ALPHONSE MUCHA (CZECH 1860 - 1939) A pair of lithographic poster prints on board, titled 'Spring' and 'Summer', each 99 x 51cm With trade label verso 'G. Garault, 24 Rue Pigalle, Paris' Alphonse Mucha was Czech painter, illustrator and graphic artist working in Paris during the art nouveau period. He is best known for his distinctly stylized and decorative theatrical posters. In the early part of his career, he created flyers and posters for patriotic rallies. While initially training to become a classical singer, his true ambition was to become an artist. In 1878 he applied to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, but he was rejected and told to pursue another career. Unperturbed he decided to continue his training in the arts and moved to Vienna at the age 19 and found employment as an apprentice scenery painter for a company who made theatre sets. He benefited from the patronage of wealthy noblemen, including Count Eduard Khuen Belasi, who brought Mucha to Munich for more formal training and he later funded his move to Paris in 1888. His career flourished in Paris and he became a successful illustrator for books and magazines. An unexpected collaboration with actress Sarah Bernhardt opened up a new avenue for Mucha. He produced a series of hugely popular commercial posters for her plays. Through Bernhardt he began to receive commissions for advertising posters. The Seasons series (1896) of which these two lithographs make up one half, was Mucha’s first set of decorative panels. Spring is personified as a beautiful innocent young woman, standing under a blossom tree, playing a lyre. While Summer is expressed through the relaxed pose of the female figure, leaning against a tree branch and cooling her feet in the shallow water below. He infuses the scene with a warm glow, the sky bathed in a yellow and pink hues. The series was so popular that Mucha went on to produce at least two more sets based on the same theme in 1897 and 1900.