ALPHONSE MARIA MUCHA PAINTINGS FOR SALE & BIOGRAPHY

ALPHONSE MARIA MUCHA

Czech, 1860-1939

BIOGRAPHY
Alphonse Maria Mucha is "most often remembered,” according to the biography published by the website of the Mucha Museum in Prague, "for the prominent role he played in shaping the aesthetics of French Art Nouveau at the turn of the century. As a struggling and relatively unknown artist of Czech origin living in Paris, Mucha achieved immediate fame when, in December 1894, he accepted a commission to create a poster for one of the greatest actresses of the time, Sarah Bernhardt. Though the printer was apprehensive about submitting Mucha´s final design because of its new unconventional style, Bernhardt loved it and so did the public. ´Le style Mucha´, as Art Nouveau was known in its earliest days, was born. The success of that first poster brought a six-year contract between Bernhardt and Mucha and in the following years his work for her and others included costumes and stage decorations, designs for magazines and book covers, jewellery and furniture and numerous posters. Mucha returned to Czechoslovakia in 1910, where he dedicated the remainder of his life to the production of an epic series of 20 monumental paintings depicting the history of the Slav people, The Slav Epic.”

Museum Collections:
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Driehaus Museum, Chicago, IL
Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco, CA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Moravian Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic
Mucha Museum, Prague
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Museum of Modern Art, New York
National Gallery (Veletrní Palace), Prague
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
The Jewish Museum, New York
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA

Mark Murray Fine Paintings is a New York gallery specializing in buying and selling 19th century and early 20th century artwork.