Alphonse Mucha, now thirty-eight employs his supple,…
1898 CE
His fascination with the sensuous aspects of female beauty—luxuriantly flowing strands of hair, heavy-lidded eyes, and full-lipped mouths—as well as his presentation of the female image as ornamental, reveal the influence of the English Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic on Mucha, particularly the work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
The sensuous bravura of the draftsmanship, particularly the use of twining, whiplash lines, imparts a strange refinement to his idealized female figures.
Czech illustrator and painter Alphonse Mucha, after early education in Brno, Moravia, and work for a theater scene-painting firm in Vienna, in the 1880s studied art in Prague, Munich, and Paris.
He first became prominent as the principal advertiser of the actress Sarah Bernhardt in Paris.
He designed the posters for several theatrical productions featuring Bernhardt, beginning with Gismonda (1894), and he designed sets and costumes for her as well.
Mucha designs many other posters and magazine illustrations, becoming one of the foremost designers in the Art Nouveau style.
Images
Alphonse Mucha: Series The Flower, "Carnation" (1898); color lithograph 103.5 x 43.5 cm; Mucha Foundation.
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