Re Porter (R.P.) Alphonse Mucha (A.M.)
R.P.: So before we got into the interview, let me just say, I'm a big fan of your art!
A.M.: Děkuji, děkuji, that means so much to me.
R.P.: Of course! So Alphonse, if I may call you that, how about you start by telling us where you were born and a little about your family.
A.M.: I was born on July 24,1860 in a South Moravian town under the Austrian administration called Ivančice. (Timeline) It was also home to people like Jan Blahoslav and Vladimír Menšík and .I lived in the Age of New Imperialism, and was born at the height of Czech National Revival. I grew up to become very passionate about the czech nation. (Ivančice)
My mother Amalie was a governess in Vienna, and my father, Ondrei or Andreas in English, was a court usher. He had been married before and in his previous relationship, had two daughters, my half sisters, and later he had two more daughters with my mother named Angela and Anna. (Timeline)
R.P.: That's quite a family! Your parents must have had a great liken to names that start with "A"! So what events in your early life made you get interested in the arts?
A.M.: I had a hobby of drawing when I was you he but I spent my time as a choirboy and musician. The Petrov church even gave me a choral scholarship to attend the Gymnázium Slovanské secondary school in Brno. I was 12. There at the school I met the deputy choirmaster, Leoš Janáček, who wasn't yet a composer. Unfortunately, because of my academic performance, I was expelled. (Timeline)
But later, as I was coming back home, I went to a local church. There I found a painting that helped me to realize that an artist can make a living off of doing art. This influenced my decision of becoming a professional artist. From then on, drawing was no longer my hobby, but my career. (Timeline)
R.P.: and what roles did mentors play in helping you develop interests and talents as an artist?
A.M.: When I was 19, I worked at Vienna's Kautsky-Brioschi-Burghardt theater design company after my application was accepted to become an apprentice. I painted sets for the company's clients. I even enrolled in evening art classes and Hans Makart, an Austrian artist, starts to spark my interests. But in 1881, the company lost one of its most important clients, the Ring Theatre. It was destroyed in a fire and nearly 400 people lost their lives. Because of a financial loss for the theater design company, I returned to Moravia when I lost my job along with many other people who worked there. (Timeline)
I left Moravia and went to Mlikulov where I painted portraits of people in society. There, landowner Count Karl Kurn- Belasi became interested in my work and realized my talent and commissioned me to paint a decorative scheme for Emmahof Castle, the Counts main home. Then I was commissioned by Egon, the Counts brother. He also had me do a scheme for his residence, Gandegg Castle in Tyrol. Count Karl Khuen-Belasi helped me become trained in art in Munich and Paris. He also came with me to Italy. The Count was a great moral authority for me and played a big part in getting my artistic achievements. I also met August Strindberg, a Swedish dramatist and writer who often come to Madame Charlotte's Crémerie, the café that I was living above during part of my time in Paris. He introduced me to Mysticism and Occultism that had a great impact on me. (Timeline)
R.P.: what was the world of art like in your particular art field when you entered it?
A.M.: Around when I resolved to become an artist, Impressionism began in 1874 when the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, etc that included great artists of the time, like Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro. Impressionism had bright colors and loose brushwork that most critics viewed as unfinished. (Impressionism: Art and Modernity)Eventually this movement was replaced by Post-Impressionism, when people wanted to express emotion and symbolism. (Post-Impressionism)
It wasn't till the late 19th century that Art Nouveau became popular. Art Nouveau was a style based off of natural forms that was used in many areas of the arts like architecture, interior design, graphic design, fine arts, and things like jewelry and furniture. (Art Nouveau) (Introduction to Art Nouveau) In my late years my style was actually considered outdated, a style that most people would consider was Art Nouveau but most of my life I have tried to disassociate myself from, (Alphonse Mucha) because of the introduction of Art Deco, a symmetric style with bold colors and geometric shapes that had started flourishing in the 1920s but faded after the second World War. (Art Deco) Art Nouveau came back in the 1960s and noted me as one of the founders of the decorative style. Art Nouveau began fading at the start of the first World War when Modernism began. (Art Nouveau) (Introduction to Art Nouveau)
R.P.: How did the major cultural, economic, and political situations of the time influence your work?
A.M.: My religion was a big part of my art and had a large influence on me ever since I was young and made drawings expressing Catholicism like one of the drawings I had made of the Crucifixion when I was 8. I also did commissions for churches during my career doing works such as altarpieces. I had always believed that art is only to communicate a spiritual message. The history of the Czech and Slavic people has also been a great influence on me. Ever since I was young, I had wanted to do a series representing their past. I worked on it for many years, and with financial support, I could present my life's masterpiece to the public in 1928. (Timeline)
Politics didn't really influence me, but my art was greatly influenced by economics. Most of my art was commercial, meaning it was art that was used in advertising and selling. I had many commissions to do advertisements for company's products. I made posters for bicycles and chocolate and for the Y.W.C.A. and champagne. I even designed silverware and jewelry. (Mucha's Figures Decoratives) (Drawings of Mucha) (The Art Nouveau Style Book of Alphonse Mucha) (Mucha)
R.P.: What were the major accomplishments and methods that you used in your art?
A.M.: I think overall my entire career has been a major accomplishment to me. In reality, my artistic reputation was practically non-existent before my artistic training when I moved to Paris with the help of the Count. 1894 was when I created a poster for 'Gismonda', I was 34. The posters were put all around Paris and really helped to start off my career, especially since the star of the production was such a well known actress. And so after that my career really bloomed. In addition to the contract with Sarah Bernhardt, I also signed a contract with the printer Champenois which helped me to make my work known throughout Europe and North America. I made contributions to the magazine La Plume and made posters for Salon des Cent, exhibitions done by the magazine. I was even starting to get my own solo exhibitions and was flooded with commissions. I was awarded the Légion d'honneur, or the Legion of Honor in English, by the French government after I had contributed to the exhibitions at the Exposition Universelle where I won a silver prize and was made a Knight of the Order of Franz Josef I and I was also elected a member of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts. My work was put in the first International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Art in Turin and went to America twice where I taught courses and and befriended President Roosevelt. I worked for Charles Crane and I completed my life's work, the Slav Epic, with financial support form Crane. And I was also made an Officier de la Légion d'honneur, one of the highest decorations in France. (Timeline)
One of the methods I used a lot in my art was lithography. I used lithographed posters in my commercial art. I also made oil paintings and drawings. I was primarily an illustrator. I usually had women as the subjects of my art, especially in my commissions for advertisements, in Neoclassical robes with flowers that I sometimes like to make them come together to form a halo behind their heads in pastel colors. My art is a product of myself and Czech art. (Alphonse Mucha) (Timeline)
R.P.: What were the key opportunities you had that led to turning points in your life and art?
A.M.: I think that getting kicked out of the Academy when I was younger contributed to the realizing in wanting to be an artist professionally and I don't think I would be in the position that I am if I hadn't done so poorly in school. And because I became an artist, I met my soon to be wife, Maruška, in 1903. She was a student studying at the School of Applied Arts in Prague. She was visiting Paris with her family and had her uncle set up art classes with me and I said yes. (Timeline) We spent her remaining time in Paris together. Three years later, on June 10, were married in Prague and have our honeymoon in Pec, a small village in the highlands of South Bohemia. After that, we went to America for my second time, and my daughter is born in New York on March 15, 1909. We named her Jaroslava. And on 12 March, 1915, my son Jiří was born.
Another big opportunity for me was when I moved to Paris, way before I married, and I had everything paid for by Count Karl Khuen-Belasi, who I mentioned earlier. This gave me the chance to receive artistic training and joined the Académie Julian. I studied under Adolphe William Bouguereau, Jean-Paul Laurens, and Jules Lefebvre, all leading artists of their time. I received training in drawing and painting. In 1888, one year later, I joined Académie Colarossi on 10 rese de la Grande- Chaumiere which was only a few streets away from the new lodgings I just moved into. At the Académie Colarossi, I received a similar education to the one that I had at the Académie Julian. But I had to leave when my funding from the Count stopped. In became a Professional Illustrator and in 1891 I made my first book for Armand Colin and start giving drawing lessons. And later I share my studio with Paul Gauguin and I bought my first camera after having tried photography in Vienna and it then became a big part of my career. And being able to make the 'Gismonda' poster was also a big opportunity for me as well and made me more known. (Alphonse Mucha) (Timeline)
R.P.: What hardships or roadblocks did you have to overcome in order to be an artist?
A.M.: After I knew I wanted to be an artist, I applied to Prague Academy of Art. Unfortunately, I wasn't accepted and had to continue my job as a clerk at the town courtroom that my father managed to get for me after I was expelled from Gymnázium Slovanské secondary school. Although, I did take advantage of the chances to do work for theaters and magazines in the town. But when I finally get a job as a scenery painter, it was really hard for me when I was let go after the fire that I mention earlier. (Timeline)
The fire brought me to Count Khuen-Belasi. He helped me out a great deal but his sudden cease in funding caused me to leave the Academy that I was studying in and left me in need of income.And even later in my life, my work is impacted after I grow ill from pneumonia. In the year that followed, the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia and arrest me for suspicious activities. The Gestapo released me a few days after, but my health became increasingly worse. And in my work I became frustrated with commercial art, I wanted to do more painting and fine art. (Timeline)
R.P.: How unfortunate! What stories best illustrate how you became interested in the arts?
A.M.: As I had said before, resolving to become an artist was a very important time in my life. I was going back to Ivančice,and I decided to visit a friend in Ústí nad Orlicí. And I went to a local church, probably St. Wenceslas in Letohrod, I don't remember for sure, and I saw a painting by Jon Umlauf, a local artist. It was a fresco, made in the style of Czech Baroque. And from then on I set my mind on becoming an artist and creating art for a living. (Timeline)
Another story when I made a poster for 'Gismonda' at the Théâtre de la Renaissance on the Boulevard Saint-Martin. I was at Lemercier's printing works to help a friend and correct their proofs when I was commissioned to do the poster at the last minute when all of the regular artists were gone on account of the holiday and the production was going to open a week later. The poster was posted all over Paris. It was so popular and successful that I became a leading designer. It really transformed my career. And Sarah Bernhardt, the leading actress in the production, was so pleased with it that I signed a six year contract with her on designing her posters, costumes, and stage sets. (Timeline) (Alphonse Mucha)
R.P.: And for our last question, how did your work impact the world of art?
A.M.: I was a big influence on the Art Nouveau movement and decorative art. My lithographed posters, especially the poster for 'Gismonda' in which I had mentioned previously, made the new style popular. It was even named after me, 'le style Mucha', and it later accounted for Art Nouveau in France. (Alphonse Mucha) But not only did my posters, fine arts, jewelry design, and interior design have an impact, but so did my typography that was a basis for unique typefaces.
I was one of the most popular and successful artists in Paris at the time. I not only inspired a style but contemporary artists like Stuckist painter Paul Harvey. And my books that I had published on style also had a great influence on art and design of the twentieth century. (Alphonse Mucha) (Timeline)
R.P.: Well, thank you for joining me today!
A.M.: My pleasure!
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