Customer Reviews

The Art Nouveau Style Book of Alphonse Mucha (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A truly beautiful book, many of the plates are full page and in full color. His nudes and semi-nudes are entirely captivating with exquisite attention to detail. The remainder of the plates are tints and depict various items in art nouveau style (jewelry, silverware, china, etc.). There are also a few pages containing color borders and backgrounds. The copyright in this book is unusual for Dover Publications, as it grants no explicit free-use of the images contained within it.

This is a reproduction of Mucha's portfolio "Documents Decoratifs" which is a lovely selection of Mucha's work. It includes not only many nude women and flowers (which one would expect) but also designs for furniture, silverware and lots of jewellery. If your looking for a source of information on Mucha this is not it but if you just want to gaze lovingly at a wide selection of his work you will adore this book.

This book exceeded my expectations; I've fallen in love lately with these Dover books of artists' works. The full-page reproductions are top-notch and the selection creates a broad overview of the Art Nouveau/Jugendstil movement by its most famous and arguably most characteristic artist. You have Mucha himself to thank for that, as this is simply a recollation of images from his own book, though the plates are in a different order (for the purists, a chart is included referencing the pages to Mucha's original order).

It's not as thorough or lavish as the definitive book Alphonse Mucha by Sarah Mucha, but then it's also less than half the price and much more portable. There's little enough overlap between the two that it's worth buying both, and in my opinion most of the reproductions (other than the posters) are better in this Dover book. If you're looking for a broad overview and reference of the Art Nouveau style, this Dover book is the one to get, whereas if you want a more focused look at Mucha's work and life, particularly his ornamental panels featuring Sarah Bernhardt and other women, you'll want to pick up Sarah Mucha's book (or perhaps the other Dover book, Drawings of Mucha: 70 Works by Alphonse Maria Mucha Including 9 in Full Color.)

A friend was interested in tatoo art, and I thought this art might be a revelation to her. Everything old is new again. She loves it!

This is one of the books of Mucha; how can I complain? His distinctive art style, that nearly defined all of the known conception of Art Neuveau(curse my bad spelling), is on full display. The flowing designs of Mucha have stood the test of time. His art is loved by art-traditionalists and my punk-music loving buddies and proves true art is loved by all.

I loved all the drawings, especially the sketches included. It has a very personal feel, like its a secret sketchbook that you shouldn't be looking at.

I bought this book to rip out patterns and prints for inexpensive wall decorations. This book is HUGE and packed with full-page, beautiful prints. The artwork in this book is perfect for making craft and party decorations, to hang up in schools, offices and kitchens, or to scan into Photoshop for patterns, brushes, ANYTHING - the patterns and design are so intense and beautiful, there's no way not to get inspired. The quality and quantity of the work in this book is amazing, I might end up buying it twice. Keep in mind there are lots of nudes.

The book was in good shape. Not exactly what I was looking for, but it had a lot of Mucha's stuff including pottery and furntiture desgins. Lots of naked women, not a lot of his more famous stuff. But a good book overall.

The book has many images of his decorative elements, printed larger than some other books I looked at. It came in very handy for a Style class when I had to analyze his style. This is not an exhaustive collection of Mucha's work. It is also cheaply bound, and will fall apart more easily (I see copies in my school library with their pages falling out).

The Art Nouveau Style Book is exactly what it says; many examples of Art Nouveau style over a broad range of uses, from wallpaper to silverware, chandeliers to posters. There are other books available which cover Mucha's posters, or life drawings, exclusively. This book instead gives us a broad overview of Art Nouveau as a style.