1860 – 1939 · poster lithography, graphic design, decorative panneaux
Alphonse Mucha
Near-life-length women with flowing Byzantine hair framed by arcs of ornamental lettering and mosaic halos.
The record
Moravian-born Alphonse Mucha reached Paris in 1887 and broke through overnight with the Gismonda poster for Sarah Bernhardt at Christmas 1894, signing exclusive contracts with her and then with the printer Ferdinand Champenois.
His long-haired, halo-framed women defined the movement's look so thoroughly that contemporaries called it 'le style Mucha'.
He later devoted himself to Czech themes and the twenty-painting Slav Epic, dying in Prague on 14 July 1939 shortly after interrogation by the Gestapo.
Near-life-length women with flowing Byzantine hair framed by arcs of ornamental lettering and mosaic halos.