VIOLONCELLO | Christa Zaat

Christa Zaat



Alfphonse Maria Mucha (Czech painter) 1860 - 1939
Zdeňka Černý, the Greatest Bohemian Violoncellist, 1913
colour lithograph
82 x 65 cm.
Mucha Museum, Prague, Czech Republic

In 1906 Mucha gave a series of lectures at the Chicago Art Institute. While in Chicago, he and Maruška lodged with A.V. Černý, Professor of Music at the First Bohemian Conservatory. 'Papa' Černý had three daughters, all musically gifted. Mucha befriended the second daugter, seven year old Zdeňka, and promised to paint her portrait when she became a virtuoso concert artist. The portrait was painted when she was 16 and formed the basis of for this poster advertising a European tour which Zdeňka was to make in 1914-1915. The concert was cancelled when war broke out but the poster remains as a testament to the artist's friendship with the Černý family.

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Born in Ivancice, Moravia near the city of Brno in the modern day Czech Republic, Alfons Mucha began his artistic training taking drawing lessons at the Academy of Visual Arts in Prague and continued his studies in Munich. In 1890, the young artist moved on to Paris and enrolled in the Academie Julien where he was the student of J. P. Laurens, Gustave Boulanger and Lefebvre.

While in Paris, Mucha began to draw illustrations for books and magazines. In 1894, almost overnight, based on a poster he designed for a play starring Sarah Bernhardt, Gismonda, he became a success. Although widely regarded as one of the premier artists of the Art Nouveau period, Mucha shared much in philosophy and artistic temperament with the artists of the Symbolist movement. The composition of his posters was influenced by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Carlos Scwabe and the atmosphere surrounding the Salons de la Rose + Croix as well as by Byzantine and Japanese art. Although most renowned for his poster designs, the artist himself set more store by his other projects. In 1898-1899, he did a series of illustrations for The Lord's Prayer adding personal comments which echoed those of the founder of the Rose + Croix, Joseph Peladan. The crowning achievement of his career was the monumental series, The Slav Epic; twenty huge canvases that marked his return to the history painting of his youth.