BEAUTY – THE POWER
OF INSPIRATION

«The artist must remain faithful to himself and to his national roots.»

—Alphonse Mucha

In 1910, Mucha returned to his homeland after an almost continuous absence of twenty-five years. His intention was to fulfil his long-term ambition: to work for his country’s political freedom using his art. He pursued this goal single-mindedly, working on his private project, The Slav Epic - a cycle of twenty monumental paintings depicting Czech and Slav history - for the next seventeen years, while taking commissions for causes that were close to his heart.

This last section features examples of Mucha’s later works, such as Song of Bohemia (1918), an allegorical painting celebrating Slavic solidarity made in the final year of the World War I, as well as poster works including those for the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia (1928) which coincided with the opening of the exhibition of The Slav Epic in Prague. In these works, women remained central to the composition, but now they became spiritual symbols, clad in folk costumes – ‘the soul of the nation’ according to Mucha – to inspire and unite Slavic peoples under common goals - the making of a better world.