Alphonse Mucha
was born in 1860 in Ivancice, Moravia, which is near the city of
Brno in the modern Czech Republic. It was a small town, and for all
intents and purposes life was closer to the 18th than the 19th
century. Though Mucha is supposed to have started drawing before he
was walking, his early years were spent as a choirboy and amateur
musician. It wasn't until he finished high school (needing two extra
years to accomplish that onerous task) that he came to realize that
living people were responsible for some of the art he admired in the
local churches. That epiphany made him determined to become a
painter, despite his father's efforts in securing him "respectable"
employment as a clerk in the local court.
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