Alphonse Marie Mucha, who painted these art nouveau panels, was born in Moravia in 1860 and began drawing very early in his life. Like so many aspiring artists of the day, he made his way to Paris, arriving in the late 1880's. As he arrived, the relatively new color printing process, chromolithography, was emerging. The technical possibilities it offered allowed a flowering of new poster designs and they were emerging as the most popular art form of the day.

In early 1895 Mucha designed a poster entitled "Gismonda" for the famous actress, Sarah Bernhardt. The actress was so delighted with his work that he was given a 6 year contract to design all of her theater posters, decorations, and costumes. His style became the symbol of the Art Nouveau, or New Art style, which had been emerging around the turn of the 20th Century.

Mucha's images of femmes fleurs -- women with abundant flowing tresses -- such as are used in these drawings, were reproduced as calendars, postcards, posters, and the more expensive "panneaux decoratifs" (decorative panels), which were printed without type on fabric or better grades of paper.

Mucha's published works appeared on covers and the insides of United States magazines as his fame spread around the world. In response to his fame he returned home to paint murals for the Lord Mayor's Hall in Prague in 1909. He took 18 years to create 20 huge canvases, "The Slav Epic," which depicts major events in the Slav nation.

Mucha died in 1939, shortly after the German Nazis took over Czechoslovakia.

Medium : 1 print (poster) : color

Created/Published : Chicago, Ill. : Osgood Art Colortype Co., between 1880 and 1910

Creator : Alphonse Marie Mucha, 1860-1939, artist

Housed in the Prints & Photographs Division of the Library of Congress

Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 weeks.

Product #: fourpaneacde