Voici mon effort:
I’m going to talk to you about a painter whom I admire greatly, namely, Alfonse Mucha, who was born in Ivancice (Moravia). He was a Czech painter and poster illustrator who developed ornamental techniques similar to the esthetics of art nouveau. Alfonse Mucha studied art at Prague and Munich before he became the decorator for the Vienna theater. In Paris, where he spent the main part of his life, Mucha associated with the artists and the writers of the symbolist school. In Paris he sold his drawings to newspapers such as Le Figaro Illustré , he designed posters, jewelry, dresses, and stained glass windows. His style was characterized by the flowing lines « en coup de fouet » (whiplash), graceful flowers with double stalks, feminine motives with long flowing hair, and delicately softened letters. He was the poster painter appointed by the French artist Sarah Bernhardt. In the 1890s he painted advertising posters, such as the well-known paper on Job cigarettes and the advertising for Nestles. He also designed exotic displays and interior decorations. From 1903 until 1922, Mucha visited the United States four different times. Under the patronage of the Chicago industrialist Charles Richard Crane, he painted the Epic of the Czech people from 1912 – 1930, a series of 20 large canvasses which the industrialist donated to the city of Prague. He returned to the Czech Republic in 1922 and worked on illustrating stamps and bank notes. He died in Prague in 1939.
In conclusion, of all illustrators, A.M. is certainly the most sought-after by collectors, not only in France but also abroad. Moreover, some collectors wouldn’t hesitate to bribe the person posting the poster in order to get a sample of his work, while others would wait until night and cut the posters off the walls of Paris with a razor blade.
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