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 From a photograph by Eduard Steichen 
 (Collection of Dr. Christian Brinton) 
 
 ALFONS-MAR1E MUCHA
 
 iTrrOR1CAL-?A1NT 
 
 me WIG NATIONS 
 
 YAUWMUCHA 
 
 BIOGRATfitCALI RTCODUCTO 
 
 SRITiTOTi 
 
 SYPROF.tARKA
 
 FT1HE historical paintings of the Slavic 
 ** Nations by Aljons Mucha, exhibited at 
 The Brooklyn Museum , and The Art Institute 
 of Chicago, under the auspices of Director 
 William Henry Fox y are part of the series of 
 twenty subjects presented to the city of Prague 
 by Mr. Charles R. Crane, Minister to China. 
 
 Copyright, 1921, 
 By Christian Brinton 
 
 First Impression 
 Five Thousand Copies 
 
 Printed by 
 
 Redfield-Kendrick-Odell Co. Inc. 
 New York
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY DR. CHRISTIAN BRINTON 
 
 HE gifted and versatile painter of the pictorial epic of 
 the Slavic nations here exhibited, is a typical Czech 
 in his traditions, his aspirations, and his artistic 
 achievement. Alfons-Marie Mucha, to give him his full 
 name, was born July 24, 1860, at Ivancicie, in Mor- 
 avia. Some beneficent Vila must have blessed him 
 at birth with the flame of art, for his earliest impres- 
 sions were of form and colour. Before he could speak or walk, he 
 remembers lying in his capacious wooden cradle and gazing raptur- 
 ously at the shimmering lights of the family Christmas tree. He grew 
 up a bright eyed, curly haired youngster, possessed of irrepressible 
 vivacity and a pronounced taste for drawing. As a child he was 
 frequently left in charge of his grandmother Maly, who delighted 
 in his talent and often rewarded his juvenile efforts with judicious 
 gifts of sweetmeats. His mother, however, wished him to become a 
 priest, so he was sent at the age often to Brno, the capital, where he 
 was for a time a choir boy in the Metropolitan Cathedral. 
 
 Yet the aspiring Alfons clung tenaciously to the idea of becoming 
 an artist, and at sixteen we find him attending the College of Brno, 
 and caring more for his drawing lessons than for all the other courses 
 combined. Possessing but modest means, he was obliged to share his 
 room with a student, poorer even than himself, and from about the 
 middle of each month, when their united resources were exhausted,
 
 Copyright, 1920, by Alfons Mucha 
 
 i. SVANTOVI'T CELEBRATION 
 
 they were usually in sorry straits for food. Virtually all they had to 
 subsist upon was a huge round loaf of black bread and a can of pork 
 grease which the room-mate's peasant family was in the habit of 
 supplying at stated intervals. And Mucha, being the more accom- 
 plished draughtsman of the two, would scientifically mark off with 
 chalk the exact amount of bread to be consumed each day, the pork 
 grease serving as butter. 
 
 The lad's love of art was so persistent, and his ability so excep- 
 tional, that his master, Zeleny, a benign, bearded old man who 
 habitually arrayed himself in a long black cloak and high boots, 
 persuaded him to seek admission to the Academy of Fine Arts at 
 Prague. Lhota, the director of the academy proved, however, 
 distinctly pessimistic regarding the young man's capacity for artistic 
 expression, and summarily admonished him to renounce his am- 
 bitions and become a government clerk. Discouraged but not dis-
 
 Copyright, 1920, by Alfons Mucha 
 
 II. THE ABOLITION OF SERFDOM 
 
 heartened, he next set out for Vienna, where he worked for some 
 months on the decorations for the new Ring Theatre, and finally 
 drifted, penniless, to Mikulov. Here he remained a year or more, 
 executing portrait sketches of the townsfolk at five florins each; 
 and here also he was fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of 
 Count Khuen Belasy, of Grusbach, who became his patron and 
 after a year's sojourn at his castle of Gandegg, enabled the artist to 
 pursue his studies in Munich and Paris. 
 
 In order to maintain the requisite social prestige, the young painter 
 felt constrained to stop at The Lion, Mikulov's leading hostelry. 
 Being both witty and musical, he was invited about considerably, 
 despite the fact that his wardrobe was perilously shabby. At one 
 period his single pair of trousers was in such precarious condition 
 that his only expedient was to wear his topcoat throughout the 
 evening, on the plea of suffering from chronic chills. After a certain 
 number of appearances under these conditions, he was surprised one
 
 morning to receive a ceremonious visit 
 from the leading tailor of the town, who took his measure 
 for a pair of trousers and politely but firmly declined all suggestion 
 of payment. Although not a little puzzled, Mucha subsequently 
 appeared in the trousers, and was enthusiastically complimented 
 upon their cut, colour, etc. It was not until some twenty years later, 
 when he had become a famous artist, that the sequel came in the 
 form of a letter from Berger, a prominent townsman, asking whether 
 Mucha recalled the incident, and adding that the trousers in question 
 had been a spontaneous gift from the young ladies of Mikulov. 
 
 During Mucha's sojourn in Munich, which lasted some two years, 
 he was a joyous, picturesque member of the Czech colony of the day 
 which included such well-known figures as Vacha, Brozik, and 
 Marolda. This auspicious interlude was, however, followed by a 
 sharper contact with reality and the bitter sting of poverty, for 
 shortly after his arrival in Paris in 1887, Count Khuen ceased his 
 patronage, and the young man was thrown upon his own resources, 
 with the added handicap of an imperfect knowledge of the French 
 language. He lived for a time in the impasse du Maine, and later in 
 the rue de la Grande Chaumiere, dreaming resplendent dreams of 
 success and renown, and meantime supporting himself upon the 
 meagre income he derived from book and magazine illustration. 
 Though working for La Vie Populaire and kindred publications 
 sometimes as much as sixteen hours a day, he nevertheless managed 
 to pursue his professional training, and at different intervals studied 
 at the Academic Julien, with Boulanger and Lefebvre, at the 
 Academic Colarossi, and lastly under Jean-Paul Laurens. Vacha was
 
 his companion during these years of 
 struggle and obscurity, when, despite their best efforts, 
 not the least of their problems was how to placate pere Michaud, the 
 restaurateur at the corner, and yet continue their system of living 
 upon credit. The young man's position in the world of art and finance 
 was not indeed perceptibly alleviated until Colin commissioned him 
 to illustrate Charles Seignobos's Histoire d'Allemagne, in col- 
 laboration with Rochegrosse, the success of which placed him in the 
 front rank of contemporary pictorial draughtsmen. 
 
 Mucha's Paris apprenticeship was not without its picturesque 
 features. His modest quarters at number 13, rue de la Grande Chau- 
 miere were located above the cremerie kept by Madame Charlotte, 
 a true patron of art and artists. Here used to foregather Strindberg, 
 Gauguin, Vispenskj, the Pole, and the faithful Vacha before his 
 departure for Switzerland. They formed a close and congenial circle, 
 and were in the habit of dining together almost every evening chez 
 Madame Charlotte. Strindberg, always a trifle austere, was at that 
 particular period deeply absorbed in photographic and chemical re- 
 searches, though often he would mount the rickety stairs and silently 
 survey the pulsing panorama of Paris from the roof-top, or stroll 
 abstractedly in the Cimetiere du Montparnasse, meditating upon 
 some novel or play. Gauguin was restless, talkative, and not over- 
 industrious until he returned from his first island sojourn burning 
 with enthusiasm for the primitive solitude and the wondrous 
 Venus noires he had left behind. And it is interesting in this con- 
 nexion to recall that it was in Mucha's humble studio just across 
 the way, at number 10, rue de la Grande Chaumiere, that Gauguin
 
 added the final touches to his earliest series of 
 Tahitian paintings before they were placed on tentative exhibition. 
 
 Successful as were his illustrations, Alfons Mucha's position in 
 art was not, however, definitely established in the popular mind 
 until the appearance upon the walls of Paris of his remarkable series 
 of posters for Madame Sarah Bernhardt's dramatic productions at 
 the Theatre de la Renaissance. Beginning with Gismonda in 1894, 
 and continuing for some half dozen years with Camille, La Samari- 
 taine, Izeyl, Lorenzaccio, and the more forceful and effective Medee, 
 these posters, as well as the costumes and scenery for the plays, 
 which were likewise designed by Mucha, marked an epoch in the his- 
 tory of contemporary decorative art. 
 
 The vogue 01 Alfons Mucha's work in fact coincided with, and con- 
 tributed its exotic charm to a general rebirth of the decorative and 
 the stylistic as opposed to the realistic tendencies of aesthetic ex- 
 pression. The veritable initiator of the movement was Galland, now 
 a comparatively forgotten man, who may be called the last of 
 the classicists and the first of the moderns. And after Galland came 
 Cheret, the Watteau of the poster, ever delicate, spirited, and typi- 
 cally Parisian; Grasset, who successfully assimilated influences Jap- 
 anese and Teutonic, Carlos Schwabe, the Swiss mystic, and Mucha, 
 Ruty, and others whose work was different, yet whose aims were es- 
 sentially similar. It is these men who to-day must be considered the 
 founders of what is popularly known as 1'Art nouveau. It was their gift 
 of style, their mastery of purely decorative motifs, that in due course 
 led to the formation of such organizations as the Munich and Vienna 
 Secessions, and to the creation of those innumerable arts and crafts 
 centres at the head of which rightfully stands the Wiener Werk-
 
 statte. Without realizing their power or the 
 extent of their influence, this group added a new note to contempo- 
 rary artistic endeavour. They made art an affair of the theatre, the 
 home, and the shop, rather than the exclusive possession of palace 
 and museum. In a sense they were our first really creative modernists. 
 
 The aesthetic aspect of the movement, which was above all char- 
 acterized by a rhythmic, inventive sense of stylization, and a singular 
 freedom and suavity of vision, seemed best exemplified in the person- 
 ality and production of Alfons Mucha. First through his posters, 
 and later through his religious and historical compositions, he became 
 an exponent of that new decorative idealism which at this period was 
 so prominent alike in art and in letters. The supple flow of his line, 
 his profuse use of ornament, and his passionate lyric aspiration 
 all reflected the current taste of the day. A typical oriental Slav, 
 Mucha's rightful province was not Paris, nor even Prague, but 
 the gardens of Semiramis and the palace of Scheherezade. Like Ros- 
 tand, Pierre Louys, Robert de Flers, and the popular poets and play- 
 wrights of the early and middle nineties, he also harked back to Italy, 
 to Greece, and to Byzantium in quest of themes heroic or amourous. 
 For he, too, was a lover of Princesses lointaines. 
 
 And yet this art at once floral, astral, and feminine, which revealed 
 with tender nonchalance the supple beauty of the body, and the deli- 
 cately veiled secrets of the soul, was not destined to be Alfons 
 Mucha's final expression. These sumptuous, hieratic creatures, 
 crowned with the jewels of Theodora, and exhaling the passionate 
 perfume of Ilsee, Princesse of Tripoli, were succeeded by work of a 
 more serious and substantial character. If anything further were 
 necessary to confirm the success of the young Czech with the public
 
 IV. JAN HUS PREACHING IN
 
 Copyright, 1920, by Alfons Mucha
 
 of Paris it was his mural decorations for the 
 pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 
 Exposition Universelle, 1900. Here at last was a congenial commission. 
 A profound student of the history of his race, and familiar from child- 
 hood with the myths and legends of the Slavs of southeastern Europe, 
 it is natural that these panels should have been executed more as a 
 labour of love than in an official or perfunctory spirit. In order to 
 refresh his memory of native costume, and of forms floral and archi- 
 tectural, the artist made an extended tour of the country. And yet 
 the charm of the completed compositions lay not in their fidelity to 
 the actual, but in their flowing rhythmic grace, and their felicitous 
 coloration, grouping, and arrangement. They were in fact the feature 
 of that fantastic, red-roofed, blue-walled pavilion which stood in the 
 rue des Nations between the more pretentious Austrian and Hun- 
 garian palaces. 
 
 Appropriately installed in commodious quarters at number 6, 
 rue Val-de-Grace, Mucha next began working upon a series of deco- 
 rations for the Assumptionist Church of the Virgin in Jerusalem, 
 and also on a cycle of graphic compositions depicting symbolically 
 the Seven Deadly Sins. Successful exhibitions of his work at La 
 Bodiniere and the Salon des Cent had meanwhile attracted to him 
 numerous pupils, and about this period he opened an atelier in the 
 passage Stanislas, whither flocked students from nearly every 
 country in Europe, not to mention numerous admiring Americans 
 of both sexes. 
 
 The Val-de-Grace studio, which one instinctively recalls in review- 
 ing Mucha's Paris days, was typical of the man and his art. The roses 
 and clematis that during spring and summer beckoned to the door,
 
 and the blossoms clustering about the room 
 showed his abiding love for flowers. The 
 rich-toned tapestries and the massive silver censer suspended from 
 the ceiling gave the place the air of a secular sanctuary. The sur- 
 roundings were characteristic, for this work in its more congenial 
 phases is sumptuous, colourful, and essentially Slavonic. The youth- 
 ful acolyte in the Cathedral of Brno has remained all his life a fervent 
 churchman, and his compositions, whether realistic, decorative, or 
 imaginative, reflect a certain sacerdotal spirit. Solemn as a Slavic 
 ritual, and suave as the smile upon the lips of some languorous ori- 
 ental enchantress, the art of Alfons Mucha reveals a subtle fusion of 
 piety and passion. It seems to have flashed out of a mystic, sensuous 
 past, and to point toward an enigmatic future. 
 
 The adequate pictorial presentation of the rise and development 
 of the Czech nation, as well as kindred branches of the Slavic race, 
 is the task to which Alfons Mucha has devoted the past decade of his 
 artistic activity. Many years ago when he was living in Paris, the 
 painter conceived the idea of a great cycle of mural decorations 
 which, through the portrayal of actual historical episodes, should 
 symbolize the character and aspirations of the Slavic peoples, and 
 the current exhibition forms part of this uncompleted series, the 
 most important and ambitious work yet undertaken by the artist. 
 Mucha felt that if he could successfully depict the progressive 
 evolution of the Slavs from the most ancient to the present times, he 
 would be accomplishing something of lasting value; a plan he has
 
 been enabled to complete through the gen- 
 erous patronage of Mr. Charles R. Crane, 
 our present minister to China. Possessing a remarkable insight into 
 the ethnic characteristics of the Slavic races, and deeply interested 
 in their history and ultimate political destiny, Mr. Crane has sup- 
 ported the plan from its inception, feeling sure that this pictorial epic 
 of the Slavs would find place in one of the great Slavic capitals. 
 
 Of the projected series of twenty subjects eleven have thus far 
 been completed, and recently Mr. Crane and the artist decided 
 to offer the paintings to the Czecho-Slovak people if they would 
 guarantee to install them under conditions befitting their merit and 
 importance. The suggestion was received with enthusiasm, the out- 
 come being a pledge from the Czech government to erect a public 
 building in Prague, the walls of which will eventually be decorated 
 with Mucha's Epic of Slavia. 
 
 The presence in our midst of the artist, who is well known in 
 America, adds particular interest to the current exhibition of five of 
 these imposing mural compositions, which so graphically depict the 
 determination of the Slavic peoples to cast off the yoke of the 
 oppressor, whether temporal or spiritual, and achieve a more definite 
 measure of race consciousness. Alfons Mucha is an ardent apostle of 
 nationalism in art, and later on he intends to devote his energies to 
 the organization of a comprehensive exposition of the arts and crafts 
 of his native land, a land that has always been noted for the aesthetic 
 and musical genius of its people the new and aspiring Republic 
 of Czecho-Slovakia.
 
 NOTES ON THE PAINTINGS 
 
 BY PROF. SARKA HRBKOVA 
 I. SVANTOVIT CELEBRATION ON THE RUJANA 
 
 FROM ancient times the Eastern Germany of to-day, to the very 
 edge of the Baltic sea and even to its islands, was populated by 
 Slavs, and their advanced culture was justly recognized by the rest 
 of Europe. The branch which had the greatest fame was the branch 
 of the Rans who dwelt in the Island of Rujana, whose capital was 
 the rich city of Arkuna. In this city was the famous Cathedral of 
 Svantovit, whose artistic beauty aroused the admiration of foreigners 
 visiting there from the land of the Franks, Spain, and even from 
 Byzantium. Visitors from the entire world of that day came to 
 Arkuna, not only to transact business, but also, as with the Greek 
 Delphians, in order to ask of the world-famous priests of Svantovit 
 advice and revelations concerning the things of the future. Once a 
 year, after the harvests, Arkuna was filled with song, and the shore- 
 land along the chalk cliffs resounded with joyful celebrations in 
 honour of the god Svantovit. This celebration had taken place 
 annually from time out of mind until the end of the thirteenth 
 century, when the Germanic Danes sailed hither, conquered Arkuna, 
 and destroyed the chapel of Svantovit. 
 
 In the picture we see how the Teutonic Thor with his wolves has 
 overwhelmed the cortege of Svantovit. His last warrior is dying on 
 the sacred white steed. Svantovit is at his side and takes from his 
 failing right hand the holy sword, and from that time on he gives
 
 Copyright, IQZO, by Alfans Mucha 
 
 III. MILIC OF KROMERIZ
 
 Copyright, IQ20, by Alfons Mucha 
 
 V. THE MEETING OF KRIZKY
 
 Copyright, 1020, by Alfons Mucha 
 
 I. SVANTOVIT CELEBRATION (DETAIL 
 
 battle to Thor. Then the German yoke falls on the Slavs, and with it 
 subjugation, misery, and ruin. Art is forced to flee. Below the artist- 
 engraver seeks to find inspiration in himself and to resurrect the old 
 Slav aspiration and feeling. 
 
 II. THE ABOLITION OF SERFDOM IN RUSSIA 
 
 IN FEBRUARY, 1861, personal liberty became the possession of 
 the Russian people. By a manifesto of the Tzar, serfdom was 
 abolished throughout the Russian realm. The muzik as peasant had 
 previously been a subject of his noble proprietor, who had every right 
 to his time, labour, and person. In return for all of this, the poor 
 muzik received scarcely enough to subsist upon. 
 
 The ukase decreeing liberty, made of the slave a free citizen. The 
 picture represents the square before the Kremlin of Moscow in the 
 shadow of the cathedral of St. Vasilij. Here are gathered people from 
 the town and from the country those who were serfs up to that day.
 
 Copyright, 1920, by Alfons Mucha 
 IV. HUS PREACHING IN THE CHAPEL (DETAIL) 
 
 From the red platform, a raised circular place from which important 
 events were announced to the people and also where persons of note 
 had been executed, one beholds the departure, in long processions, of 
 the officials and the priests with their ikons. The common people 
 remain they debate deliberate thank God give praise, but do 
 not yet quite comprehend the meaning of their new liberty. 
 
 III. MILIC OF KROMERIZ 
 THE HUSSITE RELIGIOUS PERIOD 
 
 MILIC OF KROMERIZ was the predecessor of Jan Hus. 
 He was a man inspired by religious fervour and was the first 
 who by spoken word dared to oppose the vices of his time in the 
 voluptuous middle ages. By his flaming eloquence, he held the people 
 of all strata of society, and aroused a current of religious enthusiasm 
 which grew and developed after fifty years into the powerful Hussite 
 movement.
 
 
 In the picture Milic stands on the ruins of the lair of 
 vice, the present Bartolomejska Ulice in Prague. Over three 
 hundred women of ill fame, through his powerful plea, have 
 turned from their evil lives. They come to him renouncing their 
 ornaments and jewels and beg for absolution. 
 
 King Charles the Fourth made a gift to Milic of this land in order 
 that he might erect upon it a New Jerusalem for penitent women. 
 
 IV. HUS PREACHING IN THE CHAPEL OF BETHLEHEM 
 THE HUSSITE RELIGIOUS PERIOD 
 
 IN THE year 1412 when three young men belonging to the congre- 
 gation of Jan Hus were murdered for investigating the so-called 
 miracle performed in the church of Prague, the adherents of the 
 parish lived in constant excitement. The people of all elements of 
 society attended the preaching of Jan Hus, paying the most careful 
 attention to his words, for he it was who unveiled the vicious doings 
 of those who claimed to be servants of God, but lived unrighteous 
 lives and countenanced wicked practices. Even Jan Zizka, who 
 later became the leader of the Hussite army, was frequently present 
 at the preaching of Jan Hus. On the seat, at the right hand side of 
 the picture, may be seen Queen Sophia, wife of Vaclav the Fourth, 
 and beside her are the court ladies.
 
 V. THE MEETING OF KRIZKY 
 
 THE HUSSITE LEADERS PERIOD 
 (Transition from the Religious period to the War period.) 
 
 A FTER the death of Hus, it became more and more dangerous to 
 J[ V. hold the meetings of the brethren who believed in communion 
 of "both kinds," i.e. both body and blood of Christ the bread and 
 the wine, to be participated in by all of the people as well as by the 
 priests. When in 1419 they decided to aid Prague against the King's 
 forces, they were compelled to arm themselves. Thus, for the first 
 time in their history, they were called together in military groups by 
 the Plzen preacher, Koranda. They gathered from all quarters and 
 directions on St. Michael's Day in the broad valley of Knzky near 
 Benesov, from which place they advanced in a mass towards Prague. 
 
 In the picture, Koranda stands on the roof of a hut, and with 
 several chiefs he gazes into the distance. From every side the faithful 
 are gathering. Some come on foot, others on horseback, or in carriages 
 to the meeting place which is designated by flags. The new arrivals 
 are occupied variously. Some are preparing for the night's rest, 
 others are kneeling around the priests and are accepting communion.
 
 
 ALFONS-MARIE MUCHA 
 
 PORTRAIT BUST BY 
 EUGENIE F. SHONNARD
 
 University 
 
 Souther 
 
 Librar