Alphonse Mucha is undoubtedly my favorite artist.
After seeing recreations of his beautiful depictions of women in flowing gowns and halos of flowers inspired my passion in art as a child. Needless to say, I’ve spent hours looking at his work.
Until recently however, I had never spent much time considering his personal life. Merely entranced by his art, never had I stopped to consider what possible meanings could be entrapped in the beautiful lithographs and paintings.
Unbeknownst to myself and many perusers of his art, Mucha was a political activist who heavily imbued his work with political messages and used his art in his activism throughout his life.
Alphonse Mucha was born on July 24, 1860 in what was then an area known as south Moravia, but what we would conceptualize as the Czech republic today. Born the child of a governess and a court usher, Alphonse was first able to continue his education beyond high school thanks to an innate singing ability. At school he took up drawing and developed a passion for the physical medium and upon graduation began painting around Moravia, especially focusing his work on theatrical production’s backdrops.
Mucha ultimately caught his big break in the art world when on happenstance, he landed a major deal portraying a prominent actress at the time in a poster for her upcoming movie. The poster was so beautiful and so popular that they had to be replaced almost nightly when random men and women with pocket knives handy cut down the posters to be taken home.
Launched onto the European art scene, Mucha began to produce works for different actors and actresses and companies across not only his home country, but abroad as well. He toured Paris and the United States through the height of his career.
Where Mucha’s activism comes in is his deep allegiance to the formation and democratization of Czechoslovakia. Especially prevalent in pieces such as “Woman with a Burning Candle” and “The Slav Epic,” Mucha attempted to convey a feeling of empowerment and pride in a nation he saw form right before his eyes and then begin to fall to the rising tide of nazism sweeping Europe.
Given his very public stance on the issue, merely a day after his city of residence, Prague, was stormed by Nazi’s, Mucha was taken into custody by the Gustapo. Alphonse Mucha, who was at the time 79, was subjected to weeks of questioning and torture on grounds of him being a judophile and a freemason. During his stint with the Gustapo, the aged man contracted pneumonia. Upon his release he lost his battle to the illness and died on July 14, 1939.
His work “The Slav Epic” was seen as so controversial, it was one of the pieces hidden away by the Nazi’s and was only uncovered and returned to its rightful place in Prague in 2010.
Mucha’s story is one of creativity and a passion for change. Even in the face of adversity, this man held to his beliefs and ultimately, despite paying for his beliefs with his life, he never saw his true dream realized. However, he did create beauty beyond what was on the canvas, he created beautiful change in real life and that is what one should take from the life of Alphonse Mucha.
SOURCES
https:/www.private-prague-guide.com/article/alphonse-mucha-czech-decorative-artist-and-king-of-the-art-nouveau/
https://www.alfonsmucha.org/biography.html