Prague Attractions

Venue: Mucha Museum    When: Daily

Images created by Mucha are unavoidable in Prague. The great Art Nouveau artist, who perfected the art of aestheticised poster depictions of nubile young women, made Prague his home at a time when the city was at the forefront of the latest artistic trends - some of its most inventive architecture is indebted to the style he embraced. The Mucha Museum, devoted to the artist, displays some of his best work.

Alfons Mucha (1860-1939) was a cosmopolitan artist, living in Vienna, Paris and America before returning and settling in Prague in 1910. A year later he completed the mural for the Prague Town Hall, the last major Art Nouveau commission in the city.

Mucha is best known, however, for his graphic and poster design, as art became increasingly at the service of advertising and popular culture. In 1918 he even designed postage stamps and bank notes for the newly-created state of Czechoslovakia. Among his most popular posters were those for Paris actress Sarah Bernhardt.

The Mucha museum has an unrivalled collection of his lithographs, paintings, drawings, pastels, statues, photographs and personal memorabilia.