Have You Met Mucha?
I couldn’t tell you precisely when I learned of one of my favorite artists, Alphonse Mucha. My best guess it happened when I was in high school, at the height of my Pinterest phase, in my first years of finding my artistic influences. As is the case with most contemporary fans of Art Nouveau, I didn’t quite know what his work was, only that it was so different from what I see everyday, and I fell in love with his unique and truly spectacular designs.
As my years of painting and studying art history have progressed, that love has only increased. The more I learn of his work, Alphonse Mucha becomes even more cemented in my mind as one of the greatest artists in history. I bought a book of art nouveau posters which largely featured his works. I rushed (several) to attend an Art Nouveau exhibition presented by my Alma Mater, Brigham Young University, so I could bask as much as possible in the reflected light from a Zodiac lithograph and his original sketches. In the early autumn of 2023, I had the immense joy in discovering my workplace would be selling his first ever poster of the famed French stage actress, Sarah Bernhardt, which you see me posing with in this image.
I had the honor of writing a biography and lot essay to accompany the piece. If you don’t know who Alphonse Mucha is, why he is important, or you would like to know more about him and the history of this lithograph in particular, search no longer! Here is the Google Arts and Culture link to see more of his absolutely incredible artwork.
My original essay:
Alphons Maria Mucha (1860-1939), known internationally as Alphonse Mucha, was born in southern Moravia, a province of the Austrian Empire at the time, and currently a region of the Czech Republic. His transcendental designs both in the decorative and visual arts perfectly evoke his love of spiritualism, music, and mysticism. Mucha’s works are visual symphonies with legato arabesques, crescendos of color, and staccato details often inspired by symbols of religion, the occult, and divine geometry.
After an upbringing of devout Catholicism and an education in singing, violin, and art, Mucha left his beloved Moravia. For two years he worked for a theatrical design company in Vienna, but a great fire left him penniless and back in South Moravia, where he caught the attention of Count Khuen of Mikulov, who became his first official sponsor in 1885, allowing Mucha to study at the Academy of Arts in Munich, as well as the Academie Julian and Academie Colarossi in Paris. In 1889, the sponsorship was revoked. Mucha later believed this was an act of encouragement to make a name for himself by his own excellent merits.
At that point a living embodiment of the “starving artist” stereotype, Mucha found himself living in a miniscule room above Madame Charlotte’s Crèmerie. This small cafe adjacent to Academie Colarossi was overflowing with composers, musicians, authors, and painters. Madame Charlotte often took artwork as currency for food and rent. Thus, the walls of the cafe featured the early works of soon to be globally renowned artists, including Mucha’s friend Paul Gauguin. It was here that Mucha met some of his most influential mentors, most notably, August Strindberg who introduced him to ideas of theosophy which Mucha heartily engaged in.
On a cold December 26th of 1894, Mucha received an 11th hour request from his friend Bela Kadar’s to look over a proof on his behalf at Lemercier, their printer’s shop. While he looked over Kadar’s print, Mucha was disturbed by the frantic shop manager, who announced the presence of the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt. Bernhardt came with the nearly impossible request of a new poster for her play “Gismonda” by New Year’s Day. Mucha took up the task. That same evening, in an ill-fitted borrowed hat, he attended the play, sketching feverishly until the end of the show.
Two days later upon approval of his design, the printer worked at breakneck speed to produce and distribute Mucha’s poster with the new capabilities of large format color printing, all throughout Paris on January 1st. Overnight, Mucha became an immediate sensation. A critic at that time, Jerome Doucet of Revue Illustree, wrote a glowing review of this poster (the very same poster here before you), calling it “a triumph of silk, gold, and precious jewels––it is wealth thrown open-handed on the dubious whiteness of our city’s walls.”
Thrilled by Mucha’s masterful depiction of her and the unquestionably golden reception, Bernhardt became the artist’s most important sponsor and champion, commissioning him for all future posters as well as elaborate costume and jewelry designs. This and an exclusive contract with the publisher Champenois launched Mucha into a vastly prolific career in commercial design for prominent businesses. During this era, Alphonse Mucha became one of the most important artists defining the Art Nouveau movement, which pushed the boundaries between our world and another, more fantastical world filled with leitmotifs of sensuous ornamentation and swirling tendrils of natural and organic figures.
