Head of a Girl 1900 by Alphonse Mucha Art Reproduction

The Mucha Museum - the but museum in the world defended to the life and piece of work of the earth-acclaimed Czech Art NOUVEAU artist Alphonse Mucha (1860 - 1939), was opened in Prague to the general public on 13 February 1998.

The museum is divided into seven sections exhibiting:

Decorative Panels; The Parisian Posters; Documents Décoratifs; The Czech Posters; Oil Paintings; Drawings and Pastels, Photographs and personal memorabilia of the artist.

The exhibition is completed past an interesting documentary on the life and work on Alphonse Mucha.

A number of items, previously office of the Mucha family unit dwelling house in Prague, are now on exhibit.

Section 1. Decorative Panels

Alphonse Mucha was a leading exponent of the Art-Nouveau mode, which demanded the creation of a decorative scheme that would allow for the repetition of stylistic patterns. Mucha based his piece of work on an prototype that lent itself to an organization in cycles based on traditional themes, usually drawn from the physical world. For this reason, Mucha gave his first fix of decorative panels, made in 1896, the championship The 4 Seasons. He continued this practise with a number of highly successful panels which respect the fourfold or twofold variation on a theme, including The Four Flowers (1898) and The 4 Times of Day (1899), originating during the period when Mucha's style was already fully developed. The stylized combination of vegetation and beautiful women was an expression of his joyful vision of life, ane greatly appreciated by his audience at the fourth dimension. From the artistic perspective, The Iv Arts cycle (1898) tin can be considered the near serious among these cycles, executed in several techniques and distinguished especially past the poetic quality of Mucha's designs.

The Iv Arts bike

In his bicycle glorifying the iv arts, Mucha deliberately refrained from traditional attributes, such equally plumes, musical instruments and painter's paraphernalia, instead setting each of the arts against a background related to a time of the day; forenoon for Dance, midday for Painting, evening for Poetry and dark for Music.

Trip the light fantastic (1898), Painting (1898), Poesy (1898), Music (1898)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

The Four Times of the Day

Four female figures stand for the times of the day, each set in a natural surround with an intricate framing, reminiscent of a Gothic window.

Morning Awakening (1899), Brightness of the Day (1899), Evening Contemplation (1899), Dark's Residuum (1899)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

The Four Flowers cycle

For this cycle, Mucha selected a more naturalistic arroyo, demonstrating his sensitive and attentive ascertainment skills in rendering the flowers' characteristics. The original watercolours of two of the flowers, Carnation and Iris, were presented at the Mucha Exhibition in Salon de Cent in June 1897, still, the entire cycle was non available until the following year.

Carnation (1898), Lily (1898), Rose (1898), Iris (1898)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

Section two. Parisian Posters

Posters made in Paris in the 1890s form the best-known and world famous segment of Mucha'southward work. Information technology was through them that he managed to promote his own version of the new decorative style. The principal group consists of posters for Sarah Bernhardt, who was a famous Parisian extra. The first of these, created at the very turn of 1894 and 1895, portrayed Bernhardt starring in the role of Gismonda. Extant designs and print proofs for this poster demonstrate, through its stylistic and mainly color conception, Mucha's intensive search for a new poster epitome despite the short fourth dimension he had for this commission. His creative revolution brought a certain new elegance to the hitherto highly colourful "street salon", thus increasing the newly found importance of the poster for mod art. The Bernhardt posters all the same also include dramatic tones (Médée, 1898). The telescopic of Mucha'south design activity was remarkable, ranging from subtle and stylistically refined posters for the creative milieu (Salon des Cent, 1896, 1897) to the robust large-format designs for commercial purposes (JOB, 1898, Cassan Fils, 1896). All of them brandish Mucha's extraordinary ingenuity and a sense of visually effective class.

Gismonda (1894-v)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

Gismonda

This is the poster that made Mucha famous. The story of its creation is legendary, with many commentators arguing over its details. There is no question that Mucha himself saw the manus of fate in the circumstances which led to the creation of this affiche.

The story took place at Christmas of 1894. Mucha was doing a favour for a friend, correcting proofs at Lemercier's printing works when Sarah Bernhard called the printer with an urgent gild for a new poster for Gismonda. All of the artists who commonly worked for Lemercier were on holiday and and so he turned to Mucha. A demand lodge from "the divine Sarah" could not be ignored. The poster that Mucha produced was revolutionary in its genre. The long, narrow shape, soft pastel colours and the stillness of the figure captured in a near-life size produced a surprising sense of nobility and gravity which was quite startling. The affiche became so pop among the Parisian public that some collectors would ransom the beak stickers to become information technology, while others would even cut them out from the hoardings at dark.

Sarah Bernhardt was delighted with the poster, immediately offering Mucha a half-dozen-year contract for the creation of stage and costume designs and posters. At the aforementioned time, the artist also signed an exclusive contract with the printer Champenois for commercial and decorative posters.

Gismonda, proof impress

The two original proof prints for Gismonda are quite interesting. Mucha's poster was besides long for the mutual size of the printer'due south rock and then it was assumed that it had been printed on 2 stones. Proof print however proves that it was printed using a single stone. The deep pink and yellowish tones used in proof print indicate that Mucha originally conceived his poster in the bright hues fashionable among gimmicky Parisian artists, such as Cheret and Toulouse-Lautrec, developing the softer pastel shadows, which were typical of Gismonda, while working on this poster.

Lorenzaccio

In Alfred de Musset'due south play Lorenzaccio, Sarah Bernhardt played the male hero, Lorenzo de' Medici, at the time of the siege of Florence by the tyrant Knuckles Alexander, who is symbolically rendered as a dragon menacing the Florentine coat of arms. Lorenzo contemplates the murder of Alexander, which is depicted in the bottom segment of the poster.

Médée

Playwright Catulle Mendes adopted Euripides' classical text specially for Sarah Bernhardt, depicting the Greek hero Jason, hitherto perceived every bit an untouchable mythological platonic, as a ruthless deceiver who had betrayed all who loved him in pursuit of his selfish passions, thereby giving Médée the psychological justification for her terrible crime. The poster renders the substance of the tragedy through a alone figure. The mosaic groundwork and letter "D" of the Greek alphabet situates the play in ancient Greece. Médée's gaze, full of horror, is fixed on the shining dagger in her hand, stained with the blood of her children who are lying by her anxiety. The unusually detailed hands and the serpentine bracelet adorning Medea's forearm are quite remarkable. This bracelet was designed by Mucha during his piece of work on the poster and Sarah liked it so much that she commissioned jeweller George Fouquet to create a snake bracelet and a band embellished with gemstones for her to wear on stage.

Village

Sarah Bernhardt starred in the main male role in Shakespeare's Village, translated into French for her by Eugène Morand and Marcel Schwob. Behind the fundamental figure of Hamlet, the ghost of his murdered father haunting the ramparts of Elsinore appears in the groundwork. Ophelia, who had drowned, lies, decorated with flowers, in the segment by Hamlet's feet. Village was the last affiche Mucha fabricated for Sarah.

Lorenzaccio (1896), Médée (1898), Hamlet (1899)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

Chore (1898)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

Job

Mucha made ii promotional posters for Task cigarette rolling papers, both featuring a woman with exceptionally abundant hair, holding a cigarette whose smoke whirls effectually her head. In this, the larger and afterward of the two, the woman is gear up confronting a round background, which is in turn placed in front of a surface featuring the visitor's initials.

Zodiac (1896)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

Zodiac

One of Mucha's most pop designs, Zodiac was originally fabricated for Champenoise as an 1897 in-business firm calendar. Nevertheless, the editor in primary of La Plume liked it so much he bought the rights to distribute information technology as the magazine'south calendar for the aforementioned twelvemonth. At that place are at to the lowest degree nine versions of Zodiac, including this one, which was printed without any accompanying text to serve as a decorative panel.

Section three. Documents Décoratifs

In 1902, Mucha published a drove of 72 plates with patterns, drawn in pencil and brightened with white pigment, for stylistic work in arts and crafts, titled Documents Décoratifs. This portfolio includes various ornamental and naturalistic floral motifs, studies of women's heads, and nudes, combining illusive naturalism with abstract ornamental framing. Jewellery, furniture, tableware and many other items related to domestic life at the time suggest that Mucha strove for a summary of his extensive experience in decoration, which, especially because his work for the Paris World's Off-white of 1900 and the interior design for the Fouquet Jewellery Shop, left a two-dimensional plane expanding into 3-dimensional space. He aimed to create a comprehensive sampler for the new manner. Although the Fine art-Nouveau epoch was coming to an end, 1 cannot aid merely admire Mucha's draughtsmanship, demonstrated in Documents Décoratifs, as well as his stylistic ability to capture the unabridged globe of objects in one spirit, as though permeated by the power of natural growth.

© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

Department iv. Czech Posters

Later on his permanent relocation dorsum to his homeland in 1910, Alphonse Mucha returned to his long-held want to systematically and unmarried-mindedly, through his fine art, address his fellow people and limited their needs and ideals. Gradually a new set of posters emerged, quite distinct in pattern from the Parisian ones. There were two prevalent themes: a new approach to folklore, emphasizing the colourful beauty of Moravian costumes and the gentle type of young Slav women (Moravian Teachers' Choir, 1911), and the theme of the sports events and festivals of the Sokol organization, which had been a symbol of Czech national self-decision since the xix^thursday century. In addition to these, there are besides posters that strongly denounce the oppression of the Slavs (Lottery of the Wedlock of Southwestern Moravia, 1912) and lyrical recollections of Parisian motifs (Princess Hyacinth, 1911). In these works, ornaments are subordinated to the tune of the line.

Princess Hyacinth (1911)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

Princess Hyacinth

The poster for Princess Hyacinth promotes Ladislav Novák and Oskar Nedbal'south pantomime ballet, starring popular actress Andula Sedláčková. The hyacinth motif recurs throughout the design, from the embroidered garments and spectacular argent jewellery to the symbolic circumvolve held past the princess.

Moravian Teacher'southward Choir (1911)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

Moravian Teacher's Choir

The Moravian Teacher's Choir was a choral ensemble, whose repertoire ranged from classical to popular and folk music, including compositions past Leoš Janáček. The choir toured in the Czech Lands as well as throughout Europe and the United States. The poster features a young woman wearing a folk costume from the Kyjov region, depicted every bit an circumspect listener. Her effigy is reminiscent of the decorative panel of Music from The Four Arts cycle.

Lottery (1912)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

Lottery

The tone of this poster reflects the anti-Germanisation spirit typical in the 19^th century. The lottery was one of the methods used for raising funds for educational activity in the Czech language. The poster features Čechia, a symbolic female parent of the Czech nation, sitting in despair on a expressionless tree, her hand resting on a wooden statue of the three-faced infidel god Svantovit, the protector of the early on Slavs. The schoolgirl, conveying books and pencils, gives the viewers a reproachful look, demanding support both for her education and for the bilious Čechia.

Section 5. Paintings

Alphonse Mucha is primarily known as a draughtsman and graphic artist, nevertheless, the training he received at the Academy of Fine art in Munich besides included painting. In the 1890s, Mucha engaged primarily in commissions in the field of graphic art and his paintings include by and large portraits and uncommissioned portrait studies. At first, Mucha painted his larger emblematic paintings using tempera (Prophetess, 1896), turning to large-format oil painting only after the relaxing of stylistic constraints and the discovery of the peachy theme for the cycle of paintings from the prehistory and history of the Slavs, at the beginning of the 20^th century. The enigmatic Adult female in the Wilderness (also known every bit Star, 1923) demonstrates Mucha'southward great skill in this genre, combining realism and symbolism to create something exceedingly more substantial and challenging than a mere continuation of the tradition of historical painting. The artist fully explored this potential in his wheel of paintings known as the Slav Epic.

Prophetess (1896)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

Star

Mucha made at least four preparatory studies for this image of a Russian peasant woman whose calm pose demonstrates her acceptance of her inevitable fate. This painting, also known as Winter Night and Siberia, expresses Mucha's deep feelings for Russia and its people. Mucha visited Russia in 1913 to paint preliminary sketches for one of the Slav Ballsy's canvases – The Abolition of Serfdom in Russia: Work in Liberty is the Foundation of the State. His photographs from this trip feature a number of Russian peasant women, similar to the woman in Star, however, it was Mucha's wife Marie who posed for this painting. Mucha may have made this painting in reaction to the terrible suffering endured past the Russian people after the Bolshevik Revolution. Betwixt 1918–1921, the country was buffeted by a ceremonious war, which resulted in economic crisis and famine that killed millions in the Volga regions.

Star (1923)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

Department 6. Drawings and Pastels

The presented set of drawings attempts to, at to the lowest degree briefly, reveal the remarkable creative groundwork Mucha'due south work had in drawing. This applies not just to the precise pencil drawings fabricated equally studies, but mainly the sketches which frequently exhibited an unusually expressive facture (Design for a window, ca 1900).

Blueprint for stained-drinking glass window in the St Vitus' Cathedral in Prague
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

Department 7. Studio and Photographs

In the second half of the 1890s, Mucha fabricated a remarkable prepare of photographs of female models in his studio in Rue du Val-de-Grâce in Paris. They by far surpass the standard contemporary utilise of photography as a cheap medium for preliminary studies every bit they capture the unique temper of the entire studio, an artistic world in its own correct. It was in this studio that Mucha entertained countless Parisian writers, artists, musicians and where he screened the offset films by the Lumière brothers. In the groundwork backside the models, whose poses are often reminiscent of the figures in Mucha's Fine art-Nouveau posters, the artist'due south own works can be found too as various bizarre and oriental items and textiles, piles of books, and furniture, whose individual pieces have been preserved to today. They tin can be viewed in this exhibition arranged into a small-scale studio setting. Exhibited photographs are reproductions from the original drinking glass plates.

Exhibited pieces of this section presents a brief overview of Alphonse Mucha'southward entire work through items and photographs of his artistic and family unit life. Information technology includes an oddity, a drawing fabricated by Mucha at the age of 8 (Crucifixion, 1868), which demonstrates his inspiration in folk art. Caricatures from his studies in Munich and illustrations for French children'due south magazines are of interest. Another grouping of exhibits, related to the decorative style of the 1890s, suggests the scope and diversity of his creative activities, f.due east. Decorative plate, 1897; Designs for a vase or jewellery, ca 1900; including an example from Mucha'south most ambitious book project, the exquisite Le Pater (1899). Related to its impassioned content are examples of expressive pastels and Mucha's isolated sculptural work - Nude on a Rock, 1899. Mucha's visits to the United States are documented past a news report and a poster for the Mucha Exhibition in the Brooklyn Museum (1921). His after, patriotic flow of work is represented by the sketch for the Mayor's Hall in the Municipal House in Prague (1910), the famous designs for Czechoslovak banknotes and the design for St Vitus' Cathedral stained-glass window, Prague (1931). Insignia designed by Mucha for the Czech Freemasonry are also of interest.

Crucifixion (1868)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

Nude on a Rock (1899)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

Le Pater – championship page and two subsequent pages

Mucha considered Le Pater (The Lord'due south Prayer) to be one of his best works. It was printed in Paris in an edition of 510 numbered copies (390 in French and 120 in Czech) past Henri Piazza, to whom Mucha dedicated the work.

Mucha wrote of Le Pater: "At that time I saw my path as lying elsewhere, college. I searched for a means that would spread the light to the remotest corners. I did not have to look long. The Lord'southward Prayer. Why not return its text through images?"

In Le Pater, Mucha divided the prayer into seven verses. Each poetry is analysed in a set of 3 decorative pages. On the starting time page, Mucha presents the verse in Latin and French in a decorative composition of geometrical and symbolic motifs. The second folio renders Mucha's commentary on the content of the verse, imitating medieval illuminated manuscripts in the color decoration of the initial letter. The third page contains Mucha's monochrome interpretation of the verse. These visionary illustrations represent homo's struggle on his path from the darkness into low-cal.

Le Pater (1899)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

Photos of Mucha's family and friends / Photos of Mucha'due south studio and his models

© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

mcneilhartatied1956.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.mucha.cz/en/exibition

Share this post