Mucha Accomplishments

For many people when they think of Art Nouveau they think of Alphonse Mucha. While he was not the only artist of this time Mucha has become synonymous with this period in art, and it is easy to see why. The movement, color, and organic nature of his art not only reflected the feeling of the time, but the way it was presented and the way it is still remembered today says something about his design work. People are inspired by it, and they try their best to imitate it. But why is that? What was it about Mucha that sets him apart from the rest? If we explore his life will we see what inspires so many people and why, out of all of the artists that participated in Art Nouveau, is he the one that everyone thinks of? I think we can. It becomes an

Mucha’s remarkable singing ability actually allowed him to continue high school in the capital of Moravian, even though Mucha’s first love was drawing (Alphonse Maria Mucha Biography). Mucha was known to have had a remarkable drawing ability at a very young age (Meggs). He began his career by taking decorative art jobs around Moravian, but it seems that he wasn’t that satisfied with this work. Mucha moved to Vienna in 1879 to work for the leading theatrical design company, and continue his art education. After a fire that destroyed his employer’s offices he moved back to Moravian and began to work as a freelance artist. One of his commissioners was so impressed he decided to sponsor Mucha’s training at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts (Alphonse Maria Mucha Biography). Mucha moved to Paris, with the sponsorship of his patron, at the age of twenty-seven years old in 1887 (Meggs). While initially, his life in Paris was a joyous one it quickly turned south when his patron suddenly, for the lack of a better term, dropped him. This not only left him in poverty, but with very little knowledge of the French language. With no real options Mucha began to work as an illustrator for books and magazines (Mucha). While this doesn’t seem like much, this was to become Mucha’s defining moment, as he became known as a really good and dependable draftsman (Meggs). Little known to Mucha, this would lead to the most important point in

The manager was upset because a famous actress, Sarah Bernhardt, wanted a new poster for her play by New Years Day. Because Mucha was the only artist available at the time he was the one who got the commission (Meggs). This is where Mucha’s career took off as not only Sarah Bernhardt loved the piece, but everyone else did and it is not hard to see why. His Gismonda poster is the pinnacle of the Art Nouveau movement with it’s bright colors and organic shapes, it becomes a marvel to see. What makes this even more interesting is that the poster isn’t even finished, because he only had a week to lay the “Byzantine tiles” on the poster, and yet it just works so well