Alphonse Mucha’s “The Seasons (1896)”

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to wear more color. I wear mostly neutrals and dark colors, like oxblood, army green, and navy, and I struggle to incorporate cheery colors into my moody wardrobe. So I was so excited to see the colors in the Spring 2015 Pantone Fashion Color Report, which brings together pretty pastels, bold brights, and moodier muted tones like Marsala, the 2015 Pantone color of the year.

Together, these colors create a rich, engaging and versatile palette – one that immediately reminded me of the works of Alphonse Mucha, who used beautiful and unconventional color to bring life to his lithographs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

So, for this Fashion Inspired by Art post, we explore unexpected color combinations using both the Spring 2015 Pantone Fashion Color Report and Alphonse Mucha’s series “The Seasons (1896)”.

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About Alphonse Mucha and “The Seasons”

Born in 1860 in the Czech Republic, Alphonse Mucha spent much of his childhood as a singer, which earned him several scholarships in his youth, but he found the most fulfillment in drawing. He began working as a commercial artist in his late teens, painting portraits and scenery for theaters.

After living in Vienna for several years, he moved to Paris in 1887, where he volunteered at a lithography shop that would eventually create posters for a play starring the actress Sarah Bernhardt, who loved Mucha’s work so much that she commissioned a six year contract with him.

The insane popularity of the poster led to an influx of work for Mucha, whose style became massively in-demand and widely imitated, leading many to dub him as the originator of the Art Nouveau style. “The Seasons” represents one such commission – a set of four decorative panels for a wealthy patron, who loved the work so much that he commissioned two more sets of panels with the sametheme.