Alphonse Mucha

His first success caught him up in Paris, the capital of fashion and arts. Inspired by the performance of the incomparable Sarah Bernhardt, he created a poster for "Gismonda", where she starred. The great actress admired that work and ordered additional copies, because the Parisians also liked it very much and readily took posters home for keeping as souvenirs.

Mucha's ornamental talent was many-sided and in big demand. He makes drawings for advertising champagne, chocolate, various household goods, thanks to which all those products are bought, sometimes only for getting a label...

Mucha's style is recognized at once. The main character of his works is the Woman, seductive and mysterious Slav woman, in whom the whole quintessence of femininity is concentrated. In Mucha's opinion, the Woman represents all beauty that can be found on the Earth. Praising the Woman, Mucha personified her with constantly changing nature, with amazing flowers and precious gems. That was how the series "Seasons of the Year", "Months", "Times of the Day" and "Precious Gems" appeared. Glorifying the Woman in his works, the artist involuntary invites the audience to admire her as well. Once, when the modernist style was already declining, the artist declared, "Mucha will come back!"

And he surely did...