Fruit, Alphonse Mucha - Magnet

Add more style to your surroundings with this wonderful Magnet. The artwork is tiled Fruit by Art Nouveau master artist Alphonse Mucha. TIP: Look for other products in the Vintage section of the GalleryGifts store for complementary gift items! product design by Joseph Maas About the artist: Alphonse Maria Mucha was born in the town of Ivančice, Moravia He worked at decorative painting jobs in Moravia, mostly painting theatrical scenery. In 1879, he relocated to Vienna to work for a major Viennesetheatrical design company, while informally augmenting his artistic education. When a fire destroyed his employer's business during 1881 he returned to Moravia, to do freelance decorative and portrait painting. Mucha moved to Paris in 1887, and continued his studies at Académie Julian and Académie Colarossi. In addition to his studies, he worked at producing magazine and advertising illustrations. About Christmas 1894, Mucha happened to go into a print shop where there was a sudden and unexpected need for a new advertising poster for a play featuring Sarah Bernhardt, the most famous actress in Paris, at the Théâtre de la Renaissance on the Boulevard Saint-Martin. Mucha volunteered to produce a lithographed poster within two weeks, and on 1 January 1895, the advertisement for the play Gismonda by Victorien Sardou was posted in the city, where it attracted much attention.Bernhardt was so satisfied with the success of this first poster that she began a six-year contract with Mucha. F. Champenois Imprimeur-Éditeur, lithograph, 1897. Mucha produced a flurry of paintings, posters, advertisements, and book illustrations, as well as designs for jewellery, carpets, wallpaper, and theatre sets in what was termed initially the Mucha Style but became known as Art Nouveau (French for 'new art'). Mucha's works frequently featured beautiful young women in flowing, vaguely Neoclassical-looking robes, often surrounded by lush flowers which sometimes formed halos behind their heads. In contrast with contemporary poster makers he used pale pastel colours. Source: Wikipedia.org