In the spring of 1933, the Moravian Art Association (Mährischer Kunstverein) organized a show focusing on portrait painting as a follow-up to the exhibitions of old (1925) and newer (1930) European art. For the exhibition’s first part, featuring portraits from the 16th to the 19th century, “the organizers managed to obtain many beautiful paintings from private Moravian collections that are otherwise inaccessible to the public” [Kutal 1933]. The lenders, traditionally marked only with initials in the catalogue, included not only some of the living participants in the 1925 exhibition of old masters, such as Julius Redlich, Maximilian Steif, Paul Bittner, Leopoldina Streeruwitz-Klein, and Heinrich Fuhrmann but also many aristocratic collectors (Prince Franz I. Liechtenstein; Anton Widmann-Sedlinitzky, Luka nad Jihlavou; Hugo Salm-Reifferscheid, Rájec nad Svitavou; Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, Boskovice; Rudolf Anton Kinsky, Moravský Krumlov; Louis Serényi, Lomnice u Tišnova; František Harrach, Velké Meziříčí; Albrecht Dubský, Lysice; Karel Belcredi, Líšeň; A. Kálnoky, Letovice, etc.), along with other Brno collectors of German nationality (Arnold Skutezky, Leopold Künzel, Gustav Prochaska, Arnold Lassmann, Paul Selb, F. Fröhlich, Sophie Staehlin, Aurelie Soffée, Hilda Till, Konstanze Eberle, etc.). According to Albert Kutal, the organizers brought together a large number of diverse artworks, creating “a collection which, although not equally valuable in all its parts and pieces, gives a fairly clear overview of portraiture in the 16th-18th centuries.” [ibid] The exhibition presented portraits by Italian, German, Dutch, French, and English painters of the Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Empire Style, and Biedermeier, such as Leandro Bassano, Cornelius Ketel, Peter Paul Rubens, Ferdinand Bol, and Nicolaes Maes, Bartholomew van der Helst, Cornelius Jonson van Ceulen, Pieter van Roy, Adam Manyoki, Jan Kupecký, Hyacinth Rigaud, Nicolaes Coypel, Antoine Pesne, Angelica Kauffmann, Friedrich Heinrich Füger, Johann Battista Lampi Sr., Friedrich von Amerling, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Josef Vojtěch Hellich, Anton Einsle, Karl Rahl, as well as several Brno painters of the first half of the 19th century, such as Anton Ferenc, Jan Gebhardt, and Julius Seewald. Earlier periods were represented by not only paintings but also portrait miniatures and watercolours by Viennese artists Peter Fendi, Moritz Michael Daffinger, Carl Joseph Agricola, Josef Kriehuber, Alexander Clarot, and George Decker, but also by Brno specialists Patricius Kittner, Josef Zelený, and Franz Adolf Feilhammer. There was also a large group of high-quality drawings, most from the collection of Arnold Skutezky. In addition to the set of engravings, mezzotints, and lithographs, the show also featured two sculptural portraits by the famous sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon, ceroplastic relief portraits, and a small set of medals and plaquettes, illustrating the diversity of portrait forms in the periods covered by the exhibition. Overall, this remarkable show raised awareness of the high-quality art hidden from the eyes of the art-loving public in the collections of aristocrats and other private collectors in Moravia.
Lubomír Slavíček
Works Cited
Kutal 1933: -al [Albert Kutal], in: Index. Rozpravy o soudobé kultuře a životním slohu 5V 1933, p. 75
Further Reading
Lubomír Slavíček, Retrospektivní výstavy spolku Mährischer Kunstverein v letech 1925–1945, in: Jana Vránová – Lubomír Slavíček (ed.), 90 let domu umění města Brna. Příběh jednoho domu, Brno 2000, pp. 79–88
90 let Domu umění města Brna. Seznam výstav a katalogů, Brno 2000, p. 5, p. 54, no. 106
Das Portrait vom 16. bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Ölgemälde, Aquarelle, Miniaturen, Zeichnungen, Stiche, Lithos, plast. Arbeiten
Publisher: Mährischer Kunstverein
Place and year of publication: Brno 1933
Viktor Oppenheimer, Die Brünner Porträt-Ausstellung (16. bis Mitte 19. Jahrhundert), Forum III, 1933, p. 161
pdfV. Opp. [Viktor Oppenheimer], Die Porträt-Ausstellung im Künstlerhaus, Tagesbote LXXXIII, 1933, no. 212, 7. 5., pp. 6–7
pdfDr. G. P. [Gustav Prochaska], Vom Portrait, Tagesbote LXXXIII, 1933, no. 247, 28. 5., p. 3
jpgr. v. [Václav Richter], Z brněnských výstav, Lidové noviny XXXI, 1933, no. 235, 10. 5., p. 9
pdfF. Ž. [František Žákavec], Výstava portrétů z moravského soukromého majetku v Brně, Umění VI, 1933, pp. 409–410
pdfAnonymous author, Porträt-Ausstellung im Künstlerhaus, Das Volk XV, 1933, no. 73, 28. 3., p. 6
Anonymous author, Künstlerhaus-Ausstellung: „Das Porträt“, Tagesbote LXXXIII, 1933, no. 204, 3. 5., p. 6
Anonymous author, Künstlerhaus-Ausstellung: „Das Porträt“, Tagesbote LXXXIII, 1933, no. 214, 9. 5., p. 6
Anonymous author, Künstlerhaus-Ausstellung: „Das Porträt“, Tagesbote LXXXIII, 1933, no. 222, 13. 6., p. 7
Anonymous author, Künstlerhausausstellung: „Das Porträt“, Tagesbote LXXXIII, 1933, no. 226, 16. 5., pp. 5–6
Anonymous author, Künstlerhaus-Ausstellung: „Das Porträt“, Tagesbote LXXXII, 1932, no. 234, 20. 5., p. 6
Anonymous author, Künstlerhaus-Ausstellung „Das Porträt“, Volksfreund LII, 1932, no. 118, 20. 5., p. 6
Anonymous author, Künstlerhaus-Ausstellung: „Das Porträt“, Tagesbote LXXXIII, 1933, no. 236, 21. 5., p. 8
Anonymous author, Künstlerhaus-Ausstellung: „Das Porträt“, Tagesbote LXXXIII, 1933, no. 253, 1. 6., p. 6
