Alfons Mucha

Though Alfons Mucha (1860–1939) achieved lasting international acclaim as an Art Nouveau painter, graphic designer, and decorator, he is far less known as an outstanding photographer. His photographic sketchbook and personal visual diary, comprising photographs from the mid-1880s till the end of his life, constitute a unique artistic statement. The mosaic of captured moments reveals the intimate and personal basis of Mucha’s life as an artist and of his times. The glimpses it provides behind the scenes of his studio demonstrate that Mucha, the creator of the ideal of Art Nouveau beauty, was one of the founders of the Czech school of the classic nude in photography. This is the first time such a large selection of Mucha’s extensive photographic work has been assembled as a book. Many of the photos, never before published, reveal hitherto unknown aspects of Mucha’s work, which will be of interest to the general reader, the professional photographer, and the connoisseur.