Alphonse Mucha: Czech artist who helped pioneer the Art Nouveau movement in Paris and America at the turn of the century. A gifted and innovative illustrator, lithographer, painter, jewelry designer, sculptor, and teacher. He had a lifelong preoccupation with religion and mysticism, and a passionate interest in the past and future of his native land.

Art Nouveau: artistic movement from 1880s to 1910s characterized by curvilinear designs and organic, floral motifs. Used mainly in jewelry, furniture, and decorative arts, but also found in painting, sculpture, and architecture.

Sarah Bernhardt: electrifying French actress who filled theatres around the world and was adored by her fans. Also a great French patriot who established a field hospital during the Siege of Paris (1870), and later entertained troops during WWI. Her friend, Alphonse Mucha, gained overnight fame by designing elaborate posters to promote her performances from about 1895-1905. He and Bernhardt shared a taste for the macabre and frequently met to hold seances with the help of a medium.

Bohemia: westernmost region in Czech Republic, the major city is Prague.

Bohemian: an artist, literary person, or actor who leads a vagabond or irregular and unconventional life.

Marie Chytilov: the Czech woman whom Mucha married in 1906.

Charles Crane: American benefactor who financed Mucha's monumental Slav Epic.

Czechoslovakia (1918-1993): former country in eastern Europe composed of two peoples, Czechs and Slovaks; and three regions, Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia.

Exposition universelle: Parisian art exposition in 1900 at which Mucha received awards as one of the best and most versatile decorative artists in the Art Nouveau style.

Freemasonry: The world's largest and oldest fraternal organization devoted to high ideals and principles, community service, and benevolence. Mucha became Grand master of the Grand Lodge of Czechoslovakia, and later participated in the constitution of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, and eventually became the second Sovereign Grand Commander in his country.

Ivanîcice: a small Moravian village where Mucha was raised in the midst of the great Czech Revival of the mid-19th century.

Le Style Mucha: Mucha's artistic style, which was inextricably entwined with the look of fin de siëcle Paris. The Mucha woman beckons to us hypnotically with some inexpressible yet compelling vision that the universe is benevolent, and that happiness is within our reach if only we know how to grasp it.

Slavic: term used to describe a group of people tied together by related language and culture, western Slavic-Polish, Czechoslovakian, Slovak; eastern Slavic-Russian, Belarussian, Ukrainian; southern Salvic-Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian.

Mucha's Message: All people must discover themselves and live up to their higher, authentic nature. The universe is benevolent, life is good, and all of us have the ability to live authentic and fulfilled lives.

Last Updated: September 25, 1999