Reverie

Biography:

Alphonse Mucha was born on 24th July 1860 in Ivancice,  in Southern Moravia, which is near the city of Brno in the modern Czech Republic. It was a small town, and for all intents and purposes life was closer to the 18th than the 19th century. Though Alphonse Mucha is supposed to have started drawing before he was walking, his early years were spent as a choirboy and amateur musician. It wasn't until he finished high school (needing two extra years to accomplish that onerous task) that he came to realize that living people were responsible for some of the art he admired in the local churches. In 1879 he went to Vienna to work as a theatrical scene painter. He was a painter, poster artist and designer, who helped pioneer the Art Nouveau movement in Paris in 1887 and in America in 1904 at the turn of the century. A gifted and innovative illustrator, lithographer, painter, jewelry designer, sculptor, and teacher.

Like every aspiring artist of the day, Alphonse Mucha ended up in Paris in 1887. He was a little older than many of his fellows, but he had come further in both distance and time. A chance encounter in Moravia had provided him with a patron who was willing to fund his studies. After two years in Munich and some time devoted to painting murals for his patron, he was sent off to Paris where he studied at the Academie Julian. After two years the supporting funds were discontinued and Alphonse Mucha was set adrift in a Paris that he would soon transform. At the time, however, he was a 27 year old with no money and no prospects - the proverbial starving artist.

In 1894 he designs his first poster for Sarah Bernhardt, Gismonda, a play by Victor Sardou. This success leads to a six year contract with "la divine Sarah". his first poster for Sarah Bernhardt won him considerable renown.

In 1911 he returned to Prague to devote himself to an oeuvre celebrating the epic of Slav history.