Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

The 1903 exhibition was so extensive and diverse that a critic from the Prager Tagblatt remarked: "Five exhibitions could have been made from this one" [Teweles 1903, p. 10]. The show presented 1,200 works – initially 1,133 pieces under 827 catalogue numbers, with an additional 67 works added as supplements. Applied arts were featured prominently, with entire collections grouped under single catalogue entries. "All manner of inkwells, seals, salt cellars, ashtrays, book bindings, and jewelry were scattered throughout the exhibition." [Harlas 1903, p. 555] Of the participating firms, London's The Guild of Handicraft, led by C. R. Ashbee, received the most acclaim. To secure the necessary space for the annual exhibition, organizers stored half of the works from the Picture Gallery of the Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts and restricted access to the remaining collection. K. B. Mádl noted that despite the difficulty caused by "this year's abundance," the exhibition maintained a "quite pleasant" character, "with its content clearly organized, since the greater part has been arranged into special groups according to artists, schools, and national affiliation. Similar and related works came together, achieving a much more favorable and lasting effect than would have resulted from the usual fragmentation. This year's annual exhibition is an exhibition of exhibitions." [Mádl 1903, p. 370]

As with the previous two annual exhibitions, the range of artists was broad, extending from traditionalists to the exponents of the latest trends, though the latter were somewhat underrepresented. Despite their opposition to traditional art associations, the Mánes Fine Arts Association and the Vienna Secession occupied relatively prominent space in the Rudolfinum. Independent sections, called collective exhibitions, dominated the exhibition. These included a section devoted to Frans Courtens, a renowned landscapist of the Dordrecht School; the Union of German Artists in Bohemia and one of its members, Franz Thiele, a painter who had recently been appointed professor at the Prague Academy; a section of Danish painters; and a section of works by Arnold Böcklin, a Swiss painter who had recently died in Florence. Dresden painter Gotthard Kuehl presented larger cycles: Views of Dresden and Views of Gdańsk and Bremen.

The strong presence of Czech-German art, first evident at the 63rd annual exhibition the previous year, was prompted by German demands for equal national representation in the newly established Modern Gallery of the Kingdom of Bohemia. As a novelty borrowed from more modern associations, the Fine Arts Association introduced the category of artistic posters. On February 1, 1903, it announced a competition, with the exhibition committee serving as the jury. [Anonymous author 1903] Ivan Čipera, a nineteen-year-old student at the Prague Academy, won the prize. The exhibition featured 437 artists. Of those, 99 came from Bohemia and Moravia, including 85 from Prague (19.45% of all exhibitors), two from Cheb, two from Vratislavice nad Nisou, and individual artists from Františkovy Lázně, Běstovice, Plzeň, Poděbrady, and Valašské Meziříčí. Vienna contributed twenty artists, Graz three, and Salzburg and Aschach an der Donau one each. Additional artists came from the broader Cisleithanian territories: Krakow, Lviv (one each), and Trieste (six). Only two artists came from Transleithania – from Pest and Cluj. Germany provided works by 135 artists, with Munich maintaining its privileged position through 70 representatives (16% of all participants). Berlin contributed 16 artists, Düsseldorf eight, Dresden seven, Karlsruhe and nearby Grötzingen six, Hamburg with Altona three, Stuttgart, Breslau, and Worpswede two each, with single exhibitors coming from 16 other towns.

France was strongly represented (59 artists, at least 52 of whom were from Paris), as was Scotland (19 artists from the landscape painting group The Glasgow Boys, including 15 from Glasgow) and Denmark (20 Danish artists, 14 of whom were from Copenhagen). Belgium and Italy maintained their traditionally strong presence with 21 and 18 artists, respectively, including 17 and eight from Brussels and Milan, and two and three from Antwerp and Turin. The Netherlands contributed eight artists (two each from Amsterdam, Ede, and The Hague); London contributed five; Saint Petersburg and Seville contributed one each; and Switzerland contributed two (from Engadin and Lugano).

The exhibition’s fifth hall featured particularly remarkable works of art. From Paris, Theo van Rysselberghe sent pastels At Sea, Female Nude, and Races at Boulogne; Odilon Redon sent the pastel Young Girl with a Hat and oil paintings Landscape and Red Bush; Pierre Bonnard exhibited canvases Little Reader, In the Harbor, and Little Drinker. Berlin was represented by Max Slevogt's At Chiemsee and Landscape with a White Lady, while Worpswede contributed Otto Modersohn's landscape paintings Return and Evening Clouds in the Marsh. Further oil paintings came from Munich: Ludwig von Zumbusch's Butterfly Hunt, Leo Putz's Love, and Wassily Kandinsky's tempera Clean Air.

Other exhibiting painters and printmakers representing the Art Nouveau symbolism or Parisian le juste milieu included Edmond Aman-Jean, Henri Fantin-Latour, Ludwig von Hofmann, Giovanni Segantini, and Anders Zorn. Critics praised the exceptionally strong representation of Parisian sculptors, particularly Emmanuel Frémiet and Alexandre Falguière, although from today's perspective, É. A. Bourdelle, F. R. Carabin, and Ville Vallgren appear more significant. The exhibition also featured bronze figures by Constantin Meunier from Brussels.

The entrance hall housed Gustav Klimt's Medicine, a design for ceiling painting in the Vienna University auditorium, executed in oil. This work, owned by the Imperial Royal Ministry of Culture and Education, had generated turbulent controversies in Vienna. Prague critics joined the opposition: "A calmly reasoning observer cannot even understand why fierce critical battles were fought over this painting. I think the audiences simply find the painting unimpressive and unlikable. It is unclear, incomprehensible; the basic idea is expressed in an affected and unnecessarily cynical manner." [Harlas 1903, p. 554] Other reviewers, with a few exceptions [F. A. 1903, p. 1], found Medicine unconvincing. They criticized its alleged shortcomings and perceived it as a manifestation of passing fashion that would not withstand comparison with, for example, Vojtěch Hynais. [Teweles 1903a, p. 10; T. 1903, pp. 625–626]

Archival records of the Fine Arts Association document the exhibition's remarkable commercial success. Seventy works of art sold for 54,043.38 crowns, and the Association purchased an additional 72 works valued at 14,523.30 crowns for its lottery. The most expensive paintings were purchased through the public fund for the Picture Gallery: Galatea, a life-size marble sculpture by L. H. Marquest's from Paris (cat. no. 152) for 7,000 crowns; the bronze sculpture of Pierre Trubetskoy by Prince Pavel Trubetskoy from St. Petersburg (cat. no. 142) for 800 crowns; At Chiemsee by Karl Kaiser's from Munich (673) for 5,000 crowns; The Grey Mill by Grosvenor Thomas's from London (cat. no. 729) for 3,000 crowns; Neapolitan Woman by Franz Rumpler from Vienna (cat. no. 497) for 2,000 crowns; Two Sisters by P. S. Krøyer from Copenhagen (cat. no. 831) for 2,500 crowns; Zwinger in Spring Snow from the Views of Dresden cycle by G. Kuehl's (cat. no. 289) for 1,800 crowns; and Summer Day by José Gallegos from Rome (cat. no. 313) for 1,000 crowns.

The Gallery of Living Painters acquired Ferdinand Engelmüller's Třeboň Region from the Bohemian Landscape cycle for 1,600 crowns (cat. no. 42), while the Modern Gallery purchased Karel Rašek's Fairy Tale for 650 crowns (cat. no. 89). Additional expensive works destined for the Modern Gallery's German section included Emanuel Hegenbarth's Beaters from Munich (cat. no. 530) for 4,000 crowns, F. Thiele's Lady in Green (cat. no. 538) for 1,600 crowns, and Birches by W. F. Jäger from Raspenava (cat. no. 485) for 1,000 crowns. The Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts supported Karel Javůrek, a veteran of Czech historical painting, by purchasing his canvas Duke Soběslav II Fleeing from His Last Battle for 800 crowns (cat. no. 48).

Private collector Gabriela von Zdekauer acquired Courtens's After Milking for 2,880 crowns (cat. no. 377). Engelmüller's Ore Mountains from the Bohemian Landscape series (cat. no. 40) sold for 2,400 crowns, based on the artist's testimony. Marian of Hochinfels, the most active private buyer, purchased Giuseppe Barrison's Madonna from Trieste for 2,000 crowns (cat. no. 277) and Karel Liebscher's Motif from Lažany for 600 crowns (cat. no. 30), among other works. Karl Marky from Královské Vinohrady purchased Andromeda by Wilhelm Räuber from Munich for 2,000 crowns (cat. no. 705), Arthur Fuchs bought Summer Evening by Carl Rahtjen from Altona near Hamburg for 1,600 crowns (678), Baron Jan Nádherný bought Butterfly Hunt by the Munich Secessionist L. von Zumbusch for 800 crowns (cat. no. 361), Dr. Hugo Grab bought Dutch Landscape by Frits Mondriaan's from The Hague for 700 crowns (cat. no. 709), and Dr. Friedrich von Würth from Prague bought Forest Path in Late Summer by Peter Greeff from Düsseldorf for 650 crowns (cat. no. 721). Finally, two paintings sold for 600 crowns each: In the Bay of Grignan by Hugo Darnaut from Vienna (cat. no. 716), purchased by Friedrich Perutz from Prague, and K. Rašek's Gleaning. In the latter case, the artist disclosed the sum but not the collector's identity.

Aleš Filip

Works Cited

Anonymous author 1903: Vypsání soutěže pro domácí umělce, Národní listy XLIII, 1903, no. 32, supplement 1

F. A. 1903: An. (F. A.), Prager Kunstausstellung, část V., Bohemia LXXVI, 1903, supplement to vol. 140, p. 1.

Harlas 1903: F. X. Harlas, Výroční výstava Krasoumné jednoty, rubrika Rozhledy v umění výtvarném, Osvěta XXXIII, 1903, pp. 551–557

Mádl 1903: K. B. Mádl (M.), Výroční výstava v Rudolfinu, část V., Zlatá Praha XX, 1902–1903, p. 370

T. 1903: An. (T.), 64. výroční Výstava Krasoumné jednoty pro Čechy, rubrika Umělecké, Naše doba X, 1902–1903, pp. 624–626

Teweles 1903: Heinrich Teweles (H. T.), Prager Salon, part II., Prager Tagblatt XXVII, 1903, no. 141, pp. 10–11

Teweles 1903a: Heinrich Teweles (H. T.), Kunstausstellung im Rudolfinum, Prager Tagblatt XXVII, 1903, no. 94, p. 10

Further Reading

Jakub Bachtík – Lukáš Duchek – Jakub Jareš (eds.), Chrám umění: Rudolfinum, Praha 2020

Aleš Filip – Roman Musil (eds.), Epocha salonů. České salonní umění a mezinárodní výtvarná scéna 1870–1914, Brno – Plzeň 2021

Anna Masaryková, Cizí umělci na výstavách Krasoumné jednoty v Praze, in: Jaroslav Pešina (ed.), Sborník k sedmdesátinám Jana Květa (Acta Universitatis Carolinae. Philosophica et historica), Praha 1965, pp. 199–205

Vladimír Novotný, Sto let Krasoumné jednoty, Praha 1935

Vít Vlnas (ed.), Obrazárna v Čechách 1796–1918. Katalog výstavy uspořádané Národní galerií v Praze u příležitosti dvoustého výročí založení Obrazárny Společnosti vlasteneckých přátel umění, Praha 1996

Archival Sources

Archive of the National Gallery in Prague, fonds SVPU, inv. no. 200, Seznamy soukromých nákupů na výstavách Krasoumné jednoty [Lists of private purchases from exhibitions of the Fine Arts Association], 1897–1906

An., Jahresausstellung des Kunstvereines im Rudolfinum, rubrika Kunst, Prager Tagblatt XXVII, 1903, no. 107, p. 9

An., Jahresausstellung des Kunstvereines im Rudolfinum, rubrika Kunst, Prager Tagblatt XXVII, 1903, no. 114, p. 11

An., Jahresausstellung des Kunstvereines im Rudolfinum, rubrika Kunst, Prager Tagblatt XXVII, 1903, no. 125, p. 6

An., Jahresausstellung des Kunstvereines im Rudolfinum, rubrika Kunst, Prager Tagblatt XXVII, 1903, no. 128, p. 11

An., Jahresausstellung des Kunstvereines im Rudolfinum, Prager Tagblatt XXVII, 1903, no. 141, p. 11

An., Die Vernissage des Prager Salon 1903, Politik XLII, 1903, no. 94, p. 8

An., Výroční výstava Krasoumné jednoty v Rudolfině, Národní politika XXI, no. 99, p. 3

An., Výroční výstava 1903 v Rudolfině, Národní listy XLIII, 1903, no. 32, 1.2., I. příl.

An., Vypsání soutěže pro domácí umělce, Národní listy XLIII, 1903, no. 32, 1.2., I. příl.

An., Výroční výstava Krasoumné jednoty v Rudolfině, rubrika Výstavy, Národní listy XLIII, 1903, no. 101, p. 3

An., Výstava Krasoumné jednoty v Rudolfině, rubrika Výstavy, Národní listy XLIII, 1903, no. 114, p. 3

An., Výroční výstava Krasoumné jednoty v Rudolfině, rubrika Výstavy, Národní listy XLIII, 1903, no. 154, p. 2