Topaz

This artwork was produced in 1900 and is now a part of the collection of the Italia Liberty in Rimini, Italy. They have a good selection of artworks from his career, as well as some related illustrators from across Europe at around the same period.

Topaz is entirely typical of Mucha's illustrative style, featuring the combination of touches of nature, a young female figure and also the highly decorative patterned backgrounds. She looks directly at us, with a relaxed, elegant look. Her hair is neatly tied up, and she has just a light touch of makeup which ensures her natural beauty is not lost. Her dress has carefully crafted straps, one of which slips below her shoulder, whilst the lower half is in a light brown and stretches well beyond her toes. Mucha often elongated dresses in order to accentuate a woman's feminity and also to allow other parts of the design to then merge over the top, which in this example are elements of flower buds which come up over the top. There are fairly earthly tones of greens and browns which dominate the majority of Topaz, making it more subtle than some of his other brighter pieces.

Looking behind the model, you will find a beautiful circular mosaic design which would have taken the illustrator quite some time to put together. Mucha likely will have drawn this design several times in simple sketches prior to placing it within this artwork, in order to avoid having to make major amendments later on. The Italia Liberty have a number of the artist's poster designs and illustrations but most tend to be lesser known within his overall career, though still impressive works which those looking deeper into his career will be delighted to come across. This small gallery has quite a varied and interesting selection of items to look through and will surprise its visitors will all manner of historical items, even including some early postcards of various locations across Italy, just as the idea was starting to gain popularity.

The artist would become most famous for his poster adverts which would promote a variety of products and events within Paris and as his career developed other regions would also show interest in his illustration abilities. Within Paris itself there was a huge boom in the cultural side of this city, with many great artists appearing as well as theatrical performances for the growing numbers of middle class citizens. Another artist who took advantage of this was Henri de Toulouse Lautrec who himself produced well known posters such as Ambassadeurs, Aristide Bruant, Reine de Joie and Moulin Rouge: La Goulue. He was also able to work in other styles as well, and probably shared a similar situation to Mucha where he found a profitable genre that served him well but also liked to express himself in other ways whenever he able to do so.