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Video: What connected actress Sarah Bernhardt and artist Alphonse Muhu, or the story of one poster
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Posters and illustrations with beautiful women of Alphonse Mucha are known all over the world today. Although his talent, alas, did not always give a pass to recognition. Alphonse Mucha was helped by chance. The humble illustrator was in the right place at the right time. How exactly did the Czech artist manage to achieve success in Paris and what role did the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt play in this?
About the artist
Alphonse Maria Mucha (24 July 1860 - 14 July 1939) was a Czech modernist painter and decorator best known for his depictions of women. He created many paintings, illustrations and advertising designs. Alphonse Mucha was born in Ivančice (modern Czech Republic). Among the children's talents of the young Fly was a singing voice and a love of drawing. Mucha subsequently took a job as a decorative painter (preparing theatrical scenery), and then moved to Vienna in 1879 to work for a leading Viennese theater design company, while continuing his artistic education. Alphonse Mucha moved to Paris in 1887 and continued his studies at the Académie Colarossi while working on magazine and advertising illustrations. These skills subsequently greatly helped Mucha to fulfill his landmark and decisive work in his career.
Sarah Bernhardt and Fly
Parisian actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) played the most influential role in the career of the artist Alphonse Mucha. The executed poster for the play "Gismonda" made him famous. Mucha made a huge leap forward both as a man and as a professional artist thanks to his collaboration and friendship with the greatest stage personality of the era.
Mucha first met Bernard at the end of 1894. Legend has it that on Saint Stephen's Day (December 26), Mucha, at the time a humble illustrator, helped his colleague fix the flaws in the Lemercier printing house. And at that very moment, the famous actress called the printing house with an urgent request to prepare a poster for her play. Since, by a happy coincidence, all the artists were on vacation, Mucha took over this task. Despite his lack of experience in creating posters, Mucha seized the opportunity and, to his own amazement, Divine Sarah admired the result.
Gismonda
On the morning of January 1, 1895, Gismondas posters were posted all over Paris and revolutionized poster design. The long narrow shape, subtle pastel colors and the almost life-size stillness of the figure brought a note of dignity, novelty and freshness to the traditional poster design. Posters with Bernard instantly became a desirable acquisition for collectors, many of whom used a variety of methods to buy them (it even went so far that collectors took to the streets at night and cut them off their billboards). This work instantly made Muhu perhaps the most popular artist in Paris.
Delighted with the success of Gismonda, Sarah Bernhardt offered Mucha a contract for the production of stage and costume outfits, as well as posters. In accordance with this contract, Mucha produced a number of posters for Bernard's productions: Lady of the Camellias, Medea, Samaritan Woman, Tosca and Hamlet. Mucha applied to these posters the same design principle he developed for Gismonda - modern modern, using an elongated format with a single standing figure of the actress placed in a shallow slot. This helped create a holistic Bernard brand, thanks to which she became recognizable on the international stage.
Mutually beneficial cooperation
The collaboration between Mucha and Sarah Bernhardt was mutually beneficial. Mucha's posters perpetuated the "divine" image of the actress, cementing her cult status. And Bernard herself was so fascinated by the work of Mucha that after 1896 his posters advertised all the American tours of the actress. Of course, this beneficially contributed to the work of Mucha, helped him climb the career ladder and receive laurels of fame.
Heritage
Throughout his career, Alphonse Mucha has created numerous paintings, posters, advertisements and book illustrations, as well as designs for jewelry, carpets, wallpaper and theater decorations. All of these works were originally considered Mucha's individual style, and are now known as Art Nouveau (French for "new art"). Mucha's work often depicted beautiful and healthy young women in blurry, neoclassical attire surrounded by lush flowers. Very often women in Mucha's works are surrounded by halos, like saints. Unlike his fellow poster makers, Mucha used lighter pastel colors.
The 1900 World's Fair in Paris popularized the "Fly style" around the world. And Mucha himself said: "I think that the exposition made an important contribution to the introduction of aesthetic values into decorative and applied art." Among many other achievements, Mucha was also the founder of Czech Freemasonry. Masonic symbolism is reflected in the paintings of Alphonse Mucha, especially in the collection "Le Pater".
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