Brožík, who lived from 1851 to 1901, belonged to the representatives of the so-called National Theater generation. At the end of the 19th century, he was the most famous Czech artist in Europe. More than eight dozen of his works in medium and smaller formats have now been lent by the organizers from private collections or institutions around the world. The works fill both floors of the Klato gallery, where they can be seen until April 5.
“Some paintings have not yet been exhibited in the Czech Republic. We communicated with private collectors and organizations as owners of the paintings. They are all loans, we do not have Brožík,” says Hana Kristová, director of the Klatovy/Klenová Gallery, which manages the U Bílého jednorožce Gallery.
The owners were happy to provide the canvases, two even contributed to the project with sponsorship donations. According to the director, this year is an essential exhibition for the institution, and it was also expensive due to the expensive insurance. “I expect a lot of interest from visitors because it’s a classic that people here want,” he says.
Václav Brožík was one of the handful of Czech artists who were honored during their lifetime. He was born into a poor family in Železné Hamr near Pilsen, but thanks to a rich patron he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He then gained experience at academies in Dresden and Munich.
He definitely established himself in France, where he left in 1876. Two years later he exhibited at the Salon and won a gold medal there. He married the daughter of a wealthy art dealer and lived alternately in the French capital and Prague, where he commuted to teach from 1893 as a successful Parisian painter of portraits and historical and rural genres. He took over the position of figure painting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts. He was appointed a member of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts, as well as the Paris Academy of Arts. At the end of the 19th century, he was elevated to nobility.
Photo: Profimedia.cz
For the royal box in the National Theatre, Brožík created the Three Ages of the Czech Republic, and he also participated in the decoration of the representative rooms of the Prague Castle. Two of his most famous large-scale canvases still hang in a place of honor in Prague’s Old Town Hall. They are Master Jan Hus before the Council of Constance and the Election of Jiří from Poděbrady as King of Bohemia.
Brožík mastered smaller formats such as portraits, landscape paintings or paintings with social and rural subjects with bravura. His work is characterized by technical perfection. However, he was still engaged in historical painting, which peaked in the middle of the 19th century, at a time when European art centers were already dominated by modern trends. Even some of Brožík’s students rejected his work and referred to him as a painter of “perfectly executed aristocratic shoes”.
The author died in 1901 in Paris, where he is buried in the Montmartre cemetery. Already shortly after his death, he began to be referred to as a salon and bourgeois artist. It was only at the end of the 20th century, when art historians became more interested in the 19th century, that Brožík’s work came into focus again. Today, he is among the most sought-after Czech artists of the 19th century at auctions.
In 2003, a retrospective of Brožík’s works in Prague’s Valdštejnská jízdárna attracted a lot of attention, which had to be extended three times due to the unprecedented interest of visitors. In the end, over 71,000 people saw it. It was the author’s first collective exhibition since 1928, it included 184 paintings including monumental historical canvases such as the Wedding Message of the Czech King Ladislav to the French Court of King Charles VII. or the well-known Condemnation of Master Jan Hus at the Council of Constance.
Today, many works from Brožík’s peak period can be found in private European and American collections. “And it is precisely these works, which often return to Bohemia after more than a hundred years, that we want to present to the widest public,” says Šárka Leubnerová, the curator of the Klato exhibition.
“Until now, we only knew a number of them from the catalog of Wanamaker’s famous American collection of Brožík pictures from 1902 or from the contemporary picture magazines Světozor, Zlatá Praha and others. Now, thanks to the kind loan of their current owners, we have a unique opportunity to see these works again here,” he concludes.
