MUCHA The Father of Art Nouveau by Jen Heinser
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lphonse Mucha was born on July 24th, 1860 in Ivančice, Moravia, now known as the Czech Republic. Although Moravian by birth, he found his fame in Paris. Art Nouveau would soon be no different from "style Mucha" and would deeply affect sculpture, jewelry, and interior design.
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work have explained his place in history as "fin-de-siècle" meaning that he neatly overlapped the end of one century with the new. He was influenced by his friend Paul Gauguin, and Japanese prints, especially screens and wall decorations which inspired panel works of his such as Seasons.
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is first job was as a clerk in the Imperial and District Court in Moravia, thanks to his his court usher father. But at nineteen he knew this was not what he wanted to do, and he left for theatrical scene painting. This was his first artistic job. From 1879-1881 Mucha worked in a Viennese studio building stage sets. And growing up in a Roman Catholic home explains the baroque and neo-Gothic ornamental details in his work such as halo shapes behind head, and the mosiac patterns and textures.
or the rest of the 1890's he made a living as an illustrator for magazines and fashion journals. He had many commissions, designing theatre and exhibition posters, and ads for champagne, soap, confectioners, and even cigarettes. His sketchbooks are filled with botanical garden studies, sketches of markets, and rail stations. He captured perspective, gestures, and movements. In Paris he came into contact with symbolists and free masons, and hints of these worlds are evident in his work as well.
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ucha's name would become synonomous with art nouveau in one career making piece. It was a lithograph poster for Sarah Bernhardt's Théâtre de la Renaissance. The ad was specifically for Victorien Sardou's Gismonda. The poster showed up on Paris streets in January of 1895. Bernhardt loved it so much that she signed a sixyear contract with him to design all her theatre posters. Her likeness on the elongated, narrow format became a signature clear even in these first posters. Their creative partnership was so successful that he became the stage set and costume designer for her until 1901.
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hen designing Bernhardt's flowing hair, Mucha nicknamed it the "macaroni" or, "noodle" style. Some in connection to Mucha or directly influenced by his
ut for the last years of his life, when his work lost it's commercial edge, he came briefly to America to capatalize on and extend the life of his style. When this proved fruitless for the long-term he moved back across seas and died in Prague on the 14th of July 1939 at nearly eighty of pnemonia.
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ucha has influenced artists for over a century now. The flowing hair, organic, flowing lines, mosiac and ornate borders, patterned background, and symbolism have kept him in the art history spotlight and adored, if not worshipped by art students and professionals alike.
OPPOSITE: Monaco Monte-Carlo, 1897 Orignally designed for a railway company
ART HISTORY
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