Dance 1896 - Alphonse Mucha

Alphonse Mucha was born in 1860 and died in 1939. He was a painter who worked in a Art Nouveau style and his work still influence people to day. Here is a painting of his called 'Dance' made in 1896. You can easily see this is an Art Nouveau' piece by all the curves and bright colours. He uses curves at everywhere which make the painting look more smooth and delicate. The giant gray circle behind the figure really brings out the lady and force you to look at her. the composition has been placed really well, everything leads to something else. The giant circle makes you start at the top of the figure and if you follow anything out it will bring you straight back to the figure, for example if you follow the hair it curves and brings you back to the figure. Mucha also made the dress really bright to make her the main focus, he has used a lot of little things to make her jump out of the painting.

For he time Mucha's work was quite different to everything else at the time because he uses female figures and makes them look really free and relaxed. At the time women where suppose to be fully dressed and looking quite stiff to look respectable whereas Mucha's work did the complete opposite. 225

Mucha's work can till be seen in work today, the free hair and loose clothing has been reuses quite a bit with some people even trying to make more modern Alphonse Mucha art work. there are loads of websites that have updated piece of what looks to be Alphonse Mucha copy's. Alphonse Mucha is a great artist and has inspired me for a long time, his work is beautiful and i would recommend him to everyone.