Alphonse Mucha

As an illustrator, I should be ashamed to admit to this, but I have only recently become aware of the artist Alphonse Mucha. Yes, I heard the name, but his work had never inpacted me enough to take a second (or in some cases first) look at his images. However, the more modern illustrations I looked at, I started to see these stylistic notes that seemed to be variations on a theme, an original theme that may have influenced all these new pieces. Then I saw Mucha and I understood. Many of Mucha's illustrations have this composition, a graphically designed backdrop, almost abstract in quality with a figure or figures in the foreground, drawn and painted in what I would compare in modern times to comic book-esque stylings. The piece I have choosen here seems to epitomize this style. This woman stands in a nearly unrealistic poistion, one which accentuates the lines of her form, elbows and head back, chest thrust forward on tippy toes, all situated in a swirling mass of hair locks, flowing scarves and dress bits and then framed by otherworldly manifestations of geometric figures, circles and arcs, organic flowering shapes...it is just a near overload of information, yet, this potential chaos is organized in a manner that flows, leads the eye, provides places of rest for the viewer before it engages you to look further, or again. How did I not know Mucha? I am ashamed.