Cotton Backed Tapestry Wall Hanging with Full Width Hanging Rod Sleeve Finished Size : 60 x 28, 152cm x 71cm (approx.) Jacquard Woven & Hand Finished in Flanders, Belgium Composition : 55% Cotton, 45% Polyester Backing Colour : Beige/Taupe plain 100% cotton Reproduction based on the original, being an 1896 coloured lithograph by Alphonse Mucha (1860 - 1939) who was a Czech painter, illustrator & graphic artist. Mucha lived in Paris during the Art Nouveau period & became best known for his distinctly stylised & decorative theatrical posters which captured the imagination of fin de sicle/end of century Paris. Mucha’s stylised depiction of beautiful women endure as a symbol of the Belle poque era. Alphonse Maria Mucha was born in the town of Ivancice, Moravia (today’s region of Czech Republic). His singing abilities allowed him to continue his education through high school in the Moravian capital of Brnn (today Brno), even though drawing had been his first love since childhood. He worked at decorative painting jobs in Moravia, mostly painting theatrical scenery, then in 1879 moved to Vienna to work for a leading Viennese theatrical design company, while informally furthering his artistic education. When a fire destroyed his employer’s business in 1881 he returned to Moravia, doing freelance decorative & portrait painting. Count Karl Khuen of Mikulov hired Mucha to decorate Hruovany Emmahof Castle with murals, & was impressed enough that he agreed to sponsor Mucha’s formal training at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Mucha moved to Paris in 1887, & continued his studies at Acadmie Julian & Acadmie Colarossi while also producing magazine & advertising illustrations. Around Christmas 1894, Mucha happened to drop into a print shop where there was a sudden & unexpected demand for a new poster to advertise a play starring Sarah Bernhardt, the most famous actress in Paris, at the Thtre de la Renaissance on the Boulevard Saint-Martin. Mucha volunteered to produce a lithographed poster within two weeks, & on 1 January 1895, the advertisement for the play Gismonda by Victorien Sardou appeared on the streets of the city. It was an overnight sensation & announced the new artistic style & its creator to the citizens of Paris. Bernhardt was so satisfied with the success of that first poster that she entered into a 6 years contract with Mucha. Mucha produced a flurry of paintings, posters, advertisements, & book illustrations, as well as designs for jewellery, carpets, wallpaper, & theatre sets in what was initially called the Mucha Style but became known as Art Nouveau (French for ’new art’). Mucha’s works frequently featured beautiful healthy young women in flowing vaguely Neoclassical looking robes, often surrounded by lush flowers which sometimes formed haloes behind the women’s heads. in contrast with contemporary poster makers he used paler pastel colors. The 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris spread the Mucha style internationally, of
