Alfons Mucha

Biography of Alphonse Mucha

Alphonse Marie MUCHA was born in Czechoslovakia (region of Moravia) in 1860.
It was Count Khuen-Bellassi (his future patron) who noticed him in Vienna in 1883. He entrusted him with the decoration of his castles in Emmahof and Gandegg, and financed his studies at the Académie Julian in Paris, where the Czech artist befriended the "Nabis" painters.

But it was his encounter with the tragedienne Sarah Bernhardt, in December 1894, for whom he designed the poster for the drama she performed, "Gismonde", that established his style and greatly and durably influenced French Art Nouveau.
From the following year, the biggest brands of the time all sought MUCHA's services to depict their flagship products: LU biscuits, JOB cigarette papers, and MOËT & CHANDON champagnes.

While he continued to work closely with Sarah Bernhardt, he participated in numerous Salons and Exhibitions, notably alongside other great poster artists of the time: Steinlen and Toulouse-Lautrec.
From 1910 onwards, he returned more and more frequently to his native country, to settle there permanently in the 1920s, where he began the work of his life: the execution of twenty gigantic paintings on the History of the Slavs.
Arrested by the Gestapo after the annexation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, he was released for health reasons but died on July 14, 1939, in Prague, on his 79th birthday.

(c) Natacha PELLETIER for PASSION ESTAMPES