Alfons Mucha, (1860 – 1939), Looking into the Future, 1938 oil on canvas 67,5 x 56 cm signed and dated lower right: Mucha 38 Provenance: - collection of the famous doctor Professor Bobek, who was the Mucha family doctor and a friend of the painter - important Moravian private art collection Alfons Mucha, a world-renowned Czech modern artist, gained in- ternational fame for his unique decorative approach to Art Nouveau in France in the late 19th and early 20th century. Alfons Mucha’s entire oeuvre has subsequently received much attention. His talent was multifaceted and he was primarily a sought-after illustrator, art nouveau decorator and poster designer in the 1890s. His artistic reach was widespread and he was also a talented drawer, designing postcards, smaller prints, bank notes and post stamps. The pinnacle of his lifetime work was his large-scale series of paintings The Slav Epic, that he worked on for nearly eighteen years. The completed series was first introduced as a whole in Prague at the recently opened Trade Fair Palace during the celebrations of the 10th-year anniversary of the independence of Czechoslovakia in the autumn of 1928. Interest in the female figure permeates all of Mucha’s work. He was able to perfectly capture the woman of his age and develop his own ideal of beauty. Through his paintings, he introduced his audience to an attractive world of Parisian and Prague’s models, cabarets, salons, and theatres. but also an intimate series of portraits cap- turing the face of his daughter Jaroslava. Looking into the future, 1938 is one of Mucha’s rare poetic portraits of a girl, personifying a typical Slavic girl. The family doctor and friend Professor Bobek was gifted the painting by Mrs Mucha as a token of appreciation and his family subsequently held onto this unique work for a long time. Both the origins, as well as Mucha’s sensitive painterly technique and original condition add to this work’s extraordinary value. Consulted and authenticated by John Mucha, the grandson and owner of Alfons Mucha’s copyright and legal rights, and Professor Jaromir Zemina, Dr Jiri Machalicky, Dr Karel Srp, and Aneta Kopecka, and Vladimir Lekes. Confirmation of the authenticity attached. The painting will be included by Mr. John Mucha in for the coming Catalogue raisonné of Alfons Mucha. Auction, Prague, Czech Republic.