MoFA Presents: Alphonse Mucha Prints from the Collection of Dr. Patrick M. Rowe
Alphonse Mucha & Art Nouveau
14 October to 20 November
Museum of Fine Arts
Join us for the Opening Reception:
14 October 6:00 – 8:00pm
Selections from the Collection of Dr. Patrick M. Rowe with additional works by Toulouse-Lautrec from the Boca Raton Museum of Art and nineteenth-century Mucha posters from the Tampa Museum of Art and the Collection of Jack Rennert of New York.
Alphonse Mucha, Gismonda, 1895, lithograph. Collection of Jack Rennert, New York.
“On the afternoon of Christmas Eve 1894, Mucha accepted a commission that would dramatically alter the rest of his life. The internationally famous actress Sarah Bernhardt was about to star in the play Gismonda opening in Paris. To advertise the play, a poster had been made, but the design of this work was rejected by Bernhardt. She demanded that a new poster be produced that would be ready by New Year’s Day. Mucha, being at the right spot at the right time, was asked to take on the task. For this poster, titled Gismonda, Mucha created a design that was strikingly original. The narrow, vertically elongated shape, extensive use of rich gold ink, and exotic Byzantine-inspired mosaic decoration used in the composition had never been seen before in the history of poster making. Bernhardt was so pleased with the outcome, she entered into an agreement to work exclusively with Mucha for the next six years.”
Stacy Kendall is the Special Projects Editor and one of the founding members of GRAY magazine, a Pacific Northwest-based design magazine. From 2012-2014 she was the Director of Marketing for the Pensacola Museum of Art.
About the Collector
Dr. Patrick M. Rowe
Dr. Patrick M. Rowe received his PhD in Art History at Florida State University in 1989, and taught art history at the University of West Florida and Pensacola State College until his retirement in 2014. As a graduate student at FSU, he focused his research on Etruscan and Roman art and archaeology. From 1976 to 2002, Rowe spent his summers in Italy excavating at the Etrusco-Roman site of Cetamura del Chianti. In 1998, Rowe began to take an interest in nineteenth and early twentieth century printmaking, and became a collector of original prints by Alphonse Mucha, Katsushika Hokusai, Honoré Daumier and Aubrey Beardsley. He later expanded his collection to include Bill Mauldin prints, drawings and paintings; and artifacts, posters and flags from both World Wars.
Dr. Rowe will be conducting a walking tour of the exhibition on 1 November 2016 at 7:00pm
Everyone is welcome!
All events are free to the public.
Please check out this video on Dr. Patrick M. Rowe, in which he shares works from his collection of Alphonse Mucha prints in the exhibition Alphonse Mucha & Art Nouveau at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts.