Alphonse or Alfons Mucha is Czech Art Nouveau painter, who became famous for his advertisments, then his interior designs and his portraits and his paintings. The Vienna Belvedere had an exhibition with some of his works.

The exhibition was rather short – it only took me about an hour to see it all – but tried to cover everything, his posters, his illustrations, his interior designs and his Slav Epic. While that gave a good overview, I would have loved more depth – especially with his portraits, which are really wonderful. Plus, the Belvedere was absolutely packed, which made the whole museum visit a little less nice.

[Especially since there was this guy who walked at about the same pace I did and kept on giving stupid commentary like, “You couldn’t really consider Mucha a painter since his work was much too pretty and ornamental.” And he said that standing in front of the Slav Epic. WTF???]

Anyway, after the jump, see some of my favourites.

Mucha became a star practically overnight after designing a poster for Sarah Bernhardt in Gismonda. Here’s another one he did for her, this time for Medea.

He then made a lot of advertisment, most famously for Buiscits Lefévre Utile and cigarette paper JOB. I especially like this one.

Mucha did some cycles, like the seasons and the four muses Dance, Music, Poetry and Painting. Here’s Dance:

And here’s a view of the jewellery store he designed:

Okay, as I could go on much longer, I’ll cut this short and leave you with a view of the slav epic.