paris world fair 1900 – my daily art display

Alphonse Mucha. The Slav Epic Part 1.

During his time working on an Austro-Hungarian commission to paint the murals for the Bosnia-Herzegovina’s pavilion at the 1900 Paris World Fair, Alphonse Mucha had a dream that one day he would complete a series of paintings which would depict the true story of the struggle of the Slav people which would truthfully depict their history and civilisation through a series of twenty monumental paintings. His early research for his project began the year before the 1900 Paris World’s Fair and to do his research he travelled around the Balkans collecting stories and researching customs of the Slavic people. Many of the areas were that populated by the Southern Slavs, regions that had been annexed by Austria-Hungary two decades earlier. They were regions which now fall under the rule of countries such as Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and North Macedonia. It was during these early travels that Alphonse Mucha developed the inspiration for his new project – The Slav Epic, a true pictorial history of the Slavs.

Alphonse Mucha working on Slav Epic, no. 6, The Coronation of Serbian Tsar Štěpán Dušan as East Roman Emperor

For his project to materialise Alphonse needed financial support and when he was in America between 1904 and 1909, he had received that from Charles Crane, a wealthy Chicago-based businessman and philanthropist who was extremely interested in the progress of political affairs in Eastern Europe and the ethos of the Slavonic people. The Slav Epic as it was known took Alphonse fifteen years to complete. In 1911 he started by renting a large spacious studio and an apartment in Zbiroh Castle in Western Bohemia which afforded him the space he needed to work on the giant canvases, some of which measured 6 metres by 8 metres. His plan was to produce twenty paintings depicting crucial episodes from the Slavic past, stretching from ancient times to the present day, ten canvases would represent episodes from Czech history and ten would focus on historical episodes from other Slavonic regions.

So, in the next three blogs I will discuss the twenty-painting series. I suppose I should apologise in advance if you feel they tend to be “history” blogs rather than art blogs but these twenty monumental works are history paintings and you need to understand what is being depicted by the artist.

The Slav Epic’ cycle No.1 The Slavs in Their Original Homeland by Alphonse Mucha (1912)

Alphonse Mucha completed his first canvas in the series, which was entitled The Slavs in Their Original Homeland, in 1912. It was a monumental painting measuring 8.1 x 6.1 metres. The idea for this first of the series was to focus on the Slavic people in the 4th to 6th centuries. It was during this time that the Slavic tribes were agricultural folk who lived in the marshlands between the Vistula River, the Dnepr River, the Baltic Sea, and the Black Sea. Their villages were under endless assaults by Germanic tribes from the West who would burn their houses and steal their livestock.

The terrified couple (detail from The Slavs in Their Original Homeland)

In the foreground of the painting, we see a terrified couple, dressed in white, hiding in the bushes as their village burns on the horizon. They press themselves against the ground to avoid detection but the shrubland offers them little or no hiding place. They are the survivors of one of these attacks. Look at their facial expressions. Look how Mucha has depicted their terror and defencelessness as they look out at us, imploring our help. In the left background, flames from their burning homes can be seen rising into the star-covered sky. In the central background we see the depiction of the warring invaders who show no mercy as they slaughter the fleeing villagers, the females of the village are herded and will have to suffer the long and brutal journey to the slave markets. In the upper right of the painting, we see depicted a pagan priest with two youths by his side symbolising war and peace and these figures foreshadow the peace and freedom that will eventually come to the Slav people when they have battled for their rightful independence.

The Slav Epic’ cycle No.2 The Celebration of Svantovít by Alphonse Mucha (1912)

The second painting in the series, The Celebration of Svantovit is all about the spreading out westwards of the Slav people. In the city of Arkona on the north east tip of the island of Rujana, which is the present-day German isle, Rügen, they built a temple, Jaromarsburg, dedicated to the Slavic pagan god Svantovít. It was situated at the tip of the Cape Arkona and was protected on three sides by cliffs and from the land side by a 25-metre-high Slavic burgwall. Every autumn pilgrims from as far as Spain would make a pilgrimage to the temple to celebrate the annual harvest festival. From around the 9^th century to the 12th centuries, the Jaromarsburg became a cult site for the Rani, a Slavic tribe, dedicated to their god Svantevit. In 1168 the Danish army attacked Rujana and destroyed the Slavic temple. When Mucha painted this work, the temple had developed mythical status and was looked upon as a symbol of former Slavic glory. Alphonse Mucha’s painting is not so much about the Slavic temple but about the pilgrims who visited the site and the impending doom. In the foreground, occupying a third of the space, we see the pilgrims dressed in white clothing. They seem quite unaware of what is going on above them. In the sky we see the gods who are besieged by the enemy who are being led by a pack of wolves. Some of the Slav gods in the upper central portion are bound, while others look distressed or hang their heads in sadness. Look how Mucha’s has contrasted the mood. The sky is dark and there is an ominous feel about it whereas the sun-soaked pilgrims are enjoying their arrival at the pilgrimage site heedless of the troubles that is about to befall them.

However, in the central foreground, one of the pilgrims, a young mother holding her child in her arms stares out at us. She looks distressed as though she alone is aware of the looming downfall of the city.

The Slav Epic’ cycle No.3: Bishop Absalon topples the god Svantevit at Cape Arkona by Laurits Tuxen

In 1168, the Danes, commanded by King Valdemar I the Great and Bishop Absalon of Roskilde, attacked the island and destroyed the temple of Svantovít. Eventually, the Baltic region came under Germanic rule, and the pilgrimage site and Svantovít came to symbolise the former glory of the Baltic Slavs. A painting by Laurits Tuxen depicts a Christian Bishop overseeing the destruction of the pagan image during the purge of paganism and the supplanting it with Christian beliefs. Churches were established and the castle and its temple destroyed.

The Slav Epic’ cycle No.3: Introduction of the Slavonic Liturgy in Great Moravia by Alphonse Mucha

Alphonse Mucha’s third painting of the Slav Epic series, which he completed in 1912, was the Introduction of the Slavonic Liturgy in Great Moravia, is populated with many figures and tells the story of Methodius and his brother Cyril who had translated the Bible into the Slavic language. The setting of the painting is Velehrad, a town which was once deemed the capital of the Slavic state of Great Moravia. The time of this gathering is somewhere around 880 AD. In an attempt to prevent the demise of the Slav language, Prince Rostislav commissioned two learned monks from Salonika, Cyril, and Methodius, to translate the Bible into Old Church Slavonic. This move was not popular with the German bishops and Methodius was summoned to Rome to stand up for the translation. He was successful and succeeded in securing Rome’s permission to continue his work. The pope appointed him archbishop of Great Moravia for his efforts. It was their translation of the bible which afforded the Slavic people the chance to read it.

Methodius and Cyril were instrumental in the survival of the Slavic tongue in centuries to come, and they became the Slav people’s most popular saints. In the painting we see Methodius, the bearded figure on the left, almost hidden behind a small tree. Two of his followers kneel either side of him, holding his hands.

Prince Svatopluk who was the successor of Prince Rostislav, sits on a throne to the far right of the depiction. He is listening carefully to a priest who stands before him reading out a letter from the Pope John VIII. Two German priests sit either side of Svatopluk. Their faces are shaded and almost hidden in darkness, and they can hardly hide their anger at what is going on. These Germans had been making their way through Moravia with the intention of eradicating the Slavic language for good. They wanted to force the Slavs to learn the German language if they wanted to practice Christianity. Floating above this scene, in the upper left corner, we have four members of the divine realm. We can see the Pope sitting on his throne. Beside him, sits the Byzantine emperor, who was the head of the Orthodox Church. Surrounding the great religious leaders are Slavs who had suffered forced Germanification and who now cry out for comfort. In the centre of this ethereal world, we see stylized images of Methodius and Cyril as Saints.

Represented in the top right of the painting are the stylised figures of rulers who supported the spread of Christianity in the Slavic language: Boris of Bulgaria and Igor of Russia and their wives. In the foreground, a figure of a youth with a clenched fist and a circle in his right hand symbolises the strength and unity of the Slav people.

Slav Epic No.4: Tsar Simeon of Bulgaria by Alphonse Mucha (1923)

The fourth painting in the Slav Epic cycle is entitled The Bulgarian Tsar Simeon. After the death of Methodius, around 885 AD, Prince Svatopluk withdrew his support for the Slavonic translation of the New Testament and banished his followers from Moravia. Fortunately, the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon, who was known for his passion for Byzantine literature, gave them refuge and encouraged them to continue their work. In this painting, Mucha immortalises the expelled followers of the Slavonic liturgy in the Byzantine frescos that adorn the walls of the basilica. He places Tsar Simeon at the centre of the composition, communicating with his scholars and scribes in the foreground while the official members of the church and court are relegated to the background.

*The Slav Epic’ cycle No.5: King Premysl Otakar II of Bohemia by Albert Mucha (1924)*

Alphonse Mucha’s fifth painting in The Slav Epic series, King Premysl Otakar II of Bohemia, jumps ahead four hundred years from the previous work and is set in the second half of the thirteenth century. It features King Přemysl Otakar II of Bohemia. He had two nicknames; the Iron King for his military valour and the Gold King because of the vast fortune he had amassed from his silver and gold mines of Kutná Hora. More importantly, in the mind of Mucha, Otakar was responsible for instituting close links between the various Slavic monarchies in the 13th century which ultimately led to peace for future generations of Bohemians. The painting depicts the great ceremony held on the occasion of the marriage of his niece Kunhuta of Brandenburg to the son of Hungary’s King Béla IV and the king took the opportunity to invite various Slavonic rulers in the hope that the get-together would help forge lasting coalitions between all those who came to the grand ceremony. We see King Přemysl Otakar II greeting his guests as they arrive at the wedding. Stood at the centre of an opulent tent with a built-in chapel, the king holds hands with two guests in a gesture of friendship.

The Slav Epic’ cycle No.6: The Coronation of Serbian Tsar Štěpán Dušan as East Roman Emperor by Alphonse Mucha

Another grand ceremony is depicted in Alphonse Mucha’s sixth painting of the series. It is The Coronation of Serbian Tsar Štěpán Dušan as East Roman Emperor. Štěpán Dušan was responsible for expanding the Slavic territory in the 1300s and for establishing a code of law that was valid throughout his empire. In 1346, following successive military victories against the Byzantine Empire, he crowned himself Tsar of the Serbs and Greeks in Skoplje. In this work, Mucha depicts the procession following the Tsar’s coronation. Dušan stands in the middle of the procession with two men on either side holding regal robes. The procession is led by young girls in Serbian folk costume and their inclusion is thought to be Mucha’s belief that the younger generation will carry forward Pan-Slavic ideals.

The Slav Epic’ cycle No.7: Milíč of Kroměříž by Alphonse Mucha (1916)

The seventh painting of Alphonse Mucha’s Slav Epic series is dedicated to Jan Milíč of Kroměříž. He was a learned young theologian who held positions of responsibility in the church and the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV. He became disillusioned by the workings of the church and was horrified by the immorality and indulgences of the clergy. So much so, Milíč resigned from his duties and decided to devote the rest of his life to the city’s poor and speak out against the misdemeanours of the church. Legend has it that in 1372, by the sheer power of his oratory, Milíč managed to persuade an alleged three hundred prostitutes in Prague to repent, and on the site of a former brothel which was located in Konviktská Street, he, with the help of Charles IV, established a refuge for repentant sinners, a chapel and convent dedicated to Mary Magdalen. In the painting, Mucha depicts the building of the refuge for repentant prostitutes. Atop the structure we see the humble figure of Milíč, wrapped in a blue shroud with a long grey beard. He stands aloft alongside the structure’s architect, preaching to those down below. The repentant women replace their jewellery with white habits, signifying their newly found purity, whilst in the foreground, a woman in red is gagged to prevent her from gossiping.

…………………………………….to be continued.

Much of the information for this came from the excellent website The Mucha Foundation

Alphonse Mucha. Part 2

Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Paris (World’s Fair) 1900

The year 1900 was a momentous one for Paris as it staged the Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Paris (World’s Fair) between April 15th and November 12th. The event was to be a grand celebration of the past century’s achievements and a look forward to the innovations of the new century. The planning had begun in 1892 and it had been fully budgeted by 1896. At this time Alphonse Mucha had already burst on to the Parisian art scene and in 1897 had held a highly successful one-man exhibition at the Galerie de la Bodinière followed by a major show at the Salon des Cent.

Everyone was excited by the forthcoming event and La Plume magazine, a French bi-monthly literary and artistic review, dedicated a special issue to the exhibition and Alphonse Mucha, whose illustration appeared on the cover of the January 1898 edition, and was a ‘hot’ topic within the city’s artistic circle.

Alphonse Mucha’s design for the Menu for the Bosnian Pavilion Restaurant at the Paris Exhibition 1900

Alphonse was inundated with commissions for projects appertaining to the World’s Fair from both local companies and the French government. Some were for posters advertising the event and also the installation of display stands and the design of exhibition halls, which provided him with an opportunity to work with a three-dimensional space.

Bosnia & Herzegovina Pavilion at the Paris Exhibition 1900 interior view with Mucha’s wall paintings (1900)

Beside the peripheral commissions Mucha was tasked with painting the murals for the Pavilion of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was a region that had come under the control of Austria-Hungary in 1878 and was one of three pavilions exhibited by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. For Alphonse Mucha, this was a highly prestigious commission. Mucha transformed the pavilion into a commemoration of the history and the cultural diversity of Bosnia and Herzegovina which pleased the Austro-Hungarian leaders but Mucha would rather have highlighted the Slavic struggle against that vast nation. He could well have thought about that as he planned the murals for the pavilion and maybe he promised himself that in the near future he would tell the real story of the persecution and suffering of the Slav nation and the Slav people. His grand plan would not start until 1911 and it would take him fifteen years to complete. It would be known as The Slav Epic

Facade of the jeweler’s boutique Georges Fouquet located at 6 rue Royale, Paris

Georges Fouquet, a prominent Parisian jeweller and jewellery designer had worked together with Alphonse Mucha on a number of jewellery pieces for Fouquet’s stand at the 1900 Exposition Universelle. After the 1900 Paris Exposition, Georges Fouquet who was best known for his Art Nouveau creations opened a new jewellery store at 6 rue Royale in Paris which was right across the street from the famous restaurant, Maxim’s. He approached Mucha to design all aspects of his shop, both exterior and interior, as well as the contents including the furniture, light fittings and show cases.

Interior of Georges Fouquet’s shop designed by Alphonse Mucha

The centrepiece of the design was two peacocks, which were the traditional symbol of opulence. They were made of bronze and wood with coloured glass decoration. To one side of them was a shell-shaped fountain, with three gargoyles spouting water into basins, surrounding the statue of a nude woman. The shop opened in 1901, but, sadly for Georges, it was at a time when tastes were beginning to change, and the yearning to have Art Nouveau pieces was superseded by people wanting jewellery with more naturalistic patterns. Mucha’s shop designs remained in place until 1923 when it was replaced with more up-to-date fittings.

Interior of Georges Fouquet’s Paris jewellery store

Realising that Mucha’s designs for the shop’s interior were of importance in art history, most of the original decoration were preserved. In 1941 Fouquet gave each piece of Mucha’s revolutionary design to the Musée Carnavalet for safekeeping. In 1989 the Musée Carnavalet completed the painstaking job of reconstructing the boutique. It remains one of the most spectacular examples of Art Nouveau decorative design. It is still on display at the museum.

Documents Decoratifs by Alphonse Mucha published in 1902

Alphonse Mucha’s reputation as an artist was now established and he became one of the most popular and successful of Parisian artists. He became inundated with commissions for theatre posters, advertising posters, decorative panels, magazine covers, menus, postcards, calendars. He even started to provide designs for jewellery, cutlery, tableware, fabrics etc which were in so much demand that he conceived the idea of creating a handbook for craftsmen, which would offer all the necessary patterns for creating an Art Nouveau lifestyle. His book, Documents Décoratifs, a style book published in Paris in 1902, was by the Librairie Central des Beaux-Arts, and is an encyclopaedia of his decorative work. The Documents Décoratifs is comprised of 72 exquisite plates of elaborate designs for brooches and other pieces, with swirling arabesques and vegetal forms, with incrustations of enamel and coloured stones. It epitomized everything the Art Deco movement is remembered for: decor, women, flowers, natural forms, structures, jewellery. Alphonse also spent an increasing amount of his time teaching, first at the Académie Colarossi and later, with Whistler, at the Académie Carmen.

Portrait of Mucha’s Wife, Maruska (1908)

In 1902, Alfonse Mucha accompanied his friend Auguste Rodin to Prague on the occasion of Rodin’s exhibition at Jan Kotera’s new Mánes Pavilion in Prague. A gala night was held at the National Theatre of Prague to welcome the renowned sculptor and it was here that Alphonse Mucha first met Marie Chytilová, an aspiring artist, who was studying at the School of Applied Arts in Prague and who admired the work of Mucha.

Marie Chytilová in Mucha’s studio in rue du Val-de-Grâce, Paris. 1903

A year later whilst visiting Paris with her family, Marie solicited the help of her uncle, the eminent Czech art historian Dr. Karel Chytil, to arrange art classes with Mucha. Alphonse agreed and got Maria to also to take classes at the Académie Calarossi where he was teaching and they spent each of the remaining days of her month-long sojourn together. Love blossomed between the two despite an age difference of twenty-two years. However, despite the intense amour between Alphonse and Marie, he left her in Europe whilst he made his first trip to America thanks to letters of introduction, which he had received from Baroness Salomon de Rothschild. There must have been some great pull which made him abandon Marie and cross the Atlantic, and to find that reason we must go back to when he was painting his murals at the Paris World Fair for the Bosnia-Herzegovina pavilion and his promise to himself that he would one day complete a series of paintings which would illustrate the Slav fight for independence. He needed financial backing and where better to go to find funds – America.

Alphonse Mucha was by no means an unknown artist in America. In fact, he was a celebrity in the United States as his posters had been widely displayed during Sarah Bernhardt’s annual American tours since 1896. He stayed at a rented studio near Central Park and continued to paint as well as giving interviews and lectures. More importantly, he was able to contact Pan-Slavic organizations with regards to his money-raising idea to support his proposed Slavic Saga series of history paintings. At one of the Pan-Slavic banquets held in his honour he was introduced to Charles Richard Crane, a wealthy businessman and philanthropist, who was a passionate Slavophile. Crane was enthusiastic with Mucha’s vision for a series of monumental paintings depicting Slavic history, and he became Mucha’s most important patron.

Cours Mucha poster at Académie Colarossi

Alphonse returned home to Paris in May 1904, to complete some commissions but in January 1905 he returned to America. During this visit he gives classes, known as the cours Mucha, at the New York School of Applied Design for Women, similar to those he held at Académie Colarossi. He was enjoying life in America and wrote to his folks back in Moravia:

“…You must have been very surprised by my decision to come to America, perhaps even amazed. But in fact, I had been preparing to come here for some time. It had become clear to me that that I would never have time to do the things I wanted to do if I did not get away from the treadmill of Paris, I would be constantly bound to publishers and their whims…in America, I don’t expect to find wealth, comfort, or fame for myself, only the opportunity to do some more useful work…”

Alphonse and Marie on their wedding day, June 10th 1906.

On June 10^th 1906, forty-five-year-old Alphonse Mucha, and twenty-three-year-old Marie Chytilová married shortly after his return to Prague from New York. Marie was everything Alphonse could have wanted. She was extremely attractive, she was well-educated and well-read, musical, a great lover of art, and from an old Czech family.

She was to become his muse and was incredibly supportive of his art. For their honeymoon, the couple travelled to the highlands of South Bohemia and stayed in the small village of Pec. Once the honeymoon was over the couple travelled to Chicago where Alphonse was given a post as teacher at the Art Institute

Portrait of Maruška, the artist’s wife by Alphonse Mucha (1905)

Alphonse painted a number of portraits of his wife. One such painting was entitled Portrait of Mucha’s wife, Maruška. Maruška is a diminutive of ‘Marie’.

Tragedy – study for a mural for the German theatre New York (1908)

In 1908 Alphonse also worked on a large decoration project, for the interior of the German Theatre of New York. He was commissioned to produce five large decorative panels, the stage curtain, and decorative elements for the foyer, the corridor, the staircase, and the auditorium. The three large allegorical murals would be depicted in the Art Nouveau style, and would represent Tragedy, Comedy and Truth. In his depiction, Tragedy, the female protagonist is modelled on the lead tragedienne of the Max Reinhardt Theatre, Miss Reichl.

Painting of Josephine Crane Bradley as Slavia (1908)

In that same year, 1908, Charles Crane commissioned Mucha to make two separate portraits in a traditional Slavic style of his two daughters, Josephine, and Frances. The painting of Josephine, as the Slav goddess, Slavia, was to mark her marriage to Harold C. Bradley. The portrait was to be incorporated into the interior decoration of a new house that Crane was building for the newlyweds. It was looked upon by critics as his finest work in America.

Alphonse Mucha-designed artwork on a 1920 Czechoslovak Republic 100 Czechoslovak korun note

In fact, ten years later, when Mucha was asked to design the Czechoslovak 100-koruna banknote he once again used her portrait as a model for Slavia.

Mucha’s daughter Jaroslava is born on March 15th 1909 in New York.

On March 15^th 1909, in New York, Alphonse and Marie hade their first child, a daughter, Jaroslava

Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans)

That same year (1909) Alphonse was commissioned to design a poster depicting the highly paid prominent American actress, Maude Adams, in her role as Joan of Arc in a translation of Friedrich Schiller’s Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans). The play was staged on June 22nd for a crowd of around two thousand spectators in a one-night gala performance at Harvard University Stadium. The portrait served as a poster for the event and Alphonse was also responsible for designing the costumes and sets. The painting depicts the medieval heroine, Joan of Arc, gesturing in amazement at the apparition behind her, which was inspiring her to lead French troops into battle. The stylized floral patterns, swirling hair and garments, and flat, graphic quality of the composition was typical of Mucha’s work and he also designed the complementary frame.

Zbiroh Castle with the town of Zbiroh in the left background.

In 1909 Alphonse Mucha leaves America satisfied that he had Charles Crane’s financial backing for his grand plan to paint a series of works outlining the Slav struggles. Alphonse rented a studio and apartment in Zbiroh Castle, a 12th century château in West Bohemia. He began by visiting the places he intended to depict in the cycle such as Russia, Poland, and the Balkans, including visits to the Orthodox monasteries of Mount Athos. He now spent all his free time studying all the books he could find with regards the history of the Slavs and also contacted specialists in the field, such as Ernest Denis who Alfonse meets in Paris in 1911. Ernest Denis was considered to be one of the most highly regarded 20th-century historians of the Slav world in France and who played a major role in the establishment of the Czechoslovak state in 1918. Alphonse’s dream of the Slav Saga series of paintings had now started. For anybody who might look upon Alphonse Mucha as an illustrator and a poster designer, the next three blogs will change that opinion…………………

………………………….to be continued.

Much of the information for this came from the excellent website The Mucha Foundation