target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#_12.jpg"/>Cassan Fils
1896
Colour lithograph, 203.7 × 76 cm.
Mucha Trust.
Mucha’s born into relatively humble circumstances, as the son of a court usher. His own son, Jiri Mucha, would later proudly trace the presence of the Mucha family in the town of Ivancice back to the fifteenth century. If his family was poor, Mucha’s upbringing was nevertheless abundant with artistic stimulation and encouragement.
Self Portrait
1899
Oil on cardboard, 21 × 32 cm.
Mucha Museum, Prague.
According to his son Jiri, “He drew even before he learnt to walk and his mother would tie a pencil round his neck with a coloured ribbon so that he could draw as he crawled on the floor. Each time he lost the pencil, he would start howling.” His first important aesthetic experience would have been in the Baroque church of St. Peter in the local capital of Brno where, from the age of ten, he sang as a choir-boy in order to support his studies in the grammar school. During his four years as a chorister he came into frequent contact with Leoš Janácek, who would later come to be known as the greatest Czech composer of his generation with whom Mucha shared a passion to create a characteristically Czech art.
Poster for “Job” cigarette paper
1898
Colour lithograph, 149.2 × 101 cm.
Mucha Museum, Prague.
Poster advertising the Salon des Cent Exposition at the Hall de la Plume
1896
Colour lithograph, 64 × 43 cm.
Mucha Museum, Prague.
The luxurious theatricality of Central European Baroque with its lush curvilinear and nature-inspired decoration undoubtedly coloured his imagination and inspired a taste for “smells and bells” and religious paraphernalia that remained with him throughout his life. At the height of his fame, his studio was described as being like a “secular chapel… screens placed here and there, that could well be confessionals; and then incense burning all the time. It’s more like the chapel of an oriental monk than a studio.” While earning a living as a clerk, Mucha continued to indulge his love of drawing and in 1877 he gathered together his self-taught body of work and attempted unsuccessfully to enter the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.
Spring (from the Seasons series)
1896
Colour lithograph, 28 × 15 cm.
Mucha Museum, Prague.
Summer (from the Seasons series)
1896
Colour lithograph, 28 × 15 cm.
Mucha Museum, Prague.
After two more years of drudgery as a civil servant, he lost his job, according to Jiri Mucha, because he drew the portraits of a picturesque family of gypsies instead of taking down their particulars. In 1879 he spotted an advertisement in a Viennese newspaper for the firm of Kautsky-Brioschi-Burghardt, makers of theatrical scenery who were looking for designers and craftsmen.
Autumn (from the Seasons series)
1896
Colour lithograph, 28 × 15 cm.
Mucha Museum, Prague.
Mucha sent off examples of his work and this time he was successful and received an offer for a job.
As a country boy who had been no further than the picturesque (but still provincial) Prague, Vienna in 1879 must have looked awesomely grand.
Winter (from the Seasons series)
1896
Colour lithograph, 28 × 15 cm.
Mucha Museum, Prague.
It had recently undergone what was, after Haussmann’s Paris, the most impressive scheme of urban renewal of the nineteenth century. Each of the great public buildings lining the Ringstrasse, which replaced the old ramparts that had encircled the medieval town centre, was built in a historical style, deemed appropriate to its purpose.
Study for Zodiac
1896
Pencil, ink and watercolour on paper, 67 × 48 cm.
Mucha Museum, Prague.
The result was a grandiose architectural fancy-dress ball. The Art Nouveau style, of which Mucha would later become one of the most famous representatives, reacted directly against this kind of pompous wedding cake historicism. For the moment though, Mucha was deeply influenced by the showy and decorative art of Hans Mackart, the most successful Viennese painter of the Ringstrasse period.
Zodiac
1896
Colour lithograph, 67 × 48 cm.
Mucha Museum, Prague.
After barely two years, Mucha’s Viennese sojourn came to an abrupt end. On December 10th, 1881, the Ringtheater burnt down. In a century punctuated by terrible theatre fires, this was one of the worst, claiming the lives of over five hundred members of the audience. The Ringtheater was also one of the principal clients of the firm of Kautsky-Brioschi-Burghardt and in the aftermath of the disaster, Mucha lost his job.
Flower
1897
Colour lithograph, 66 × 44 cm.
Mucha Museum, Prague.
Mucha moved to the small town of Mikulov and fell back upon the time-honoured
