Jaroslava Muchová

Alphonse Mucha prints carry the look that came to define Art Nouveau Paris: graceful women with swirling hair, framed by flowers and round, halo-like arches in soft pastel color. The Czech artist made his name with theater posters for Sarah Bernhardt, then filled shop windows with decorative panels and advertisements. Our collection brings together 197 of his posters, panels, portraits and studies as fine art prints, from Gismonda to The Seasons.

About Alphonse Mucha

Alfons Maria Mucha, known in English as Alphonse Mucha, was born on 24 July 1860 in Ivančice, Moravia, then part of the Austrian Empire. He worked in Vienna as an apprentice scenery painter, where he admired the painter Hans Makart. After studies in Munich paid for by a patron, he trained in Paris at the Académie Julian and the Académie Colarossi.

His big break came at Christmas 1894. The actress Sarah Bernhardt needed a poster for her play Gismonda at short notice, and Mucha's design, posted around New Year 1895, caused a sensation. Bernhardt gave him a six-year contract, and he went on to design her posters for La Dame aux Camélias, Médée, La Tosca and Hamlet.

Commercial clients followed, among them JOB cigarette papers, Moët & Chandon and Nestlé, and the printer F. Champenois published his decorative panels, starting with The Seasons in 1896. He also designed jewelry and a shop interior for the jeweler Georges Fouquet.

Between 1904 and 1909 he made five trips to the United States, where Charles R. Crane became his patron and funded The Slav Epic, twenty huge canvases on Slavic history that Mucha painted between 1912 and 1926 and gave to Prague in 1928. After German forces occupied Prague in 1939, Mucha was arrested and questioned. His health failed, and he died of pneumonia in Prague on 14 July 1939.

Style and Subjects

A Mucha is easy to spot. At its center is usually a young woman, calm and self-possessed, with long hair that loops and curls into decorative arabesques. Behind her head sits a round arch or circle, like a halo, that pulls your eye straight to her face. Around her are flowers, leaves, stars and fine ornamental borders, all drawn with a clean, confident line and filled in with soft pastel color.

The collection shows that range: tall Bernhardt theater posters, the flower and season panels such as The Lily, The Iris and Les Saisons, advertisements for biscuits, chocolate, bicycles and the Monaco Monte-Carlo railway, and pencil studies and pattern designs from Documents Décoratifs.

Famous Works

• Gismonda (1894–1895), Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The poster that made Mucha famous, with Sarah Bernhardt beneath a mosaic-style halo bearing her name.
• The Seasons (1896), Mucha Museum, Prague. His first set of decorative panels, one for each season.
• Zodiac (1896–1897), Victoria and Albert Museum, London. A calendar design for the printer Champenois, later issued by the magazine La Plume.
• Médée (1898), Museum of Modern Art, New York. Bernhardt's poster for her role as Medea at the Théâtre de la Renaissance.
• Portrait of Josephine Crane Bradley as Slavia (1908), National Gallery Prague. Painted for Charles Crane's daughter and later used on the Czechoslovak 100-crown banknote.
• Fouquet jewelry shop interior (1901), Musée Carnavalet, Paris. The boutique interior he designed for the jeweler Georges Fouquet.
• The Slav Epic (1912–1926), City of Prague. Twenty huge canvases on Slavic history, his most ambitious project.

Decorating with Mucha Prints

Mucha's soft pinks, sage greens and creams sit easily in bedrooms, dressing areas and living rooms. A set of panels, such as Les Saisons or The Arts, hung side by side above a bed or sofa reads as one piece. Single flower panels like The Lily or The Iris suit narrow walls in a hallway.

The bolder advertising posters, like JOB, Chocolat Idéal or Biscuits Lefèvre-Utile, bring a bit of Belle Époque Paris to a kitchen, dining room or café-style corner. The Bernhardt theater posters suit an entry hall or home office, and the pencil studies make a quiet gallery wall.

FAQ

What art movement was Alphonse Mucha part of?

Mucha is one of the best-known artists of Art Nouveau, the decorative style that flourished around 1900. He reportedly disliked the label himself, feeling that art could never really be "new."

What is Alphonse Mucha's most famous work?

His 1895 poster for Sarah Bernhardt in Gismonda is the work that made him famous. The Seasons panels of 1896 and The Slav Epic are also among his best-known works.

Where can I see original Alphonse Mucha works?

The Mucha Museum and the National Gallery Prague hold major works, and The Slav Epic belongs to the City of Prague. His posters are also in museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and MoMA in New York.

How can you recognize a Mucha?

Look for a young woman with long, curling hair, a round halo-like arch behind her head and a border of flowers, all in soft pastel color with fine, precise drawing.

What was Alphonse Mucha's connection to Sarah Bernhardt?

After his Gismonda poster became a hit in 1895, Bernhardt signed Mucha to a six-year contract. Many of the posters he made for her, including La Dame aux Camélias, Médée, La Tosca and Hamlet, are in this collection.

Related Artists

• Jules Chéret: Belle Époque poster pioneer whose work paved the way for Mucha's.
• Leonetto Cappiello: the next generation of Paris poster artist, who moved away from the detailed style of Chéret and Mucha.
• Eugène Grasset: Swiss decorative artist working in Paris who also designed a poster of Sarah Bernhardt.
• Hans Makart: Viennese painter Mucha admired while working as a young scenery painter in Vienna.