Alphonse Mucha

Jaroslav Polívka, Prague and Berkeley, California (acquired directly from the artist in circa 1932)
Eliška Polívková, Prague and Berkeley, California (by descent from the above, her father, in 1982 and until 2002, her estate until 2007)
Thence by descent to the present owners (children of the above)

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is in beautiful condition. The canvas is still on its original stretcher. The paint layer has recently been cleaned and varnished. The artist has employed a soft palette and perhaps a different colored frame would lend a lot to the image. There is a small reinforcement on the reverse of the canvas, in the background between the head and the left edge and there is a tiny corresponding retouch on the surface. No further restoration is required
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Mucha's post-World War I oeuvre was defined by The Slav Epic (1919), a series of historical and allegorical mural paintings that was immediately embraced by the Czech people and subsequently by Americans during a 1920-21 exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Brooklyn Museum (Anna Dvořák, "New Aspirations 1900-1939," in Alphonse Mucha: The Spirit of Art Nouveau, exh. cat., Alexandria, Virginia, 1998, p. 40).  In Chicago the main exhibition was accompanied by a smaller show at Newcomb, Macklin & Co., highlighting twenty paintings and twenty drawings, mostly oils of young girls in Slavic costumes. During research for The Slav Epic, Mucha consulted experts on Slavic history, which supplemented his own earlier trips to the countryside, where he observed the well-preserved way of life and the dress of various regions (Alphonse Mucha, p. 275).  The artist later used photographs and sketches made during his travels for his portraits of girls and young women, including his daughter Jaroslava, wearing regional or folk costumes. Such technique and inspiration are also evident in the present work, intended as gift for Mucha's friend Jaroslav Polívka (1886-1960), a renowned Prague architect and engineer. Mucha agreed to paint Polívka's teenage daughter Eliška, and used a large-format photograph of the young woman to supplement his preliminary oil sketches. Mucha photographed many of his models to capture a particular pose, or proportion of a figure, complemented with notes made of physical characteristics in his notebooks (Quentin Bajac, "Mucha and Photography," in Alphonse Mucha, pp. 49-50). These photographs, like Eliška's, were not necessarily meant to be copied exactly, but instead used as a visual reference suggesting different ways the painted composition could enhance the aesthetics of the source.  Indeed, Eliška's photograph shows her with a deep tan and red-skirted costume, neither of which are replicated in her painted representation of peach complexion and white dress with embroidered vest, sashes and underskirt of soft pinks and subtle greens. (One of Mucha's variations, coloring the model's eyes blue instead of gray, was reverted to the original based on Eliška's request). The sitter's carefully described costume and physiognomy, characteristically Czech, proudly display Mucha's skill in conveying the shared heritage of the artist, his friend, and model. Yet unlike many of the artist's works of the 1930s, like Woman with a Burning Candle with its young priestess or oracle, the Portrait of Eliška Polívková was not intended as an allegorical picture. Overall, the composition's cool color palette, wind-whipped dress, combined with the blooming rose and flowering branch, suggest the fresh warmth of late spring. While the work was included in a posthumous Mucha exhibition, the Portrait of Eliška Polívková is a personal work done for a good friend capturing the beauty of a beloved daughter.