Alphonse Mucha was born on July 24th, 1860 in Ivančice, a small town in the South Moravian region of the Czech Republic.
Alphonse Mucha worked as a set painter in Vienna until 1881, when the Ring Theater burned down. Luckily, his illustrations got his name around high society, and he began painting portraits.
In 1882, Mucha took a trip to Italy with friend and fellow painter Count Egon. They visited Venice, Florence, Bologna, and Milan!
Mucha studied painting at the Munich Academy of Arts from 1885-1887. Munich and Paris were the ultimate hotspots for artists. He contributed illustrations to many magazines during this period, such as L’Illustration.
In 1887, Mucha moved to Paris! He joined the Académie Colarossi, an alternative to the more traditional École des Beauz Arts. His painter friends, the “Nabis,” believed it was for squares.
His big break: in 1894 the artists usually hired to design theater posters were out of town. Mucha was commissioned to design the poster for Gismonda at the Theatre de la Renaissance and his design was so popular, the posters got stolen from the walls!
Mucha’s career set off and he moved to a hot new studio.
From 1898 to 1900, Mucha’s work reached Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Munich, Brussels, London, New York, and other important cities. So he basically went viral.
Mucha traveled through the Balkans in 1899 while researching decorations for the Exposition Universelle in Bosnia. This trip inspired Mucha to create the Slav Epic.
From 1904 – 1909, Mucha was quite the jetsetter. He visited the United States five times gathering resources for the Slav Epic, which would take almost twenty years to finish!
In 1906, Mucha took a break from painting to get hitched to Maruška Chytilová. They honeymooned in South Bohemia. In 1928, Mucha presented Slav Epic in Czechoslovakia to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of its recognition as a nation. Represent!
(Timeline courtesy of the Mucha Foundation)
