John & Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art
Reno, Nevada
The Lilley Museum of Art is located on the main campus of the University of Nevada, Reno.
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Artist: Alphonse Mucha (Czech, 1860-1939)
Alphonse Mucha had the ability to sing and this allowed him to continue his education, but his first love was drawing. He worked at decorative painting jobs in Moravia until 1879, where he relocated to Vienna to work for a theatrical design company until it was destroyed by a fire.
He returned to Moravia where he did freelance decorative and portrait painting. He was hired by Count Karl Khuen of Mikulov to decorate his Hrusovany Emmahof Castle with murals. He was so impressed by Mucha talent that he sponsored him to attend Munich Academy of Fine Arts, where he obtained his formal training in the arts. Mucha continued his education in Paris at the Académie Julian and Académie Colarossi in 1887.
Mucha created the poster for the most famous actress in Paris, Sarah Bernhardt. The lithograph poster that advertised the play at the Théatre de la Renaissance, where it became and overnight sensation. Bernhardt was so pleased with Mucha that she introduced him as the new artist with a distinct style to the residents of Paris. Mucha style became known as Art Nouveau (French for 'new art').
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