Few painters in Prague

I was sitting in my home one evening, I started looking decorations that the owner had put in the living room. There were several paintings of landscapes, a painting of Charles Bridge, and the Old Town. So I decided to take a look of few painters who represented the city several times in different eras.

Few painters in Prague

Jakub Schikaneder

Born in Prague in 1855. When he was young he was very talented and decided to devote himself to painting. He studied at the Academy of Arts in Prague but also in Paris and Munich. He was a very sensitive man with worries and woes of his contemporaries. These works are quiet dark alleys and are lit with oil lamps which allows the character and objects shown to be much more mysterious.

The painter glorifies the myth of beauty is obscure. He loved Prague and spoke of fondly, “I like walking in Prague at night it’s like to pick up every sigh of the soul”

Jakub Schikaneder “Fiacre in the night”

Antonin Slavicek

He was born in 1870 and died when he was 40 years old. He studied at Beaux-Arts School in Prague. He was recognized early by the pubic. He painted Prague and highlighted the natural coastline of the city. For him painting is a way to show the essence of life, which is difficult to express.

In the first part of his career he painted in a style quite close to Impressionism. He called this period “elegant.” He painted walkways, and places in Prague, Letna, and Stramovka.

Zlata Ulicka 1906

In the second part of his artistic works,  he decided to leave Prague more often and paint the landscape of Moravia and highlight windy hills, an infinite sky, fields, and meadows. He said he had to fit in nature to be able to take another dimension to nature. Slavicek was not a man of the country, and this is why contact with nature has been so important to him.

One painting of Prague

Unfortunately, the painter was suffering of apoplexy when he was 40, which caused partial paralysis. He could not longer paint and committed suicide. Before his death he started another series of paintings on Prague with panoramic views that remain unfinished. In his 15 years of intense painting, he wanted to show the simplicity and natural beauty.

Oskar Kokoschka

Born in 1886 in Austria, a painter and writer, he moved to Prague in 1930 and lived there for 4 years. His work includes a portrait of Tomas Masaryk G, the president of Czechoslovakia during this era. Oskar had done a lot of panorama paintings of the city of Prague, he wanted to focus on the mysterious character and tormented of the city. He said, “I like living in Prague. Prague had become a cosmopolitan center where Europe find himself for the last time.”

Nostalgia

In four years, the artist has painted 16 tables, most of Prague. In 1938 he went into exile in London and decided to paint a last view of Prague entitled “Nostalgia”.

Bohumil Kubista

He is a Czech painter and engraver born near Hradec Králové in 1884. He studied at School of Beaux-Arts in Prague, but he also studied in Florence, Berlin, and spent several months in Paris. His influence came from French Cubism. You can find his paintings in various museums in Czech Republic in Prague, Brno, Hradec Kralove.

He has painted one table of Prague which was not recognize by his friends. Even this anecdote, the monuments follow a complex geometry, while clouds are represented by curvy lines and energy.

Old Prague 1911

This painter is very important because he was the first to create typical Czech Cubism. This painting inspired cubist architects all over Czech Republic.

Jiri Kolar

Born in 1924 in Protivin, southern Bohemia. Throughout his life he was a poet, playwright, and translator. But man is known worldwide as a creator of collages, and an artist. He has made photographs capturing the main monuments of Prague. These deformations give a vision of explosions and disturbance.

Jiri Kolar

He loved to accompany his images of Prague with a quote from Franz Kafka. It gives a stunning and disturbing perspective of the world, as did Franz Kafka’s literature.

The aim

All of these artist influenced Czech art, and specifically Czech paintings. They are influential in Czech history not because they represent Prague, but because they have their own styles, and have influenced generations of painters. There were several movements and periods, such as expressionism, Czech Cubism, Surrealism, and Devetsil. These movements and periods can be found in other countries, but the Czechs have created their own code. My other goal was to show that Prague has always influenced and inspired painters.

Have you got a favourite view of Prague or a favourite artist who represented Prague?

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