Eugène Grasset and His Beautiful Gardens

Spring (1894)

Eugène Grasset (1841 or 1845-1917) was a Swiss artist who worked in a variety of design fields in Paris, France. He is considered to be a pioneer in Art Nouveau design. Images are courtesy of wikiart.org (link).

Self Portrait (date unknown)

He studied drawing and architecture, and his travels to Egypt and his love of Japanese art influenced many of his own designs. He initially worked as a painter and sculptor, but during his career he also designed fabrics, furniture, tapestries, ceramics and jewelry. 

Le Nouveau Larousse Advertisement (1890)

He also taught at several schools in Paris, and a number of his students went on to have successful careers in art and design. 

 

Grafton Gallery, From Les Affiche Illustree (1897)

Although best known for his poster designs from the 1890s-1900s, he also illustrated magazine covers, advertisements, postcards and French and Swiss postage stamps.

His often feature beautiful women and flowers. Some images of historical subjects, such as the June 1895 cover of The Century Magazine which features Napoleon, do not feature flowers, but still utilize rich ornamental design in his distinctive style.

His best-known work today is probably the beautiful series of twelve paintings that illustrated the 1896 calendar for the Parisian department store La Belle Jardiniere. In these images, each month features a beautiful woman, in different seasonal clothes, walking in, tending to, or gathering flowers from an enchanted garden. 

Alphonse Mucha

Summer (1899) by Alphonse Mucha (from The Magazine of Art)

Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) was born on July 24,1860. He was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist. He produced many paintings, illustrations, advertisements, postcards, and designs. He was one of the most important artists in the movement  known as Art Nouveau (French for "new art"), which was most popular from about 1890-1910 and his distinctive style was highly influential and often imitated.

Self Portrait by Mucha (1907) (courtesy of  wikiart.org)

Art Nouveau embraced asymmetrical, curved, flowing and often undulating lines, inspired by natural forms and structures, such as those of flowers and plants.

Carnation by Mucha (courtesy of  wikiart.org)

Art Nouveau designs were applied to the graphic arts and print media, as well as architecture, lighting, jewelry, textiles, furniture and ceramics. Everyday objects of the period, such as silverware and cigarette cases, often reflect this style as well.

Art Nouveau Wall Cabinet by Louis Majorelle (Late 19th Century) (link)

The Art Nouveau style was most popular in Europe, and was known by many different names, including Jugendstil in Germany and Scandinavia; Stile Floreale and Stile Liberty in Italy; and Tiffany Style in the United States, because of its association with stained glass artist Louis Comfort Tiffany.

The Tree of Life by Louis Comfort Tiffany (link)

Born in Ivančice, Moravia (currently part of the Czech Republic), Alphonse Mucha initially worked doing decorative painting, primarily painting theater scenery in Moravia and then in Vienna, Austria from 1879-1881. He returned to Moravia in 1881, and did freelance decorative and portrait painting. He was hired by Count Karl Khuen of Mikulov to decorate Hrušovany Emmahof Castle with murals. The Count was impressed with Mucha's work, and agreed to sponsor his formal training at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts.

Amethyst by Mucha (courtesy of  wikiart.org)

Mucha moved to Paris in 1887, and continued his studies at Académie Julian and Académie Colarossi. In addition to his studies, he produced many magazine and advertising illustrations over the next several years.

Advertising Poster by Mucha (1899)
(courtesy of  wikiart.org)

Advertising Poster by Mucha (1896)
(courtesy of  wikiart.org)

Advertising Poster by Mucha (1897) (courtesy of  wikiart.org)

He designed an advertising poster for a play featuring Sarah Bernhardt, the most famous actress at the time in Paris. The advertisement for the play, Gismonda by Victorien Sardou was posted in the city on January 1, 1895, and it attracted positive attention. Sarah Bernhardt was so satisfied with the success of this first poster that she began a six-year contract with Mucha.

Gismonda by Mucha (1894) (link)

In Paris, Mucha found success by producing numerous paintings, posters, advertisements, and book illustrations, as well as designs for jewelry, carpets, wallpaper, and theatre sets. Mucha's work was featured prominently at the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris, during which he decorated the Bosnia and Herzegovina Pavilion and collaborated with decorating the Austrian Pavilion.

Austria by Mucha (1900) (courtesy of  wikiart.org)

Mucha used pastel colors in many of his works, which contrasted sharply with the bright colors favored by other poster artists of that time.  His works frequently featured beautiful young women in flowing robes, often wearing flowers in their hair, with flowers sometimes forming halos behind their heads.

Illustration by Mucha (1897) (link)

Calendar--Champagne by Mucha (1897) (courtesy of  wikiart.org)

Calendar--Cherry Blossom (1898) (courtesy of  wikiart.org)

Mucha was often frustrated by gaining fame through his commercial art. He believed that art existed only to communicate a spiritual message, and he wanted to concentrate on artistic projects that were of more importance to him. In addition to his poster art and illustrations, he created sculptures, designs for stained glass, and paintings which depicted historical, mythological and religious scenes.

The Judgment of Paris by Mucha (1895) (courtesy of  wikiart.org)

Mucha spent many years working on what he considered his life's fine art masterpiece, The Slav Epic. It was created as a celebration of Slavic history and given to the city of Prague in 1928. Since 2012, the series has been on display at the National Gallery's Veletržní Palace in Prague.

The Introduction of the Slavonic Liturgy by Mucha (1912) (courtesy of  wikiart.org)

Mucha was married in 1906, in Prague. He and his wife Maruška visited the U.S. from 1906 to 1910. Their daughter Jaroslava was born in New York City. They also had a son, Jiří, born in 1915 in Prague. He later became a journalist, writer, screenwriter, author of autobiographical novels and studies of the works of his father.

Mucha Illustrations from The New York Daily News (1904) (courtesy of  wikiart.org)

After returning to live in Prague, Alphonse Mucha decorated the Theater of Fine Arts, and created murals in the Mayor's Office at the Municipal House, and at other landmarks around the city. When Czechoslovakia won its independence after World War I, Mucha designed postage stamps, banknotes, and other government documents.


 

Alphonse Mucha Designed Artwork on a 1920 Czechoslovakian 100 Korun Note (Courtesy of National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution (link)

With the rise of fascism during the late 1930s, Mucha's works and his Slavic nationalism were denounced in the press as "reactionary". When German troops moved into Czechoslovakia during the spring of 1939, Mucha was among the first to be arrested by the Gestapo. During his interrogation, he developed pneumonia. Though released eventually, he died in Prague on 14 July 1939, due to lung infection, and was buried there.

Alphonse Mucha's Stained Glass Window in St. Vitus Cathedral Inside Prague Castle Photo by Clayton Tang (link)

Although Mucha's style enjoys great popularity today, at the time when he died, it was considered outdated. His son, author Jiří Mucha, devoted much of his life to writing about him and bringing attention to his artwork. In his own country, there was not much interest for many years. The Slav Epic was rolled and stored for twenty-five years after his death before being displayed publicly, and eventually a Mucha museum was opened in Prague, managed by his grandson John Mucha.

Day by Mucha (courtesy of  wikiart.org)

The Moon by Mucha (courtesy of  wikiart.org)

Mucha's work has continued to experience periodic revivals of interest for illustrators and artists. During the 1960s, Mucha's distinctive art Nouveau style heavily influenced psychedelic poster art. And today, his work continues to inspire, and is appreciated worldwide for its graceful and timeless beauty.

Evening Reverie-Nocturnal Slumber by Mucha (1898) (courtesy of  wikiart.org)

^{Biographical information paraphrased from wikipedia.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Mucha}
 

Ornamental Alphabets

We are surrounded by words; in books, in advertising, and on the computer. Styles of lettering, whether hand-written, printed, or computer-generated work on a conscious and subconscious level, and much thought is given in design into using lettering that is aesthetically pleasing and also conveys the message intended. Many of the common fonts we see every day are derived from older forms of type. For example, Times New Roman is a familiar font widely used on websites, in books and newspapers and on official documents. It is clear, attractive, and on a subconscious level conveys a sense of seriousness and credibility. It was created in 1931, and was used for many years in the London newspaper The Times. It was inspired by older fonts with origins in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.

Comic Sans MS is a modern font which was inspired by comic book lettering. It is a casual font, and was intended to be used for informal documents. Its use has sparked controversy, which is described by Wikipedia as follows (source): "Installed on the majority of computers worldwide, Comic Sans sees widespread use. Within four years of its release on Windows, designers had begun to argue that it had become overused, often through use in serious and formal documents in which it could appear too informal or even as inappropriate and disrespectful. Examples of uses to which it has been considered poorly suited have been a Dutch war memorial, printed advice for rape victims, blog posts by a law firm and as a font recommended for résumés in careers training." People may not take information printed in this font seriously, as described in the same Wikipedia article: "Film producer and New York Times essayist Errol Morris wrote in an August 2012 posting, 'The conscious awareness of Comic Sans promotes — at least among some people — contempt and summary dismissal.' With the help of a professor, he conducted an online experiment and found that Comic Sans, in comparison with five other fonts (Baskerville, Helvetica, Georgia, Trebuchet MS, and Computer Modern), makes readers slightly less likely to believe that a statement they are reading is true."

^{In past centuries, it was important to choose appropriate and attractive lettering  for use in art, design and advertising. Much lettering was done by hand, and there are many beautiful examples available of the alphabets which were used in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. People were always looking for something new and interesting to make their work stand out, and numerous books were printed which showed examples of different alphabets, which could be adapted for different purposes.}

The following examples of alphabets are taken from Draughtsman's Alphabets by Hermann Esser (1877). Some of these alphabets are printed on grids, to assist the reader in learning how to reproduce the letters.

^{The following examples are reproduced from One Hundred Alphabets For the Show Card (1913), which featured alphabets specifically designed for advertising. These were originally printed in the journal Merchants Record and Show Window, which, according to the editor, "should be read regularly by every card writer and window dresser."}

^{Womens' magazines  of the 19th Century often featured beautiful sample needlework alphabets, initials, and even names which could be used for monogramming  linens and clothing. Other alphabets could be used for filet crochet and beading designs. The following intricate letters appeared in Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine in 1859.}

Initials From From Godey's, April 1859

Names For Marking From Godey's, February 1859

Crochet Alphabet From Godey's, August 1859

Variety Alphabet For marking Pillowcases, etc. From Godey's, Oct. and Nov. 1859