Mucha's BIG Break
He
happened to be at the printer's studio when Sarah Bernhardt phoned.
It was the day before Christmas, 1894, and she wanted a poster for her
play "Gismonda"
by New Year's Day. When asked if he had done anything like this before,
Mucha replied,"Well - no. But I could try." Mucha was unknown at the time,
but no one else was available because of the holiday, the shop manager agreed.
On Dec. 30, Mucha finished the poster. He describes the shop manager's
reaction: He stopped, went pale, looked at me, then at the poster and again
at me. "It's a shambles!" he gsped finally. Sarah will never accept it.
Then the phone rang. Sarah was waiting at the theater, so the manager
reluctantly took the posters to her.
The phone rang a second time and Mucha was summoned to the theater."Now I'm
in for it," he thought to himself, sorry he'd wasted his Christmas. When he
arrived, Sarah was standing in front of the poster, 'unable to tear her eyes
away. When she saw me, she came and embraced me," wrote Mucha. "No disgrace,
but success, great success."
It turned out that Mucha had portrayed her as she wished to be percieved: not
as a diminutive actress, but as a dynamic figure.
In subsequent years, Mucha designed posters, costumes and sets for her
theater performances, as well as jewerlry for her. On a more personal note:
The twosome discovered that they shared am interest in the occult. They
would often hold seances together with the help of a medium.