Alfons Mucha (1860 - 1939)
Lot 114: Alphonse Marie Mucha (Czechoslovakian, 1860-1939)
Christie's
More About this Item
Description
The Enchantress
signed 'Mucha' (lower right)
oil on canvas, unframed
25 3/4 x 19 1/2 in. (65.4 x 49.6 cm.)
Artist or Maker
Alphonse Marie Mucha (Czechoslovakian, 1860-1939)
Provenance
Frantisek Prochazka (acquired by descent).
Notes
Alphonse Mucha was born in 1860 in Ivancice, Moravia, part of what is today the Czech Republic. He moved to France as a young man and earned recognition for his poster and panel design, becoming one of the foremost proponents of the Art Nouveau movement. In the later half of his life he focused more on painting, the most famous of which is a huge mural entitled The Slav Epic, detailing the history of the Slavic people.
His other paintings were often haunting portraits, depicting an eerie quality he created with opaque lighting and unusual subjects, as seen in The Enchantress.
This work has been authenticated by John Mucha.