Alphonse Mucha Posters Prints Nouveau

Bare Breasted Woman Art Print

Job Art Print

Lefevre Utile Giclee

WWII Pilot Giclee Print

Mucha Bernhardt Farewell Tour Poster

Lorenzaccio Giclee Print

Winter Giclee Print

F. Champenois France

La Plume Giclee Print

Job Papier Cigarettes

Nouveau Theater Poster

Lefevre-Utile Sara Bernhard

Chocolat Ideal Giclee Print

Salon des Cent

Luchon Giclee Print

Alphonse Mucha, born Alfons Maria Mucha, was born in 1860 in Ivancice, Moravia close to the city of Brno in the contemporary Czech Republic. It was a humble town and not modern, where life was more similar to the 18th than the 19th century. Although Mucha is alleged to have began drawing before he was walking, his early years were spent as a choir boy and amateur musician at his local church. High school was not easy on Mucha and he spent two extra years completing this phase of his education, but it was not until he finished that he began to understand that living people were producing some of the art he had come to love in the local churches. That epiphany made him driven to become a painter in spite of his father's attempts to discourage him and assure him respectable employment as a clerk in the local court.

In the manner of other hopeful artist of the day, Mucha found himself in the active city of Paris in 1887. He was somewhat older than several of his colleagues, but he had come farther in both distance and time. A accidental meeting in Moravia had furnished him with a patron who was inclined to fund his studies. After two years in Munich and additional time which had gone to producing murals for his patron, he was dispatched to Paris where he began his studiesat the Academie Julian. Two years later the funding by his patron ended and Alphonse Mucha was set drifting in a Paris that he would soon metamorphose with his lovely style. At the time, nonetheless, he was a 27 year old aspiring artist with no money and no prospects, living the life the proverbial starving artist.

Flirt Giclee

Seasons Giclee Print

La Dame aux Camelias

La Samaritaine Art Print

Gismonda Art Print

Bleu Deschamps Giclee Print

Friendship Giclee Print

Nouveau Iris Flower Poster

Nouveau La Trappistine Poster Giclee

Flirt Art Print

Moet Chandon Dry Imperial Giclee

Biscuits Lefevre Utile Giclee

Mucha La Tosca Casino Poster Giclee

Nouveau Job Calendar Poster

Laurier Art Print

For five years he acted the part of starving artist to perfection. Living in rooms above a Cremerie that appealed to art students, he drew illustrations for little money for then popular magazines. He took ill and lived on meals of lentils while he borrowed money to exist. His lifestyle was everything an artist's life was purported to be. He experienced some success along with periods of failure. Friends were numerous and art prospered. It was a time when Impressionism was at it's height, and the beginnings of the Symbolists and Decadents were just beginning. Mucha shared a studio with Gauguin for a brief time after his first trip to visit the south seas. Mucha gave spontaneous art lessons in the Cremerie and assisted in starting up a traditional artists ball, known as the Bal des Quat'z Arts. During this period of activity, Mucha was settling into his own artistic desires and developing his own theories and principles of what he wished his personal art to be.

On January 1, 1895, Mucha exhibited his new style to the citizens of Paris. Over the Christmas holidays he was commissioned to created his first poster for Sarah Bernhardt's play, Gismonda, and he put his personal principles to trial. The poster represented the announcement of his new art style. Rejecting the brilliant colors and the more modular shape of the more fashionable poster artists, the almost life size design Mucha produced for Bernhard was a sensation.

Femme aux Coquelicots

Painting Giclee Print

Poetry Giclee Print

Zdenka Cerny Cello Concert

Savonnerie Soap Company

Fan Design Giclee Print

Daverio Wheat Harvest

Breger Javal Calendar

Magic Lantern Art Show

Latin Quarter Giclee Print

Princess Hyacinth Art Print

Seasons Autumn Giclee

Overnight, Mucha became a success, moving from the role of starving artist to a new place in the art world where his name became a household word. Although his name is often used synonymously with the new nouveau movement, he laid no claim to the connection. Instead, he simply produced his own style based upon a substantial composition, flowing curves inferred from nature, graceful decorative properties and soothing natural colors. The Art Nouveau principles were applied, also, but never at the expense of his personal convictions. Bernhardt commissioned him to a six year contract to design her promotional posters, stage sets and costumes for her theater productions. With the acknowledgment from famed Sarah Berndhart, Mucha became an overnight success. He had spent the previous seven years working diligently and it paid off for him at the age of 34.

The paid commissions then began to appear in droves. By 1898, Mucha had relocated himself to a new studio, illustrated Ilsee, Princess de Tripoli, had exhibited his first one man show and had begun publishing graphics in partnership Champenois, a then new founded printer eager to advance Mucha's art utilizing postcards and the panneaux Mucha would become famous for, sets of four large images around a central theme. Mucha created panneaux of precious stones, flowers, seasons, the times of day and stars to name a few. The majority of these sets were produced for the art buyers market and printed on silk.

Seasons Winter Panel Giclee

Evening Mucha Print

Ete Art Print

Nouveau Daytime Print

Monte Carlo Giclee Print

Printemps Art Print

Polar Star Art Print

Nouveau Evening Star Print

Champagne Ruinart Poster

Paris was host city to the World's Fair in 1900, for which Mucha designed the beautiful Bosnia-Hercegovina Pavilion. During this period he also partnered with goldsmith Georges Fouquet to create amazing of jewelry based on his designs, and stunning bronze creations. Mucha published Documents Decoratifs and declared Figures Decoratives. Documents Decoratifs was his attempt to share his personal artistic theories on to the next generation of aspiring artist to come. What was to occur was a series of imitators would use these documents in order to copy the work of Alphonse Mucha.

The fame of Alphonse Mucha grew worldwide, and he embarked on several tips to the United States where he produced illustrations which would be used for American magazine covers. Patrons in the United States also commissioned the artist for portraiture work. By end of the decade, Mucha was comfortable enough to decide to embark on what he thought of as his life's work.

No matter where the artist traveled, Alphonse Mucha was always a loyal patriot of his Czech homeland. He considered his success in the world of art to be a victory for the Czech people as well as for himself. In 1909 he was invited and commissioned to paint a series of murals for the Lord Mayor's Hall in Prague. He also began to plan out his greatest achievement - The Slav Epic - which is a series of amazing paintings chronicling major events in the history of the Slav nation and her people. Funding for the project came from Chicago millionaire was provided by Charles Crane. It was Mucha's desire to complete the series within a five or six year time span, but in actuality the paintings took eighteen years to complete. Twenty massive canvasses measuring approximately 24 x 30 fee were produced and bestowed to the city of Prague in 1928. They spanned the history of the Slavic people from prehistory to the nineteenth century, and defined Mucha's hopes and dreams for his native land. In 1919 the first eleven canvases were finished and exhibited in Prague where they did not receive a warm welcome. While the public appeared to appreciate the works, the political climate of the era was not welcoming for such. In America, without similar political issues, they received a much kinder welcome. Only lately has the glorious Slav Epic been made available again for public viewing. They are now, thankfully, on permanent display in the castle at Morovsky Krumlov.