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Art Nouveau - Mucha-1, Postcard 1899-1900 [185466]

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Postcards Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 300.00 USD
Art Nouveau - Mucha-1, Postcard 1899-1900 [185466]
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This postcard is part of Alphonse Mucha's 4th series, Le Mois, the months of the year. It is the most famous of the Champenois sets. No. 461, Janvier (January). R-3. Lady in pink hooded cape. (From "The Postcards of Alphonse Mucha," Q. David Bowers & Mary L. Martin, 1981.) Published by F. Champenois. Unused. Small corner fold at Lower Left, otherwise clean.
The motifs first appeared in 1899 and 1900 when they were published in "Le Mois, Litteraire et Picturesque," a monthly journal. Each month is depicted by a lady with appropriate dress and background for the season. Very rare to own all 12 in any of the printing variety sequences. MUCHA BIO
In 1895, a virtually unknown artist Alphonse Mucha took Parisians by complete surprise, with his unconventional but exceptionally elegant style. It started with his rendering of Sarah Bernhardt for a poster advertising a play, "Gismonda," at Bernhardt's Theatre de la Renaissance. Known as the "Gismonda" poster, the almost life-size poster took Paris by storm. From there, "Le Style Mucha" was seen on everything from paintings and posters to stage sets, wallpaper patterns and murals. It was embossed into metal for jewelry and furniture, woven into carpets, printed on fabric and on paper for books and calendars, menus, labels, packaging and postcards. Mucha would become known as the "greatest decorative artist in the world."
But his success didn't happen without much perseverance and dedication. Little did his fans know he was from humble beginnings, or they may have not been so enamored. His father was a court usher in the small town of Ivancice, Moravia, then part of Austria. He was born on July 24, 1860, to his fatherís second wife, in official lodgings next to the jail. When Mucha was only 6 years old, his country, which had been the crown land of the Austrian Empire from 1804 to 1867, was transformed when it became part of Austria-Hungary.
As a child, to his fatherís chagrin, his strengths were in drawing and singing. Then, at age 11 he was granted a scholarship into the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Brno. He flourished in the choir and drawing classes, but not so in his other studies. His father, frustrated, gave him work as a court clerk. But he spent most of his time sketching the criminals who graced the court. Mucha finally found a way to the passion he had always hoped for when, in 1879, at age 19, he landed a position as a painter for the Imperial and Royal Court Theatre in Vienna. Fate would take him on ups and downs throughout the years and after the theatre he worked at burned down, destitute, he finally found work painting Emmahof Palace near Schonau. The palace burned down in WWII, but by now he had made a name for himself. In 1883 he had the opportunity to spend over two years devoted to his artwork and studying works of great artists in South Tyrol, and in 1886 moved to Munich, which, with itís historical artwork, was a place where young artists sought to live. He attended art classes there and improved his technique, although there is no evidence of him graduating. In 1887, at age 27, Mucha arrived in Paris where he congregated with fellow artists from the Czech community and his artist friends from Munich. He attended the Academie Julian, then the Academie Colarossi where he was taught by Jean-Paul Laurens, a history painter. He scraped by on meager commissions and once again found himself destitute, this time ill as well, when yet another miracle happened. He was commissioned by Monsieur Henri Bourrelier to produce illustrations for the publishing house Armand Colin. His first work was Sarah Bernhardtís Theatre de la Renaissance poster, and from there his artwork flourished and he soon became a celebrity. He opened his own studio with beautiful girls coming in and out (some nude models), seances held, but always with a seriousness when Mucha was at work. In 1900, when the World Exhibition took place in Paris, the ìMucha Styleî was at a fever pitch. It was his festival. But Mucha began getting disappointed over the commercialism that had taken over his work. Eventually the ìMucha Styleî began decreasing in popularity, and Mucha found himself at a crossroads.
In 1909, Mucha had been offered a commission to paint murals on the interior of the new city hall of Prague. He had also completed plans and obtained funding for his Slav Epic, his dream to illustrate accomplishments of the Slavic peoples of Europe. He made the decision to leave Paris and return to his old country, still then part of the Austrian Empire. He remained there and continued working on another series of his artwork until, in 1938, he was arrested and interrogated by Nazis. He was released but by then his health was broken. He contracted pneumonia and died on July 14, 1939, over a month before WWII started.
Information: "Mucha - An Illustrated Life," Vitalis, 2023. ART NOUVEAU
In the 19th century Art Nouveau became associated with luxury. Through wide-spread advertising, the movement flourished throughout Europe and the United States between 1890 and 1910.
Major influencers in the Art Nouveau movement included Hamburg-born businessman Siegfried Bing (1838-1905). Bing opened a gallery in Paris called LíArt Nouveau in December 1895. In fact, Bing helped coin the term "Art Nouveau" because of his shop's name, along with the periodical LíArt Moderne which used the term to describe the work of the artist group Les Ving. In addition, Bing was influential in the popularization of both Japanese art and Art Nouveau. In the second half of the 19th century, after Japanese ports had resumed trade with the West in 1853, the emergence of what became termed "Japonism" had played an important role in the Art Nouveau movement. Artwork was rendered in the Japanese wood-block style, often using radial designs. Nature was a desirable subject , with dragonflies and cranes favored by both Art Nouveau and Japanese artists.
Art Nouveau was also influenced by experiments with expressive line by European painters Paul Gauguin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and others including the Arts and Crafts movement of William Morris, and the Aestheticism of the illustrator Aubrey Beardsley.
In London, a retailer was responsible for creating a well-known name in the Art Nouveau world: "stile Liberty." In 1875, Arthur Lasenby Liberty founded the department store Liberty & Co., which became one of the most successful and influential retailers of products in the Art Nouveau style.
Other important showcases for Art Nouveau were trade exhibitions, especially world trade fairs. The highpoint of Art Nouveau was the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris. It also promoted France as a major center of the movement. Millions of visitors and thousands of exhibitors attended the fair.
(Information: www.europeana.eu and Brittanica.com)
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