Alfons Mucha

Alfons Maria Mucha, est un affichiste et un peintre tchèque né à Ivančice (ville de Moravie qui faisait alors partie de l'Empire d'Autriche, aujourd'hui sise en République tchèque) le24 juillet 1860 et mort à Prague le 14 juillet 1939, fer-de-lance du style Art nouveau. Wikipédia. 

from Mucha foundation

The Seasons: Summer (1896)

Mucha portrays Summer as a sensual and sultry brunette with red poppies in her hair. A serene mood of repose and contentment pervades the scene as the woman leans against a grapevine with her feet bathing in the shallow water below. Mucha captures the summer light in the delicate blue sky beyond.

Woman in the Wilderness (1923)

'The Slav Epic' cycle No.1: The Slavs in Their Original Homeland (1912)

Mucha chose to start his history of the Slavic people in the 4th to 6thcenturies. At this time, the Slavic tribes were agricultural folk who dwelled in the marshes between the Vistula River, the Dnepr River, the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. With no political structure to support them, their villages were under constant attack by Germanic tribes from the West who would burn their houses and steal their livestock.

The couple hiding in the bushes in the foreground as their village burns on the horizon are the survivors of one of these attacks. The fear and vulnerability expressed in their faces beseeches the help of the viewer. A pagan priest flanked by two youths symbolising war and peace floats in the top right of the composition. These figures foretell the peace and freedom that will come to the Slav people when independence is gained through war.