Alphonse Mucha
Born 24th of July 1860 and died 14th July 1939, Alphonse Maria Mucha was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorator, mostly known for his illustrations of women. He produced work varying from paintings, to illustrations, advertisements and designs. His singing ability allowed him to continue his education through high school in the town of Ivancice, Moravia (today's region of Czech Republic). Whilst furthering his artistic education, Mucha worked at decorative painting jobs in Moravia, mostly involving painting theatric scenery, then in 1879 moved to Vienna to work for a leading Viennese theatrical design company. He designed and published postcards, theatre and advertisement posters, numerous illustrations and decorative panels series, set around central themes inspired by nature, some printed on silk. He produced many drawings, pastel or watercolour studies and designs for interior decorations, cutlery and dinner object, jewellery and fashion.
The subject matter within Alphonse Mucha's work is highly obvious; women. This is highlighted by him making them become the focal point, by positioning them in the centre, with designs based around them. His work does represent culture, as he is an important contributor to Art Nouveau, which is apparent through him creating these "s" shapes with the women's bodies, and then taking this further by adding in swirls and patterns. This is obvious as the women is placed in front of the background, so she is the top layer. This allows the viewers eye to lead straight to her.The meaning of his artwork I believe is partly hidden, because to some people they are just images of well presented, elegant women. However I feel his work goes deeper than this, by highlighting this new movement of design of Art Nouveau, but it was also the time women were seen in a different light. His use of a circle placed usually behind the women's head resembles a symbol that he continually tends to use, which allows his work to be recognisable and well structured. The use of the circle also creates this drop background behind the lady, which allows her to stand out more, but the designs within the circle worlds around her.
The view of his work tends to be a full on body view of the women in the image, however some are cropped to just her upper body frame. The full body lengths emphasise this womanly figure and also determines the positioning if the other aspects within the photo as the body creates the shape. The shapes he uses are very organic, highlighting the new style from Art Nouveau, which includes swirls and circles, entwining into each other. The tones in his images tend to be quite soft and harmonious, allowing the whole image to blend together. Even though some of the colours are quite organic (greens, brown and oranges) there is a sense of feminism from the use of pinks, creams and slight reds. There is a sense of rhythm through out his work as they're all similar, involving a women, swirls, plants, organic colours, and a circle in the background. All these aspects do create a pleasing arrangement in his photo's as they harmonise each other, there is no clash between the objects.
I do think his first images were planned, as he had an intention of what he wanted to create, However I feel further down his career, he found the particular style he wanted, and eventually he could create images with ease and grace, as they all contain the same qualities. His work is very much watercolour based, and this creates a sense of tranquility in his photo's, as they come across quite soft and not too bright.
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