Style Imitating Art | “Maude Adams (1872–1953) as Joan of Arc” by Alphonse Mucha

I am not a big fan of the color peach. Unless it’s on a peach. Then it is actually quite the perfect color. But on my clothes, it’s not my jam. Ooh, but if the peach is in my jam, then it is definitely my jam. On a nice warm piece of fresh homemade sourdough bread. Yum.

But here I am wearing a very bright shade of peach. Marsha’s last art pick pushed me into these peachy colors, too. That’s what makes these style challenges so interesting. They force me to look at my wardrobe differently and get more creative with the pieces in my closet. They challenge me to wear colors that I don’t often wear. They also give me opportunities to style seasonal pieces in the wrong season which can accidentally reveal some previously unknown versatility of certain wardrobe items. Playing dress up is not only fun but it actually can teach you some stuff, too!

So let’s get to learning about the art and how it inspired my style.

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

It was Marsha’s turn to choose the artwork. Although she is not very familiar with the Art Nouveau movement, she really likes the lines and soft colors that are present in many works from this genre. She chose a work by Czech artist Alphonse Mucha who worked in Paris during the Art Nouveau movement and was “widely known for his distinctly stylized and decorative theatrical posters.”

The Artwork

I have found the artwork in two different colorways so I am sharing both. Marsha originally shared the one that has more brown tones, but the pink and blue one is how it appears at The Met.

“Maude Adams (1872–1953) as Joan of Arc” by Alphonse Mucha

About the Artist: Alphonse Mucha

Alfons Maria Mucha was born on July 24, 1860, in southern Moravia which is currently a region of the Czech Republic. His father Ondřej, a court usher, and his mother Amálie, a miller’s daughter, were of modest means raising their six children. Alphonse was the eldest child with each sibling also having a name beginning with the letter A.

Alphonse exhibited artistic talents, specifically drawing, at a very young age. During his preschool years, he drew exclusively with his left hand. He also was a talented alto singer and violinist. Upon completing his compulsory education, Alphonse wanted to continue his education. However, his parents were already funding the educations of his three step-siblings and did not have the budget for his further education.

Recognizing his talents, Alphonse’s teachers tried to find ways to fund his education. Eventually he was accepted as a chorister at the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul which funded his secondary education studies. He continued his musical studies in Brno but he really wanted to be an artist. In 1878, his application to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague was rejected and he was told to find a different career. In 1880, 19 year old Alphonse traveled to Vienna and found a job as an apprentice theater scenery painter. As he immersed immerse himself in the cultural richness of Vienna, his artistic style evolved and grew with all of the influences around him. He also began experimenting with photography while in Vienna. This skill would become an important tool in his later works.

After a fire in 1881 destroyed the Ringtheater, a major client of Alphonse’s set design firm, he traveled north to southern Moravia on what little money he had left. To earn a living, he began painting portraits as well as creating other decorative art including lettering for tombstones. He was commissioned by a local landlord and nobleman, Count Eduard Khuen Belasi of Munich, to paint a series of murals for his two castles. As an amateur painter himself, Count Belasi was so impressed with Mucha’s work that he moved him to Munich in 1885. Count Belasi paid Mucha’s tuition and living expenses so he could receive formal art training at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. However, there is no record of Alphonse Mucha being enrolled in that school. Hmmm. Maybe he was enrolled under a different name?

After a successful time at the Munich Academy where he founded a Czech students’ club, Alphonse enrolled in the Académie Julian in Paris in 1888 and then the Académie Colarossi in 1889. He remained in Paris where he was making a suitable living as an illustrator until the end of 1894 when his career would take a surprising turn. Alphonse was commissioned to design a theatrical poster for French actress Sarah Bernhardt. When they were displayed in Paris on January 1, 1895, the posters caused an immediate sensation. Due to the success of these theatrical posters, Mucha was commissioned to design the posters for each successive Bernhardt play which was followed by many more commissions for advertising posters.

Now a very successful artist, Mucha set sail for New York for his first visit to the United States in 1904. Over the next six years, he would make four more trips between New York and Paris, spending months at a time in each place. On June 10, 1906, Alphonse Mucha married Marie/Maria Chytilová in Prague and retuned to New York with her that same year. He would remain in the United States until after their daughter, Jaroslava, was born in 1909. In 1915, they had a son, Jiří, who was born in Prague.

Alphonse Mucha did many things through the course of his career including teaching. I must emphasize, he did a lot of things. If you are interested, you can go read about it on his very long Wikipedia page.

So let me wrap this up.

On March 15, 1939, after Hitler declared that the former Czechoslovakia was part of the Greater German Reich, Alphonse Mucha was arrested as a Slav nationalist and Freemason. His arrest and interrogation, which lasted a few days, took a toll on his already failing health. Mucha eventually contracted pneumonia and died on July 14, 1939, just 10 days before his 79th birthday.  

About the Art: “Maude Adams (1872–1953) as Joan of Arc”

Maude Adams was an American actress and set designer best known for her title role in the 1905 Broadway production of Peter Pan. In 1909, she was cast as Joan of Arc in Friedrich Schiller’s The Maid of Orleans. Alphonse Mucha was commissioned to design the marketing poster for this one night gala performance at Harvard University on June 22, 1909.

The poster is oil on canvas depicting Maude Adams as Joan of Arc as she gestures at an apparition behind her, encouraging her to lead her troops into battle. It measures 82 1/4 x 30 in. (208.9 x 76.2 cm) and belongs to the Met but currently is not on view. Mucha also designed the complementary frame for the poster, the production’s costumes, and the sets. He even supervised the direction of the production. A man of many talents, indeed.

Resources/References

• Wikipedia: Alphonse Mucha
• The Met: Maude Adams (1872–1953) as Joan of Arc
• The Met: Maude Adams (1872–1953) as Joan of Arc (Object Information)

About My Outfit

The setting of the painting is clearly a spring or summer garden. However, we are in the deepest part of winter right now with nary a flower in sight. The gardens are covered in snow and people like me hibernate this time of year. But people like Joan of Arc would don their best flowing layers, winterize them with a furry coat, and brave the bitter cold outdoors even if it was just for a few silly photos.

I focused on the colors in the first image of the painting, the one that has a yellowish undertone, and I searched my closet for the flowiest, most feminine things that were close to those colors. Most of my flowiest feminine things are much more suitable for the warm weather seasons so I had to get creative with layering if I was going to style a look that truly imitates the art.

I started with this thrifted peach skirt. It is long and pleated and captures the essence of Joan of Arc’s skirt fairly well. On top, I wore a pale pink long sleeved tee shirt underneath my lightweight ivory kimono with sequined trim. The heavy cotton of the tee shirt was enough to keep the breezy material of the kimono robe warm enough for winter (indoors). The silver sequined trim on the robe reminded me of the border around the painting, creating a sort of frame for my outfit.

Not yet satisfied with the level of floatiness to accurately represent Maude’s Joan of Arc costume, I added my preloved scarf in a soft ivory color with embroidered flowers to reflect the summer garden in the artwork. I feel like a modern day Joan of Arc might be the kind of woman who would wear cowgirl boots with everything, so I wore my feminine yet badass white cowgirl boots. I tied my skirt with the belt to this kimono robe which was my first choice until I decided on the sequin trimmed one. Strands of pearls with rose gold and pearl earrings seemed like the type of jewelry a modern day Joan of Arc would wear as well.

I topped it all off with a new chenille fedora and my old thrifted white furry coat. My husband said I looked like “a pimp’s lady” wearing the combination of matching fur coat and fedora. Ha. Despite not loving peachy colors and resembling a pimp’s lady, I still really liked the end result!

How did I do? Did I capture the feel of the painting? Be sure to check out how Marsha and Salazar have interpreted this painting into their outfits.

If you want to play along and create your own outfit inspired by Maude Adams as Joan of Arc, please submit your photos to Marsha (mlrbanks57@gmail.com) by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, and she will feature your outfit in her style gallery on Wednesday, January 29, 2025.

Until then, happy styling! 

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee

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