by Camilo Cañaveral Alzate 1º ESO A, IES “V. Cañada Blanch" London, 2009-2010

1. The Art Nouveau creator. Alphonse Mucha

2. History Alphonse Mucha was born in 1960, in Ivancice, a little town near the city of Brno in the modern Czech Republic He studied music, but one day he looked at the church art carefully and decided to be a painter.

3. Ivancice

4. History Like every artist in those times Mucha ended up in Paris in 1887. He studied in the Academie Julien. He was a 27 year old man with no money or prospects.

5. Paris

6. History For five years he lived in a Cremeire, drawing illustrations for popular magazines, getting gravely ill, living on lentils and borrowing money.

7. Life in Paris

8. History But at that time art was flourishing and Mucha began to make more money. He shared a studio and gave art lessons in the Cremeire. All the while he was planning his own theories and precepts of what he wanted his art to be.

9. A photograph of Mucha

10. History On January 1st 1895, he presented his new style to the citizens of Paris, creating a poster for Sarah Bernhardt’s play, Gismona, which was the declaration of his new art.

11. Gismonda poster

12. History Art Nouveau (New art in French) was created at this time. Mucha was famous for creating champagne, chocolate, biscuit, etc. advertisements. His art was based on a strong composition, sensuous curves from nature, refined decorative elements and natural colours.

13. Art Nouveau style

14. History Sarah Bernhardt, a very famous ballet dancer, signed him to a six year contract to design her posters and sets and costumes for her plays. In 1898 He started to published graphics for postcards and pannels.

15. Sarah Bernhardt

16. History In 1900 he created some jewels based on his designs. His fame spread around the world really easily, he made several trips to America and his illustrations were published in many U.S. magazines.

17. Mucha’s bracelet

18. History Mucha was a strong patriot of his Czech homeland and considered his success a triumph for the Czech people. He began to plan out The Slav Epic -a series of great paintings showing the major events in the Slav nation. He spent 18 years of his life doing this. The result was twenty massive paintings which were the spirit of the Slavic people.

19. A piece of the Slav Epic

20. History When he went to Prague after the World War I finished, everything had changed and Moravia was now part of Czechoslovakia. He offered himself to help the new state, but his art was now old fashioned. His art works were driven to a political place to save them.

21. Art storage

22. History His works were opened to the public some years later at the Moravsky Krumlov Castle.

23. Moravsky Krumlov Castle

24. History But the rest of Mucha’s life was spent as an anachronism. His work was still beautiful and popular, it just was no longer new. When the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia, he was arrested.

25. Arrested by the Germans

26. History He returned home after a questioning session and died shortly after on July 14, at the age of 79.

28. Art Works

29. Art Works

30. Art Works

31. Art Works

32. The End By Camilo Canaveral Alzate. 1 ESO A 1/2/2010