Drawing

1904–1909

Meeting his patron Charles Crane

At a Pan-Slavic banquet in New York City he met Charles Richard Crane, a wealthy businessman and philanthropist and a passionate Slavophile who shared his enthusiasm for a series of monumental paintings on Slavic history and became Mucha’s most important patron.

February 1910

Crane agrees to fund “The Slav Epic”

Mucha completed his plans for “The Slav Epic” in 1908 and 1909, and in February 1910 Charles Crane agreed to fund the project.

1910

Return to his homeland: the move to Prague

Offered a commission in 1909 to paint murals in the interior of the new Prague city hall, he decided to return to his old country, then still part of the Austrian Empire, and in 1910 moved to Prague, writing to his wife that he would be able to do something really good, not just for the art critic but for Slav souls.

1911 · Lieu de travail

Prague

after 1911

A studio in Zbiroh Castle

For the enormous canvases, six by eight metres, he rented an apartment and a studio in Zbiroh Castle in western Bohemia, where he lived and worked until 1928.

c. 1911 – 1912

Journeys through the Slavic lands to gather material

To prepare the project he travelled to all the Slavic countries, from Russia and Poland to the Balkans, making sketches and taking photographs; he set the scenes with costumed models and still and motion picture cameras, often encouraging the models to create their own poses.