Alfons Mucha

Though Alfons Mucha (1860-1939) achieved lasting international acclaim as an Art Nouveau painter, graphic designer, and decorator, his outstanding photography is not as well known. His photographic sketchbook and personal visual diary, comprising photographs from the mid-1880s until the end of his life, constitutes a unique and profound artistic statement. This mosaic of captured moments reveals the intimate and personal basis of both Mucha's own life as an artist and the time period in which he lived. The behind-the-scenes glimpses of his studio provided here prove that Mucha--the creator of the ideal of Art Nouveau beauty--was one of the pioneers of the classic nude in Czech 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 in this book, never before published, reveal hitherto unknown aspects of Mucha's work, which will be of interest to the general reader and the photographic connoisseur alike.

Renate Ulmer studied history of art, classical archaeology and comparative literature at the universities of Karlsruhe and Heidelberg. After her dissertation in 1987 on “Biblical Themes in Expressionist Art” she accepted a position at the Institut Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt, where she worked as acting director and exhibition curator. She has published numerous works on the Stilkunst movement and the design of the 20th century.