Alphonse Mucha

Alphonse Mucha (1860 - 1939) was a Czech artist, whose style and artwork are closely associated with the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements, first made popular at the turn of the 20th century. He moved to Paris in 1887 after showing much promise as a talented artist and theatrical scenery designer in Vienna. It could be said that Mucha's fate was sealed when he happened into a Paris printshop around Christmastime, 1894, where a poster needed to be made immediately for one of the most famous actresses of the day, Sarah Bernhardt. His creation was pretty much an instant success, and Mucha became the star's main designer and made quite a name for himself in general, going on to be featured at the 1900 Universal Exhibition of Paris.

Eschewing the Art Nouveau label for his work, Mucha is nonetheless widely seen as one of the founders of the movement. He preferred to see it as more of a Czech art style than anything else, and according to some sources, Mucha is one of the most imitated/copied artists of all time. On January 1, 2010, the copyrights expired on Mucha's published works and they are now part of the public domain.