Alphonse mucha slav painting collection

[bhanu]

I was intially going to post this in one of many other awesome Mucha Threads.
But Fuck It , These paintings deserve a Thread of their Own.




I dont want to keep you waiting

Here they are










































I am so GRATEFUL to the original Site. I am sure you will be too.
http://www.central-group.cz/cg10-arc...2009-10-an.htm

[nauvice]

who?

jk, those are amazingg

[Zazerzs]

Those are awesome, I think about making the trip just to see those in person.

[Mordus]

Oceans of Joy.

[LuckyDevil]

Those paintings are Epicly awesome!!

I am embarrassed to say i have never heard of this guy, thanks for sharing.

[Portus]

Mucha was always a drapery master and these paintings prove it, what medium are these on? It's hard to tell but doesn't look like oil, I would guess watercolor.

[bhanu]

It's hard to tell but doesn't look like oil, I would guess watercolor.

Havent seen them in person, but from the pics of installations the surface looks like some sort of panels. But the medium is surely oil in a lot of these. But apic of him with a painting of his shows that hes working on canvas with oils.

[Portus]

Yes you are right, it's easier to see on those pics. Wow that's a huge painting, had no idea he painted that large.

[OmenSpirits]

lolz he sux! I seen beter done in photoshop. paintng with paint is SO traditional! Betcha he caint do that in PS.

People really buy this crap?! Pfft. His anatomy is so bad! Yo, post this in the W.I.P section, yo.

Their aint even no robots or chiks wit furry ears.

[bhanu]

Wow that's a huge painting,

Umm actually its very small compared to most of the SLAV paintings.

[dose]

But the medium is surely oil in a lot of these. But apic of him with a painting of his shows that hes working on canvas with oils.

Much of his non-poster work is in oil, but the Slav Epic is actually egg tempera on canvas.

[am●na,☼nafa&Kash☉fa]

ooops

[QueenGwenevere]

According to one of my Mucha books, the series consisted of several 18 x 24 foot panels, and he had them set up in a huge space so he could work on all of them at once... There's a picture of him sitting in front of some, they're totally wall-sized.

What annoys me is that none of the books I have show much of the Slav paintings - they show maybe one or two (at a small size), and a couple of studies. Bah.

[Pilgrim1099]

lolz he sux! I seen beter done in photoshop. paintng with paint is SO traditional! Betcha he caint do that in PS.

People really buy this crap?! Pfft. His anatomy is so bad! Yo, post this in the W.I.P section, yo.

Their aint even no robots or chiks wit furry ears.

The man's one of the greatest illustrators of all time. If you think he can't do it in PS, how about if YOU do something like he did on that actual size on PS.

Seriously. Go ahead. Do it. Can you afford to buy a canvas that big and paint it big and detailed yourself without PS? I can tell you that if you tried painting that big on PS, your machine will freeze up choking the RAM.

Only if you can afford a $5,000 Mac Pro with at least 16 GB of RAM running it, then it would be possible.

And that's all I'm gonna say.

[OmenSpirits]

The man's one of the greatest illustrators of all time. If you think he can't do it in PS, how about if YOU do something like he did on that actual size on PS.

Seriously. Go ahead. Do it. Can you afford to buy a canvas that big and paint it big and detailed yourself without PS? I can tell you that if you tried painting that big on PS, your machine will freeze up choking the RAM.

Only if you can afford a $5,000 Mac Pro with at least 16 GB of RAM running it, then it would be possible.

And that's all I'm gonna say.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahah *INHALES* hahahahahahahahahahah.

[ZenzybaR]

The man's one of the greatest illustrators of all time. If you think he can't do it in PS, how about if YOU do something like he did on that actual size on PS.

Seriously. Go ahead. Do it. Can you afford to buy a canvas that big and paint it big and detailed yourself without PS? I can tell you that if you tried painting that big on PS, your machine will freeze up choking the RAM.

Only if you can afford a $5,000 Mac Pro with at least 16 GB of RAM running it, then it would be possible.

And that's all I'm gonna say.

Mucha was the first artist who's work i saw and fell in love with. It was one of the four seasons paintings, and it was on my dad's friend's room wall.

[bhanu]

egg tempera on canvas

that possibly explains the muted pallete, and the half-gouache half-oils feel. Thanks for the info.

yes the paintings are big, if you see the image name, you can actually see their sizes too
http://www.central-group.cz/public/i...e_8,1x6,1m.jpg

8,1x6,1m(fucking big).

Can anybody tell how close(in color/ values) the reproductions are to the original paintings?

[LORD M]

I haven't seen these by Mucha before, so I am really glad you shared them with us, bhanu! Definetly worth a thread of its own.

[Darsy]

Wow, now this is greatness! To think that the biggest I made was in a A0 sheet of paper, and it was only a study. Thanks for the post and the motivation! So much beauty...

[battlebattle]

probably one of if not my favorite artist

[in2eternity]

Wow, those are amazing! Thanx for sharing, I love Mucha a lot, but I didn't know he have so much pictures with slavic theme.

[Chris Bennett]

A million thanks for taking the trouble with posting these bhanu - and nice big images too! Boy was this guy good!

[karmiclychee]

I just got a book of his commercial illustrations this weekend. The man's a huge inspiration.

[dashinvaine]

Absolutely stunning. Thanks for posting. Very mystical and Eastern Orthodox. Apparently these paintings have had a chequered past, having to be hid from the Nazis, surviving only to be dismissed as decadent and bourgeois by the Communist regime. There's currently a bit of a battle going on as to where these paintings belong... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Slav_Epic

[bhanu]

I am so glad this thread came back up, its a treat to look at these pictures, any time.
MUCHA FTW!!!!

[Asatira]

How'd I miss this one? This was pretty recent, so how'd I miss it? Thanks for putting these up. I don't think I've ever seen all of the painting together.

[Slothboy3000]

Seriously, thanks for these. I've been meaning to see larger versions for some time. I'd love to see them in person.

I like that on close inspection some figures share a similar style with his more famous stuff, but blend so seamlessly into the images.

[LORD M]

Ah, looking at this thread again is a joy. Maybe a Mucha master study is at hand.

[Serpian]

Thank you thank you thank you! I've only seen small images or details of these before, but never the whole thing! This is going straight to my Mucha folder!! And to think that he's still best remembered for biscuit ads.. (Not that they're bad, but MAN)

EDIT: this gives a pretty good idea of the scale of these things:

[Flake]

That's just nuts..

Y'know I've often thought about the things that might be problematic for me as I make work, dodgy vision and partial colour blindness being the obvious ones.

"Fear of Heights" did not occur to me until now..can you imagine painting something like that up a 20 foot ladder..?