Paintings by the artist Alphonse Mucha and Art Nouveau style. Alphonse Mucha: brief biography and works What are the characteristics of the works of Alphonse Mucha

The end of the 19th century. Fin-de-siècle. In Europe, Art Nouveau or Art Nouveau reigns supreme. Academic norms are crumbling to the accompaniment of loud disputes between art critics. Straight lines are replaced by floral curls, and Victorian luxury is replaced by the desire to achieve harmony with nature. Alphonse Mucha, like many other artists of his time, was covered by a wave of new art. "Women of the Muchas" ("Les Femmes Muchas") became the personification of Art Nouveau.

in the photo: fragment of the painting “Laurel” by Alphonse Mucha, 1901

La Femme Fatale look

Dramatically changed social role women and the symbolists’ desire for simplicity and puritanism give rise to a hostile attitude towards a sexually attractive woman. This is how a new female image is created - la femme fatale (“the femme fatale”). Symbolists, inspired by the poetic images of Proserpine, Psyche, Ophelia, and the Lady of Shalott, paint mysterious, ephemeral women. But, at the same time, their nervousness, often hysteria, is striking. Sometimes they are even ugly and disgusting.

Sharing the general ideas of the Symbolists, Mucha managed to create the image of a beautiful, curvy, graceful woman. She seemed frozen between the world of people and the world of gods. She is a demigoddess, a deity of nature, the embodiment of Fate itself. And, contrary to the fact that Alphonse Mucha himself considered the main work of his life to be 20 monumental canvases on historical themes under the general title “Slavic Epic”, it was “women” who became fateful in his life. Moreover, both in quotes and without them. Just women.

Series Time of day: Day rush, Morning awakening, Evening reverie, Night rest

Alphonse Mucha: early years

Alfons Maria Mucha was born in 1860 in the Czech town of Ivančice near Brno. Here he met his first love, but soon the girl, like most of his brothers and sisters, died of tuberculosis. Alphonse will call his future daughter by her name - Yaroslava, and her image will still for a long time will appear in his work.

Portrait of daughter Yaroslava, 1930

Series Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter

Theater in the life of Alphonse Mucha: "Gismonda", Sarah Bernhardt

Mucha's first acquaintance with the theater occurred in Vienna when he was 19 years old. Mucha perceived the illusory nature of the theater very organically, since as a boy he sang in the church choir of the city of Brno for several years. In 1887, having received financial assistance from a philanthropist friend, Mucha moves to Paris - center cultural life Europe. Of course, the first time is extremely difficult for a young artist. He works part-time as a designer and eats only lentils and beans for months. But moving in bohemian circles and meeting Paul Gauguin and August Strindberg played a decisive role in his formation as an artist. From them, Mucha learns about symbolism and synthetic art.

But alone phone call changed the life of Alphonse Mucha completely and irrevocably. It happened on December 26, 1894, when the artist, replacing his friend, worked part-time at the Lemercier Theater. The director of the publishing house, Brunhoff, received a call from Sarah Bernhardt and asked to urgently make a poster for her new play “Gismonda”. All the staff artists were on Christmas break, the director looked at Mucha in despair. It was impossible to refuse Divine Sarah.

The poster drawn by Mucha created a sensation in poster design. I was struck by both its size (about 2 m by 0.7 m) and the author’s new style. Collectors fought for every copy of the poster, even cutting them off fences. Mucha became famous overnight. Satisfied, Sarah Bernhardt offered Mucha a 5-year contract to develop designs for posters, costumes, decorations and scenery for her performances. In addition, Mucha enters into an exclusive contract with the Champenois publishing house for the production of commercial and decorative posters.

Of course, neither the press nor the public ignored the relationship between the brilliant actress and the young artist. Moreover, the name of the latter spoke for itself. At that time, the hero of Dumas Jr.’s play “Monsieur Alphonse”, who lived at the expense of his mistresses, was very popular. The fact that Alphonse Mucha's well-being more than improved after signing a contract with Sarah Bernhardt is undeniable. But at the time they met, Mukha was 34, and Sarah Bernhardt was 50 years old. Mucha wrote that, of course, Bernard is irresistible, but “on stage, under artificial lighting and careful makeup.” Rather, Sarah Bernhardt's attitude towards the artist can be compared to the patronage of an older sister. But her role in his life is difficult to overestimate.

Models of Alphonse Mucha

In his new studio, Alphonse Mucha works a lot with models. He draws and photographs them in luxurious clothes and jewelry. Adds comments to photos like “ beautiful hands", "beautiful hips", "beautiful back". Then he puts it together from separate parts perfect image. It happened that Mucha even covered the models’ faces with a scarf if they were discordant with the image created by his imagination.

Models of Alphonse Mucha

Marushka

Alphonse Mucha's true love was Maria Chytilova. Also of Czech nationality, a young girl (more than 20 years younger than Mucha) fell in love with the artist after seeing him in Prague National Theater. Soon she herself arranges their meeting and acquaintance, and poses for the master for a long time. Mukha appears new muse, he calls her Marushka. And all the women who came before Khitilova are defined by Mukha as “strangers.” After all, there was still in his heart real love only to his homeland, and he so dreamed of finding “a Czech heart, a Czech girl.”

“How wonderful and joyful it is to live for someone, before you I had only one shrine - our homeland, and now I have erected an altar and for you, dear, I pray for both of you...” wrote Mukha.

Portrait of the artist's wife Marushka, 1905

Mucha creates fewer and fewer demigoddesses, drawing a real woman, as well as portraits of his daughter Yaroslava and son Jiri. And upon returning to his homeland, the Czech Republic, the artist takes up the implementation of his life’s project - the “Slavic Epic”. The paintings created by Mucha over almost 15 years are so grandiose and monumental that only a castle in the town of Moravsky Krumlov in the Czech Republic could house them. All of them, by the way, were donated by the artist himself to the residents of Prague.

Fate

There was another Woman who occupied a special place in the life and work of Mucha. It was Fate. Fascinated by the occult, spiritualism and psychics, the artist firmly believed in the finger of Fate, in a happy accident. In his opinion, it is Fate that leads a person through life and determines his actions. This woman also appeared in Mukha’s paintings.

Painting "Fate", 1920

With the advent of avant-garde ideas and the flourishing of functionalism, Alphonse Mucha lost his relevance as an artist and decorator. The Nazis, having occupied the Czech lands, added his name to the list of enemies of the Reich. He is arrested, accused of Slavophilism and connections with the Freemasons, and interrogated. As a result, the 79-year-old artist falls ill and dies of pneumonia.

During the Bolshevik regime in Czechoslovakia, Mucha's work was considered bourgeois-decadent. And only in the 1960s, through the efforts of the artist’s children, his works resumed their participation in international exhibition activities. And in 1998, the Mucha Museum was opened in Prague and a cultural foundation named after him was created.

Alphonse Maria Mucha is a famous Czech artist, the brightest representative of art nouveau, whose works are admired to this day. His masterpieces, which gained great popularity even at the time of their creation, are now circulated in hundreds of copies. Paintings Alphonse Mucha is decorated with elite mansion buildings, his style of execution is copied by the world's largest designers, his sketches are included in their works by stylists and even tattoo artists.

Childhood

The future artist Alphonse Mucha was born in the second half of the 19th century - July 24, 1860 in a small cozy town in the south of the Czech Republic. Alphonse received both Moravian and Polish roots from his parents. In addition to the future artist, father Ondrej Mucha, and mother Amalia, there were five more children in the family. Thanks to the fact that Alphonse’s father worked as a court official, and his mother received some of the funds from wealthy relatives, the family did not go hungry. There was enough money for decent clothes, education and some social entertainment.

Even as a child, Alphonse Mucha showed various Creative skills- at an early age he was diagnosed with acute ear for music, later - acting data. Around 10-11 years old, the future artist was accepted into the youth choir of the chapel of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. His participation in this choir allowed the boy to enter a good gymnasium for those times, where he received both church and secular education.

Youth

As I studied, my passion for music began to subside, while my passion for fine arts only increased. Having graduated from high school at the age of 19, Mucha tries to enter the Academy of Arts in Prague. After the attempt was unsuccessful due to the entrance exams, Alphonse tries to develop himself in painting on his own. He paints theater posters and invitation cards, and studies various artistic genres and forms.

The beginning of a creative career

Theater master Brishy-Burghardt invites Mucha to his workshop as a decorator of original and bright posters. Having agreed to work in his workshop, Alphonse moves from Bruno to Vienna, where he works for exactly a year and a half, until a severe fire destroys the workshop. Fired due to the bankruptcy of Brichy-Burghardt, Mucha heads to small town Mikulov, where Count Kuen-Belassi invited him to paint his castle. The work produced by Alphonse impressed the count, which is why he offers the aspiring artist to also paint the second castle, which was created for his wife Emma Kuen-Belassi.

After traveling together with the Count and his wife across Europe, Mucha goes to Munich. There he enters the Academy of Fine Arts. Nevertheless, Alphonse only had enough time to study painting at the Academy for exactly two years - in 1887, the artist again took work from Kuen-Belassi and for some time lived on the funds received from him. In the same year, Alphonse decides to move to Paris. In this city, he is accepted for training by two prestigious institutions at once - the Julian Academy and the Colarossi Academy. At the same time, Mukha is under strong impression from Makarta's works he is working on creating his own individual style, puts into it those artistic fundamentals, which will be reflected in his works until the end of his life.

A cloudless life in Paris abruptly turns into numerous problems when Count Couen-Belassi, on whose money Mucha lived, dies. The artist refuses to study at the academy and begins to make a living by painting posters, posters and even restaurant menus. Having begun to receive regular orders, Alphonse Mucha opens his own small workshop.

In 1892, the artist received a large order for the design of the work. historical content. It was precisely the experience gained by Mucha when creating illustrations for this work, subsequently formed the basis of his most famous series of paintings - “Slavic Epic”.

Parisian period

A turning point in the fate and style of the work was an order for the design of a premiere poster from a famous theater. Mucha had to create an illustration for the play “Gismond,” in which actress Sarah Bernhardt played one of the main roles. Admired by her incredible femininity and sophistication of her image, Alphonse creates a work that immediately attracts the eyes of all Parisians to the young artist.

The smoothness of lines, softness of outlines and a certain airiness of Mucha’s style make him the main decorator of the Renaissance Theater. Impressed by Alphonse's illustration, Sarah Bernhardt insists on meeting him. Their romantic relationship, having quickly flared up, died out just as quickly.

Climbing

In subsequent years, Alphonse Mucha created a number of famous posters, which firmly established him as one of best illustrators and painters (1896 - “Lady with Camellias”, “Medea”, 1897 - “Samaritan Woman”, “Tosca”, etc.). The artist's fame is growing. The fly receives a wide variety of orders - from creation theatrical costumes to the play to interior design. At the same time, Alphonse began to act as a jewelry designer - he created earrings and rings, as well as boxes, candlesticks, brooches and even hairpins. Glory talented artist, offering something completely new, “modern” and at the same time aesthetically harmonious, is rapidly spreading throughout France.

Slightly abstracting from his own successes in the field of illustration, artist Alphonse Mucha tries to create entire series of works united by one integral idea or thought. From under his hand appear such series as “Seasons”, “Trees”, “Moon and Stars”.

Exhibitions of works by Alphonse Mucha are organized in largest cities Europe. In 1895, the artist encountered the Symbolists and briefly joined them. Mucha’s acquaintance with the Lumière brothers (creators of the first motion picture camera and moving image) encourages him to experiment with creating his own works - later, while working on the “Slavic Epic” series, the artist will use photographs of models he photographed as the basis for the painting (a photo of Alphonse Mucha at work is presented below ). In 1900, Alphonse helped decorate one of the pavilions of the World Exhibition held in France. During his work, Mucha became closely acquainted with the history of the Slavs, which left a certain imprint on his subsequent works.

Moving to America

In 1905, Alphonse Mucha received an invitation from the American Society of Illustrators. The artist moves, becomes a teacher in a large art institution. In 1906, he proposed marriage to Maria Khitinova. During his stay in America, Mucha receives many large orders. Nevertheless, despite the fame and universal admiration, the artist is increasingly drawn to his homeland every year, where he has not been for a long time. In 1910, Alphonse Mucha resigned from his position as a teacher and returned with his wife to the Czech Republic.

Return to homeland and creation of the “Slavic Epic” series

Tired of excess fame, modernity with its false materialistic ideals, Mucha leaves the city, where he begins to actively draw in one of the castles. The ideas that he accumulated throughout his life and which were finally formed during his residence in America, make it possible to produce such great works as “Slavs in the Historical Homeland”, “Our Father”, “Slavic Liturgy”, etc. Huge canvases, which sometimes did not fit indoors due to their size, reflected the history of the persecution of the Slavs, their holidays, and the development of their cultural heritage.

Eighteen years later, having completed twenty major works of his life, Alphonse Mucha presents his paintings to Prague as his first muse and homeland. However, these paintings were not fully appreciated by the audience - for long years While Mucha was working in his castle, a sharp change occurred both in the worldview and in the consciousness of people. The age of Art Nouveau had arrived, and the gentle, feminine, grand and utopian ideas of Art Nouveau were already “outdated.”

World War II and the death of Alphonse Mucha

The war that soon began forced Mucha to hide his paintings, since he understood that they would be one of the first items on the destruction list. In 1939, during the Second World War, German soldiers, having captured the Czech Republic, tortured for a long time and painfully no longer young artist about the location of the main paintings of his life. Without revealing the secret, Alphonse Mucha fell ill from the suffering he suffered and died on July 14, 1939.

The paintings that the Gestapo tried so hard to find out about were saved almost miraculously - one of its employees rolled them into scrolls and hid them in the basement of the dilapidated museum. Thereby daring act, which could have cost the man his life, the paintings were saved.

Alphonse Mucha's style

The artist is known throughout the world as the greatest representative of Art Nouveau. His works were distinguished by their special sophistication, almost fabulous grace, where light and shadow, interacting, create an airy haze, making the space of the picture seem foggy and slightly fuzzy, “out of focus.”

On his canvases, Alphonse Mucha depicts women as heroines of a poetic ballad - with regular, noble features and alluring smiles, with bright eyes and luxurious hair, framing their bodies with continuous patterned curls, they appear to the audience either in the form of seasons, then in the form of stars, or in the form of princesses and queens.

His more serious works, completed at the end of his life and included in entire series of paintings, were created with the professionalism of a great artist. A variety of feelings appear in the characters’ emotions: anger, rage, despair, pain, fear, happiness, jubilation, gloating, etc. Later paintings give viewers the opportunity to enjoy not only the aesthetics of the image, but also to delve into the deep psychologism captured on the canvas.

The artist’s most famous paintings include:

1. series "Seasons";
2. series “Moon and Stars”;
3. series “Slavic Epic”;
4. "Our Father" series;
5. "Madonna of the Lilies";
6. "Spirit of Spring";
7. “The Girl with Her Hair”, etc.

The description of Alphonse Mucha’s paintings “The Seasons” begins with the heroines captured on canvas. Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter are depicted as women leading certain forces of nature.

In the painting “Summer” the heroine, languishing from the heat, looks at the viewer with a slight sleepy half-smile. Her hot, slender body and blush on her cheeks exude warmth and sunny heat, the atmosphere of which is plausibly conveyed in the mixture of colors and airiness, the “humidity” of the summer air. The description of the painting and poster by Alphonse Mucha called “Winter” is exactly the opposite. The heroine of the painting “Winter,” on the contrary, is wrapped in clothes. This is the beauty of Alphonse Mucha’s “The Seasons” - the dissimilarity of the paintings. So, slightly pulling her head into her shoulders and raising her hands, red from the cold, to her face, the girl thereby conveys an atmosphere of genuine coldness and restraint of all natural colors.

Alphonse Mucha, "Slavic Epic"

“Slavic Epic” is a series of twenty paintings reflecting Slavic unity, the idea of ​​belonging. Each of the works has enormous dimensions for the canvases (approximately 6*8 meters). Amazing color, richness, drama and deep psychological overtones made these paintings the property of the Czech Republic.

Most famous paintings from the series “Slavic Epic”:

1. “Slavs in their ancestral homeland”;
2. "Introduction of Slavic liturgy";
3. "Mount Athos";
4. “Apotheosis of the history of the Slavs”;
5. “Meeting in Krizki”;
6. "Svetotite Festival based on Ruga".

Girls posters

The artist’s famous posters and posters, which depict poetic female images, are still in circulation in hundreds of copies. The main thing in the description of Alphonse Mucha's paintings and posters is a girl.

Long hair blowing in the light wind, shining in the sun, frames the sensual girls’ faces, giving them a certain resemblance to the Christian Madonna. Slender bodies, dressed in flowing smoky clothes, invariably stand out against a slightly darkened background, as if receding into the distance. Each of the girls has a large number of different decorations - the abundance of small ornate details, multi-colored spots and curls is what once made A. Mucha the most famous representative of art nouveau.

The description of the painting, poster by Alphonse Mucha “Girl with Flowing Hair” may look like this. It can be called the most uncharacteristic of the artist’s style. The lack of colorful details and any interest of the sitter in the artist and the canvas he created, bowed shoulders, which reflected fatigue and sadness, and the presence of an ordinary everyday atmosphere surprised contemporaries at one time. The description of Alphonse Mucha's poster can be continued endlessly... Nevertheless, this painting managed to prove that Mucha is capable of accurately conveying psychological experiences, peaks of emotional and sensual unrest. IN similar style Several other works were also completed, including a portrait of the artist’s daughter Yaroslava.

The work of Alphonse Mucha is the heart of the new style.

Salvador Dali once said: “Surrealism is me,” and this statement was quite justified. Alphonse Mucha did not make a similar statement (“Art Nouveau is me”), but if it had occurred to him to utter these words, no one would have dared to reproach him for arrogance - we can safely say that without Mucha, Art Nouveau simply would not would exist, the master’s creativity would become the heart and soul of modernity.

Who was he, the mysterious and extraordinarily talented Alphonse Mucha, whose name thundered throughout the world at the beginning of the 20th century, was subsequently unfairly ridiculed by avant-garde artists and forgotten by several generations, and in recent decades has again gained its former glory?

The artist was born on July 24, 1860 in Ivančice (Moravia), in the family of an official and the daughter of a wealthy miller, with early years He was fond of drawing and spent all his leisure hours doing this activity. After school, he tried to enter the Prague Academy of Arts, but failed and was forced to get a job - with the help of his father, he became a clerk in court, free time worked part-time in the theater. A huge success for the artist was his work on decorating the castle of Count Kuen-Belassi: the count, admiring the young man’s talent, agreed to pay for it further training in Munich. Mucha studied there for two years, and then moved to Paris to continue his education at the Julien Academy.

The artist took on any work that was somehow related to painting: drawings for newspapers and magazines, advertising and theater posters, postcards, packaging, etc. And this is probably the brightest feature of Mucha as a creator: he did not have the morbid ambition characteristic of many creative individuals who consider their talent so great that they do not want to “squander” it on trifles - they are ready to paint only monumental canvases, but for “ small", commercial work taken only reluctantly and solely for material reasons. Mucha thought differently: he enjoyed any kind of creativity, trying to make any, even the most banal and household item. As we see, he has achieved perfection in this - his style cannot be confused with any other, and we admire any of his works, be it an advertisement for biscuits and packaging for champagne or a grandiose canvas. Mucha’s contribution to the development of advertising can probably only be compared with Andy Warhol’s contribution half a century later.

It is symbolic that Mucha’s first step towards world fame was precisely the creation of a poster - it was a poster for Sarah Bernhardt and her Renaissance Theater for the play “Gismonda”. Mucha got the order almost by accident; she was lucky because Bernard turned to a printing house owned by a friend of the artist. Be that as it may, the success was deafening: the actress immediately found the creator of the delightful poster and immediately signed a contract with him for 6 years, during which he worked not only on many announcements of performances, but also on the scenery. With his participation, “Hamlet”, “Medea”, “The Lady of the Camellias”, “Tosca” and other significant theater performances based on well-known complex plots were staged.

At the same time, Mukha collaborated with such publications as “ Folk life», « Parisian life", "Figaro", "Kokoriko".

At the same time, he created his most famous cycles of paintings, which simply made Parisians fall in love with him: “Seasons”, “Months”, “ Gems", "Flowers", "Stars", "Morning, afternoon, evening, night" and others. They were printed in large quantities, and they decorated galleries, ladies' boudoirs, and the walls of fashionable restaurants.

At the center of the picture was always female figure- alluring, mysterious, languid, sometimes close, sometimes, on the contrary, majestic. The images change from painting to painting until only one woman remains in both life and the artist’s work - Maria Chytilova, his student, wife and muse. Mukha met Khitilova in Paris, married her at the age of 45, his beloved was 20 years younger than him. They had two daughters and a son - they all grew up very talented people who inherited their father's gift. Maria posed for many late paintings Alphonse, and in his heroines we can guess her features.

Interestingly, Alphonse Mucha was so versatile that he even created designs for a large number of jewelry, which he brought to life famous master and Mucha's good friend Georges Fouquet. Unfortunately, many of them are lost and have reached us only in photographs. However, the artist’s granddaughter recently launched a project dedicated to the creation of jewelry based on her grandfather’s sketches, and who knows, maybe soon fans of Mucha’s work will be able to see the masterpieces with their own eyes.

In 1901, Mucha published a book for aspiring artists, Decorative Documentation, which details various techniques creating works in the Art Nouveau style, examples of ornaments, patterns, fonts are given; sketches of furniture, jewelry, various household items. Who, if not Mukha, could and should have published such a publication for posterity!

As we said above, Mucha’s work is the quintessence of Art Nouveau with all its characteristic features. This is femininity, femininity, softness - and not only obvious, through the depiction of corresponding images - but also through general atmosphere paintings - gentle, calm, pacifying. All of Mucha's works are full of smooth curved lines - curls, draperies, branches, flower stems, various patterns - which is one of the most important features of Art Nouveau, which abandons sharp edges and angles in favor of imitating nature. Many patterns are borrowed from the art of Byzantium and other eastern countries, which is also quite traditional trait Art Nouveau, which goes hand in hand with Orientalism and eclecticism. An important element of Mucha’s works is the hemisphere, decorated in different ways and everywhere successfully integrated into the overall plot. She is a symbol of infinity, cyclicality and the same feminine principle.

The crowning achievement of Mucha’s work is the series of paintings “Slavic Epic,” which he wrote for 20 years. These works are distinguished by their impressive dimensions - 8 × 6 m. He found subjects for the works while traveling around Eastern Europe, including in Russia. It should be noted that, despite the boundless and mutual love of the French for him, Mucha always emphasized his Slavic origin, did not forget about his roots. With a bright touch It may be that Mukha loved to appear in front of his friends in a kosovortka.

The “Slavic Epic” cycle includes works dedicated to various milestones in the history of the Slavic peoples: for example, the abolition of serfdom in Rus', the coronation of Tsar Stefan Dusan, the sermon of Master Jan Hus in the Bethlehem Chapel and others. Creation technique: oil and egg tempera. These paintings seem much more mature and academic compared to previous works master, but, nevertheless, his unique style is felt here too - perhaps due to the “roundness”, the absence of sharp lines and angles. The element of mystery and enigma is not alien to the paintings - perhaps this was influenced by Mucha’s many years of friendship with the famous mystic of that time, Arthur Strindberg.

All paintings were donated by the artist to Prague. In general, Mucha’s connection with the Czech Republic is limitless - even despite the fact that the artist lived most of his life in France, and success came to him there. After the proclamation of the Republic in 1918, Alphonse Mucha was entrusted with the production of the first Czechoslovak postage stamps, banknotes and state emblem.

The artist passed away at the age of 76, in 1936, having, fortunately, managed to leave his memoirs. He died of pneumonia after he was declared an enemy of the Third Reich and subjected to interrogation; he spent several months in prison, where he caught a cold.

Alphonse Mucha made an invaluable contribution to art and left a rich artistic heritage. In 1998, a museum dedicated to him was opened in Prague, where many of his famous works are displayed. But the main thing that Mucha taught us is that there is no unimportant and boring work, there are mediocre masters. If talent gets down to business, he will turn any little thing into a masterpiece.

The article was prepared by M. Prokopenya.

The work of the Polish artist of the first half of the twentieth century, unfortunately, is little known in our time. Although the originality and originality of his talent found many fans all over the world. No one will remain indifferent while admiring the series of paintings “Flowers”, “Seasons”, “Slavic Virgins”, “Months”, in which the artist glorifies female beauty, the beauty of nature and acts as an expert folk traditions and rituals.

Biography of Alphonse Mucha

Alfons was born in Moravia in the small provincial town of Ivančice in 1860. It was the end of the 19th century that left its mark on all of his work; even in the middle of the 20th century, he did not lose his poetry and dreaminess, trying in a stormy, turbulent time to reflect the soul of the people in his works.

His father Ondzhej, a tailor by profession, a poor man, remained a widower with several children and entered into a second marriage (most likely for convenience) with the daughter of a wealthy miller Amalia, who later became the mother of a famous artist.

Amalia died early, but Ondjei was the best of fathers for his large family and all his children, even girls, which was surprising at that time, received secondary education.

Alfons studied at the Slavic Gymnasium in the small Polish city of Brno until he was 17, and then his father managed to get the young man into the Academy of Arts in Prague. So Alphonse became a student, but it must be said that he was far from the best of students. He shamelessly skipped classes, including the Law of God, which was considered unacceptable, and received excellent marks only in drawing and singing.

The student was soon expelled from the Academy due to “any lack of talent for art” and became a clerk in the city court of Ivanichitsa. Two years later, having accidentally stumbled upon an advertisement for a vacancy for a decorator in a Viennese company that produces theatrical props, he gets a job there as a set designer. But in 1881 the company went bankrupt, and Alphonse was again left out of business.

Thanks to his father’s efforts, he moves to the southern city of Mikulov, where he does whatever he needs: he draws a little theatrical scenery, does miniatures, portraits, posters, and sometimes, for lack of other work, paints.

And then the artist was lucky: he was asked to paint the castle of Count Kuen of Hrushovanov, where he painted the ceilings in the then accepted style Italian Renaissance. After this, he was sent to the count's brother at Gundegg Castle in distant Tyrol. Here he not only painted the rooms, but also painted a portrait of the countess and the entire family. In his free time, which was rare, the artist managed to get out into nature, where he avidly drew from life.

The Viennese painting professor Kray comes to visit the count; he becomes interested in the works of the young artist and convinces him to continue his education. The satisfied count acts as a patron of Alphonse and sends him at his own expense to the Academy of Art of the city of Munich. So, in 1885 the artist continued his professional education. Two years later he transferred to the Academy of Arts in Paris, and immediately into the third year.

This best time in his studies, but it soon ends: the count stopped paying the scholarship, and the young man had to rely only on his own strength. In some of his memoirs, Alphonse Mucha hints at periods of hardship and adversity, but already in 1991 he established strong ties with the publisher Armand Collin, and also wrote posters for plays starring Sarah Bernhardt. The great actress liked the works of the young artist so much that she entered into a six-year contract with him for all new works.

Thus, Alphonse enters a period of prosperity and fame: exhibitions of his works are held with great excitement in many major European cities, and changeable Fortune finally knocked on the artist’s door.

Slavic Epic

Nowadays, it is believed that the works of this cycle are the artist’s most valuable investment in the treasury of world art. Much later, in the “Parisian period,” Alphonse Mucha revived and multiplied his successful discoveries and gave us new creations.

Love for the Motherland, its nature, its history and its traditions is an integral part of the work of a true artist. Therefore, already as a mature creator, Alphonse Mucha plans to create a series of paintings dedicated to the history of the Slavs. This idea was not born at one moment, he nurtured it for a long time, traveling around Slavic countries, including in Russia. Work on the epic, which brought the artist worldwide fame, lasted 20 years, and twenty huge canvases were painted depicting the climactic moments of history.

All the artist’s works are extremely optimistic - they carry a huge charge of faith in their country and its people. He donated the entire collection of paintings to his beloved city of Prague. In 1963, after the death of the artist, the public gained access to the entire collection of paintings and to this day admire the amazing gift of a true patriot, Alphonse Mucha.

Love in the life of an artist

It is in Paris that Mucha meets his love, his muse - the Czech girl Maria Chytilova. In 1906, they got married, although Maria is twenty years younger than Alphonse, but she sincerely loves him and admires his work.

For Alphonse, this young girl became, as he himself said, his second love after his Motherland. Together with her, he moves to live in America, with which he signed lucrative contracts for a series of works. The artist’s children were born here, but dreams of a distant homeland never left him, and in 1910 Alphonse’s family returned to Moravia.

The last period of creativity

In 1928, after finishing work on the Slavic Epic, Mucha worked on creating the official banknotes of independent Czechoslovakia and a collection of stamps. All his life, the artist never tired of learning new things, searching for himself and striving for self-expression; all his endeavors were “doomed to success”, thanks to his original talent and tireless work.

With the coming to power of the fascists and the propaganda of racist theories, interest in Mucha's work declines. He is declared a pan-Slavist, his patriotism runs counter to the propaganda of racism, and paintings glorifying beauty native nature, do not fit into the propaganda of violence and cruelty.

The artist was declared an enemy of the Third Reich and imprisoned. Although he was soon released, his health was undermined, and in 1939 Alphonse Mucha died. Before his death, the artist managed to publish his memoirs, and according to his will, he was buried in the Czech Republic at the Visegrad cemetery.

Unfairly forgotten

The only Alphonse Mucha museum is open in Prague. On the initiative of his children and grandchildren, it was opened in 1998. It is here that you can see the poster for the play “Gismonda” that changed the master’s life. The museum houses exhibits that accompany the artist’s life and illuminate his work.

Many of the objects exhibited here were donated to the museum by the artist’s family, from which you can learn about his personal life and character, habits and family relationships.

Carnation, 1898
Lily, 1898

And soon he began to call her Marushka and write tender letters: My angel, how grateful I am to you for your letter... Spring has come to my soul, flowers have bloomed... I am so happy that I am ready to burst into tears, sing, embrace the world.

In his letters, Mukha admitted to Marushka that he had been in love only once before her, at the age of sixteen. That girl was fifteen, apparently her name was Yaroslava. She died - tuberculosis claimed many lives at the end of the nineteenth century. Her death was a tragedy for Mukha’s subtle and sensitive nature. From that time on, Mukha, as he himself writes, turned all his ardent love to his homeland and our people. I love them like my beloved... Alfons called everyone who was with him before Chytilova “strange women” who only brought him torment. And he dreamed so much “all the years of exile about a Czech heart, about a Czech girl.”

Red Cloak, 1902

By the time I met Maria Mucha, the series “Flowers”, “Seasons”, “Art”, “Time of Day”, “Precious Stones”, “Moon and Stars” and other interesting lithographs had already been created, which were republished in the form of postcards, playing cards and dispersed instantly - they all portrayed women. Mucha worked a lot with models, whom he invited to his studio, painted and photographed them in luxurious draperies or naked. He annotated photographs of models - “beautiful hands”, “beautiful hips”, “beautiful profile”... and then from the selected “parts” he put together an ideal picture. Often, while drawing, Mucha covered the faces of his models with a scarf so that their imperfections would not destroy the ideal image he had invented.

Yaroslava and Jiri - the artist's children

But after his marriage to Marushka in 1906, the artist painted less and less of the demigoddesses familiar to the viewer - apparently, a real woman replaced a mirage and memory. Mucha and his family moved to Prague, where he began creating the “Slavic Epic”, developed a sketch for the stained glass window of St. Vitus Cathedral and painted many portraits of his wife, daughter Yaroslava, and son Jiri. Mucha died in 1939 from pneumonia. The cause of the illness was arrest and interrogation in the Czech capital occupied by the Germans: the painter’s Slavophilism was so well known that he was even included in the personal lists of enemies of the Reich.

Madonna with the Lilies, 1905

Marushka stayed with her husband until he last breath. She outlived her husband by twenty years and tried to write memoirs about him. The love that was between Mucha and Chytilova is called in Czech “láska jako trám” - that is, a very strong feeling, literal translation: “love like a beam.”

From Mukha’s letter: How wonderful and joyful it is to live for someone, before you I had only one shrine - our homeland, and now I have set up an altar and for you, dear, I pray for both of you...

Are men of the twenty-first century capable of such words?..

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