Born Alfons
Maria Mucha,
July 24, 1860, in Ivancice,
Moravia,
Austrian Empire (now
Czech Republic),
d.
July 14, 1939,
Prague,
Czech.
Art Nouveau painter,
designer and
poster artist.
Mucha's work is among the most recognizable from the
Art Nouveau movement of the late
1800s-early
1900s. His speciality was
the female form;
beautiful and
sensual women figure centrally in his most famous works,
gloriously nude, or draped in
diaphanous cloth, and surrounded by fabulous
swirling long hair.
Sarah Bernhardt was his most famous
subject, appearing in the well-known
Medea poster, among others.
His work regained popularity in the
1960s, and his
posters have been in constant
reprinting since then. In the
1990s-
2000s, Mucha's work shows up in everything from
postcard books to
greeting cards. Numerous collections of his work are
in print, and his influence is plain as far away as
Japan, where several prominent
mangaka go so far as to copy his
layouts and
poses. (see
Kousuke Fujishima's "
zodiac series" of
Oh! My Goddess paintings)