Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

The traveling exhibition of French art was opened in 1870 in the Prague Academy’s rooms on the second floor of the Clementinum College under the title Extraordinary Art Exhibition of the Society of Patriotic Friends of Fine Arts – Paintings by Parisian Artists from the Collection of the French Imperial Government. After stops in Munich, Vienna, and Budapest, audiences in Prague could view the artworks daily from 9:00 a.m. until late afternoon. The 37 paintings in the exhibition were loaned by the French government, which had purchased them at the Paris Salons. The original plan was to present this collection at the society’s 1870 annual exhibition at Žofín, but this plan could not be realized.

This extraordinary art exhibition did not receive much attention from the contemporary press. Světozor and Květy were the only periodicals to publish detailed overviews of the French artists and their work. Though the reviews are far from comprehensive, they mention nearly all of the participants and provide brief analyses of their works. According to the author of the article in Světozor, the public was most interested in James Bertrand’s painting The Corpse of Virginia, based on the novella Paul and Virginia by French writer Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. Květy’s reviewer compared the "tragic youthful beauty" of Bertrand's drowned Virginia to the painting Saint Julia by Gabriel Max, created several years earlier [P. L., 1870]. The press also praised Eugène le Poittevin's genre painting Ice Breakers in Holland. César de Cock’s Morning in the Forest was considered the most remarkable landscape painting in the exhibition, largely due to its masterful plasticity and perspective, which made "the entire grove breathe pleasurable truthfulness." This painting had already received an award, as had the Well in Brittany by Camille Bernier, although the latter did not impress the critics as much as de Cock’s work. Another prominent landscape in the exhibition, William Wyld’s monumental canvas Mount Saint-Michel, was rightfully regarded as one of the best paintings in the exhibition, along with Château de Pierrefonds by Emmanuel Lansyer [Anonymous author 1870]. Eugene Giraud presented the dramatic scene The Mortally Wounded Bullfighter and His Bride [Anonymous author 1870]. In addition to paintings purchased by the French government, the exhibition included works by three other painters: Jacquemart Jules with his series of etchings from Gemmes et joyaux de la couronne, which was loaned from a private collection; Poncet with his engraving Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem based on Hippolyte Flandrin; and Edmond Castan with the oil painting Waiting for the Returning Fishermen, which were for sale at 500 francs or 2,000 guldens.

The selection did not represent the most renowned names in French modern art at the time; rather, it featured representatives of the conservative stream. This naturally stemmed from the fact that the works came from state purchases at the official Salon, and new independent art stood outside these official circles. The Prague extraordinary exhibition was likely a reaction to Jan Neruda’s 1870 article for Národní listy, in which he criticized the dramaturgy of the annual exhibitions. Neruda chided the exhibition concepts for their "lack of dynamism and limited horizon," by which he probably meant the poor representation of Slavic artists. A few years later, he praised the increased inclusion of Western art in Prague's annual and extraordinary exhibitions, likely in response to the 1870 extraordinary exhibition of French art [Filip – Musil 2021].

Kamila Červinková

Works Cited

Anonymous author 1870: Anonymous author, Světozor IV, 1870, no. 28, 8.7., p. 224

P. L. 1870: P.L., Výstava francouzských obrazů III., Květy V, 1870, no. 29, 21.7., p. 230

Filip – Musil: Aleš Filip – Roman Musil, Epocha salonů. České salonní umění a mezinárodní výtvarná scéna 1870-1914, Plzeň 2021, p. 207

Anonymous author, Denní zprávy, Pokrok II, 1870, no. 160, 16. 6., p. 3

Anonymous author, Zvláštní umělecká výstava, Pokrok II, 1870, no. 166, 22. 6., p. 6