Alphonse the Fly is honored at the Luxembourg Museum. Paris under the fly Exhibition of gigolo Mucha

After a significant break of two years, the Slavic Epic is again presented in Prague to all art lovers. An exhibition is being held in the Municipal House building, which also presents other works by Alphonse Mucha. The exhibition doors are open from August 19, 2018 to January 13, 2019. Ticket prices for adults are 250 CZK, for children over 6 years old and students - 100 CZK. It is possible to purchase an entrance ticket for a family, which includes 2 parents and no more than 3 children, for 500 CZK, and also enroll a group of schoolchildren at a price of 50 CZK per student. A guided tour of the exhibition is carried out in groups, 80 CZK per person. Magdalena Jurzhikova has been appointed curator of the exhibition.

Slavic epic |

The exhibition space in the Municipal House is one of the most presentable spaces in Prague, and the Art Nouveau style perfectly emphasizes the artistic style in which Alphonse Mucha wrote. It is not surprising that the exhibition, which so strongly reflects the Slavic traditions that inspired the artist, takes place precisely in the year when Czechoslovakia celebrates 100 years of its statehood.

Slavic epic |

Following the success of Alphonse Mucha's exhibition at the National Art Center of Japan, where his paintings were seen by more than 660 thousand spectators, there is a new opportunity for everyone to see much of the famous artist's work in the mesmerizing atmosphere of the Prague Municipal House.

Slavic epic |

The architectural features of the exhibition space allow us to better understand the technical aspects of Alphonse’s work. The organizers tried to present the classic collection of paintings from a new point of view, proving that the epic is still as relevant as at the time of its creation.

From January 16 to April 14, 2013, at the Saratov State Art Museum named after A.N. Radishchev (Radishcheva St., 39), as part of the “Graphic Album” series, there is an exhibition of rare works “Alphonse Mucha. Decorative panels, posters, posters.”

Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) - an outstanding Czech artist, master of theater and advertising posters. His name became a symbol of turn-of-the-century art. The exhibition from the collection of the Radishchev Museum is timed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the master’s birth. Fourteen works by the artist, made using the lithographic technique, were acquired by the Bogolyubov Drawing School and transferred to the museum in 1898.

The artist had a great influence on a whole generation of graphic artists and designers; For many, his works are associated with the Art Nouveau style.

The new style arose almost simultaneously in many European countries and received different names. The most frequently used terms were “modern” - modern, “art nouveau” / “art nouveau” - new art (French). A feature of this style was the abandonment of straight lines and angles in favor of a more natural, smooth movement of curved lines. They resemble dancing, wavy arabesques, imbued with the energy and vitality of plants.

Mucha’s works in painting, architecture, and small decorative forms are memorable for their exquisite elements, calligraphically drawn lines, which formed the “exemplary Art Nouveau” style.

Alphonse Mucha was born on July 24, 1860 in the Moravian town of Ivančice. His father served as a bailiff; the family had modest income. The future artist grew up in an atmosphere of strict Catholicism. He received his initial artistic education in Brno.

In 1880 he worked in Vienna as an employee of a theatrical decoration company, later as a court artist for Count P. Kuen (1881-1885). Then he studied at the Academy of Arts in Munich (1885-1887) and the Academy of R. Julien in Paris.

From 1887 to 1922 Mucha lived mainly in Paris. Here he achieved his first success. In 1894, he made a poster for the play "Gismonda" based on the play by the French playwright Victorien Sardou (1831-1908), in which the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt played. This poster for the Renaissance Theater had an emphatically vertical format and was also distinguished by its unusual multicolor and detail. Previously, posters with a lot of text and several small illustrations, usually in 1-2 colors, prevailed.

The completely unknown artist Mukha made a breakthrough in art. His posters covered the walls of Paris on New Year's Eve 1895. Sarah Bernhardt was so impressed by the artist's work that she immediately offered him a six-year exclusive contract. Posters were made for her: “Lady with Camellias” (1896), “Lorenzaccio” (1896), “Samaritan Woman” (1897), “Medea” (1898), “Hamlet” (1899) and “Tosca” (1899). Mucha was also involved in scenography, designing sets and costumes for the Renaissance Theater.

The collection of the Radishchev Museum includes three posters made by Mucha during the Parisian period. The earliest - "Gismonda", "Lorenzaccio" - for a play based on the play by Alfred de Musset, "Samaritan" - for the production of Rostand's drama, where the main roles were played by Sarah Bernhardt.

Mucha is the author of several series of decorative panels: “Seasons” (1896), “Flowers” (1898), “Arts” (1898), “Months” (1899), “Gems” (1900) and “Stars” (1901) . Large-scale decorative panels were produced in limited editions, printed on silk or thick paper, lavishly framed and hung on walls or as screens.

The exhibition presents four works from the first series of "Seasons" - "Spring", "Summer", "Autumn" and "Winter". The "Flowers" cycle - "Rose", "Iris", "Carnation" and "Lily" - is fully exhibited. The center of each composition is a woman in flowing clothes, with a luxurious crown of hair, drowning in a sea of flowers. Captivating and mysterious, sometimes unapproachably fatal. Her beautiful and graceful figure, inscribed in an ornamental system of flowers and leaves, symbols and arabesques, became the artist’s trademark.

At the same time, Mucha creates sketches for calendars and menus, and various advertising posters. The exhibition features advertisements for cigarette paper "JOB", beer "Bieresde la Meuse" ("Mass") and a sheet from the calendar "Calendrier L`Evocation" ("Resurrection in Memory").

In 1897, the artist's first personal exhibition opened at the La Bodiniere gallery. The next year - the second, larger one - in the Salon des Cent (Salon of the Hundred), and then she traveled all over Europe. Since 1898, the artist taught at the Carmen Academy. At the same time, Mucha collaborated with the famous Parisian jeweler Georges Fouquet. Together they created a collection in the “Mukha style”. The artist designed the facade and interior of his store.

At the turn of the century, Alphonse Mucha became a real master, to whom the artistic community listened attentively. In 1901 his book “Decorative Documentation” was published. This is a visual guide for artists, on the pages of which a variety of ornamental patterns, fonts, drawings of furniture, various utensils, cutlery sets, jewelry, watches, combs, and brooches are reproduced. Much was subsequently made in metal and wood, for example, gold brooches and a necklace with portraits of Sarah Bernhardt, intended for the actress herself.

During his travels through his native Moravia and the Czech Republic (1902), Mucha became interested in creating epic patriotic paintings, depicting the history of the Slavic people in a neoclassical style. However, they were not as successful as his early Art Nouveau works. Since 1903, Mucha made several trips to the USA, where he worked as a painter and teacher.

After the formation of the Czechoslovak Republic (1918), its government commissioned Alphonse Mucha to develop the design of the national currency, the first series of postage stamps, one of the versions of the state emblem, government forms and envelopes. During these same years, he worked on the interiors of the most famous buildings in Prague - the Municipal House, the Europe and Imperial hotels, and created a sketch of the stained glass window of the completed St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague Castle.

In 1928, Mucha presented Prague and the Czech people with a large cycle of 20 giant paintings “Slavic Epic”, dedicated to the history of the Slavs (Czechs, Poles, Bulgarians, Russians and other Slavic peoples). In order to create “Russian” works, Mucha made a trip to Russia in the year of celebrating the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty (1913). The artist met St. Petersburg and Moscow.

In 1936 he published his memoirs. After the German invasion of Czechoslovakia (1939), the Gestapo was one of the first to arrest Alphonse Mucha. His last work was “The Oath of the Unification of the Slavs” (1939). The artist died on July 14, 1939, and was buried at the Vysehrad cemetery in Prague. In 1998, the Alphonse Mucha Museum was opened in the Czech capital. It is interesting that Alphonse Mucha himself denied in every possible way his closeness to modernity. For him, belonging to any style in art means losing his own individuality. He didn't want to be remembered only as a master of "beautiful things." He called the “Slavic epic” the main work of his life. And yet, Alphonse Mucha remains in the history of art as an artist of the Art Nouveau era.

In May 2012, a series of paintings donated to Prague by the artist Alphonse Maria was returned to the capital of the Czech Republic. Twenty paintings returned to Prague after a long dispute with the authorities of the city of Moravský Krumlov. “Slavic Epic” (Slovanská epopej), to which the master devoted almost 15 years of his life, is recognized as a cultural monument - therefore, the fate of the works was determined by a special commission […]

In May 2012, a series of paintings donated to Prague by the artist was returned to the capital of the Czech Republic. Alphonse Mucha (Mucha Alphonse Maria). Twenty paintings returned to Prague after a long dispute with the city authorities Moravian Krumlov. “Slavic epic” (Slovanská epopej), to which the master devoted almost 15 years of his life, is recognized as a cultural monument - therefore, the fate of the works was determined by a special commission of the Czech Ministry of Culture.

The canvases from the “Slavic Epic” cycle are grandiose, they amaze with their size. Next to these monumental paintings, people seem small - apparently this is the feeling the author of the works wanted to evoke in the viewer.

Epic triptych “The Magic of the Word” – “Milic from Kroměříže”, “Sermon of Jan Hus in the Bethlehem Chapel”, “Meeting at Křízki” (Triptych Kouzlo slova – Milíč z Kroměříže, Kázání Mistra Jana Husa, Schůzka na Křížkách)

Throughout his life, Mucha was known as an artist of the Art Nouveau era. In his historical cycle, he first appears as a romantic painter. These paintings are painted in an academic manner, different from most of Mucha's previous works, executed in his characteristic ornamental flat style.

The “Slavic Epic” cycle tells the story of the history of the Slavic peoples and many important events that prove their unity and common roots. In the plots of these paintings, the viewer sees events of religious and cultural significance, battle scenes and historical episodes from the life of Czechs, Russians, Poles, and Bulgarians.

Four of the twenty paintings are dedicated to the history of the Hussite church. Canvas “Brotherly School in Ivančicích” (Bratrská škola v Ivančicích) depicts the process of creating the first Czech Bible in the native language (the action takes place in Mucha’s hometown).

One can blame Alphonse Mucha for “pulling” the plots towards exclusively Czech history. However, critics also condemned the creator for his pan-Slavism - purposeful adherence to the idea of unifying the Slavic peoples. He was looking for the idea of unity of the Slavs, and it was reflected in the culmination of the “Slavic Epic” - the canvas “After the Battle of Grunwald” (Po bitvě u Grunwaldu)(1924). This battle (also called the “Battle of Tannenberg”) took place in 1410. The united army of the Slavs then defeated the knights of the Teutonic Order.

Today only historians remember the event, and the picture is perceived by the audience not as an epoch-making event, but as a reflection of the creator’s mood. This is suffering incarnate: the corpses of warriors, a dead horse in the foreground, a battlefield flooded with blood and bright light.

Canvas “Slavs in their ancestral homeland” (Slované v pravlasti)(1912) is called utopian - for many years the Slavs did not have any common homeland. Some people see mysticism and melancholy in this picture, while others see it as an anticipation of a storm. Artists' dreams often turn into works of art. Alphonse Mucha’s dream come true about the unity of the Slavs is relevant for each of us.

“Abolition of serfdom in Russia” (Zrušení nevolnictví na Rusi)

Paris

The Luxembourg Museum in Paris has opened an exhibition of the famous Czech artist Alphonse Maria Mucha, one of the leaders of the Art Nouveau movement, which in different countries is called Art Nouveau, Jugendstil, Liberty or Tiffany. The exhibition features about two hundred works by the painter, who was also a decorator, designer, sculptor, poster artist, photographer, mystical philosopher, freemason and teacher.

Mucha's decorative works enjoyed enormous success all over the world. He designed interiors, worked for famous jewelers, illustrated books and magazines, painted labels and vignettes, invented advertising for chocolate, champagne, soap, biscuits, bicycles, etc. All this was replicated in thousands of copies around the world.

The visionary artist saw a special mission, the curators of the Paris retrospective emphasize, in uniting the Slavic peoples. He believed that their unification in the interests of all humanity would be helped by art that had common Byzantine roots. One of the main sections of the current exhibition is “Mukha - Patriot”. “An artist,” he said, “must remain faithful to his national roots.”

The master considered the “Slavic Epic” - a large-scale cycle of twenty paintings - to be perhaps his highest creative achievement. They depict the most important, from his point of view, episodes in the history of the Slavs of different countries. The central canvas, “Abolition of Serfdom in Rus',” largely repeats Surikov’s “Morning of the Streltsy Execution” compositionally. It is curious that this grandiose project was financed by the American millionaire entrepreneur Charles Crane.

A native of the small town of Ivančice in Moravia, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Mucha studied in Vienna, Munich and then Paris. In these cities - and then in New York - he stood at the origins of Slavic associations, societies and clubs.

In Paris, Mucha joined the “Salon of a Hundred,” which gathered literary and artistic bohemia - Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Mallarmé, Verlaine, and the inventors of cinema, the Lumiere brothers. For some time he shared his Parisian studio with the penniless Paul Gauguin, who had returned from Tahiti and was preparing an exhibition of his latest works. The same Gauguin and the famous Czech artist Frantisek Kupka sometimes served as models for Mucha.

Fame came to him overnight. In 1895, he wrote a poster for the great actress Sarah Bernhardt, who played in Victorien Sardou's play Gismonde at the Renaissance Theater. All of Paris was plastered with posters. Subsequently, Mucha for several years designed posters, costumes and scenery for the performances “Medea”, “The Lady of the Camellias”, “The Samaritan Woman”, “Tosca”, “Hamlet”, “Lorenzaccio”. His works, art critics argued, turned out to be a breath of fresh air for the Parisian scene.

Largely thanks to the brilliant designer, at the end of the 19th century in France, the poster took a central place in the fine arts. “I prefer to be a popular illustrator,” the painter emphasized, “rather than an apologist for art for art’s sake.” And during the years of rapid flowering of avant-garde movements in Europe, he invariably spoke out in defense of figurative painting.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the general public was dizzy by the so-called “Fly women.” As art critics note, in his works the artist reflected the Slavic type - languid, sensual, mysterious, exotic beauties, with a lush head of hair. They often symbolized art forms, seasons, zodiac signs or precious stones. Their popularity was also facilitated by the fact that in those years, France, as art historians recall, was swept by a wave of Slavophilism. Its culmination came with the visit to Paris in 1896 of the Russian monarch Nicholas II.

In Russia, the Czech master became widely known immediately after the first exhibition of his works in St. Petersburg in 1898. At the same time, the Volga Shipping Company entered into a contract with the French company Ruinart for advertising champagne, again invented by Alphonse Mucha.

The artist visited our country in 1913 on the eve of the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, collecting material for the “Slavic Epic”. At that time, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna Romanova supported the “Russian Orthodox Art Nouveau”, which was so in tune with the Czech artist. Mucha visited St. Petersburg and Moscow - the Tretyakov Gallery, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and visited his friend, the artist Leonid Pasternak, on the day when his son Boris celebrated the release of his poetry collection. In Russia, the guest was amazed that he saw his posters and posters everywhere.

According to eyewitnesses, he saw that the “primordial Russian spirit” had awakened in our country. Later, during the famine in Russia in the early 20s, he painted a poster painting Russia restituenda (“Russia will be reborn”) for the international society “Pomgol” (“Help to the Famine”). On it he depicted a young mother with a dying child in her arms.

After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany in March 1939, Mucha was included in the Gestapo lists as a “dangerous patriot-artist.” He was one of the first to be arrested; soon after interrogation, he fell ill with pneumonia and died on July 14, 1939, a few days short of his 79th birthday.

The Mucha Museum is the only museum in the world dedicated to the life and work of the famous representative of Art Nouveau art, Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939), opened in Prague on February 13, 1998.

The museum exhibition consists of seven sections:

Decorative panels; Parisian posters; "Documents décoratifs" ("Decorative documents"); Oil Paintings; Pencil and pastel drawings; Photographs and personal belongings of the artist.

The exhibition ends with a documentary about the life and work of Alphonse Mucha.

A number of exhibits are presented to the public for the first time, as they were previously kept in the private collection of the artist’s family.

Part I. Decorative panels

The Art Nouveau style, the brightest representative of which was Alphonse Mucha, required the creation of a decorative scheme for the design of objects, providing the possibility of repeating the pattern. Mucha's work is rooted in graphic images, divided into cycles in accordance with traditional motifs, most often from the natural world.

That is why Mucha called his first cycle of decorative panels (1896) “The Four Seasons.” Further very popular cycles of panels were created in a similar manner, in which variations of the theme are repeated two or four times. These include, for example, “Four Flowers” (1898) or “Four Times of Day” (1899), created during the full flowering of Mucha’s style. The stylized fusion of plants and beautiful women expressed a joyful view of life, very popular with the public at that time. These ideas emerge most expressively in the cycle “The Four Arts” (1898), performed in several techniques. It is here that the poetry of Mucha’s performances is especially pronounced.

"The Four Arts"

In this cycle, glorifying four genres of art, Mucha deliberately does not use traditional attributes - such as bird feathers, musical instruments or artist's brushes, but depicts each of the arts against the backdrop of a certain time of day: Dance - morning, Painting - noon, Poetry - evening , Music - night.

"Dance" (1898), "Painting" (1898), "Poetry" (1898), "Music" (1898)

"Four Times of Day"

The four female figures represent the four times of day. Each is depicted against a natural backdrop and compositionally placed in a frame with an intricate motif reminiscent of a Gothic window.

“Morning Awakening” (1899), “The Beauty of the Day” (1899), “Evening Dreams” (1899), “Night Rest” (1899)

"Four Flowers"

In this cycle, characterized by a more naturalistic interpretation, Mucha showed himself to be a sensitive and attentive observer of nature. The original watercolors of two flowers, "Carnation" and "Iris", were shown at Mucha's exhibition at the Salon des Cent as early as June 1897, and the full cycle appeared only a year later.

"Carnation" (1898), "Lily" (1898), "Rose" (1898), "Iris" (1898)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

Part II. Paris posters

The posters created by Mucha in the 90s of the 19th century in Paris are the most famous part of his creative heritage throughout the world. It was thanks to them that he established a new, his own decorative style. The most famous were the posters created for the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt, the first of which was presented in late 1894 - early 1895 and depicted the actress in the role of Gismonda. The differences in shapes and, most importantly, color concepts, which are obvious when comparing surviving sketches and test prints, emphasize how intensively Mucha searched for a new expression for this poster, and this despite the fact that it was a very urgent order. The significance of the artistic revolution he produced was that he brought aristocracy to the “noisy” Parisian “street salon” and emphasized the new role of the poster in modern art. At the same time, the dramatic atmosphere is also reflected in the posters created for Sarah Bernhardt (“Medea”, 1898). It is impossible not to pay special attention to the wide range of Mucha’s sketches: from delicate posters with a sophisticated style for artists (Salon des Cent, 1896, 1897) to purely commercial ones (“Job”, 1898, “Cassan Fils”, 1896). All of them are proof of Mucha’s extraordinary imagination and his most active visual form.

"Gismonda" (1894-1895)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

"Gismonda"

It was with this poster that the fame of Alphonse Mucha began. The story of its creation has become a legend, and many commentators have ruffled feathers over the twists and turns of the story. And Mucha himself, of course, saw the hand of fate in the circumstances preceding the appearance of the poster.

It all happened at Christmas 1894, when Mucha was editing the proofs at the Lemercier publishing house. Suddenly, Sarah Bernhardt called the publisher and asked to urgently produce a new poster for Gismonda. All of Lemercier's employees were on vacation, and the publisher had to turn to Mucha for help. It was impossible not to fulfill the request of the “divine Sarah”. The poster created by Mukha made a real revolution in this genre. The long and narrow shape, delicate pastel colors and the immobility of the almost life-size figure conveyed to the viewer feelings of extraordinary dignity and respect. The poster became so popular among the Parisian public that some collectors tried to buy it from posters or simply cut it off the poster stands at night.

Sarah Bernhardt was so delighted with the poster that she immediately offered Mucha a six-year contract to design theatrical sets, costumes and posters. At the same time, the artist signed an exclusive contract with the Champenois publishing house for the production of commercial and decorative posters.

"Gismonda", proof print

The first two prints of “Gismonda” are also of interest. The poster seemed too tall for the standard lithographic stone format, so it was believed that the print was made from two stones. But the proof print proves that only one stone was used. The rich pink and yellow tones suggest that Mucha originally intended to design the poster in bright colors, very popular at that time among Parisian artists such as Chéret and Toulouse-Lautrec. But during the work, Mucha decided to use softer pastel colors, so characteristic of the role of Gismonda.

"Lorenzaccio"

In Alfred de Musset's play Lorenzaccio, Sarah Bernhardt played the male role of Lorenzo de' Medici. The plot of the play takes place during the siege of Florence by the tyrant Alessandro, symbolically represented on the poster by a dragon who attacked the city's coat of arms. At the bottom of the poster is Lorenzo plotting to kill Alessandro.

"Medea"

Playwright Catullus Mendes reworked the classic play by Euripides especially for Sarah Bernhardt. The Greek hero Jason, until then perceived as an untouchable mythological ideal, is depicted as a cruel deceiver who, following the lead of his selfish desires and passions, betrays everyone who loved him. Thanks to this, Medea receives psychological justification for her terrible actions. In the poster, the lone figure represents the pinnacle of tragedy. The mosaic background and Greek letter “D” transport the play to Ancient Greece. Medea's gaze, full of horror, is directed at the shiny dagger in her hand, stained with the blood of her own children, whose bodies lie at her feet. It is worth paying attention to the unusually detailed hands and the bracelet in the shape of a snake. Mucha suggested a sketch of the bracelet while working on the poster, and Sarah Bernhardt liked it so much that she ordered both a bracelet and a ring with precious stones from the jeweler Georges Fouquet to appear on stage.

"Hamlet"

In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, which Eugene Marant and Marcel Schwob translated for Sarah Bernhardt, she played the leading male role. In the background, behind the central figure of Hamlet, the ghost of his murdered father can be seen walking along the walls of Elsinore. The drowned Ophelia lies among the flowers at Hamlet's feet. “Hamlet” was the last poster created by Mucha for Sarah Bernhardt.

"Lorenzaccio" (1896), "Medea" (1898), "Hamlet" (1899)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

"Job" (1898)
© Mucha Museum / Mucha Trust 2017

"Job"

Mucha wrote two advertising posters for Job cigarette paper. Both depict a woman with very thick hair, holding a cigarette, and cigarette smoke curling around her head. In the larger and later poster, the woman is positioned in a circle against a background with a repeating company logo.

"Zodiac"

One of Mucha’s most popular works, “Zodiac,” was created for the Champenois publishing house as a calendar for 1897. However, the editor-in-chief of La Plume magazine liked it so much that he acquired the copyright and released it as the magazine’s calendar for the same year. "Zodiac" was created in at least nine versions, including the one presented, which were printed without accompanying text as a decorative panel.

Part III. "Documents décoratifs" ("Decorative documents")

In 1902, under the title Documents décoratifs, Mucha published 72 works in pencil shaded with white as design options for use in art. Combining illusory naturalism and abstract decorative patterns, the collection contains a variety of ornamental and natural floral motifs, studies of women's heads and acts. Obviously, with a collection intended to create sketches of jewelry, furniture, dishes and countless other items related to the intimacy of the home, Mucha sought to demonstrate his rich experience as a decorator. Indeed, especially after his work on the World Exhibition in 1900 and the interior of Fouquet's jewelry store, he moved from working on a plane to working in space. He sought to create a comprehensive example of a new style. Although Art Nouveau art was already beginning to lose ground by that time, one cannot help but admire not only the skill of Mucha the draftsman, but also his ability to embrace with this style a whole world of objects, as if filled with the power of living nature.

Part IV. Czech posters

Returning to his homeland in 1910, Alphonse Mucha was finally able to satisfy his innermost desire to fully address his people in order to express their needs and ideals through art. Thus, a new cycle of posters was gradually formed, artistically different from those in Paris. Two main themes appear in it: the first is a new interpretation of folklore, emphasizing the colorfulness of Moravian costumes and the gentle type of Slavic girls (“Moravian Teachers’ Choir”, 1911), and the second is the holidays and rallies of the “Falcon” sports movement, which became a symbol in the 19th century national self-determination. But, at the same time, there are also posters that emphatically dramatically condemn the oppression of the Slavic peoples (“Lottery of National Unity”, 1912), or lyrical memories of Parisian motifs (“Princess Hyacinth”, 1911). In them, the ornament already gives way to the leading role of the melody of the lines.

"Princess Hyacinth"

The hyacinth motif is repeated here several times. It is on the embroidered dress and rich silver jewelry, and on the symbolic circle in the princess’s hand.

"Moravian Teachers' Choir"

The Moravian Teachers' Choir performed classical, popular and folk music, including songs written by composer Leos Janaczk. He performed not only in the Czech lands, but also toured Europe and America. The poster depicts a girl in national dress listening to singing. Her figure resembles the decorative panel “Music” from the “Four Arts” series.

"National Unity Lottery"

The poster reflected the popular spirit of protest against the Germanization of the country in the 19th century. The lottery was one of the ways to raise funds for teaching in Czech. The poster depicts the Czech Republic as the symbolic mother of the Czech people, sitting in despair on a dead tree. With one hand she hugs a wooden statue of the three-faced pagan god Svantovit, protector of the ancient Slavs. A schoolgirl with books and pencils looks reproachfully at the audience and waits for help for her education and for the sick Czech Republic.

Part V. Paintings

Although Mucha is best known for his drawings and graphic works, he also studied painting while studying at the Munich Academy of Arts. In the nineties of the 19th century, Mucha worked most of all on graphic commissions, and most of his painting works were portraits and portrait studies. At first, Mucha used tempera (“The Prophetess”, 1896) for allegorical large-format canvases, and only with the change in stylistic canons that occurred at the beginning of the 20th century and an appeal to the large theme of the painting cycle about the antiquity and history of the Slavs did he switch to using oil. The Mysterious Woman in the Steppe (also known as The Star, 1923) is a striking testament to Mucha's achievements in this genre. By combining realism and symbolism, Mucha went much further than simply following the tradition of painting on historical themes. Mucha discovered and fully developed this potential in the cycle of paintings “Slavic Epic”.

"Star"

Before starting work on this painting, depicting a Russian peasant woman humbly surrendering herself to an inexorable fate, Mucha created no less than four sketches. The painting, which is also called “Winter Night” and “Siberia,” expresses the depth of Mukha’s attitude towards Russia and its people. Mucha visited Russia in 1913, working on the painting “Abolition of serfdom in Rus'” - free labor is the basis of the state,” one of the canvases of the “Slavic Epic”. Although the photographs he took during this trip included many Russian peasant women like the heroine of “Stars,” it was his wife Maria who posed for Mucha’s painting. It is possible that Mucha created this painting under the influence of the terrible suffering that befell the Russian people as a result of the Bolshevik revolution. In 1918–1921, the country was plunged into the horror of civil war, followed by devastation and mass famine, as a result of which millions of people died in the Volga region.

Part VI. Drawings and pastels

The exhibition of drawings introduces visitors to the significant creative basis that Mucha’s work found in drawing. This applies not only to precise pencil sketches, but, most importantly, to drawings in which an unusually expressive texture often appears, as, for example, in the work “Window Design” (circa 1900).

Part VII. Workshop and photos

In the second half of the 19th century, in his Parisian workshop on the street Val-de-Grâce, Mucha created a wonderful series of photographs of his models. These images go much further than the traditional use of photography as a cheap tool for creating sketches, since they capture the unique atmosphere of the workshop - a very unique art world. It was in this workshop that Mucha received countless guests from among Parisian writers, artists and musicians, and the first films of the Lumiere brothers were shown here. The models are depicted in poses that Mucha often used on Art Nouveau posters, and in the background, in addition to the works of Mucha himself, various trinkets, souvenirs from the East, fabrics, books and furniture, partially preserved to this day, are visible. At the exhibition they are used to create a small image of the workshop. The photographs on display are reproductions printed from original glass plates.

The items presented in this part of the exhibition, photographs of his creative and family life, represent a cross-section of Mukha’s entire work. Of considerable interest is the drawing of eight-year-old Mucha (“Crucifixion”, 1868), indicating that even as a child the artist drew inspiration from folklore. Caricatures from his time studying in Munich and illustrations for French children's magazines are also interesting. The next group of exhibits relates to his decorative style of the nineties of the 19th century, here we see the breadth and diversity of the artist's interests - for example, a decorative dish (1897), a design for a vase or jewelry (circa 1900). Presented here is perhaps Mucha’s most ambitious project – the magnificent “The Lord’s Prayer” (“Le Pater”, 1899). The pathos of his execution is connected both with the expressive pastels presented at the exhibition and with Mucha’s only sculptural work, “Nude on a Rock” (1899). A newspaper clipping and a poster for Mucha's exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum (1921) are reminiscent of Mucha's trips to the United States. The later, patriotic creative stage is described by sketches for the interior of the Primate's Salon of the Municipal House in Prague (1910), famous designs of Czechoslovak banknotes or the design of a stained glass window for the Cathedral of St. Vita in Prague (1931). No less interesting are the medals offered by Mucha to the Czech Masonic Lodge.

“The Lord's Prayer” (“Le Pater”) – title page and next two pages

Alphonse Mucha considered The Lord's Prayer one of his best works. Published in Paris in an edition of 510 numbered copies (390 in French, 120 in Czech). The publisher is Henri Piazza, to whom Mucha dedicated this work.

Mucha himself wrote about the Lord’s Prayer: “At that time I saw that my path led to another place, somewhere higher. I was looking for something to illuminate the farthest corners. The search was short. Lord's Prayer. Why not express her words graphically?”

In The Lord's Prayer, Mucha divided the prayer itself into seven verses. Mucha devotes three pages to each verse. The first page contains a verse in Latin and French in a decorative composition of geometric and symbolic shapes. On the next page, Mucha places his commentary on the content of the verse, and the first colored letter resembles an initial letter from a medieval manuscript. The third page is devoted to Mucha's monochrome hand-drawn interpretation of the verse. These illustrations reflect the struggle of man on the path from darkness to light.