Czech poster artist whose Gismonda, designed for Sarah Bernhardt over the last week of December 1894, went up on Paris walls on 1 January 1895 and made him famous in days. The six-year Bernhardt contract that followed put his work on every kiosk in the city and gave Art Nouveau its face.
Alphonse Mucha became famous in a single week. On 26 December 1894 he happened to be the only artist on hand at the Lemercier printing house when Sarah Bernhardt telephoned demanding a new poster for her play Gismonda by New Year's Day. His answer — a life-size Bernhardt in Byzantine robes, in muted golds nobody used on posters — was on the walls of Paris on 1 January 1895, and collectors were bribing billstickers for copies within days.
Bernhardt signed him to a six-year contract, and the posters that followed — La Dame aux Camélias, Lorenzaccio, Médée — put what Paris called le style Mucha on every kiosk in the city. He had arrived from Moravia in 1888 as a poor student, shared his Montparnasse studio with a broke Paul Gauguin in 1893, and spent his last decades on the Slav Epic, twenty vast canvases for his own nation. For a time the new decorative style was known in Paris simply by his name, before 'Art Nouveau' stuck; he always insisted he had never joined any movement at all.
Mucha was born on 24 July 1860 in Ivančice, a small town in Moravia, then part of Austria-Hungary and now in the Czech Republic. The Academy of Fine Arts in Prague rejected him in 1878; he painted theatre scenery in Vienna, found a Moravian patron in Count Khuen-Belasi, studied at the Munich Academy, and arrived in Paris in 1888 to continue at the Académie Julian and then the Académie Colarossi in Montparnasse.
Across the street from the Colarossi, at 13 rue de la Grande-Chaumière, Madame Charlotte Caron's crémerie — a small dairy-shop eatery — fed hard-up artists on credit and took paintings as payment. Mucha lived above it and met Paul Gauguin there in 1891. When Gauguin came back from Tahiti broke in 1893, Mucha shared his studio at 8 rue de la Grande-Chaumière with him — Gauguin finished the pictures for his November 1893 Durand-Ruel exhibition in its corner, and Mucha's camera caught him playing the studio harmonium with no trousers on.
On 26 December 1894 Mucha was at the Lemercier printing house correcting proofs as a favour when Sarah Bernhardt — the most famous actress alive, mid-run in Victorien Sardou's Gismonda at her Théâtre de la Renaissance — demanded a new poster by New Year's Day. Every regular artist was on holiday. Mucha got the job because he was standing there.
The poster he produced in under a week broke every convention of the form: nearly two metres tall and narrow, Bernhardt life-size and still as a mosaic saint, the colours muted gold and olive where posters shouted in primaries. It went up across Paris on 1 January 1895 and the city noticed immediately. Bernhardt, delighted, ordered four thousand more copies and signed Mucha to a six-year contract covering posters, sets, costumes and jewellery.
What followed was le style Mucha: the haloed woman, the flowing hair drawn into ornament, the flower borders and mosaic arcs, repeated across posters for plays, champagne, cigarette papers and bicycles, and across the decorative panels — The Seasons, The Flowers — that ordinary Parisians pinned up at home. Before 'Art Nouveau' settled as the movement's name, Parisians often called the whole new style simply le style Mucha; he said to the end that he had simply made Czech art, and that art needed no movement.
The 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris brought him murals for the Bosnia-Herzegovina pavilion and the Légion d'honneur, and pushed him toward the subject he considered his real work. Between 1904 and 1909 he made five trips to the United States to earn mural money; in 1906 he married Marie Chytilová in Prague; and in 1910 he left Paris for Bohemia for good.
From 1912 to 1926 he painted the Slav Epic, twenty canvases up to six by eight metres on the history of the Slav peoples, and gave the cycle to the city of Prague. When Germany occupied Czechoslovakia in March 1939 the Gestapo arrested him among the first — a famous nationalist, a Freemason, a maker of patriotic images. Released after questioning, he did not recover from the arrest and interrogations; he died in Prague on 14 July 1939, ten days short of seventy-nine, and was buried in the Slavín crypt at Vyšehrad cemetery.
Born on 24 July in Ivančice, Moravia, then part of Austria-Hungary.
Arrives in Paris to study at the Académie Julian, then the Académie Colarossi in Montparnasse.
Meets Paul Gauguin at Madame Charlotte's crémerie at 13 rue de la Grande-Chaumière, where poor artists ate on credit and paid in pictures.
Shares his studio at 8 rue de la Grande-Chaumière with Gauguin, back from Tahiti and broke, while Gauguin finishes the paintings for his Durand-Ruel exhibition.
On 26 December, the only artist on hand at the Lemercier printing house, he takes Sarah Bernhardt's demand for a Gismonda poster by New Year.
Gismonda appears on Paris walls on 1 January; Bernhardt signs him to a six-year contract. Le style Mucha begins.
Murals for the Bosnia-Herzegovina pavilion at the Paris Exposition Universelle; France awards him the Légion d'honneur.
Marries Marie Chytilová in Prague on 10 June; leaves for the United States to earn mural money.
Leaves Paris for Bohemia for good, to begin the Slav Epic.
Completes the twenty canvases of the Slav Epic, begun in 1912, and gives the cycle to Prague.
Among the first arrested by the Gestapo after the occupation of Czechoslovakia in March; released, but broken by the interrogations, he dies in Prague on 14 July.
Met · 1891
Met in 1891 at Madame Charlotte's crémerie at 13 rue de la Grande-Chaumière. In 1893 Mucha shared his studio at number 8 with Gauguin, back from Tahiti and broke, while Gauguin finished the paintings for the November 1893 Durand-Ruel exhibition; Mucha's photograph of Gauguin at the studio harmonium survives.
One poster, made in under a week. On 26 December 1894 Sarah Bernhardt demanded a new poster for her play Gismonda by New Year's Day, and Mucha — the only artist present at the Lemercier printing house — got the job by default. His life-size, gold-toned Bernhardt went up across Paris on 1 January 1895, collectors bribed billstickers to steal copies, and Bernhardt signed him to a six-year contract on the spot.
No — Czech. He was born in 1860 in Ivančice, Moravia, then part of Austria-Hungary, and lived in Paris from 1888 to 1910, the years of all the famous posters. In 1910 he returned to Bohemia and spent 1912 to 1926 painting the Slav Epic, twenty monumental canvases on Slav history that he gave to the city of Prague.
What Paris called his brand of Art Nouveau before the movement had settled on a name: a woman with flowing, ornamental hair inside a halo or mosaic arc, framed in flowers, printed in golds and pastels instead of poster primaries. It covered theatre posters, champagne and bicycle advertising, and the decorative panels — The Seasons, The Flowers — that Parisians pinned up at home. Mucha himself denied belonging to any movement.
They were friends from Madame Charlotte's crémerie at 13 rue de la Grande-Chaumière, where both ate on credit as poor artists — they met there in 1891. When Paul Gauguin returned from Tahiti broke in 1893, Mucha shared his studio with him, and Gauguin finished the pictures for his November 1893 Durand-Ruel exhibition there. Mucha's photograph of Gauguin playing the studio harmonium without his trousers survives.
In Prague on 14 July 1939, at seventy-eight, months after the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. The Gestapo had arrested and interrogated him in March 1939 — a famous Slav nationalist and Freemason was an obvious first target — and though released, his health broke. He is buried in the Slavín crypt at Vyšehrad cemetery in Prague.
Met · 1891
Met in 1891 at Madame Charlotte's crémerie at 13 rue de la Grande-Chaumière. In 1893 Mucha shared his studio at number 8 with Gauguin, back from Tahiti and broke, while Gauguin finished the paintings for the November 1893 Durand-Ruel exhibition; Mucha's photograph of Gauguin at the studio harmonium survives.
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