Alphonse Mucha’s grandson, JOHN MUCHA who was in Malta for the vernissage of the “In quest of beauty: Alphonse Mucha 1860-1939” exhibition, talks to Marie Benoît about his famous grandfather, the creator of ‘le style Mucha’
John Mucha, as we know from his recent visit and the Mucha exhibition at the Museum of Archaeology in Valletta, is the grandson of the great Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist Alphonse Mucha. He heads the Mucha Foundation, which conserves the family’s collection and promotes the artist’s work internationally. “What made his grandfather famous?” I asked John when I met him at the Museum of Archaeology the day after the vernissage of the exhibition that took place last month. John explained to me that his grandfather was in Paris during Christmas 1894. “He was just about making enough money producing illustrations. It was Christmastime and a printer nearby was printing posters for Sarah Bernhardt who was taking part in Gismonda, which was to open in 1895.” The printer told Alphonse Mucha that Sarah Bernhardt did not like the designs for the posters that had been submitted by another artist and had sent them back to him. “Since the designer was on holiday, the printer started panicking and asked Alphonse if he could produce something more interesting. “My grandfather set to work and designed the now famous Gismonda poster. He produced a long image in colours that had not been seen before. The printer did not like it but when Sarah Bernhardt saw the poster she demanded to see the artist.” When Mucha entered her boudoir she got up and embraced him saying: “You have made me immortal.” Sarah Bernhardt’s poster made him famous too. It is perhaps difficult to appreciate the impact of Mucha’s poster at the time, in many ways the most impressive poster he ever produced. In 1895 its distinctive shape, muted colouring and exquisitely simplified draughtsmanship allied to a Byzantine richness of decoration, were completely novel. The poster’s obvious merit, together with the publicity value of anything or anybody connected with Bernhardt, ensured that within a week Mucha was the most talked about artist in Paris. From then on he designed the posters for several theatrical productions featuring Bernhardt. He also designed sets and costumes for her too. Mr Mucha continues: “Like a rock star of today, he was suddenly making money which enabled him to be free to do what he wanted. And one of the first things he did was buy an edition of the first encyclopaedia compiled by Voltaire and Diderot.” Voltaire did more than any philosopher to popularise and instigate ‘the age of reason’, the 18th century movement that followed hard on the heels of the mysticism, religion, and superstition of the Middle Ages. Mucha’s art became popular overnight and his studio a hive of activity, rather like the Andy Warhol factory. He immersed himself deeper and deeper in his art as his popularity grew.
“My grandfather was not just a designer of posters, although he is best known for them. He also painted in oil and pastels, designed interiors, jewellery, banknotes and so many other items as can be seen from the exhibition. He is the key and the only Czech visual artist who is a founder of a global art movement. The foundation stone as it were.”
Mr Mucha continues: “He was asked by the Austro-Hungarian government to design the Bosnia-Herzegovina Pavilion for the Paris Exhibition of 1900, which he did. This was another crucial moment for him. He realised that while he was famous his nation was suffering. The creation of the Pavilion was the start of an idea that led to the now famous Slav Epic – 20 huge canvases in tempera, his magnum opus. In these canvases he recorded the key historical moments of both the Czech and Moravian people and other Slav nations. It is Alphonse’s response to Wagner in a different medium. This comes from the heart as, indeed, does all my grandfather’s work. It is powerful and you have to react to it. My grandfather is a patriot but not a jingoistic nationalist. ‘The purpose of my art is to build bridges,’ he would say. He was committed to the idea that art is to convey a spiritual message.” The 20 canvases took 20 years to finish. They are about Love, Hate, Peace, War. The Slav Epic is about humanity, fundamental values, anything that governs our lives. The time of The Slav Epic is yet to come,” Mr Mucha predicts.
Between 1903 and 1922 Mucha made four trips to the United States. There he accepted commissions for society portraits and attracted the patronage of Charles Richard Crane, a Chicago industrialist and Slavophile, who subsidized The Slav Epic. After 1922 Mucha lived in Czechoslovakia, and he donated these paintings to the city of Prague.
“If I review the history of my family,” Mr Mucha told me, “in a way what we have been through is a mirror of the turbulent history of Central Europe.” John Mucha’s late father, Jirí, was a journalist and writer. Born in Prague, he was in Paris when Germany occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939. He eventually made his way to the United Kingdom, where he became a pilot and fought in the Battle of Britain. He ended his war service working as a war correspondent for the BBC. He returned to Prague in 1945 and in 1950 he was arrested by the country’s Communist government for alleged espionage. His son tells me: “The state prosecutor wanted the death penalty but he was finally sentenced to hard labour in the uranium mines. He was released from prison in 1954 and devoted himself to his writing and to publicising his father’s art, spending much of his life abroad.” He was a patriot like his father and though he was undergoing surgery in France at the time of the Velvet Revolution, which brought down the communist regime, he returned to Prague, and between 1989-1990 he was chairman of the Czech PEN club. He died of cancer in 1991.
John’s mother Geraldine comes from the Orkney Islands and at the age of 92, “still composes music.” John himself was a banker and once he retired together with his wife Sarah, he now devotes his time and energies to conserving and promoting his grandfather’s works. The Mucha’s’ home is in Prague “opposite the gates of Prague Castle,” and a ‘living museum’.
John was born in London in May 1948. His mother was advised by a relative, who was very high up in the BBC and was wary of the political situation in Czechoslovakia at the time, to return to England to have her baby. Geraldine left Prague for London just before the Communists took power. After John’s birth she returned with the baby to be with her husband in Prague.
In fact, the Mucha collection would have been confiscated during World War II had it not been for John’s Scottish mother. After John’s father was falsely accused of spying, the secret police went to their home to confiscate everything. The British ambassador, who was a friend and lived nearby, shouted at the secret police telling them that Mrs Mucha was a British subject and they could not confiscate anything, which saved the day and the precious collection. However, John believes that had they had a collection of Picasso, Matisse and so on, the works would have been confiscated. “They probably considered my grandfather’s work to be decadent and of no value and let us keep it.”
When the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia and divided the country up into Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia (in 1939), Alfonse Mucha was one of the first of those arrested by the Gestapo. He was released shortly afterwards, but became ill with pneumonia. He died on 14 July 1939, just before his 79th birthday. His countrymen gave him a hero’s funeral to celebrate ‘a great Czech’ in a large public ceremony in Prague. He is buried at Vysehrad where the most important creative Czech artists are buried. “The Nazis had dictated that only family members would be allowed to attend the funeral but some 100,000 people turned up to pay him homage and the Nazis could do nothing about it.”
The copyright has now expired on Mucha’s works. This means that the rights are in the public domain. However, many companies prefer to work with the family and support the work of the Foundation. “We continue to collaborate with those who want to reproduce work done by Alphonse Mucha. Frey Wille is one such company. Famed for its enamel work, it produces stunning jewellery based on designs by Alphonse Mucha.”
The exhibition In quest of beauty: Alphonse Mucha 1860-1939 is open to the public in the Salon of the National Museum of Archaeology, Valletta until 15 May.