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Alphonse Mucha鈥檚 body of work is full of contradictions.

He is most often identified with late 19th-century Paris, but was in fact Moravian (Czech). His vision for the purpose of art was for the betterment of humanity and creation of utopia, but his most famous artworks are advertisements. His style typifies聽, a movement at its peak between the 1890s and 1910s, but his career spanned several decades from the late 1800s until his death in 1939.

Born in 1860 in what is now the Czech Republic, Mucha trained in Paris. He worked as an illustrator in Paris and Prague, and exhibited work in the Paris Salon before rising to fame with his poster works and branching out into other media. After several visits to the United States, he returned to his homeland in 1910 and remained there until his death in 1939.

A new exhibition of his work at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the largest of its kind seen in Australia with over 200 pieces on display, shows the full breadth of Mucha鈥檚 work and his commitment to the transformative power of art across media.

The twin concerns of Mucha鈥檚 art are beauty and identity, specifically, national identity.

This may provide the biggest surprise to viewers who recognise his work, showing the extent of his productivity over so many decades and multiple media. Not only did Mucha compose his iconic posters and design jewellery, but he created murals for Czech municipal buildings and a portfolio of designs for interiors.

Significantly, he also designed postage stamps and banknotes in 1918 for the newly-formed Republic of Czechoslovakia.

His work is suffused with his utopian ideals and vision for a better world. For Mucha, art was for all. He believed in the power of art to make the world kinder and more beautiful. Such was the popularity of his posters that people removed them as soon as they were put up, to keep for themselves.

His works define the Art Nouveau (鈥渘ew art鈥�) style of the late 1800s, full of dynamic natural forms or shapes. The vines and flowers that decorate and frame Mucha鈥檚 artworks are also found in art, architecture and interior design.

To compose these works, Mucha used photographs of models as figure studies, which fill a wall of the exhibition. These photographs include Mucha himself posing with his daughter聽, a frequent collaborator and artist in her own right.

After the internationally-renowned actor the聽, commissioned Mucha for a last-minute poster design, his own celebrity increased. Mucha began work on the poster for Bernhardt鈥檚 play, Gismonda, on Boxing Day 1894, and it was ready by New Year鈥檚 Day 1895. So began a fruitful relationship between the two.

Bernhardt, herself a sculptor, was rendered in larger-than-life sized posters for many of her plays, which convey the drama and tragedy of her performances, including roles as Hamlet and Lorenzo de鈥� Medici. When Bernhardt saw the Gismonda poster, she declared 鈥淵ou have made me immortal鈥�.

Adjacent to these images conveying the glamour of celebrity and consumerism, the exhibition includes several works that highlight Mucha鈥檚 engagement with spirituality, Freemasonry and mysticism.

A curious juxtaposition in another room shows Mucha鈥檚 involvement with advertising alongside his famous rendering of seasons or artforms as allegorical figures. Where series of richly-decorated images show beautiful young women with glistening gold and silver, the largest and most eye-catching work is an advertisement for Nestl茅.

By depicting lissom women in a recognisable style, products grabbed attention without necessarily being depicted, as with JOB cigarettes or Mo毛t & Chandon.

Since his teen years, Mucha had a sense of patriotism, expressed first through amateur dramatics and later through his artworks.

This patriotic fervour is best encapsulated in the monumental Slav Epic, 20 canvases tracing pivotal episodes in Slavic history. The work was intended to educate and inspire the Slavic people to build a peaceful future and learn from their past. It is crowned with a golden Christ-like figure to embody the new republic.

Given the fragility of the Slav Epic works to travel beyond their current home in the town of Moravsk媒 Krumlov, the Art Gallery of New South Wales instead provides digital projections set to music.

It offers a chance to experience the grandeur of the works, the richness of the colours and imagery, all treated with Mucha鈥檚 eye for detail.

A final display shows both the links to Japanese art in Mucha鈥檚 works and the broader taste for聽聽during the late 1800s. The same influence is seen beyond this exhibition in聽, with their use of flowing black lines or a limited palette. There are also聽, showing the legacy of Mucha鈥檚 artworks now reflected back in Japanese art and album covers. Groups like聽听补苍诲听聽reproduced or appropriated Mucha posters, drawing on their iconic status and melding it with a psychedelic sensibility.

This exhibition offers more than just beautiful things. It provides the viewer with a glimpse of art that uplifts, and a balm for a world in upheaval, as it did 100 years ago.

is at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until September 22.

Dr Will Visconti's teaching and research spans French Studies, Italian Studies, History, Art History, Fashion, Gender & Sexuality, and Cultural Studies. This story was first published on . Hero image:聽Alphonse Mucha 鈥楻everie鈥� 1898, colour lithograph, 72.7 x 55.2 cm聽漏 Mucha Trust 2024.