Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

This exhibition took place 44 years after Navrátil’s death in Prague’s Rudolfinum thanks to Krasoumná jednota pro Čechy (Fine Arts Association in Bohemia) and Kroužek přátel starého umění malířského (Circle of Friends of Old Masters, founded on June 28, 1908), whose members proposed the idea. The main contributors were Navrátil's collector Alois Engelbrecht M.D., Prokop Toman LL.D. (an expert on Navrátil's work and the first biographer), the art dealer and collector Salvátor Kominík, František Holeček M.D., the city official Rudolf Kuchynka, the counsel of the provincial court Eduard Ullrich LL.D., the imperial counsel František Vejdělek, the architect Arnošt Živný, and the secretary Rudolf Weinert. The exhibition jury consisted of the chairman Mikoláš Aleš, the vice-chairman Pavel Bergner, Alois Engelbrecht, Miloš Jiránek, the architect V. Fultner, and the art historian F. X. Jiřík, who gave the speech at the opening of the exhibition on February 21, 1909 [Slonim 2011, p. 75].

Soon after the opening, the press published several short articles or reviews, most of them positive. Navrátil was introduced to the public as a "figuralist" and genre painter with a brilliant palette, who had been known mainly to amateur artists and collectors. The main contribution of the exhibition was the evaluation of Navrátil’s figural painting, which found its best expression in brisk, improvised, almost impressionistic sketches that were ahead of their time in style. In an extensive article published in installments, F. X. Jiřík pointed out that Navrátil was in tune with international tendencies and called him the Czech Daumier. In addition, the exhibition made Jiřík reflect on his own experience in Paris. [Jiřík 1909, unpaginated]. Other critics also appreciated Navrátil’s “impressionist” painterly temperament. [Anonymous author 1909a] A more complex understanding of Navrátil’s work helped shed new light on the art of the first half of the 19th century. In his article about the exhibition, V. V. Štech criticized Bergler and his students, claiming that “they could not paint.” In contrast, he described Navrátil as a broad-based artist who “expresses himself, thinks and feels only through colour. He is not concerned with reality, but with painterly expression.” [Štech 1909] Volné směry, the journal of progressive Czech artists from the Mánes Association of Fine Arts, published another positive review, undoubtedly written by Miloš Jiránek. Here, Jiránek emphasized that the Czech public needed more such exhibitions and expressed amazement at Navrátil’s artistic temperament, comparing his work to that of Carl Spitzweg and Quido Mánes. Volné směry also praised Fultner's architectural design of the exhibition.

The critic K. M. Čapek-Chod highlighted Navrátil’s “subtle use of colours.” [Čapek-Chod 1909, pp. 350–351] He appreciated the concept of the exhibition and Navrátil’s skills as a figuralist but criticized the sentimental gouache landscapes, so successful in the first half of the previous century, as well as what he called “drawn trivialities.” A few periodicals noted the occasional unevenness in the quality of Navrátil’s work, although the reviewers acknowledged that this was a comprehensive exhibition that accumulated a large amount of material: some even expressed doubts about the authenticity of some of the works. [Domorázek-Mráz 1909, p. 488]

The only strictly negative review appeared in the magazine Čas, where an unknown author emphasized Navrátil's "craftsmanship and routine" [Anonymous author 1909b, pp. 2-3]. Jiránek also acknowledged the role of craftsmanship in Navrátil's artistic practice, but he believed that it was necessary if the artist was to satisfy the wishes of his patrons. The exhibition showed that in some cases Navrátil compromised his creative freedom and followed the trends: "We may regret that this gifted artist gave up creating great works at crucial moments and resorted to either academic or romantic formulas." [Anonymous author 1910, p. 26]

The magazine Český svět published photographs of the interior, arranged as a cozy Biedermeier-style salon with original furniture and decoration. This arrangement allowed Navrátil's small landscape paintings, which would have been entirely lost in Rudolfinum’s large rooms, to stand out. Navrátil's art needed the intimacy of the home. [Jiránek 1909] In 2009, the journal Umění/Art published an article devoted to Fultner’s installation. [Pencák 2009] The author attributes much of the conception to Jiránek, who wrote to his wife: “I suggested that they arrange it in an 1850s interior with furniture and porcelain” [ibid., p. 578] The twenty-one-year-old Fultner did an excellent job as an exhibition architect, even though he had just over a week to design both the show and the catalogue. According to a site plan in the catalogue, he divided the courtyard and the adjacent parts of the ground floor into seven cubicles furnished with dressers, couches, coffee tables, armchairs, and chandeliers – everything needed to make visitors feel as if they were visiting a bourgeois salon. The installation was praised as “historically accurate.”

The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue with a site plan and a list of 210 works (including eight reproductions and a portrait of Navrátil by Jaroslav Čermák). Among the exhibited paintings were also two works by Navrátil's son, Antonín. The catalogue (in both Czech and German versions) consists of a monographic study by Prokop Toman and an inventory of the exhibited works, including the technique and often the owner of the work, but unfortunately without dimensions or other information.

In connection with the exhibition, illustrated magazines published reproductions of Navrátil's works, indicating his growing popularity. The magazine Dílo published reproductions of as many as seven genre paintings: Children at Play, Company, Colour Sketch, Conversation, Mother and Child, Market (Kohlmarkt in Vienna). [Anonymous author 1909c]

Marie Fiřtová

Works Cited

[Jiránek] 1909: Anonymous author [Miloš Jiránek], Josef Navrátil v Rudolfinu, Volné směry XIII, 1909, pp. 81–82

Anonymous author 1909a: Anonymous author, K výstavě Navrátilově v Rudolfinu, Dílo VII, 1909, p. 85

Anonymous author 1909b: Anonymous author, Josef Navrátil. K výstavě rudolfinské, Čas XXIII, 1909, no. 68, 9. 3., p. 2, 3

Anonymous author 1909c: Anonymous author, K Navrátilově výstavě v Rudolfinu, Dílo VII, 1909, pp. 241–251

Anonymous author 1910: Anonymous author, Navrátilova výstava v Rudolfinu, Rozkvět III, 1910, p. 26

Čapek-Chod 1909: Karel Matěj Čapek-Chod, Zvon IX, 1909, no. 22, pp. 350–351

Domorázek-Mráz 1909: K. Domorázek-Mráz, Josef Navrátil v Rudolfině, Glossy k pražským výstavám II., Pokroková revue V, Praha 1908–1909, no. 8, pp. 486–488

Jiřík 1909: František Xaver Jiřík, Výstava prací Josefa Navrátila v Rudolfinu, Sumpement of Národní politika XXVII, 1909, no. 59, 28. 2., supplement, [p. 1]; no. 66, 7. 3., supplement, [p. 1] 

Pencák 2009: Marcel Pencák, Intimita výstavy Navrátilovy, Umění LVII, 2009, no. 6, pp. 577–580

Slonim 2011: Dimitrij Slonim, Josef Navrátil: Repetitorium historie života a díla, Blatná 2011

Štech 1909: Václav Vilém Štech, Den III, 1909, no. 52 and 80

Further Reading

Marie Fiřtová, Studie k Josefu Navrátilovi. Umělec jako mnohostranný agens éry biedermeieru, Dissertation, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Praha 2021

Jaromír Pečírka, Josef Navrátil, Praha 1940

Prokop Toman, Josef Navrátil – jeho život a dílo, Praha 1920

Archival Sources

Archive of IAH CAS, fonds Rudolf Kuchynka

Anonymous author, Josef Navrátil, Ve vysokých horách, Zlatá Praha XXV, 1908, no. 52, 18. 9., p. 567

Anonymous author, Výstava Navrátilova v Rudolfíně, Světozor X, 1909, no. 17, 12. 2., p. 407

Anonymous author, Navrátilova výstava v Rudolfině, České slovo III, 1909, no. 50, 3. 3., p. 4

B. B., Die Navratil Ausstellung im Rudolfinum, Union II, 1909, no. 83, 24. 3., pp. 1–2

Jaromír Borecký, ‎Adolf Wenig, ‎Rudolf Vejrych, Topičův sborník IX, 1921, p. 227

Karel Boromejský Mádl, Navrátilova výstava, Národní listy XLIX, 1909, no. 59, 28. 2., p. 4 

František Xaver Harlas, Josef Navrátil, Specialist im Quache – Jubiläums Ausstellung in Rudolfinum, Union I, 1908, no. 162, p. 2

Hanuš Jelínek, Výstava Josefa Navrátila, Lumír XXXVII, 1909, no. 7, 17. 4., pp. 334–335

Anonymous author [A. Macek], Nedávná výstava v Rudolfinu, Besedy lidu XIX, 1911, no. 15., 13. 5., p. 239

Anonymous author [A. Macek], J. Navrátil: Krajinky, Besedy lidu XVII, 1909, no. 2, 23. 1., p. 26

Anonymous author [A. Macek], Výstava Navrátilových děl v Rudolfinu (Oznámení o zahájení), Besedy lidu XVII, 1909, no. 4, 20. 2., p. 59

Anonymous author [A. Macek], Výstava Josefa Navrátila v Rudolfinu (Oznámení o otevření dne 14. února 1909), Besedy lidu XVII, 1909, no. 9, 1. 5., p. 140