Czech graphic artists before WWI


As demonstrated in my last two posts, most Czech artists before WWI went on to further studies in Germany or Austria. Therefore the influence of teachers such as Doris Raab (Munich), William Unger (Vienna), Peter Halm (Munich) and Alois Kolb (Leipzig), is strongly felt in their work.
Czech interest in the graphic arts was reaching a peak in the years before WWI. If none of the selection of Czech artists who follow achieved the international renown of their compatriots Alfons Mucha (1860-1939) and Franti�ek Kupka (1871-1957), their work is nonetheless full of interest.

Hermine Laukota, Der Mikroskopiker
Etching, 1892

Hermine Laukota, Interior of a Synagogue
Etching, 1906

Hermine Laukota, Kinderk�pfchen
Etching, 1907

The only woman among them, Hermine Laukota (1853-1931), was born in Prague. Hermine Laukota studied etching under Doris Raab and William Unger. Her early career went well, and she exhibited in Vienna in 1889 and in Berlin in 1891. After her return to Prague, her story becomes less easy to track. I�m not even sure if Hermine Laukota was Jewish, though the choice of the interior of a synagogue as the subject of one of my etchings suggests so.

Jo�a �prka, Pfingstreiter
Etching, 1907

The painter and printmaker Jo�a �prka (1861-1940) was born in Kne�dub and died in Hroznova. He studied at the Prague Academy (where he learned etching from Eduard Karel), and the Munich Academy. His brother Franta �prka was a noted sculptor.

Rudolf Jettmar, Nacht und Tr�ume
Etching with aquatint, 1907

Rudolf Jettmar (1869-1939) was born in Zawodzie, and died in Vienna. He studied at the academies in Vienna and Karlsruhe, therefore coming under the influence of teachers such as William Unger and Leopold von Kalckreuth. Rudolf Jettmar was a member of the Vienna Secession from 1898. The luxurious decadence of my etching by Jettmar (which comes from the series Stunden der Nacht) reminds me of the work of Alois Kolb, and I wouldn�t be surprised to discover some connection between the two; perhaps, though, it is simply case of shared influences.

August Br�mse, Eine Todte
Etching with aquatint, 1902

August Br�mse (1873-1925) was born in Frantiskovy L�zne, and died in Prague. Br�mse studied in Prague and Berlin, where he came strongly under the influence of Max Klinger. This influence can be seen in my etching, which is part of August Br�mse�s mordidly erotic 1902 series Death and the Maiden, inspired by  sense of doomed love for the opera singer Elsa Sch�nemann. Br�mse and Sch�nemann married in 1910, when August Br�mse was head of the print studio at the Prague Academy. My etching by August Br�mse is known in English as An Old Song; it is reproduced as plate 258 in Otto M. Urban�s intriguing-sounding study In Morbid Colors: Art and the Idea of Decadence in the Bohemian Lands 1880-1914 (2006).

Viktor Stretti, �berschwemmung
Etching, 1899

Viktor Stretti, Untitled landscape
Aquatint, 1904

Viktor Stretti (1878-1957) was born in Plasy. Stretti studied at the Prague Academy and at the Munich Academy, where he learned etching from Peter Halm. After a short time in Paris, Viktor Stretti settled in Prague in 1901.

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