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	"RUSSIA RESTITUENDA," POSTER BY MUCHA, 1922 A Poster and Postcards to Aid Starving Russian Children
	POSTER ART BY ALPHONSE MUCHA World Famous Art Nouveau Artist and Fervent Czech 17 7/8 x 31 3/8 (45.7 x 79.7 cm) "Russia Restituenda" poster shown in the book: MUCHA, The Triumph of Art Nouveau by Arthur Ellridge, Pierre Terrail, Paris, 1992, Page 214   "RUSSIA RESTITUENDA" (Click on image to enlarge it) This original, printed, poster type postcard published in 1922 shows the widely known famine poster "Russia Restituenda" created by the world famous art nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha. Mucha created the poster to raise funds for the famine relief efforts during the 1921-22 famine in the Soviet Union which included much of Ukraine. Poster-type postcards showing the poster were made from the poster image and sold by the thousands to raise Soviet famine relief funds. Alphonse Mucha, born in Bohemia in 1860, led the itinerant life of typical young Central European artists at the time: Vienna, Munich, and then Paris in 1890. In 1897, Mucha suddenly had a lucky break: Sarah Bernhardt fell in love with the poster that he had designed for the opening of "Gismonda." Soon, all the wall of Paris were covered with his work, from theater announcements to billboards advertising champagne and biscuits. The "Mucha Style" becamse synonymous with Art Nouveau. The 1900 Paris World's Fair (Exposition Universelle) catapulted him to international fame. Newspaper typefaces, books, wrapping paper as well as fashions, jewelry, furniture and interior decoration and countless everyday objects bear witness to the artist's extraordinary impact on daily life at the turn of the century. After some years he decided to devote himself entirely to his obsessive dream, a series of paintings celebrating "The Slav Epic." When the 1918 Armistice gave independence to Czechoslovakia, Alphonse Mucha returned to Prague for patriotic reasons to work on this great project. He was among the first arrested by the Gestapo when the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939. The arrest was contributed to his declining health. He was released but died shortly thereafter. The Mucha museum today in Prague is housed in the 18th Century Kaunitz Palace.   MUCHA, The Triumph of Art Nouveau by Arthur Ellridge, Pierre Terrail, Paris, 1992   [Original postcard held in the ArtUkraine Information Service (ARTUIS) private collection]

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