This week, someone I’ve been interested in for a long time. And someone so much more interesting than I ever knew. Alphonse (originally Alfons, but I’m going with the westernized spelling) Mucha was the creator of Art Nouveau, but was also extremely interested in restoring the history of the Czech/Slovakian peoples. His biggest, and what he considered his most important, piece is something I’d never heard of before. But, to start at the beginning.
Alphonse Maria Mucha was born July
24, 1860 in Ivančice, Moravia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in what is now
the Czech Republic. Mucha’s father was a
court usher and his mother had been a governess in Vienna. Mucha had two older half-sisters from his
father’s previous marriage, and would have two younger sisters as well.
From an early age, art was Mucha’s
main hobby. In 1868 he produced one of
his first pieces, a Crucifixion, showing the heavy influence of the Catholic Church
on him. Art wasn’t going to allow him to
do much though, and at age twelve he received a “choral scholarship from the
Petrov Church to board at the Gymnázium Slovanské secondary school in Brno” (1). However, just five years later, Mucha was “expelled
from school due to poor academic performance” (2). His father found him a job back in Ivančice
after his expulsion, and on his way there Mucha visited a friend in Ústí nad
Orlicí. At a local church he saw a
fresco by the current, local artist Jan Umlauf.
Once he saw that artists currently working in the area could earn a
living, Mucha “resolve[d] to become a professional artist” (3).
So the next year Mucha applied to
the Prague Academy of Art, but didn’t get in.
Instead, he worked at administrative jobs while pursuing “decorative
design work for local magazines and theatres” (4). Two years later, Mucha applied and was
accepted to “become an apprentice scenery painter at Vienna’s
Kautsky-Brioschi-Burghardt theatre design company” (5). Mucha began taking evening classes as well,
and visiting galleries and art exhibits as well, taking an interest in Hans
Makart. Makart was a current Austrian
painter, designer, and decorator; he was a celebrity in Vienna at the time and
influenced other artists as well, such as Gustav Klimt.
Mucha’s success with Kautsky-Brioschi-Burghardt
was short-lived though, due to the Ring Theatre burning down. The Ring Theatre was one of Kautsky-Brioschi-Burghardt’s
biggest and most important clients at the time.
A lot of Kautsky-Brioschi-Burghardt’s staff was laid off due to the
decrease in the amount of work needed; Mucha was one of those laid off. He didn’t let this get him down; he moved
back to Moravia and tried his hand at freelance work, focusing on portraiture
and decorative painting.
In 1882 Mucha received his first
real commission. He had travelled to
Mikulov in southern Moravia where he was “painting portraits of local society
figures” (6), when he was noticed by Count Karl Khuen-Belasi. The Count commissioned Mucha to paint a scene
in Emmahof Castle, his main home. The
Count’s brother, Egon, also commissioned Mucha to paint a scene in his castle,
Gandegg. These early, large scale
projects would lay the groundwork for much of Mucha’s work in the future. The Count also gave Mucha continued financial
support, allowing him to “receive formal art training in Munich and Paris” (7).
From 1885 to 1887, Mucha studied at
the Munich Academy of Arts. While there
he became active with the Škréta group, “a community of Central and Eastern
European art students living in Munich” (8).
This is a theme that would continue to pop up in Mucha’s life: the
importance of the Central and Eastern European countries own history and
mythologies.
While at the Munich Academy of Arts,
Mucha continued to do work for publications back in Ivančice, creating
illustrations for the magazines Fantaz and Krokodil, run by his brother-in-law
and friend. This is when Mucha’s
approach to lettering and calligraphy really begins. (If you’ve ever seen anything written in an Art
Nouveau style, it’s probably going to look like Mucha’s lettering style.)
Also while still at the Munich
Academy of Arts, Mucha’s family contacts secured him a commission in the United
States, to create an alterpiece for the Church of St. John of Nepomuk in the
Czech community, Pisek, in North Dakota (9).
Mucha decided to portray two of the Czech’s best loved Saints, Saints Cyril
and Methodius.
After completing his two years in
Munich, Mucha moved to Paris in the fall of 1887. Mucha entered the Académie Julian, where he
studied under Lefèbvre, Boulanger, and Laurens.
While at the Académie Julian, Mucha was introduced to the Nabis. The Nabis were a group that “believe[d] that
art [stood] on an equal footing with design” and worked “with designers and
publishers to produce set designs, wallpaper, textiles, ceramics and stained
glass” (10). This would influence a lot
of Mucha’s design sensibilities.
In 1888, Mucha moved on from the Académie
Julian to the Académie Colarossi, but his education there was cut short. In 1889, the Count decided to stop funding Mucha’s
education and so Mucha had to leave the Académie Colarossi. He stayed in Paris though, getting
commissions for illustrations from French and Czech publishers (11). In 1890, Mucha became a contributor to Le Costume au théâtre et a la Ville, a magazine
of theatre costumes. For this magazine,
Mucha created his first drawing of Sarah Bernhardt, showing her as Cleopatra.
Mucha worked steadily at this
point. In 1891 he worked for Armand
Colin, illustrating high quality school books in Paris. In 1892 he began teaching drawing, eventually
being asked to teach at Académie Colarossi, and at Whistler’s Académie Carmen.
Also in 1892, Mucha exhibited his
work for the first time at the Paris Salon at Palais des Champs Elysées. He won an honorable mention for his piece
which was a “selection of works illustrating Xavier Marmier’s Les Contes des Grand-Mères” (12). In 1893 Mucha purchased his first camera;
this allowed him to better compose his works, but also allowed him to explore
photography as an art in itself.
In 1894 Mucha met August Strindberg,
who introduced him to occultism and mysticism, themes which would influence
both his life and his work. Also in 1894
Mucha was commissioned by the publisher Lemercier to do a special edition of a
supplement to their magazine Le Gaulois. This commission was to be a feature on Sarah
Bernhardt’s Gismonda at the Théâtre
de la Renaissance. At Christmas that
year, Gismonda needed a new poster at
the last minute. Mucha volunteered to do
the poster within two weeks. This poster
was long and narrow, with “subtle pastel colors and the ‘halo’ effect around
the subject’s head” (13). Mucha’s poster
was completely different from all other posters at the time, and it was hugely
popular. Collectors would bribe poster
hangers for a copy, or would quickly cut down the newly hung posters. Sarah Bernhardt was “so satisfied with the
success of this first poster that she began a six-year contract with Mucha”,
having him design posters, sets, and costumes for her (14).
In 1896 Mucha began contributing to La Plume, a monthly publication of
poems, stories, art reviews, and avant-garde illustrations. La
Plume put on exhibitions of its artists work called Salon des Cents. Mucha was
asked to create the poster for the 20th Salon. The exhibitions and
the magazine were interested in posters as art, so they took their posters
seriously. At this same time Mucha
entered into a contract with Champenois, “one of the most important printers of
the period” (15). Champenois’s posters
ranged from affordable ones on cardstock, to expensive ones on satin and
vellum.
In 1896, Mucha moved to a new studio
that had large, open windows and a glass ceiling. His interest in photography grew at this
point due to the improved lighting; he also began experimenting with sculpture
due to the influence of August Seysses, who worked in the same building as
Mucha.
Mucha continued to work with
Champenois, and in 1896 Champenois commission him to do a series of panels
based around the four seasons.
Decorative panels were increasingly popular at the time, and Mucha’s art
on a decorative panel would be a sure success.
The four season panels were so popular, that Champenois commissioned two
more sets based on the seasons in 1897 and 1900. In 1897, in addition to the decorative panels,
Champenois was putting Mucha’s work on whatever it could: “calendars,
postcards, theatre programs and menus” (16).
Champenois also licensed Mucha’s work throughout Europe and North
America.
In 1896, Job cigarette papers
commissioned Mucha to create a poster for them.
At this time smoking was a male activity and so putting a “sensual woman”
on the poster gave “the product a sense of illicit glamour” (17). The following year Mucha had his first solo
exhibition; he showed 107 works at the Galerie de la Bodinière, and the introduction
in the exhibition’s program was by Sarah Bernhardt. Mucha had his second solo exhibition that
year at one of the Salon des Cents that
was held at the offices of La Plume;
this exhibition had 448 pieces. Over the
next two years he had exhibits in Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Munich, Brussels,
London, New York, and more.
Mucha was increasingly popular and
was making pretty much everything at this time (in addition to Champenois
putting his work on even more). He was
painting, creating posters, advertisements, illustrations for books. He was beginning to design jewelry (which we
will touch on next week), carpets, wallpaper, and theater sets. He also had a completely new style, “frequently
featur[ing] beautiful young women in flowing, vaguely Neoclassical-looking
robes, often surrounded by flowers which sometimes formed halos behind their
heads” (18). He also used pastels when
most people did not. This new style was
called, simply, The Mucha Style, but became known as Art Nouveau, “new art”.
Mucha, however, didn’t really want
to be associated with Art Nouveau. The
style he’d created was so often copied and was so far from what he was trying
to do. Mucha said that his paintings
were “entirely a product of himself and Czech art” and that “art existed only
to communicate a spiritual message, and nothing more” (19). The art he became so known for was his
commercial work; he wanted to concentrate on artistic, important works.
And that’s where we’ll leave it for
today. We’re at roughly the halfway
point of Mucha’s life. He’s become
world-known for the new style he created.
His popularity is only growing.
Next week will be the rest of Mucha’s life, the big projects he did and,
really, his life’s work, that artistic, important work. I’ll also talk about what happened to Mucha’s
work and popularity after his death.
So. Till next time.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 –
Mucha Foundation Timeline
18, 19 - Alphonse Mucha
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