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Some 250 paintings, drawings, sketches, posters, books and even pieces of jewellery and furniture provide insight into the life of the "first and foremost Slavic" artist, according to the French curator of the exhibit, Jean-Louis Gaillemin.
Mucha "wanted to show that the Slavs were very attached to art and not to arms," after the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz-Ferdinand in Sarajevo by a Slav nationalist, the event that in 1914 sparked off World War I.
Born in Moravia in 1860, in what is now the Czech Republic, Alfons Mucha moved to Vienna in 1879 to become an assistant set painter for the theatre after he failed to gain entrance to Prague's Academy of Fine Arts.
After studying in Munich and at the Academie Julian in Paris, he then settled down in the French capital, a paradise for European artists in the late 1880s.
Fellow painter Paul Gauguin moved into his workshop on his return from Tahiti in 1893 and two years later, Mucha signed a six-year contract with Sarah Bernhardt, designing the posters for her plays "Gismonda," "Medee" and many others.
Mucha's ornate and dramatic style, all curves and arabesques and rich in floral designs, was quickly established and became the height of fashion.
Famous brands of chocolates, biscuits and cigarettes appealed for his work to promote their products, while Parisian publishing houses recruited him to do book illustrations, such as "Ilsee, Princesse de Tripoli" by Robert de Flers, which contains no less than 134 drawings.
Extremely meticulous, Mucha drew dozens of sketches before he made his illustrations and these are on display at the Belvedere museum, all remarkably well-preserved.
The 1900 World Fair in Paris served as a springboard for the Slavic artist, who was entrusted by the Austro-Hungarian authorities to design the Bosnia-Hercegovina pavilion, also amazingly part of the Belvedere exhibit.
"For the first since since that Fair in 1900, we have reassembled the pavilion in all its integrity in one of the larger rooms of the museum," Husslein told AFP.
"We found the panels rolled up haphazardly and piled up in the cellars of a museum in Prague: here, you can see water stains and there, a portrait was cut out of a panel with a boxcutter," she points out bitterly.
The pavilion was awarded the silver medal at the World Fair and won Mucha the French title of Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.
In a smaller room of the Belvedere, a little table and two leather chairs stand before a life-size picture of a fountain in typical Mucha style, besides glass cases with necklaces, earrings and bracelets, all signed by the artist: a replica of the boutique of Georges Fouquet with original furniture.
Mucha had caught the jeweller's attention with the serpent-shaped bracelet worn by Sarah Bernhardt on the "Medee" poster, and agreed to furnish his shop on Rue Royale in Paris.
No Mucha retrospective would be complete without "The Slav Epic," which retraces the history of the Slavic people in 20 massive paintings -- each over 20 square metres (215.28 square feet) -- two of which are on show at the Belvedere.
It took the artist 20 years to complete his masterpiece, which he offered in 1928 to the Czech people.
In 1939, Mucha was one of the first to be arrested by the Nazis after they entered Prague. He died shortly after his release on July 14, 1939.
The exhibit will run from February 12 to June 1.
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Image of visitors looking at works of Czech Art Nouveau artist Alfons Mucha during the opening of the Alfons Mucha exhibition on February 11, 2009 at the Belveder Museum in Vienna, by Samuel Kubani.
Mucha "wanted to show that the Slavs were very attached to art and not to arms," after the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz-Ferdinand in Sarajevo by a Slav nationalist, the event that in 1914 sparked off World War I.
Born in Moravia in 1860, in what is now the Czech Republic, Alfons Mucha moved to Vienna in 1879 to become an assistant set painter for the theatre after he failed to gain entrance to Prague's Academy of Fine Arts.
After studying in Munich and at the Academie Julian in Paris, he then settled down in the French capital, a paradise for European artists in the late 1880s.
Fellow painter Paul Gauguin moved into his workshop on his return from Tahiti in 1893 and two years later, Mucha signed a six-year contract with Sarah Bernhardt, designing the posters for her plays "Gismonda," "Medee" and many others.
Mucha's ornate and dramatic style, all curves and arabesques and rich in floral designs, was quickly established and became the height of fashion.
Famous brands of chocolates, biscuits and cigarettes appealed for his work to promote their products, while Parisian publishing houses recruited him to do book illustrations, such as "Ilsee, Princesse de Tripoli" by Robert de Flers, which contains no less than 134 drawings.
Extremely meticulous, Mucha drew dozens of sketches before he made his illustrations and these are on display at the Belvedere museum, all remarkably well-preserved.
The 1900 World Fair in Paris served as a springboard for the Slavic artist, who was entrusted by the Austro-Hungarian authorities to design the Bosnia-Hercegovina pavilion, also amazingly part of the Belvedere exhibit.
"For the first since since that Fair in 1900, we have reassembled the pavilion in all its integrity in one of the larger rooms of the museum," Husslein told AFP.
"We found the panels rolled up haphazardly and piled up in the cellars of a museum in Prague: here, you can see water stains and there, a portrait was cut out of a panel with a boxcutter," she points out bitterly.
The pavilion was awarded the silver medal at the World Fair and won Mucha the French title of Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.
In a smaller room of the Belvedere, a little table and two leather chairs stand before a life-size picture of a fountain in typical Mucha style, besides glass cases with necklaces, earrings and bracelets, all signed by the artist: a replica of the boutique of Georges Fouquet with original furniture.
Mucha had caught the jeweller's attention with the serpent-shaped bracelet worn by Sarah Bernhardt on the "Medee" poster, and agreed to furnish his shop on Rue Royale in Paris.
No Mucha retrospective would be complete without "The Slav Epic," which retraces the history of the Slavic people in 20 massive paintings -- each over 20 square metres (215.28 square feet) -- two of which are on show at the Belvedere.
It took the artist 20 years to complete his masterpiece, which he offered in 1928 to the Czech people.
In 1939, Mucha was one of the first to be arrested by the Nazis after they entered Prague. He died shortly after his release on July 14, 1939.
The exhibit will run from February 12 to June 1.
--------------------------------------------------
Image of visitors looking at works of Czech Art Nouveau artist Alfons Mucha during the opening of the Alfons Mucha exhibition on February 11, 2009 at the Belveder Museum in Vienna, by Samuel Kubani.
