The Art Nouveau Style Book of Alphonse Mucha Mediafire
The Dutch Museum of Lithography is presenting a spectacular exhibition about i of my favorite artists: Alphonse Mucha. For the showtime time in more 15 years a large overview of his piece of work can be seen in holland.
Plate 5 from Documents Décoratifs, 1901
Originally the exhibition was supposed to open on the 21th of March 2020, merely due to the Corona-pandemic and the mandatory closure of all museums, doors remained closed until the 2nd of June. Museums in The Netherlands can now be visited over again, providing you accept bought your tickets beforehand online and reserved your timeslot.
During the closure though, the museum did everything in its power to share as much of the beautiful exhibition as was technically possible. Subscribers to their newsletter received regular updates with groundwork information well-nigh sure art works. An Audio Guide was published on IZI.travel allowing for visitors to 'see' office of the exhibition online, and the catalogue could be ordered from the website in accelerate.
Princezna Hyacinta, 1911
Alphonse Mucha, and the myth of his 1894 Gismonda Poster
Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) studied Fine Art at the Art Academy of Munich and the University Julian in Paris. He wanted to exist an academic painter. But when his sponsor stopped financing his teaching, Mucha was forced to make a living for himself. He endured years of poverty, and survived primarily past working as a poorly paid illustrator for magazines. Past 1900 though, he had created his own style in cosmopolitan Paris. Le Style Mucha became synonymous with French Fine art Nouveau, and elevated the status of poster art to fine fine art.
Although Mucha had been working in Paris for quite a few years, his innovative lithograph for the play Gismonda made him instantly famous. The play starred Parisian actress Sarah Bernhardt. And the poster immediately became the object of desire to collectors, many of whom used cloak-and-dagger methods to obtain one, either bribing bill stickers or cutting them out from the hoardings at night.
Imagine there were no cinemas, no television sets; actors reached only a narrow circle of spectators. 1 had to be physically present at a performance to meet the actor. For the residuum of the people, the actor's fine art remained a shimmering legend, inscrutable, and awe-inspiring like the lives of monarchs. Sarah, thanks to her posters, emerged from the inaccessible twilight of the theatre into the streets, for the beginning time in full view of the admiring crowd that would never have been able to see her in reality. And she loved it. Sarah Bernhardt immediately contracted Mucha for half dozen years request him to pattern not only her posters, but as well her phase and costume designs, her jewellery, programs and so on. To earn more than money, Bernhardt set aside a certain number of printed posters of each play to sell to collectors.
So what did Mucha practise that brought him this 6-yr contract… and eternal fame? Well, he created a poster of Sarah in life-size. Most posters that were created in those days had a certain size and format, limited of form by the size of the lithographic stone. And the maximum size of such a stone was 180 10 120 cm. Simply the Gismonda poster is 216 ten 75 cm. To reach that lenghth, Mucha is said to have used the size of his (smaller) stone in a very creative mode: he created a print that had to be cutting in one-half and glued back together on the other side, making the resulting poster twice equally tall. At least, that is what we read in all the books nigh this affiche.
Rare uncut print of the Gismonda Poster, 1894
But in that location is something strange most this story. As Mucha later described information technology, on the 26th of December Bernhardt phoned her publisher Lemercier ordering a new poster. Bernardt decided to accept a poster made to advertise the prolongation of her play later the Christmas break and insisted the affiche be ready by the 1st of Jan 1895. Because of the holidays though, none of the regular Lemercier artists were available. Mucha happened to be at the publishing house correcting proofs, and that is how he got asked to do the poster… he was the simply creative person bachelor.
According to his son Jiri, Mucha wrote in his memoirs …
As there was fiddling fourth dimension left, I decided to do the poster in two parts. First I drew the upper part on i stone, and while this was being printed, I drew the lower part on another stone.
And so that would mean he did nót have the poster printed with a unmarried rock, simply with two stones. Nonetheless, on its website the Mucha museum in Prague states that they have establish prove both parts of the affiche were printed using a single stone.
I judge nosotros will never know the truth. But ever since I learned that the Japanese glued two standard size woodblock prints on top of each other in order to create a gyre like poster, or printed more one scroll at the same time with only one woodblock (I wrote about that discovery hither), I had hoped to discover prove that this Japanese practise was what had inspired Mucha. And that he was the one who had 'invented' a like creative use of the lithographic stone. I would accept loved to give him credit for that invention.
Unfortunately, the managing director of the Dutch Museum of Lithography Maarten Kentgens told me that Jules Chéret (1836-1932) already applied this method for his 'live-size' posters as early as 1889. 5 years before Mucha used the trick, íf that is what he did at all. So at that place goes my theory…
Besides its long and narrow shape, Mucha's affiche had other features that made it so dramatically dissimilar. Unlike the typically bright-coloured posters of the time, like the ones nosotros know from Cheret and Toulouse-Lautrec for instance, Mucha used delicate shades of violet, pinkish, green, brown and gold. Red, yellow and blue were the nearly mutual colours used in posters in those days, and it was the very absenteeism of these colours that created the entirely new impression.
Mucha's other lithographic work
After the success with the Bernhardt posters, Mucha increasingly received commissions from well-known Parisian printers (such as Lemercier and Champenois) for advertising posters. Champenois also contracted Mucha to create a new type of product: a decorative console, a poster without text, purely for decoration. They were published in large print runs for a modest price. On top of that his work regularly appeared in magazines, such as Les Maîtres de l'Affiche, published by Jules Chéret who was known as the father of the modern affiche. Mucha was convinced about the fact that people should be surrounded by art, and lithography made that possible.
Mucha also wrote and illustrated books like Le Pater (1899), which he himself regarded equally his manifesto, and an important handbook for his students and boyfriend artists entitled Documents Décoratifs (1901). Schools and libraries all over Europe purchased this book every bit information technology was considered a unique fashion-guide. It including examples of Mucha's posters, decorative panels, piece of furniture and jewellery designs, glass and ceramic designs etc. Just besides examples of his floral decorations, of animals and fonts.
Likewise the famous Gismonda poster, the Dutch Museum of Lithography showcases a complete volume of Documents Décoratifs, too equally a copy of its counterpart Figures Décoratives (1905). Simply they have so much more than, showing how versatile Mucha really was: tin can decorations, wrapping newspaper, volume covers, book plates, music scores, masonic medals, calendars, menu'south, photos, advertisement posters… I guess there is but ane thing yous can do at present: book a ticket and go see the exhibition yourself! It should be a delight after months of COVID-confinement.
And for those who are unable to visit this exhibition in person due to the lock-downs, the museum has fabricated the complete exhibition available online: click here.
@ The Dutch Museum of Lithography
As mentioned earlier, the museum has published a catalogue about the exhibition which can be purchased online from their website. The hardcover volume (64 pages) is written in Dutch by curator Lisette Almering and includes chapters nearly Mucha'southward life and different facets of his work. Information technology also includes a complete catalogue of the exhibited artworks. You can social club the catalogue for a rediculously low price of € vii,fifty online here.
N.B. On 10 June 2020, World Art Nouveau Twenty-four hours, the museum is presenting every fifth visitor with a costless copy of the catalogue!
Alphonse Mucha, Master of the Art Nouveau
ii June 2020 – 27 September 2020 extended to 18 Apr 2021
Nederlands Steendrukmuseum in Valkenswaard
Continue Reading:
Eindhovens Dagblad: Alphonse Mucha: de Tsjechische aanvoerder van de Art Nouveau
Visit Brabant: Alphonse Mucha, Meester van de Art Nouveau
Download the Exhibition Poster here (PDF)
IZI.travel Audio Guide to the exhibition (Dutch just)
Museum TV (Dutch simply)
De Kunsthal – Alphonse Mucha Exhibition 2004 (Dutch only)
How Posters Were Made
The Mucha Foundation
The Mucha Museum (in Prague)
Prints in Paris 1900: From Elite to the Street
Kachō-ga. The Poetry of Japanese Nature
Source: https://aboutartnouveau.wordpress.com/2020/06/07/alphonse-mucha-master-of-the-art-nouveau/