Alfons Mucha - Painter

"Art exists only to communicate a spiritual message." Alfons Mucha

                Alfons Mucha ( 24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939) was a Czechoslovak Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist. Drawing had been his main hobby since childhood. After gymnasium, he worked mainly  as a decorative painter of theatrical scenery also in Vienna. Later, he studied in Munich. Then he moved to Paris and contiue his studies at Académie Julian and Académie Colarossi.

                He worked at producing magazine and advertising illustrations. Sarah Bernhardt, the most famous actress in Paris, needed a new advertising poster. She was satisfied with Muchas´s work an signed wit him six years contract.In 1897 he had his first solo exhibition in Paris. His first decorative panels are called The Four Seasons. Mucha designed postage stamps and banknotes for the newly established Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, he was arrested by Gestapo. Although he was allowed to return home, he died in Prague in 1939 on pneumonia.

                Mucha spent many years on his fine art Masterpiece The Slavic Epic, which is a series of twenty monumental canvases (the largest measuring over 6 by 8 metres) depicting the history of the Slav people and civilisation.

 THE FOUR SEASONS