Another ingenious Czech thing

Click on picture to enlarge Alfons Maria Mucha (24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939) was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist. His Art Nouveau style was often imitated. However, this was a style that Mucha attempted to distance himself from throughout his life; he insisted always that, rather than adhering to any fashionable stylistic form, his paintings came purely from within and Czech art. His favorite object was the actress Sara Bernhart. Bernhardt was so satisfied with the success of that first poster that she entered into a 6 years contract with Mucha. When German troops marched into Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1939, Mucha was among the first people to be arrested by the Gestapo. During the course of the interrogation the aging artist fell ill with pneumonia. Though eventually released, he never recovered from the strain of this event, or seeing his home invaded and overcome. He died in Prague on July 14, 1939 of a lung infection, and was interred there in the Vyšehrad cemetery.