Editing Alphonse Mucha (section)

==Studies and first success in Paris==
Mucha moved to Paris in 1888 where he enrolled in the {{Lang|fr|[[Académie Julian]]|italic=no}}<ref>(fr) [https://books.google.com/books?id=iIWJ_03BQyQC&pg=PA75 Patrick Bade, ''Mucha'']</ref> and the following year, 1889, [[Académie Colarossi]].  The two schools taught a wide variety of different styles.  His first professors at the Académie Julian were [[Jules Lefebvre]] who specialized in female nudes and allegorical paintings, and [[Jean-Paul Laurens]], whose specialties were historical and religious paintings in a realistic and dramatic style. At the end of 1889, as he approached the age of thirty, his patron, Count Belasi, decided that Mucha had received enough education and ended his subsidies.{{Sfn|Thiébaut|2018|p=23}}

When he arrived in Paris, Mucha found shelter with the help of the large Slavic community.  He lived in a boarding house called the Crémerie at 13 rue de la Grande Chaumière, whose owner, Charlotte Caron, was famous for sheltering struggling artists; when needed she accepted paintings or drawings in place of rent.  Mucha decided to follow the path of another Czech painter he knew from Munich, [[Ludek Marold]], who had made a successful career as an illustrator for magazines.  In 1890 and 1891, he began providing illustrations for the weekly magazine ''La Vie populaire'', which published novels in weekly segments. His illustration for a novel by [[Guy de Maupassant]], called ''The Useless Beauty'', was on the cover of 22 May 1890 edition.  He also made illustrations for  ''Le Petit Français Illustré'', which published stories for young people in both magazine and book form. For this magazine he provided dramatic scenes of battles and other historic events, including a cover illustration of a scene from the [[Franco-Prussian War]] which was on the cover of the 23 January 1892 edition.{{Sfn|Thiébaut|2018|pp=24–25}}

His illustrations began to give him a regular income.  He was able to buy a [[harmonium]] to continue his musical interests, and his first camera, which used glass-plate negatives.  He took pictures of himself and his friends, and also regularly used it to compose his drawings.{{Sfn|Sato|2015|p=18}} He became friends with [[Paul Gauguin]], and shared a studio with him for a time when Gauguin returned from [[Tahiti]] in the summer of 1893. In late autumn 1894, he also became friends with the playwright [[August Strindberg]], with whom he had common interests in philosophy and mysticism.{{Sfn|Sato|2015|p=18}}

His magazine illustrations led to book illustration; he was commissioned to provide illustrations for ''Scenes and Episodes of German History''  by the historian [[Charles Seignobos]]. Four of his illustrations, including one depicting the death of [[Frederic Barbarossa]], were chosen for display at the 1894 Paris Salon of Artists. He received a medal of honor, his first official recognition.{{Sfn|Thiébaut|2018|pp=24–25}}

Mucha added another important client in the early 1890s; the Central Library of Fine Arts, which specialized in the publication of books about art, architecture, and the decorative arts.  It later launched a new magazine in 1897 called ''Art et Decoration'', which played an early and important role in publicizing the [[Art Nouveau]] style. Mucha continued to publish illustrations for his other clients, including for a children's book of poetry by [[Eugène Manuel]] and for a magazine of the theater arts called ''La Costume au théâtre''.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}