Spring — from The Seasons

The first of Mucha’s 1896 Seasons — the set that half-invented Art Nouveau — Spring is all fresh beginnings: a slender girl stands among budding branches, weaving a lyre out of a bent bough and her own hair while small birds gather to listen. The palette is pale green and cream, the mood one of tender awakening. Mucha’s idea was quietly radical: to personify the year not as landscapes but as four women, each a mood you could hang on the wall. The Seasons became among the most popular decorative prints ever made. Shown with Summer, Autumn and Winter, Spring opens the full cycle of the year.

Maker

Alphonse Mucha (1860 to 1939)

Date

1896

Medium of the original

Painting

Original held by

Published Paris

Credit

Published Paris · via Wikimedia Commons

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00650