Alphonse Mucha

Sale: Bernaerts Auctioneers, Antwerp, 11 March 2020, lot 1140

Known for the long, sinuous lines and sense of dynamism and movement that characterized the Art Nouveau period, Czech painter, illustrator, and graphic artist Alphonse Mucha was widely recognized for his distinctly stylized posters, decorative panels, and illustrations. Born in Czechoslovakia and trained as a decorative artist in Munich, Mucha moved to Paris in 1887 and, by the end of the century, had established himself as a successful graphic artist. His eventual collaboration with French actress Sarah Bernhardt on a theatrical poster for her role in Gismonda at the end of 1894 sent his reputation soaring even higher, earning him commissions for advertising posters, displays, and designs for exhibition halls for the Paris Exhibition of 1900. His most significant commission was for a series of murals for the Pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had been recently annexed by the Austro-Hungarian empire. This sketch was one of the preparatory drawings for this series.

Although Mucha’s work was best known for its sensual, curvilinear ornamentation inspired by natural forms, his preparatory drawings for the Paris Exhibition were darker, somewhat mysterious, and more emotionally charged than his Parisian posters. His commission by the Austrian empire reminded him that after many centuries of struggle against foreign oppression, his own people were not free to represent themselves as a politically and culturally independent nation; his work would be exhibited under the flag of the Austrian empire, rather than that of his homeland. Because these drawings were considered to be statements of support for the suffering of the oppressed Slavic people, this and other drawings based on Bosnian legends, such as The Plague Lady and Death of Hasanaga’s Bride (both, ca. 1899), were ultimately not included in the pavilion murals. Mucha’s theme of struggle–effectively expressed by the use of heavy shadow and contorted body forms–was considered too dispiriting for a venue that was designed to be a celebration of accomplishment.