Alfons Maria Mucha (24. 7. 1860 - 14. 7. 1939) - Czech painter, the most prominent representatives of European Art Nouveau. Among other things, the author of the monumental cycle of the Slav Epic.

Alfons Mucha was born in Ivan�ice in Moravia. It is said of him that he could paint before going. Slavic studies at the grammar school in Brno moonlighted as a singer in the church choir boys. Aimed for admission to the Academy, which he did not manage. Subsequently, some time worked as a clerk at the court in Ivan�ice, simultaneously creating theater decorations, invitations and various posters, often changing sphere. In 1894, he won a contract from the famous French actress Sarah Bernhardt, causing a reversal in his career. He became a recognized painter in Europe and across the Atlantic.

Alfons Mucha became famous as the creator of the world-famous art nouveau posters, but his versatile talents as a performer made use of applied art. Formed proposals vignettes for bottles, chocolates, biscuits, cigarettes, painted designs dining menu, calendars and decorative screens, complemented books with illustrations, suggested Czech banknotes and stamps. Mucha's work includes interior design, tableware, jewelry but also a proposal windows Cathedral. Vitus (1931) in Prague. His life's work is a series of large format canvases Slav Epic, on which he worked for eighteen years. It is interesting that as a basis for this masterpiece, also used photographs, which bought for his trip to the pre-revolutionary Russia. He is also an avid photographer. Alfons Mucha, develop pneumonia, died July 14, 1939 in Prague after interrogation by the Gestapo. He is buried at the cemetery in Prague.