Mucha in Spain
The viewer's silhouette in this photo, which I've adjusted because it was overexposed, gives us an idea of the scale of Alphonse Mucha's The Virgin of the Lillies (1905). There are two versions (CLICK and scroll down to see them side-by-side). This is one of the exhibits in a major Spanish touring exhibition of Mucha's art, opened today at the Fundación la Caixa in Madrid in association with The Mucha Foundation (CLICK). Mucha is sadly neglected in the UK, where Art Nouveau tends to be seen as trivial and pretty-pretty; but cheap prints of his works are widely available in high street shops and his style influenced more than one British LP cover (title link).
posted by Unknown @ 30.4.08
2 comments
2 Comments:
I wonder if the version with the 3rd image is authentic. I think it could be a knock-off by another artist. It even has another artist's name on it! Many artists did copy his work, you know. Just trying to make a living.
Looking at the two versions I put side-by-side, the MUCHA signature looks quite large. I suspect that's a small preliminary sketch for the bigger work on the right. The lilies are much more clearly defined on the finished work, whereas they are merely sketched in on the preliminary study. I think if the study were a ripoff by another artist, it would follow the final work more closely.
You'll also find a study and finished painting for Rubens' The Rape of Ganymede on my Comparisons pages, both genuine. It's interesting to see how an artist develops his ideas.
Post a Comment
<< Home