts
were much larger than his fortune. However, they both knew: "money is a thing
profitable” - and with uneven, irregular incomes, they gave birth to and raised a son and
two daughters - red-haired beauties, so similar in face and article to
dazzling mother. Then he painted them, daughters, and
singing lines of their figures, in their features I still found her, my adored
Maria, because until the last hour he did not want and could not get rid of her charms.
Daughters
Yaroslav's daughter
Artist
Young girl in Moravian costume
Woman with a burning candle
Mucha died in 1939 from pneumonia. The cause of the illness was arrest and interrogation
in the German-occupied Czech capital: the painter’s Slavophilism was so well known
that he was even included in the named lists of enemies of the Reich.
Fate
A museum in Prague is dedicated to the work of Alphonse Mucha.
exposition of the cycle “Slavic Epic” in Moravsky Krumlov and an exhibition about early years his life
in a renovated former building. courts in Ivančice.
Mucha's works are included in the collections of many prominent museums and galleries around the world.
Construction plans are currently being developed in Prague's Stromovka Park,
not far from the former exhibition complex, a special building for exhibiting the “Slavic Epic”.
The end of the 19th century. Fin-de-siècle. In Europe, Art Nouveau or Art Nouveau rules the roost. Academic norms are crumbling to the accompaniment of loud disputes between art critics. Straight lines are replaced by floral curls, and Victorian luxury is replaced by the desire to achieve harmony with nature. Alphonse Mucha, like many other artists of his time, was covered by a wave of new art. "Women of the Muchas" ("Les Femmes Muchas") became the personification of Art Nouveau.
in the photo: fragment of the painting “Laurel” by Alphonse Mucha, 1901
La Femme Fatale look
Dramatically changed social role women and the symbolists’ desire for simplicity and puritanism give rise to a hostile attitude towards a sexually attractive woman. This is how a new female image is created - la femme fatale (“the femme fatale”). Symbolists, inspired poetic images Proserpine, Psyche, Ophelia, Lady of Shalott, paint mysterious, ephemeral women. But, at the same time, their nervousness, often hysteria, is striking. Sometimes they are even ugly and disgusting.
Sharing the general ideas of the Symbolists, Mucha managed to create the image of a beautiful, curvy, graceful woman. She seemed frozen between the world of people and the world of gods. She is a demigoddess, a deity of nature, the embodiment of Fate itself. And, contrary to what Alphonse Mucha himself believed main job his life 20 monumental paintings on historical themes under common name“Slavic epic”, it was “women” who became fateful in his life. Moreover, both in quotes and without them. Just women.
Series Time of day: Day rush, Morning awakening, Evening reverie, Night rest
Alphonse Mucha: early years
Alfons Maria Mucha was born in 1860 in the Czech town of Ivančice near Brno. Here he met his first love, but soon the girl, like most of his brothers and sisters, died of tuberculosis. Alphonse will call his future daughter by her name - Yaroslava, and her image will appear in his work for a long time.
Portrait of daughter Yaroslava, 1930
Series Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter
Theater in the life of Alphonse Mucha: "Gismonda", Sarah Bernhardt
Mucha's first acquaintance with the theater occurred in Vienna when he was 19 years old. Mucha perceived the illusory nature of the theater very organically, since as a boy he sang in the church choir of the city of Brno for several years. In 1887, having received financial assistance from a friend of the arts, Mucha moved to Paris - the center cultural life Europe. Of course, the first time is extremely difficult for a young artist. He works part-time as a designer and eats only lentils and beans for months. But moving in bohemian circles, meeting Paul Gauguin and August Strindberg play a role decisive role in shaping him as an artist. From them, Mucha learns about symbolism and synthetic art.
But one phone call changed the life of Alphonse Mucha completely and irrevocably. It happened on December 26, 1894, when the artist, replacing his friend, worked part-time at the Lemercier Theater. The director of the publishing house, Brunhoff, received a call from Sarah Bernhardt and asked to urgently make a poster for her new play “Gismonda”. All the staff artists were on Christmas break, the director looked at Mucha in despair. It was impossible to refuse Divine Sarah.
The poster drawn by Mucha created a sensation in poster design. I was struck by both its size (about 2 m by 0.7 m) and the author’s new style. Collectors fought for every copy of the poster, even cutting them off fences. Mucha became famous overnight. Satisfied, Sarah Bernhardt offered Mucha a 5-year contract to develop designs for posters, costumes, decorations and scenery for her performances. In addition, Mucha enters into an exclusive contract with the Champenois publishing house for the production of commercial and decorative posters.
Of course, neither the press nor the public ignored the relationship between the brilliant actress and the young artist. Moreover, the latter’s name spoke for itself. At that time, the hero of Dumas Jr.'s play "Monsieur Alphonse", who lived at the expense of his mistresses, was very popular. The fact that Alphonse Mucha's well-being more than improved after signing a contract with Sarah Bernhardt is undeniable. But at the time they met, Mukha was 34, and Sarah Bernhardt was 50 years old. Mucha wrote that, of course, Bernard is irresistible, but “on stage, under artificial lighting and careful makeup.” Rather, Sarah Bernhardt's attitude towards the artist can be compared to the patronage of an older sister. But her role in his life is difficult to overestimate.
Models of Alphonse Mucha
In his new studio, Alphonse Mucha works a lot with models. He draws and photographs them in luxurious clothes and jewelry. He adds comments to the photos like “beautiful hands”, “beautiful hips”, “beautiful back”. Then from individual parts folds perfect image. It happened that Mucha even covered the models’ faces with a scarf if they were discordant with the image created by his imagination.
Models of Alphonse Mucha
Marushka
Alphonse Mucha's true love was Maria Chytilova. Also of Czech nationality, a young girl (more than 20 years younger than Mucha) fell in love with the artist after seeing him in Prague National Theater. Soon she herself arranges their meeting and acquaintance, and poses for the master for a long time. Mukha appears new muse, he calls her Marushka. And all the women who came before Khitilova are defined by Mukha as “strangers.” After all, there was still in his heart real love only to his homeland, and he so dreamed of finding “a Czech heart, a Czech girl.”
“How wonderful and joyful it is to live for someone, before you I had only one shrine - our homeland, and now I have erected an altar and for you, dear, I pray for both of you...” wrote Mukha.
Portrait of the artist's wife Marushka, 1905
Mucha creates fewer and fewer demigoddesses, drawing a real woman, as well as portraits of his daughter Yaroslava and son Jiri. And upon returning to his homeland, the Czech Republic, the artist takes on the implementation of his life’s project - the “Slavic Epic”. The paintings created by Mucha over almost 15 years are so grandiose and monumental that only a castle in the town of Moravsky Krumlov in the Czech Republic could house them. All of them, by the way, were donated by the artist himself to the residents of Prague.
Fate
There was another Woman who occupied a special place in the life and work of Mucha. It was Fate. Fascinated by the occult, spiritualism and psychics, the artist firmly believed in the finger of Fate, in a happy accident. In his opinion, it is Fate that leads a person through life and determines his actions. This woman also appeared in Mukha’s paintings.
Painting "Fate", 1920
With the advent of avant-garde ideas and the flourishing of functionalism, Alphonse Mucha lost his relevance as an artist and decorator. The Nazis, having occupied the Czech lands, added his name to the list of enemies of the Reich. He is arrested, accused of Slavophilism and connections with the Freemasons, and interrogated. As a result, the 79-year-old artist falls ill and dies of pneumonia.
During the Bolshevik regime in Czechoslovakia, Mucha's work was considered bourgeois-decadent. And only in the 1960s, through the efforts of the artist’s children, his works resumed their participation in international exhibition activities. And in 1998, the Mucha Museum was opened in Prague and a cultural foundation named after him was created.
Alfons Maria Mucha (1860-1939) - an outstanding Czech artist, master of theater and advertising posters, illustrator, jewelry designer. One of the brightest representatives of the Art Nouveau style. In our country, the name of the artist Alphonse Mucha is little known. Meanwhile, it literally became a symbol of painting from the end of the “golden” - the beginning of the “silver” centuries... His style (in painting, architecture, small decorative forms) was called (and is still called today) “Mukha style”. Or - “modern”, “jugendstil”, “secession”. The name came from France. And the artist himself is sometimes considered French in Europe. But that's not true. On the left is a self-portrait of the artist.Maxim Mrvica - Claudine
Spring |
Winter |
Yaroslava, 1925
The boy drew well from childhood and tried to enter the Prague Academy of Arts, but to no avail. After high school, he worked as a clerk until he found an advertisement for a job as an assistant decorative artist at the Vienna Ringtheater and moved to the capital of Austria-Hungary. In Vienna, he attended drawing courses in the evenings and made his first illustrations for folk songs. After the theater burned down, Alphonse was forced to move to the Czech city of Mikulov, where he painted portraits of local nobles.
There he met Count Khuen von Belassi, a man who played a very important role in his life. Mucha was decorating the count's castle, and the aristocrat was fascinated by his work. As a result, Kuen-Belasi became a patron of the young artist. He paid for Alfons two years of study at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts.
Girl in a Czech costume
In 1888, Mucha moved to Paris and continued his education there. Many at that time flocked to the capital of France - after all, at that time it was the center of new art: Eiffel had already designed a three-hundred-meter tower, the World Exhibitions were noisy, and artists broke the canons and promoted freedom. However, the count's financial affairs deteriorated, and Mucha was left without a livelihood. For a long time he worked on small orders until Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923), a brilliant French actress, appeared in his life. Perhaps Mukha would have achieved success without her, but who knows...
Portrait of Milada Cerny
In 1893, before Christmas, Mucha received an order to create a poster for the play “Gismonda” at the Renaissance Theater, which was owned by Sarah Bernhardt. The artist depicted the prima, who played the main role in the play, on a poster of an unusual shape - long and narrow. This emphasized her regal posture; Mukha decorated the actress’s loose hair with a wreath of flowers, placed a palm branch in her slender hand, and added languor to her gaze, creating a general mood of tenderness and bliss.
Nobody had done anything like this before Mukha. Before Gismonda, Sarah Bernhardt had only one noteworthy poster, made by the Swiss decorator Grasset - Joan of Arc. But the Gismond poster was much more interesting. To get it, collectors bribed pasters or cut “Gismonda” from fences at night.
Flowers, 1897 |
Fruit, 1897 |
It is not surprising that the actress wanted to meet the author and entered into a cooperation contract with him. Bernard Alphonse worked at the theater for six years. “The Lady of the Camellias”, “Medea”, “The Samaritan Woman”, “Lorenzachio” - all these posters depicting Bernard were no less popular than “Gismonda”. He came up with sketches of theatrical costumes and scenery, designed the stage and even participated in directing.
At the end of the 19th century, the theater was the center of social life, people talked and argued about it in salons, in the theater ladies showed off new clothes and jewelry, and men showed off ladies - in general, the theater was food for inspiration and gossip. And, of course, Sarah Bernhardt, and especially her personal life, has always been the object of attention of journalists and the public. There were plenty of reasons. Bernard inspired poets and writers, men of blue blood fell in love with her.
Oscar Wilde poetically called her “a beautiful creature with the voice of singing stars.” Victor Hugo gave Bernard a diamond, symbolizing the tears that he could not hold back during the performance with her participation. The actress loved to play along with the audience. So, she allegedly did not know who the father of her only son was, and, to the indignation of respectable ladies, she called him “the fruit of a wonderful misunderstanding.”
Heraldic knighthood
During the six-year collaboration between the actress and Alphonse, a warm, friendly relationship arose, as evidenced by their correspondence. And love? Did Sarah Bernhardt bewitch the Fly in the same way as a galaxy of other men? “Madame Sarah Bernhardt seems to have been created to portray grief-stricken grandeur. All her movements are full of nobility and harmony,” critics wrote. Of course, reporters did not remain silent about the actress’s relationship with the Czech artist, especially since his name was telling in its own way: it was also the name of the character in the comedy Dumas’ son “Monsieur Alphonse,” who lives off his mistresses.
Spring night
Indeed, after concluding a contract with Bernard, orders began pouring in for Mucha, he acquired a spacious workshop, and became a welcome guest in high society, where he often appeared in an embroidered Slavophile blouse, belted with a sash. He also had the opportunity to organize personal exhibitions. Some even recommended that he change his name or sign with his godfather's name - Maria.
Poetry, 1898 |
Music, 1898 |
However, Mucha was not Alphonse in the meaning that Dumas put into this name. In his correspondence with Bernard there is no hint of what was being gossiped about in high society. Rather, it was patronage, in some ways, perhaps, akin to the patronage of an older sister.
Dear Mucha,” Bernard wrote to the artist in 1897, “ask me to introduce you to society. Listen, dear friend, to my advice: exhibit your work. I will put in a word for you... The subtlety of the line, the originality of the composition, the amazing color of your paintings will captivate the public, and after the exhibition I foretell fame for you. I squeeze both your hands in mine, my dear Mukha. Sarah Bernhardt.
Girl with flowing hair and tulips, 1920
The year they met, Sarah was fifty, and Mukha was thirty-four. Mucha wrote that, of course, Bernard is beautiful, but “on stage, under artificial lighting and careful makeup.” Mucha admired Bernard as an actress, even when she was over sixty. In those years, Mucha lived in the USA, and Sarah Bernhardt came to this country on tour. They met more than once, and Mucha certainly wrote about these meetings to his fiancée Marie Chytilová, assuring that there had always been only friendly relations between him and Bernard.
Woman with a burning candle, 1933
Maria Khitilova was Mukha's model for a long time. Her features are easily discernible in many of the artist’s paintings. There are much more reasons to trust Mukha than newspaper gossip - Mukha was too noble to deceive his bride. However, Mucha was not the chaste ascetic that Jiri Mucha, the artist’s son, presented him in his book. Jiri claimed that before meeting his mother, Alphonse allegedly did not know women. But that's not true. For example, Mucha lived for seven whole years with the Frenchwoman Bertha de Lalande.
Salome
The artist met Chytilova only in 1903 - Maria Chytilova herself arranged their meeting. She was Czech, finished high school art school in Prague and at twenty-one she left for Paris. For shelter and board, she lived with a French family, helped with housework and took care of the children. Maria first saw Mucha at the Prague National Theater and fell in love like a girl, although she was old enough to be the master’s daughter - she was twenty-two years younger than him. The girl asked her uncle, an art historian, to recommend her to Mucha as a compatriot and aspiring artist. She attached her letter to the recommendation with a request to accept her on the day and hour when it would be convenient for Alphonse. And Mukha invited Maria to his atelier...
Day Rush, 1899 |
Morning Awakening, 1899 |
Carnation, 1898
Lily, 1898
And soon he began to call her Marushka and write tender letters: My angel, how grateful I am to you for your letter... Spring has come to my soul, flowers have bloomed... I am so happy that I am ready to burst into tears, sing, embrace the world.
In his letters, Mukha admitted to Marushka that he had been in love only once before her, at the age of sixteen. That girl was fifteen, apparently her name was Yaroslava. She died - tuberculosis claimed many lives at the end of the nineteenth century. Her death was a tragedy for Mukha’s subtle and sensitive nature. From that time on, Mukha, as he himself writes, turned all his ardent love to his homeland and our people. I love them like my beloved... Alfons called everyone who was with him before Chytilova “strange women” who only brought him torment. And he dreamed so much “all the years of exile about a Czech heart, about a Czech girl.”
Red Cloak, 1902
By the time I met Maria Mucha, the series “Flowers”, “Seasons”, “Art”, “Time of Day”, “Precious Stones”, “Moon and Stars” and other interesting lithographs had already been created, which were republished in the form of postcards, playing cards cards and dispersed instantly - they all depicted women. Mucha worked a lot with models, whom he invited to his studio, painted and photographed them in luxurious draperies or naked. He annotated photographs of models - “beautiful hands”, “beautiful hips”, “beautiful profile”... and then from the selected “parts” he put together an ideal picture. Often, while drawing, Mucha covered the faces of his models with a scarf so that their imperfections would not destroy the ideal image he had invented.
Yaroslava and Jiri - the artist's children
But after his marriage to Marushka in 1906, the artist painted less and less of the demigoddesses familiar to the viewer - apparently, a real woman replaced a mirage and memory. Mucha and his family moved to Prague, where he began creating the “Slavic Epic”, developed a sketch for the stained glass window of St. Vitus Cathedral and painted many portraits of his wife, daughter Yaroslava, and son Jiri. Mucha died in 1939 from pneumonia. The cause of the illness was arrest and interrogation in the Czech capital occupied by the Germans: the painter’s Slavophilism was so well known that he was even included in the personal lists of enemies of the Reich.
Madonna with the Lilies, 1905
Marushka remained with her husband until his last breath. She outlived her husband by twenty years and tried to write memoirs about him. The love that was between Mucha and Chytilova is called in Czech “láska jako trám” - that is, a very strong feeling, literal translation: “love like a beam.”
From Mukha’s letter: How wonderful and joyful it is to live for someone, before you I had only one shrine - our homeland, and now I have set up an altar and for you, dear, I pray for both of you...
Are men of the twenty-first century capable of such words?..
Around the world
Amethyst, 1900 |
Rubin, 1900 |
Portrait of Yaroslava (the artist's daughter), 1930
Prophetess, 1896
Spirit of Spring
Dream Evening - Night Dream, 1898
Ivy, 1901
Fate, 1920
Zdenka Cerny, 1913
Portrait of a woman |
Portrait of Madame Mucha |
Portrait of a wife, Maruška, 1908
Gold plated bracelet
Seasons, 1898
Head of a Byzantine woman. Blonde, 1897
Morning dawn
Head of a Byzantine woman. Brunette, 1897
Slavs on their Land. 1912
Introduction of Slavic liturgy. Fragment. 1912
July 24 marks the 156th anniversary of the birth of the world famous Czech artist, illustrator, jewelry designer, poster artist Alphonse Mucha. He is called one of the most famous representatives Art Nouveau style and the creator of his own unique style. “Women of the Fly” (images of seasons, time of day, flowers, etc. in female images) are known throughout the world for their open sensuality and captivating grace.
Alphonse Mucha drew well from childhood, but his attempt to enter the Prague Academy of Arts was unsuccessful. Therefore your creative path he started as a decorator, poster and invitation card artist. He also did not refuse to paint walls and ceilings in rich houses. Once Mucha worked on decorating the ancestral castle of Count Kuen-Belassi, and he was so impressed by the artist’s work that he agreed to pay for his studies at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. There he mastered the technique of lithography, which later became his calling card.
After studying in Munich, Mucha moved to Paris, where he studied at the Colarossi Academy and made a living making advertising posters, posters, restaurant menus, calendars and business cards. The artist’s meeting with actress Sarah Bernhardt was fateful. Once the owner of the printing house de Brunoff ordered him a poster, Alphonse went to a performance and, impressed, sketched a sketch on a marble slab of a table in a cafe. Later, de Brunoff bought this cafe, and the table with Mucha's drawing became its main attraction. And when Sarah Bernhardt saw the poster, made using the technique of multicolor lithography, she was delighted and wanted to see the author. On her recommendation, Mukha received the position of chief decorator of the theater and has since designed many posters, costumes and sets for her performances.
In 1897, Alphonse Mucha's first solo exhibition was held in France. At the same time, the concept of “Fly women” appeared: it was not his romantic hobbies that were meant, but his habit of depicting the seasons, flowers, time of day, types of art, gems etc. in female images. His women were always recognizable: graceful, pretty, full of health, sensual, languid - they were reproduced in postcards, posters, flyers, and playing cards.
The halls of restaurants and the walls of rich houses were decorated with his works, he was incredibly popular, orders came from all over Europe. Soon Mucha began collaborating with jeweler Georges Fouquet, who created exclusive jewelry based on his sketches. At the same time, the artist continued to work on the design of packaging, labels and advertising illustrations - from champagne and chocolate to soap and tissue paper. In 1895, Mucha joined the Symbolist association “Salon of a Hundred”. They propagated a new style– Art Nouveau, and the democratization of art, which is expressed in the concept of “art for the home”: it should be inexpensive, understandable and accessible to the widest segments of the population. Mucha liked to repeat: “Poverty also has the right to beauty.”
In 1900, Mucha took part in the design of the pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the World Exhibition in Paris. At that time, he became interested in the history of the Slavs, which became the reason for the creation of the “Slavic Epic” cycle. From 1904 to 1913 Mucha spends a lot of time in America, decorates houses, creates illustrations for books and magazines, posters and costume designs for theatrical productions, lectures at the Art Institute of Chicago. And then he decides to return to the Czech Republic and works on the “Slavic Epic” for 18 years.
Alphonse Mucha also had a chance to visit Russia. His personal exhibition took place here back in 1907, and in 1913 he went to Moscow and St. Petersburg to collect materials for the “Slavic Epic.” Made a great impression on him Tretyakov Gallery and the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Mucha was in the house of the artist Pasternak when they celebrated the publication of a poetry collection by his son, Boris Pasternak.
The work of Alphonse Mucha still finds its successors today:
Alphonse Mucha was born in Ivančice (Moravia) on July 24, 1860.
In 1885, Alphonse Mucha entered the Munich Academy of Arts as a third-year student and after two years of studies went to complete his education in Paris, at the Julien Art School. In the French capital, he was forced to illustrate fashion magazines and other periodicals to earn money. But he did not stop learning and improving his talent.
Alphonse Mucha achieved his first success in 1894 with a lithograph of a poster for Sarah Bernhardt and the Renaissance Theater. He was signed to a six-year contract. During the same period, Alphonse Mucha designed performances and participated in the creation of costumes.
He stood out with his posters for performances at the Renaissance Theater and the Parisian theater S. Bernard ("Gismonda", 1894; "Lady of the Camellias" by A. Dumas, 1896; "Lorenzaccio" by A. de Musset, 1896; "Medea" based on Euripides, 1898). He also partially acted as a designer for these productions: not only dresses, but also stage jewelry were created based on his sketches. From that time on he became one of the leading artists of French advertising; his compositions were published in magazines or in the form of posters - with the unchanged figure or head of a languid lady, immersed in an ornamentally colorful world of luxury and bliss. In the same “Mukha style”, colorful graphic series were created (“Seasons”, 1896; “Flowers”, 1897; “Months”, 1899; “Stars”, 1902; all works - watercolor, ink, pen), which until are still being reproduced in the form of art posters.
His exhibitions took place one after another, and rave reviews appeared in the press. The artist becomes the owner of a new large studio, he is accepted in high society - in a word, well-deserved fame comes to him. Alphonse Mucha created the art nouveau style that embodied his era, but at the same time he fell into a vicious circle of commercial commissions. However, today it is precisely these works, created by him during the “Parisian” period, that are considered his most valuable contribution to the treasury of world art.
In addition to graphic and paintings, drawings, sculptures and jewelry Alphonse Mucha creates architectural projects. One of them is the design and decoration project for the Bosnia and Herzegovina pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900.
In 1906, Alphonse Mucha left for America to earn the money necessary to fulfill the dream of his entire creative life: creating paintings for the glory of his Motherland and all the Slavs. In the same year, he married his student Maria Khitilova, whom he loved passionately and who was 22 years younger than him.
In 1910, he returned to Prague and concentrated all his efforts on the “Slavic Epic”. This monumental cycle was donated by him to the Czech people and the city of Prague, but was not a critical success. After the proclamation of the Republic in 1918, Alphonse Mucha was entrusted with the production of the first Czechoslovak postage stamps, banknotes and the state coat of arms.
Alphonse Mucha died on July 14, 1939 - exactly 4 months after the occupation of the Czech Republic and Moravia by Nazi troops and 10 days before his seventy-ninth birthday.
Alphonse Mucha. Transforming the mundane into art
Tatiana Fedotova
“Absolute lack of talent” - this was the hopeless answer Alphonse Maria Mucha received from Professor Benefit when he tried to enter the Prague Academy of Fine Arts for the first time. It is unlikely that at that moment both the young man himself and the respected professor could have imagined what a huge success Mukha’s exhibitions would enjoy throughout the world.
And we ourselves could see this quite recently: from December 6 to February 23 in Moscow, at the Museum of Private Collections (a branch of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts), Alphonse Mucha’s exhibition “Flowers and Dreams of Art Nouveau” was held.
His graphic works are an early contribution to the movement that brought art into everyday life.
Renata Ulmer
Fans of the Czech artist's work, despite the cold Moscow winter, lined up in long lines. Having completely frozen, I, along with others, ended up in a small hall where the works of the famous artist were exhibited.
Great was my surprise when it turned out that these “works” for the most part were just posters and advertising posters for tissue paper, beer or bicycles. But despite this, each of the works is a real work of art. On any of them the central picturesque motif- lady: a stylized figure of a beautiful woman or a timid girl, somewhere dreamy and even religious, somewhere carefree and self-confident. But every work is grace, subtlety and grace. Mucha expressed in his works aesthetic tastes of their time, they reveal the artistic searches of the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. It was at this time that a new style was born - “modern”, or “art nouveau” (from the French art nouveau - “new art”).
But Mucha was not only a representative of the new style; they said about his works: “Mukha style.” His works were easily recognizable among many others, even among those who openly tried to copy the artist. His style is a harmony of lines and colors; every detail exists in harmony with other details. And the entire plane of the sheet is amazingly organized. When you look at the picture as a whole or at one of its details, the feeling of integrity and subordination to a single plan does not leave you.
But the most amazing thing in the entire exhibition, in my opinion, was a small room in which hung only photographs of the models from which Mucha painted his paintings. Walking around them and peering at each of the photographs, you can easily recognize those advertising posters on which this or that lady is depicted - and transformed. Yes, in fact it is transformed, acquiring some special subtlety, a special “spirit of the Fly”. The ordinary girl in the photograph becomes a real beauty on a poster, with its own character, its own zest, its own uniqueness. The hair turns into curly curls, imperceptibly transforming into the overall ornament; the folds of the dress emphasize the movement of the entire composition. Even the flowers begin to grow, twisting into an extraordinary line, and the smoke from the cigarettes wraps around the model’s hair in a transparent veil.
Thanks to Mukha’s talent to create real works from simple things, the art of posters was no longer perceived as secondary. And he truly became famous thanks to the poster commissioned by Sarah Bernhardt for the play “Gismonda”. In one night (!) something was created that created a real sensation on the streets of Paris. It was a breakthrough, a turning point in Alphonse Mucha's career. After this, offers began to pour in, a contract was immediately signed with the actress for six years, and the artist’s fame spread far beyond the borders of Paris...
Do you remember how it all began? WITH unsuccessful attempt enter the Prague Academy of Fine Arts. An irresistible desire to learn, create and get real art education brings him to the Munich Academy of Arts, after graduation - to the Prague Academy of Arts and, finally, to the Colarossi Academy. In February 1897, in Paris, in a tiny room of the private gallery “La Bordiniere”, his first exhibition opened - 448 drawings, posters and sketches. It was an incredible success, and soon the residents of Vienna, Prague and London had the opportunity to see it all too. Mass replication of Mucha's works began: they were designed into paintings, postcards and calendars were produced. The artist’s works could be found both in bourgeois salons and ladies’ boudoirs, and on poster stands and in simple houses. Parisian fashionistas wore jewelry made according to the artist’s sketches. Georges Fouquet, a Parisian jeweler of that time, was inspired by the products that adorned the ladies in Mucha’s posters, and even created an entire collection of jewelry based on his sketches. But in addition to large and serious works, the artist also had to carry out such orders as designing advertisements for sweets and soap, tissue paper and liquor.
However, behind all this fame and recognition, Mucha dreamed of something else. He wanted to be historical painter, and the title of a talented decorator did not inspire him at all. His big dream (and he even considered it his destiny) was to create works dedicated to to the Slavic people, so dear to their beloved. And Mucha, who was accustomed to not deviating from his ideas, after 1910 devoted his life to this task. He studied day after day Slavic mythology, the history of his people. By 1928, he created his “Slavic Epic,” which consisted of twenty monumental canvases depicting the history of the Czech people. However, the public, accustomed to the “different” Mucha, did not accept this work. And besides artistic tastes had changed by then. But in any case, Mucha knew how to do what few others could do: he brought beauty into everyday, everyday life, and made him look at the “minor” art of posters in a new way. Alphonse Maria Mucha created not only real paintings and beautiful images, but also made simple things around us works of art.
I'm leaving the museum. From the entrance to the bus stop there is a line of people who want to see “the works of the famous Czech artist.” Looks like they'll be in for a lot of surprises too!
