Mucha

Alphonse Mucha was known as the Czech painter who helped in the influence of French Art Nouveau. Mucha’s career began when, he was first sponsored by the Count of Mikulov because he was impacted by Mucha’s great talent therefore decided to fund his studies and sent him to Munich Academy of Fine Arts.

His fame first soared in Paris when he designed the poster ‘Gismonda’ for Sarah Bernhardt, a famous actress of that time. His design was almost not accepted because it was such an eccentric style but those thoughts of doubt were quickly gnawed away with the amount of success he generated that December. This eventually led to a six year contract between him and Miss Bernhardt, in which he continued to produce posters for theatre performances.

His art was referred to as the ‘Mucha Style’, but it was then changed to ‘Art Nouveau’. He claimed that his art was of his own and that he had no association to Art Nouveau. The main features of his style involved

• Sensuous curves

• Decorative

• Young and beautiful females

• Neo classical robes

• Pale pastel colours

• Flowers and spiritual elements.

After I had visited his exhibition in 2011 at the national Museum of Archaelogy, I immediately fell in love with his style. From then on he has inspired me and has become one of my favourite artists of all time.

The Brochure I took when I visited his exhibition.