Alphonse Mucha
Alfons Maria Mucha, born in Ivančice (Moravian town then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Czech Republic) July 24, 1860 and died in Prague July 14, 1939, is a Czech painter, fer-de- Spear of Art Nouveau.
Early
Second child Ondřej Mucha, bailiff, his singing ability enabled him to pursue his education in the Moravian capital, Brno, but his childhood sweetheart has indeed been the ballet which was registered to contest the most important France. He then moved to Brussels with his wife Josette Mucha. He began to draw before he could walk, his mother regularly attaching a pencil neck. Very few of his early drawings were preserved. Among these, is Ukřižování (The Crucifixion), he drew when he was about eight years. Having done some decorative work in Moravia (mainly stage sets), he emigrated in 1879 to Vienna to work for the largest design company in Vienna theater, while continuing his artistic training. He returned to Moravia in 1881, after a fire destroyed the company, and produces decorative and portrait painting as an independent. Count Karl Khuen of Mikulov, having recruited to decorate the walls of the castle Hrušovany Emmahof, is so impressed that he is financing the studies of Mucha in Munich.
The rise in Paris
Mucha moved to Paris in 1887 to continue his studies at the Académie Julian and Académie Colarossi while also producing magazine and making posters. Only artist available in December 1894, he directed the advertising of Gismonda part played by Sarah Bernhardt at the Theatre de la Renaissance, where he was engaged for six years. His style is loosed him some notoriety. He made particular Lorenzaccio La Dame aux Camelias (1896) and Hamlet and Medea (1898).
In 1896, he participated in the Exhibition of Cirque de Reims and realizes the poster Salon des Cent, held in Paris.
Mucha is also known for having produced a series of paintings, posters and billboards of Art Nouveau. Among the most famous include alcohol Benedictine, LU biscuits, cigarette papers JOB, Perfecta, Ruinart champagnes, Moet & Chandon.
It was often beautiful young women in dresses with draped neoclassical floating, often crowned with flowers forming a halo over their heads. His style was quickly imitated, but without this key only Mucha could give.
The homecoming
Mucha went to the United States from 1906 to 1910 to raise money and achieve what he regarded as his masterpiece, The Slav Epic. It was Charles Crane, a wealthy industrialist who met in Chicago allows him to return and settle in Bohemia in Prague. Besides the realization of his epic, he decorated the National Theatre, the Municipal House and other monuments of the city. When Czechoslovakia won its independence after the First World War, he designed the new postage stamps (the first issue of the Prague Castle), banknotes and other documents for the new nation.
He died in Prague July 14, 1939 at the age of 79 years, a few days after being interrogated by the Gestapo, who is interested in him because of his membership in Freemasonry. His body was thrown into the grave. A plaque dedicated to him in the cemetery of the Great Men of Prague.
At the time of his death, his style was already considered outdated, but interest in this beautiful art reappeared in the 1960s and continues periodically to inspire and influence contemporary illustrators. His son Jiri Mucha, an author who has written extensively about his father, has frequently drawn attention to his work.
A French Masonic lodge in Prague bears his name.
Slav Epic
* 1860: July 24, Alphonse Maria Mucha was born in Ivancice in southern Moravia. His father, Ondrej Mucha, is the court bailiff.
* 1871: Mucha won a place in a church choir of St. Peter Brno, the capital of Moravia.
* 1875: He returns to his hometown where his father found him a job as a clerk of court.
* 1878: Mucha is a candidate to enter the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. His request was rejected with the recommendation: "Choose another profession where you will be more useful. "
* 1879: he went to Vienna to work as a scene painter for the company Kautsky-Brioschi-Burghardt.
* 1881: He left Vienna when the Ringtheater, the best customer of his employer, burns in a fire where 500 people are killed. Mucha, as a younger employee is fired. He went to Mikulov, where he earned his living as a portraitist. He met Count Khuen Belasi it places an order to decorate his castle Emmahof.
* 1883: He moved to Gandegg Castle in the Tyrol, where the brother of Count Khuen, an amateur artist, becomes the patron of Mucha.
* 1885: He began his studies at the Munich Academy, sponsored by the brother of Count Khuen.
* 1887: He moved to Paris to study at the Academie Julian, still sponsored by the count.
* 1888: He left the Académie Julian and became a student at the Academie Colarossi.
* 1889: Sponsorship of the count ends. He left the Académie Colarossi and looking for work as an illustrator.
* 1890: He moved into the studio over the creamery Madame Charlotte in the Rue de la Grande Chaumiere. He began illustrating magazine theater, where he published his first drawing of Sarah Bernhardt as Cleopatra.
See also Albert Bierstadt
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