Victor Champier on Alphonse Mucha

This is a great quote, and if you click on the source below it, you'll find a great article on the life of this most famous of Czech artists. (Until me of course, well I guess I'm Czech/Irish-American.)

“If anyone is destined to become an artist and follows this career led by a mysterious and irresistible force, then it is Mucha. . . . He submits without argument, as he himself says, to the commands of this watchful, protective force which propels him through life as if he were sleepwalking, placing before his feet at decisive moments the stops to success.”

-Victor Champier, quoted Mucha 95 (source)

I have a painter friend of mine who is the opposite of me in style and philosophy of painting. He briefly worked at the same frameshop as I did and even got into what turned into be a heated debate once with a coworker on surrealism vs from-life painting vs design etc. Anyways Mucha is like his painting God, he basically worships the man and his work. I have to admit his admiration for the man has rubbed off on me, and I really dig this quote from Victor Champier describing him. This idea of being enveloped in the process and the creation of art to such a degree is inspirational.

The design element and level of detail present in most of Mucha's work is insane, Dali should be jealous. I also identify with the strong folkloric tradition of the Czech and Bohemian culture, something that I think comes out in the style of Mucha's painting. I have never been to the Czech Republic or Slovakia, but seeing the work and knowing the life of Mucha helps me to feel like I know a little bit about my artistic roots.

Mucha, Maude Adams as Joan of Arc, (pub. in NY, 1909).