Art Chowder March | April 2018, Issue 14 | Page 46

T
he name of Alphonse Mucha is far from
unfamiliar, though it is mainly associated with
Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939)
his work in Paris during the late 19th century:
the many posters of stylized, beautiful young
women with flowing hair and garments that
came to epitomize the Art Nouveau style. His
artistic training began in his Czechoslovakian
homeland, continued in Munich, and later in
Paris when he moved there in 1887. His rise
to fame and material success started when
he wandered into a print shop just when an
advertising poster was needed for a performance
of the play Gismonda starring the legendary
dramatic actress Sarah Bernhardt. She was so
pleased with Mucha’s artwork that she gave him
a six-year contract, after which he could scarcely
keep up with the commissions that flowed in for
designs of all kinds, from jewelry to theater sets.
Eventually, however, he wearied of the perpetual
demands of commercial art and longed to leave
a more enduring and spiritual artistic legacy
on behalf of his native land and its people.
Returning to his homeland with his wife and
children in 1910 he settled in Prague, where he
took up what he would consider his crowning
achievement: a series of 20 paintings of
Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939)
The Slav Epic’cycle No.1: The Slavs in Their Original Homeland
1912
Egg tempera on canvas
20 x 26 12’
Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939)
Galerie hlavního města Prahy, Prague, Czech Republic
The Slav Epic cycle No.2: The Celebration of Svantovít1912
egg tempera on canvas
20 x 26 1/2’ [6.1 x 8.1 meters]
Galerie hlavního města Prahy, Prague, Czech Republic
monumental scale on the history of the Slavonic
people: the Slav Epic cycle, a massive project
that would occupy him from 1911 to 1926.
In the Slav Epic 6 the artist selected significant
high points in the history of the Slavic people
generally, and illustrated them in a kind of
metaphysical style, where events on earth are
shown in synchronicity with a spiritual realm
above them. While in Paris, Mucha had become
profoundly interested in Masonic philosophy
and would later become Grand Master of the
Freemasons of Czechoslovakia, when that
country (along with Poland) received national
independence after WWI in 1918.
When Nazi Germans entered Czechoslovakia in
1939, Mucha was soon arrested by the Gestapo
because of his fervent Slavic nationalism. He
contracted pneumonia during their interrogation.
Though eventually released, he failed to recover
from his illness and died on July 14, 1939. 7
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ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE
1. Also called Eastern Europe, the distinction is sometimes fuzzy, but the area essentially included Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and
Bulgaria.
2. For pronunciation of the names of Polish illustrated here see: https://forvo.com/word/jan_matejko/; http://www.pronouncenames.com/pronounce/
Czachorski; and https://forvo.com/word/henryk_siemiradzki/
3. A detailed biography of the artist can be found here: http://culture.pl/en/artist/henryk-siemiradzki
4. Ibid
5. There are several versions of this painting. One, entitled The Sword Dance, which sold at Sotheby’s in 2011, measures 31 x 61”. It went for
$2,098,500, far above the high estimate of $800,000.00. http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2011/russian-works-of-art-n08733/lot.11.html
6. For detailed information about the works of Mucha and the Slav Epic see here: http://www.muchafoundation.org/gallery/themes/theme/slav-epic
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Mucha