The Sarah Bernhardt posters
The works that made him famous in Paris overnight in 1894 and set the visual style of a whole era.
JiriMatejicek — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Umclidet — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Alphonse Mucha — Public domain · Qrup133 — CC BY-SA 4.0
In St Vitus Cathedral inside Prague Castle — a stained glass window he designed in 1931 and one of his finest works. There is also the Mayor's Hall in the Municipal House, which he decorated entirely.
Twenty enormous canvases Mucha painted between 1910 and 1928 on the history of the Slavic peoples, some eight metres wide. He regarded it as his life's work and gave it to Prague. It is not shown at this museum and has moved between venues — check where it is when you travel.
If you love Art Nouveau, clearly yes. If your interest is passing, the Mucha window in the cathedral and the Mayor's Hall in the Municipal House may be enough — both sit inside visits you are already planning.
In the Slavín cemetery at Vyšehrad, among the great figures of Czech life. Visiting his grave is free and sits inside the quiet Vyšehrad route south of the centre.
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Alphonse Mucha is the artist who gave Art Nouveau its visual face, and you have probably seen his work before knowing his name: women with flowing hair framed in plant ornament and circular haloes, in soft colours and sinuous line. Born in Moravia in 1860, he became famous in Paris overnight in 1894, when he designed a poster for the actress Sarah Bernhardt in a single night; the poster became the talk of the city and his name attached itself to the entire style. The museum shows the full arc: the commercial Paris posters, oil paintings, preparatory drawings, and photographs Mucha took himself of his models in the studio — among the most enjoyable things here, because they reveal how he built his compositions. It also covers his design work for the new Czechoslovak state after 1918: the first banknotes and postage stamps, which he designed without payment. What surprises visitors is that Mucha considered the posters secondary commercial work, and that his real life project was the Slav Epic: twenty enormous canvases on the history of the Slavic peoples, which are not shown here but at other venues. The museum is small and focused, and an hour covers it.
The works that made him famous in Paris overnight in 1894 and set the visual style of a whole era.
Pictures Mucha took of his models in the studio to build his compositions from — they reveal his method better than any caption.
Czechoslovakia's first banknotes and stamps after 1918, designed by Mucha for free for his new country.
A short film on his life shown in the museum, explaining his move from Paris posters to the Slav project.
Kaunický palác, Panská 7, Prague 1