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(b Ivancice, Moravia, 24 July 1860; d Prague, 14 July 1939). Czech graphic artist and painter, active in France. In 1877 he attempted unsuccessfully to enter the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, and afterwards set about travelling and working. He went first to Vienna, where he worked for a company that produced stage sets, and where he discovered the work of Hans Makart. After being made redundant he left in 1882 for Mikulov, where he earned a living painting portraits of important local figures. He met Count Khuen-Belassi, who invited him to paint murals at his home (1882–4; some panels in Brno, Mus. City), later sending him to the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich (1885–7) and to Paris in autumn 1888. Mucha enrolled at the Académie Julian and worked in the studios of Jules Lefebvre and Jean-Paul Laurens. When his grant was cut off at the end of 1889, he stayed in Paris and briefly attended the Académie Colarossi; to finance himself he produced a variety of illustrations, collaborating on La Vie populaire and the children’s review Le Petit Français illustré. |
