Lot 94

Alfons Mucha (1860 - 1939) POSTER FOR THE SLAV EPIC

The Slavic Epic is a set of twenty monumental canvases (the largest of which measures 6 x 8 meters) depicting the history and culture of the Slavic civilization. Mucha created the epic as a reference for all Slavic peoples and devoted the entire second half of his artistic career to working on this work. Mucha prepared this poster to promote the first exhibition of the Slavic Epic, which took place in the Trade Fair Palace in Prague in the fall of 1928 (that is, at the same time as the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic) and in Brno in 1930. In a pose taken from the canvas His daughter Jaroslava was his model for the Slavic epic The Oath of Youth under the Slavic Linden. The mythical figure in the background is the pagan god of fate Svantovít.