Alphonse Mucha was a Czech painter, illustrator and graphic artist best known for his commercial posters of beautiful women and for his prominent role in the Art Nouveau movement. He mostly worked in Vienna and Paris, but was also in Chicago, where he taught at the Art Institute, from 1904 to 1910.
Women were a common theme in Mucha's work (and in Art Nouveau art in general). Followers of this movement celebrated femininity as the antidote to an overly-industrialized, impersonal, "masculine" world.
Although Mucha is most associated with his Art Nouveau posters, he was also stirred by a pride of his country and its artistic traditions. He spent the latter half of his career creating work that celebrated Czech culture.