Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

The Czech Classics of the 19th Century, organized in the summer of 1948 by the National Gallery and the Art Gallery, was one of the first major exhibitions to reflect the new cultural policy gradually adopted after the communist coup in February 1948. It presented the great Czech masters to “show the domestic and international world what is great and remarkable in our art” [Anonymous author 1948]. It first took place in Prague and then travelled to Brno (December 12, 1948 – January 1949) and Bratislava (February 20 – March 20, 1949), albeit significantly changed and reduced in scope. Further reprises were planned in České Budějovice and Olomouc. Touring exhibitions, leading to the decentralization of the National Gallery’s activities, had already been among its goals in 1947 but this was the first time the gallery’s collections were presented in other cities [ANG].

Because the National Gallery did not have enough exhibition space, it approached Umělecká beseda (Artistic Forum) to collaborate on the Prague exhibition. After the Second World War, Umělecká beseda received a large exhibition space on the Slavonic Island, where it held shows such as Monumental Mikoláš Aleš (1947) and The Work of Karel Purkyně (1949). However, as the communist regime gradually restricted Umělecká beseda’s activities, it took a long time before the Beseda was allowed to organize another major show. The Exhibition of Czech Classics of the 19th Century was installed on Slovanský ostrov from mid-June to mid-September 1948 and presented 270 works by 31 artists. 

The selection of artworks offered an instructive overview of figural painting and landscape of the 19th century, featuring the classicizing oil paintings by František Tkadlík and Karel Postl, Romantic landscapes, works by Realists such as Karel Purkyně and Soběslav Pinkas, and some representatives of the so-called National Theatre generation, including Vojtěch Hynais and Mikoláš Aleš. However, the show completely ignored artists who emerged on the art scene in the 1890s. The set of 19th-century sculpture was somewhat fragmentary as the show represented only three sculptors, namely Václav Levý, Josef Václav Myslbek, and Bohuslav Schnirch. The list of exhibited works appeared in the form of a small 16-page catalogue, supplemented by the book entitled Čeští klasikové XIX. století v Národní galerii (Czech Classics of the 19th Century in the National Gallery), which was published as part of the series Painters and Sculptors, established by Karel Šourek. This publication, containing an introductory text by the then director of the National Gallery, Vladimír Novotný, and seventy black and white reproductions, can be seen as a catalogue of sorts although it also contained works that were not part of the exhibition. 

Novotný’s introductory text and reviews in the contemporary press suggest that 19th-century art was viewed as a source of inspiration in the search for the new (socialist) realism. Exhibitions, therefore, emphasized the realist tradition in Czech art, a tendency characteristic for not only the 1948 show but also other retrospectives that followed [Morganová 2020, p. 40]. In addition to offering points of departure for the new artistic expression, these shows also celebrated the artists’ “national consciousness,” finding it, in particular, in the work of Josef Mánes, Mikoláš Aleš, and, somewhat paradoxically, in the religious-themed canvases of František Tkadlík [Novotný 1948, p. 14]. In contrast, the ideology at the time rejected the “bourgeois” paintings of Václav Brožík, and particularly František Ženíšek, whose work was absent from the Prague exhibition. 

All reviewers evaluated the show positively as a comprehensive overview of the previous century’s art represented by the most important artworks of the era. From today’s perspective, it is evident that the choice of works was tendentious rather than representative, following the communist regime’s ideology. Reviewers in regional periodicals welcomed the intention to bring art from Prague’s National Gallery to smaller cities [Svrček 1948]. For Brno and Bratislava, this was an exceptional and unprecedented cultural event, and so the exhibitions there received a much greater response than the Prague one.

Tereza Štěpánová

Works Cited

ANG: Archive of the National Gallery in Prague, Dokumentace výstav NG [Documentation of Exhibitions] (1945–1958), dílčí inventář [partial inventory], fonds NG, inv. no. 189

Anonymous author 1948: Anonymous author, Naše nové umělecké výstavy, Rudé právo XXVIII, 1948, no. 144, 20. 6., p. 4

Morganová 2020: Pavlína Morganová, Dějiny výstav – výstavy v dějinách, in: eadem – Terezie Nekvindová – Dagmar Svatošová, Výstava jako médium: české umění 1957–1999, Praha 2020, pp.  35–147

Novotný 1948: Vladimír Novotný, Čeští klasikové 19. století v Národní galerii, Praha 1948

Svrček 1948: J[aroslav] B[ohumil] Svrček, Poučení z výstavy Čeští klasikové 19. století, Naše pravda IV, 1948, no. 297, 21. 12., p. 5

Further Reading

Eva Petrová – Ludvík Ševeček, Umělecká beseda 1863–2003 (exh. cat.), Galerie hlavního města Prahy 2003, p. 50

Helena Obrová, Soupis výstav Národní galerie uspořádaných v Praze v letech 1945–1985 (unpublished typescript), Praha 1990

Archival Sources

Archive of the National Gallery in Prague, Trade Fair Palace, fonds Dokumentace výstav, Čeští klasikové 19. století [Documentation of Exhibitions, Czech Classics of the 19th Century], box 2, inv. no. 20, 27, 41; box 3, inv. č. 49

Anonymous author, Čeští klasikové XIX. stol., Lidová demokracie IV, 1948, no. 214, 14. 9., p. 3

Anonymous author, Čeští klasikové XIX. století, Lidová demokracie IV, 1948, no. 138, 15. 6., p. 4

Anonymous author, Dům umění, Lidové noviny LVI, 1948, no. 294, 17. 12., p. 6

Anonymous author, J. V. Myslbek, Oddanost, Práce IV, 1948, no. 138, 13. 6., p. 4

Anonymous author, Nové zisky Národní galerie, Rudé právo XXVIII, 1948, no. 211, 9. 9., p. 3

Anonymous author, Výstavy tohoto týdne, Práce IV, 1948, no. 139, 15. 6., p. 3