Last weekend, I finally got
to the Alphonse Mucha Exhibition, ‘In Quest of Beauty’, at Kelvingrove Art
Gallery and Museum. I’d almost forgotten about it and it ends mid-February. As
many of you will know, I love art as well as music and literature, and it
often inspires my writing, plus I’m always happy to visit one of my favourite
venues in Glasgow.
Czech-born Mucha became famous
in the latter part of the 19th century when he began designing
advertising posters for the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt. The exhibition has
a wonderful selection of Mucha’s art which inspired the beautiful Art Nouveau
style of images and design.
After returning to Bohemia in
1910, he started creating his many paintings that made up his Slav Epic, some
of which are on show. I was surprised to discover, however, that his work was
hidden away during WWII and Mucha was largely forgotten until rediscovered in
the early 1960s.
As well as the art work
hanging on the various walls, a few glass fronted cabinets contained other
items from the period, such as original perfume phials and a Houbigant perfume
bottle from 1899. I was fascinated by this as I remember loving Houbigant
Quelques Fleurs many, many moons ago, although I don’t remember the actual
scent now!
Another cabinet held an
original copy of Mucha’s Documents Décoratifs
portfolio from 1902 which contains 72 plates of his decorative art, showcasing
his varied design work. But it is his tall Art Nouveau images of beautiful
women that draw the eye, such these four paintings that each depict a different
flower: Rose, Iris, Carnation and Lily. They were seemingly inspired by the
popular Victorian book, The Language of Flowers.
There was even a little fun
boudoir-style area where visitors could don some of the clothes and jewellery
and recline on the sofa. I thought it perhaps resembled the kind of dressing
space Sarah Bernhardt once enjoyed. Unfortunately, my husband had gone off for
a wander outside so I would have felt mighty silly dressing up with no one to
photograph or laugh at me. Shame as I love dressing up when I get the chance!
All in all, it was a lovely
start to our 2017 weekend outings as husband then took me into Glasgow for a
delicious Chinese meal at one of our favourite restaurants. Hope the year
continues as it began!
Rosemary
16 comments:
What a wonderful exhibition and a lovely start to the year. I love Mucha's work. I think you should go back so you can dress up!
How interesting. I must confess Mucha is new to me.
Sounds like a really good day out! I have not seen any work by Mucha before, but love going to exhibitions. I will look out for him now.
I thought I didnt know Mucha but when I saw your photos I realised I'd seen his work somewhere before. Sounds a lovely day out, Rosemary.
That was so interesting, Rosemary. I recognise the art work, but did not know the name of the artist. I also didn't know that Mucha's paintings inspired the beginning of Art Nouveau. Fabulous!
Glad you had a lovely time. Thanks for sharing.
Really lovely, glad you had a good time. I'm sure I used to have one of those on our bathroom wall. A copy obviously:)) A lady with a pitcher and Summer written on the bottom. I had it from a car boot for a pound.
It's a good exhibition and well worth a visit. I follow artists such as Frank Cho and although his subject are a bit more modern (and often racier), the hatching techniques very similar.
Plus the Kelvingrove Gallery is a great visit in it's own right
This is a lovely blog post, Rosemary. We saw this exhibition yesterday and thought it was fab. Pity we didn't go last weekend - it would have been lovely to have met you.
xx
Glad you like Mucha's work, Teresa - and I'm tempted to go back and dress up!
I'd seen some of the images before, Julia, but hadn't known the artist!
I think the exhibition has been touring to a few places in the UK, Maria - hope you get to see it!
That was the same as me, Wendy - we often recognise a style but not the artist!
Glad you enjoyed it, Jean - it was lovely to see his work so close up.
Thanks for commenting, Nicola!
I'd love even a copy of one of his paintings, Suzy!
Thanks for commenting, MovieMan - yes, Kelvingrove is a real inspiration at any time!
Glad you got to see it, Suzanne - that would have been brilliant to be there at the same time!
Ashamed to admit I'd never heard of Mucha, Rosemary but I definitely recognise his style. Hope you enjoy many such inspirational afternoons. : )
What a wonderful exhibition, Rosemary. I love Mucha and when I went to university, I blue-tacked one of the posters, bought from a dark, musk-scented shop called 'But is it Art?', on the wall above my bed. It was one of the flower girls, but I don't recall which. It was so long and heavy that it regularly flopped off the wall and fell on my head during the night, but I always put it back up again the next morning and it's the first thing I remember when I look back at those long-ago days. xxx
Don't worry, Rae - you're not alone in that! Kelvingrove is a very inspiring place.
Thanks for your lovely nostalgia comment, Joanna - love your story about the picture! Maybe it will inspire a short story? My favourite print (not a Mucha) when a teenager was a gorgeous white horse drinking from a pool at the bottom of a waterfall. Don't know what happened to it but I adored it.
Looks to me as though your own quest for beauty was well rewarded.
It was indeed, Patsy!
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