Photo: archive of Alfons Maria Mucha
Alfons Maria Mucha was born on 24 July 1860 in Ivančice in the family of Ondřej Mucha, a court servant. From 1871 to 1876 he studied at the grammar school in Brno, but was expelled for poor grades and idleness. Then, on his father's intercession, he worked as an assistant scribe at the court in Ivančice. In 1878 he was refused admission to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague because he had not completed his secondary education, so he went to Vienna, where he worked in the theatre decoration workshop of the Kautský-Brioschi-Burckhardt company. He also attended evening drawing courses with Hans Makart.
In 1882 he returned to Moravia - to Mikulov. Here he worked as an assistant to a room painter and earned extra money by portraying Mikulov royalty. His talent was noticed by Count Khuen-Belassi. Mucha worked for him on the decoration of the chateau in Hrušovany, and then allowed him to study further at the academies in Munich and Paris.
In 1887 he began his studies at the Julian Academy, in 1889 he transferred to the Colarossi Academy in Paris and then Count Khuen-Belassi terminated his financial support. He then began to work primarily as an illustrator.
At Christmas 1894, Alfons Mucha accepted a commission to create a poster for a new play Gismond by the famous Parisian actress Sarah Bernhardt, and he became famous too. He worked very closely with Sarah for several years, creating posters for individual plays, as well as designing costumes, jewellery and sets for her.
Thanks to his work in Paris, Alfons Mucha became one of the leading representatives of the new art style - Art Nouveau. While still in Paris, he met Marie Chytilová. In 1904 he travelled to the United States for the first time, making three trips in total. In 1906 he married Marie, and on 15 March 1909 their daughter Jaroslava was born.
In the United States he organized drawing courses and also tried to find the resources needed to create the Slavic Epic. Eventually, Charles Richard Crane, a Chicago industrialist and millionaire, became enthusiastic about his idea and promised to finance his project. In 1910 Alfons Mucha returned to his homeland, rented a part of the Zbiroh castle and painted the Slavonic Epic there for 18 years.
In 1918-1919, Mucha interrupted his work on the Slav Epic and designed stamps, banknotes and the state emblem for the newly emerging Czechoslovak Republic.
In 1919 he exhibited the first 11 canvases of the epic in Prague's Klementinum. In 1928, Alfons Mucha, together with Charles Crane, ceremoniously handed over all 20 paintings of the Slavic Epic to the Czechoslovak people. However, the people were not an institution, so he handed the paintings over to the capital city of Prague.
In 1931 he designed the stained glass window for the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague's Hradčany.
From 1936-1938 he stayed in France, then returned to Czechoslovakia.On 16 March 1939 he was arrested and subsequently interrogated by the Gestapo. His stay in prison undermined his fragile health and he died of pneumonia on 14 July 1939. The Gestapo forbade a public burial, and he is buried at Slavín.
Vite App/Jana Černá_07
https://mk-epopej-pruvodce.netlify.app/dospely/mucha
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