Art exists only to communicate a spiritual message.
Song of Bohemia (1918) by Alphonse MuchaCentro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
'Song of Bohemia' (1918)
At the time when Mucha produced this painting he could perhaps sense his dream coming true since in June 1918 the Allied governments officially recognised the Czechoslovak people’s national aspirations.
The painting was reproduced in the July 10, 1918 issue of Zlatá Praha magazine under the title Our Song. Reflecting the optimistic mood in the air, the picture shows three girls in national costume resting on a hilltop overlooking a great expanse of the Bohemian countryside.
With a sense of rapture, the girl in the center listens to the song uniting the Czech people.
Exhibition Alphonse Mucha: The Legacy of Art Nouveau (2020)Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
The Municipal House (Obecní Dum), Prague
Mucha's first work for his homeland was the decoration of the Municipal House in Prague (built between 1905 and 1912).
Designed as an expression of the Czech National Revival - a movement to restore Czech culture and national identity - and of civic pride by Antonín Balsánek (1865 - 1921) and Osvald Polivka (1859 - 1931), the decoration of the building was carried out by many leading Czech artists at the time.
Exhibition Alphonse Mucha: The Legacy of Art Nouveau (2020)Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
Mucha contributed murals for the Lord Mayor's Hall as well as its furnishings. The two watercolours shown here are final studies for the pair of panel paintings in the small reception room.
Exhibition of the Slav Epic (1928) by Alphonse MuchaCentro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
They allude to the current state of the city under Habsburg rule and the glorious future of a liberated Prague.
Allegory of Prague: Prague subjugated (1911) by Alphonse MuchaCentro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
Allegory of Prague: Prague Subjugated
Study for a panel of the Small Reception Room at the Lord Mayor's Hall in the Municipal House, Prague | pen and ink and watercolour on paper, 1911
Allegory of Prague: Dreaming of Freedom (1911) by Alphonse MuchaCentro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
Allegory of Prague: Dreaming of Freedom
Study for a panel of the Small Reception Room at the Lord Mayor's Hall in the Municipal House, Prague | pen, ink and watercolour on paper, 1911
8th Sokol Festival Prague 1926: Pageant on the Vltava River (1925) by Alphonse MuchaCentro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
8th Sokol Festival Prague 1926: Pageant on the Vltava River
The Sokol was first founded in Prague in 1862 as a gymnastic organisation to promote Czech nationalism through physical and moral training.
It grew to become an influential movement, and the Sokol Festivals provided a forum for the spread of mass-based political ideology through massive gymnastic events combined with theatrical performances.
Mucha was a keen supporter of the Sokol movement, and he produced two posters for the organisation: the 6th Sokol Festival of 1912 and this one for a theatrical performance planned to coincide with the 8th Sokol Festival of 1926.
Here Mucha synthesises the real world in the foreground—the two Sokol youths behind the Bohemian flag—with the spiritual world in the background, where the mythical Slavia, the personification of Slavic unity, gives them her blessing.
Study for Russia Restituenda (Russia Must Recover) (1922) by Alphonse MuchaCentro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
Study for Russia Restituenda ('Russia Must Recover')
Pen and ink and watercolour on paper, 1922
The poster served as a plea for help for starving children in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War (1917–22), which paralyzed the country and killed millions through widespread disease and starvation.
The situation was further worsened by a catastrophic famine, which broke out in the Volga-Ural region in 1921, prompting international relief efforts.
Mucha’s poster conveys a compassionate message through the image of a distressed peasant woman holding a dying child—an image adapted from the Christian iconography of Mother and Child.
For the message at the bottom ‘Russia Must Recover’ Mucha chose to use Latin, a universal language, to indicate the impartiality and internationalism of this humanitarian effort.
1918–1928: official poster celebrating the 10th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia (1928) by Alphonse MuchaCentro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
Colour lithograph, 1928
1918–1928: official poster celebrating the 10th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia
In this poster Mucha depicted the nation as a young woman in a ceremonial robe with a headdress decorated with the emblems of the ethnic regions constituting Czechoslovakia...
...Bohemia (the lion), Moravia (the chequered eagle), Slovakia (the cross), Silesia (the eagle with the clover stalk) and Ruthenia (the bear).
Here she is being crowned with a garland of flowers by a spiritual being behind her representing the Allies in the World War I who supported the nation's independence.
