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Alphonse Mucha: Masterworks
Though very much an individual and spiritual artist, Alphonse Mucha was a defining figure of the Art Nouveau era and is loved for his distinctive lush style and images of beautiful women in arabesque poses among the plethora of paintings, posters, advertisements and designs he produced. Admire a whole range of his work here in its full glory with succinct accompanying text.
200 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
January 24, 2013
If I remember correctly - and chances are that I don’t - Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) was born during the peak of the Impressionism, mostly as a response to the increase of mass production and industrialism and the "ugliness" of the thereby inspired art and architecture. Instead, Jugendstil feels like an ode to the imagination, to the beauty of nature and to romance. I’m so very fond of it!
And of course this art style is inextricably linked to the Czech artist Alphonse Mucha. He died in Prague in 1939 due to pneumonia, shortly after German troops moved into Czechoslovakia and he was arrested by the Gestapo. Although he was released before his death, according to rumors the turn of events had weakened the aging artist considerably. During his life however, he created some of what I consider to be beautiful examples of the Jugendstil.
They're all in Alphonse Mucha by Rosalind Ormiston. And although viewing these paintings in a reduced size does not do them justice at all and the accompanying texts are mostly unnecessary, this book still is a feast of gorgeous, dreamy colors and flowing forms.
And of course this art style is inextricably linked to the Czech artist Alphonse Mucha. He died in Prague in 1939 due to pneumonia, shortly after German troops moved into Czechoslovakia and he was arrested by the Gestapo. Although he was released before his death, according to rumors the turn of events had weakened the aging artist considerably. During his life however, he created some of what I consider to be beautiful examples of the Jugendstil.
They're all in Alphonse Mucha by Rosalind Ormiston. And although viewing these paintings in a reduced size does not do them justice at all and the accompanying texts are mostly unnecessary, this book still is a feast of gorgeous, dreamy colors and flowing forms.
February 20, 2019
His work is amazing, kind of early Andy Warhol but much more better for his style, effort and results. Kind like Warhol since his art was mainly for consumer products, you know that those lovely 1900 cigarette boxes, etc. A Czech artist with a Pan Slavic epic...with masonic influence. Anyway is a book with beautiful art, mainly gorgeous woman at fertile age. I was planning to paint my coffee table, now I think I know what image will use. Brilliant artists, must grab this book and learn about him.
February 12, 2017
Absolutely stunning.
The dust jacket alone is a work of art. ❤️
June 21, 2025
WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU HAVE AN ART BOOK WITH THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PAINTINGS NOT ON THE SAME PAGES AS THE PAINTINGS??
I was beyond frustrated with this gorgeous book. The first half was a detailed biography of the Alphonse Mucha's life and career while the second half described many of his famous paintings. Unfortunately, the paintings described were almost never on the same or adjacent pages, so you'd get descriptions like "His most famous painting, XYZ (see page 130) was closely related to painting ABC (see page 15)..." and have to flip back and forth between description and painting. There is no rhyme or rhythm to how the featured artwork is organized, and images are sometimes 100+ pages away from the page they're mentioned and described. There is also no index in the back that lists every painting, which I thought would be standard in an art book like this.
Not one of the 20 panels of The Slav Epic (which was heavily discussed in Part 1 due to the importance of the project to Mucha, to Czech history, and to Mucha's patronage) was featured in the book.
In addition to all of this, there were some random typos, redundant paragraphs of things that were already discussed earlier in the book, and the book ended extremely abruptly with no closing statement. I don't think it ever occurred to the publishing team that people would ever want to actually read this book from cover to cover instead of just flipping through and admiring the artwork.
0 stars for the editing and layout of this book, but I have to give it 2 stars overall because it did deepen my appreciation and enthusiasm for Alphonse Mucha's art, and is still a gorgeous coffee table book.
*2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge*
Prompt #38: A book about art or an artist
I was beyond frustrated with this gorgeous book. The first half was a detailed biography of the Alphonse Mucha's life and career while the second half described many of his famous paintings. Unfortunately, the paintings described were almost never on the same or adjacent pages, so you'd get descriptions like "His most famous painting, XYZ (see page 130) was closely related to painting ABC (see page 15)..." and have to flip back and forth between description and painting. There is no rhyme or rhythm to how the featured artwork is organized, and images are sometimes 100+ pages away from the page they're mentioned and described. There is also no index in the back that lists every painting, which I thought would be standard in an art book like this.
Not one of the 20 panels of The Slav Epic (which was heavily discussed in Part 1 due to the importance of the project to Mucha, to Czech history, and to Mucha's patronage) was featured in the book.
In addition to all of this, there were some random typos, redundant paragraphs of things that were already discussed earlier in the book, and the book ended extremely abruptly with no closing statement. I don't think it ever occurred to the publishing team that people would ever want to actually read this book from cover to cover instead of just flipping through and admiring the artwork.
0 stars for the editing and layout of this book, but I have to give it 2 stars overall because it did deepen my appreciation and enthusiasm for Alphonse Mucha's art, and is still a gorgeous coffee table book.
*2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge*
Prompt #38: A book about art or an artist
March 5, 2016
Powerful, Remarkable, Informative, Gorgeous Graphics & Colors! I Loved It!
December 25, 2015
As with all art books, I was frustrated at points while reading this book from all the flipping back and forth between sections to be able to look at the illustrations that matched the text, but I will forgive this volume since its pages collect an absolutely stunning array of Mucha's work. Unlike some Mucha books that I've read, the colour representation was absolutely spot on, and the size of the images adequately represented Mucha's artwork (with specially blown up sections to zoom in on some of the more intricate pices). I could have maybe used less written material during the second section (it seemed to duplicate some of the information that was covered in the first section) for a focus specifically on thematics, but for the most part the text was minimal and simple enough that it acted more as a white space counterpoint to the saturation of the artwork.
February 27, 2016
Large wonderfully coloured pictures of Alphonse Mucha's works. A very brief account of the man and his images. Nevertheless for those of us unfamiliar with the man and his works this is a very good introduction to him.
January 9, 2009
Nice mostly for the pictures. It would be better if the pictures followed the narrative better.
March 16, 2025
I picked up this book bc I thought the digital art looked cool, and then I started reading and this was all lithography!! Also I had never heard of this dude before so I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t expect to get so much depth into this man’s life and his art
January 17, 2025
The print quality is good, and Mucha does beautiful art. So what's wrong with the book?
1. The first part (biography) is alright, I learnt a bunch of stuff
2. but holy ***** what's up with pictures that are being talked about being 100 pages apart. I was constantly jumping back and forth on this huge book because the text on page 32 referred to page 110 and 60 and 40. I have never had this issue with an art book, and I own like 200 of them.
3. infuriating. the second half consists mostly of "look at this image, cool now I am going to describe to you what you saw as if you were blind". The crime here? There are some genuine useful in the middle scattered around, so you have to skim through in fear of losing your sanity while constantly wondering what important info you are missing. Tell me stuff I CANT see!
Honestly, I wished the same collection, info and print quality was handled by a more competent designer.
1. The first part (biography) is alright, I learnt a bunch of stuff
2. but holy ***** what's up with pictures that are being talked about being 100 pages apart. I was constantly jumping back and forth on this huge book because the text on page 32 referred to page 110 and 60 and 40. I have never had this issue with an art book, and I own like 200 of them.
3. infuriating. the second half consists mostly of "look at this image, cool now I am going to describe to you what you saw as if you were blind". The crime here? There are some genuine useful in the middle scattered around, so you have to skim through in fear of losing your sanity while constantly wondering what important info you are missing. Tell me stuff I CANT see!
Honestly, I wished the same collection, info and print quality was handled by a more competent designer.
March 10, 2022
The book was filled with beautiful art from one of my favorite artists, but the text itself was lacking and had quite a few grammatical errors. I also wish the distribution of the art through the book was less random and showed the progression of his style.
It also seems to be that Mucha's art is more interesting than his life, so you wouldn't miss much just looking at the pretty pictures here.
It also seems to be that Mucha's art is more interesting than his life, so you wouldn't miss much just looking at the pretty pictures here.
January 14, 2024
As a collection of artwork, this book is great. As a historical or biographical work, not so much.
It took me about three hours to read through the whole book including studying the art and reading the descriptions. It definitely exists as more of a coffeetable book.
The prints of Mucha are quality and well curated, with zoomed in portions of larger prints and contextual information on how some of them were made or developed or ordered. There's a small number of pencil sketches and selections of decorative patterns from his book Documents Decoratif.
As a whole, It's a high quality book, but there are a few things that detract from the quality. The informational sequences refer to various prints that are not on the same page, so the reader ends up flipping back and forth hundreds of pages at a time instead of just having the descriptions on the same page as the pictures. This gets rather exhausting. The biography has the quality of a high school textbook and is occasionally rather subjective.
As a whole, I recommend it for the art, not for the content. Will not read again. Will look at the pictures instead.
It took me about three hours to read through the whole book including studying the art and reading the descriptions. It definitely exists as more of a coffeetable book.
The prints of Mucha are quality and well curated, with zoomed in portions of larger prints and contextual information on how some of them were made or developed or ordered. There's a small number of pencil sketches and selections of decorative patterns from his book Documents Decoratif.
As a whole, It's a high quality book, but there are a few things that detract from the quality. The informational sequences refer to various prints that are not on the same page, so the reader ends up flipping back and forth hundreds of pages at a time instead of just having the descriptions on the same page as the pictures. This gets rather exhausting. The biography has the quality of a high school textbook and is occasionally rather subjective.
As a whole, I recommend it for the art, not for the content. Will not read again. Will look at the pictures instead.
July 9, 2021
The illustrations in the book were gorgeous and would have made me give it five stars on the spot. Unfortunately, the editorial design made it tedious for me to enjoy the experience and to read smoothly.
Majority of images were placed in pages purely for aesthetic and didn't match with what was written on the same page as them; circle close ups of detailed sections of design taken from full-blown images were seemingly positioned in white space to fill up the page, with many of the patterns being the same but just rotated; pattern motifs characteristic to Muchas were dotted in the spaces that were left on pages — there could have been a separate section for these. By the last half of the book I just couldn’t care to flip to whatever page a description was referring to, and sometimes the sentences were just reiterating facts already told from the first half.
I'd only look back at this to view the illustrations.
Majority of images were placed in pages purely for aesthetic and didn't match with what was written on the same page as them; circle close ups of detailed sections of design taken from full-blown images were seemingly positioned in white space to fill up the page, with many of the patterns being the same but just rotated; pattern motifs characteristic to Muchas were dotted in the spaces that were left on pages — there could have been a separate section for these. By the last half of the book I just couldn’t care to flip to whatever page a description was referring to, and sometimes the sentences were just reiterating facts already told from the first half.
I'd only look back at this to view the illustrations.
October 17, 2025
Conocí a este artista en un viaje a Praga. En las tiendas de recuerdos había muchos objetos con sus obras y eso despertó mi interés en saber más de él y de su legado. Este libro es perfecto para ese objetivo, ya que tiene dos partes bien diferenciadas.
En la primera, sabemos más de su vida personal y trayectoria artística, mientras que en la segunda se nos describen sus obras en detalle, haciendo que nos fijemos en cada matiz y en cada adorno.
Y esto es posible gracias a la profusión de reproducciones de gran formato que encontraremos en todas las páginas, impresas en un papel de gran calidad y que es una gozada admirar una y otra vez.
Este libro es una obra de arte en sí mismo y es altamente recomendable si sois aficionados al tema y queréis saber más sobre este artista y su obra estilo art noveau.
En la primera, sabemos más de su vida personal y trayectoria artística, mientras que en la segunda se nos describen sus obras en detalle, haciendo que nos fijemos en cada matiz y en cada adorno.
Y esto es posible gracias a la profusión de reproducciones de gran formato que encontraremos en todas las páginas, impresas en un papel de gran calidad y que es una gozada admirar una y otra vez.
Este libro es una obra de arte en sí mismo y es altamente recomendable si sois aficionados al tema y queréis saber más sobre este artista y su obra estilo art noveau.
July 13, 2020
Mucha, one of the most famous artists of the Art Nouveau period, is reproduced in full glory in this lovely volume. I'm sure there are better works concerning his life, style, et c., but I got this for the prints and am not disappointed.
One of my favorite things about Mucha's art is his realistic representation of women. His ladies have dimpled arms, hip dips, double chins, and cellulite. They are not exactly overweight, but their bodies are normal-looking, idealized though they are.
A wonderful resource for those who enjoy Mucha's art.
One of my favorite things about Mucha's art is his realistic representation of women. His ladies have dimpled arms, hip dips, double chins, and cellulite. They are not exactly overweight, but their bodies are normal-looking, idealized though they are.
A wonderful resource for those who enjoy Mucha's art.
April 12, 2018
A marvellous, reasonably-priced book (great cover, too!). Even if you're not a fan of Mucha or Art Nouveau, this is a fascinating and beautiful book and would be a great addition to any art book collection and a great book full stop. It seems amazing now how artists of this quality were commissioned to design/decorate the labels and packets of champagne, biscuits and even cigarette papers. Would make a great Christmas present!
September 9, 2017
Delightful to learn about the overlap with Steinlen, Toulouse-Lautrec, pre-raphaelites, arts and crafts. So much of the art I admire was happening during this time. And funnily enough, I eat LU buscuits: Lefevre-Utile, the company he had a long relationship with providing art for boxes and tins. HAHAHAHA.
October 21, 2023
This is an informative book, for sure, but probably not the deepest analysis of Mucha out there. It does a great job of showing a lot of the work he did in Paris while giving a bit of biographical information. It is, however, an absolutely gorgeous book filled with giant panels of his art, showing plenty of detail. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
May 3, 2025
Great book. I wish it had images from his Slav epic paintings, photographs he used as source material, and more about his process. It has beautiful images of his posters with good accompanying descriptions, and a great bio. In short, he was supported by a Count who unexpectedly cut him off. Three years later he got a lucky break around Xmas time from Sarah Bernhardt’s manager.
June 19, 2025
I think I am in love with Mucha and his beautiful ladies.
The writing was weird though. It read as though it was translated from Bulgarian by someone who had only just learned to speak English. Very stilted. Very formal. No emotion at all. And the words on the page never had anything to do with the pictures.
Love Mucha even more after this book. I wish the writing were better.
The writing was weird though. It read as though it was translated from Bulgarian by someone who had only just learned to speak English. Very stilted. Very formal. No emotion at all. And the words on the page never had anything to do with the pictures.
Love Mucha even more after this book. I wish the writing were better.
August 27, 2022
I always enjoy his work and the explanation of his life was nice. But the story of his life was not in line with the illustrations and it could’ve been so easily. Read page 15 about a work then flipping to page 94 to see the work was tedious.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 23, 2024
Really great book with lots of images I'd not seen before. Only wish they had been printed on the page they are being discussed in mstead of randomly throughout the book but still an excellent reference. Also would have been nice to see a bit more on his Slav Epic series
August 10, 2018
Great book. I enjoyed reading about Alphonse Mucha, loved looking at his Art Nouveau artwork.
December 19, 2023
I just adore his works
December 19, 2023
SO PRETTY I LOVEEE
December 25, 2023
My favorite artist!
March 12, 2024
I’m biased. Art nouveau is my favorite artist movement and Alphonse Mucha is one of my favorite artists.
May 12, 2019
This is a lovely book in many ways. There is an absolute wealth of Mucha's graphic works ..including a lot of his commercial work for biscuit manufactures and chocolate manufacturers. And, because it is a large, book, one has the opportunity to really examine the detail. In some cases enlargements are given which is quite fascinating to see. It is accompanied by a nice, if slightly stilted, biographical section and a second section which focuses on his work at the height of the period 1893-1905. However, it is greatly weakened by the fact that there appears to have been no coordination between the writers of the prose and the placement of the pictures. I found I had to frequently turn back 100 pages to view the particular work the was being described in detail. And one can look in vain for any connection between the script and the illustrations on or nearby that page.
It is also frustrating to find (as on p132 that the book describes "two lithographs that are noteworthy, for they show the wide illustrative range that Muncha possessed. The first is the image of Salome ,1897 (see page 134)". Ok so far so good. .....The second is Salammbo, 1897......." But I looked in vain for a picture of Salammbo. Now this is just plain annoying. To be invited to compare but not being given anything to compare apart from words.
In fact the word descriptions are quite detailed ..and this is a bit of a give-away when "The Moon" is described as ..."dressed in a beautiful blue gown"...when the actual print is a murky brown. In fact, clearly the blues have dropped out of the printing process or the originals from which the plates were printed have lost their blue tones. There are a number of prints described as blue or turquoise ...which are just brown. And when I googled some of these images...sure enough they appear in blue and turquoise.
There is very little here .....if anything of his work outside the period 1893-1905. I don't recall anything from his period in America or for his work on the Slavic Epic or for his early work...pre-Paris. So, in a lot of ways, this book is a disappointment. The complete disjunction between the graphic work and the text is seriously problematic. Even for the relatively few graphics that are referred to in the text, one has to be continually turning backwards and forwards to see them. It seems to me that the graphics have been laid out first and the text has simply been inserted in the spaces left behind with no thought given to integrating the two. A pity, this book could have been much better.
It is also frustrating to find (as on p132 that the book describes "two lithographs that are noteworthy, for they show the wide illustrative range that Muncha possessed. The first is the image of Salome ,1897 (see page 134)". Ok so far so good. .....The second is Salammbo, 1897......." But I looked in vain for a picture of Salammbo. Now this is just plain annoying. To be invited to compare but not being given anything to compare apart from words.
In fact the word descriptions are quite detailed ..and this is a bit of a give-away when "The Moon" is described as ..."dressed in a beautiful blue gown"...when the actual print is a murky brown. In fact, clearly the blues have dropped out of the printing process or the originals from which the plates were printed have lost their blue tones. There are a number of prints described as blue or turquoise ...which are just brown. And when I googled some of these images...sure enough they appear in blue and turquoise.
There is very little here .....if anything of his work outside the period 1893-1905. I don't recall anything from his period in America or for his work on the Slavic Epic or for his early work...pre-Paris. So, in a lot of ways, this book is a disappointment. The complete disjunction between the graphic work and the text is seriously problematic. Even for the relatively few graphics that are referred to in the text, one has to be continually turning backwards and forwards to see them. It seems to me that the graphics have been laid out first and the text has simply been inserted in the spaces left behind with no thought given to integrating the two. A pity, this book could have been much better.
February 26, 2013
This book is beautiful. The cover itself is a piece of art.
In here you'll find- as the title says- the masterworks of Alphonse Mucha, probably the biggest name of Art Nouveau. At least my favourite one!
The print's are beautiful: some of full page, others even two pages, and most of them with screenshots of the details.
And I've found this for 22 bucks only!
I saw the others reviews and I understand why most said that the writing is terrible. The "Introduction" chapter is the worst, reapeating itself from beginning to end. Then the writer seems to get on track, telling a basic biography of the artist. After that it begins to repeat itself again, with a lot of dumb descriptions of illustrations that are there for you to see, like: in this one you see a women holding a flower. I CAN SEE THAT!!
And the worst is that the text don't follow the pictures. So, in page 190 he will refer to a picture from page 32 and 68, what makes the reading very confusing and tiring.
But, besides the text I will still give 4 stars to this book! Because the art is amazing, and that's why I bought it in the first place.
In here you'll find- as the title says- the masterworks of Alphonse Mucha, probably the biggest name of Art Nouveau. At least my favourite one!
The print's are beautiful: some of full page, others even two pages, and most of them with screenshots of the details.
And I've found this for 22 bucks only!
I saw the others reviews and I understand why most said that the writing is terrible. The "Introduction" chapter is the worst, reapeating itself from beginning to end. Then the writer seems to get on track, telling a basic biography of the artist. After that it begins to repeat itself again, with a lot of dumb descriptions of illustrations that are there for you to see, like: in this one you see a women holding a flower. I CAN SEE THAT!!
And the worst is that the text don't follow the pictures. So, in page 190 he will refer to a picture from page 32 and 68, what makes the reading very confusing and tiring.
But, besides the text I will still give 4 stars to this book! Because the art is amazing, and that's why I bought it in the first place.
Read
July 23, 2011The book is beautifully made: tons of illustrations, banners borrowed from Mucha's "Illustrations .." book and all. But, the first part is horrid! The english is hesitant and terribly childish! I noticed it was printed in China (hello quality) which may be the source of the problem but even more surprising is the fact that the second part (Le Style Mucha) is pristine! Very strange.
I really prefered the second part as it was more of an elaborate research into his parisian work, poster after poster..Another problem I have with this book is that is dwells on the Paris years over and over, and over again! And Sarah Bernhardt over and over again. We got the fact that she was a sort of godmother and helped launch his carreer...the first time!!
Overall it really is the plethora of graphics that save this book and then, they're not exclusive to the book itself..
I really prefered the second part as it was more of an elaborate research into his parisian work, poster after poster..Another problem I have with this book is that is dwells on the Paris years over and over, and over again! And Sarah Bernhardt over and over again. We got the fact that she was a sort of godmother and helped launch his carreer...the first time!!
Overall it really is the plethora of graphics that save this book and then, they're not exclusive to the book itself..
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews