Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

The touring exhibition dedicated to artistic documents created by Russian legionnaire painters was held at the Municipal House in Prague at the beginning of February 1921. It was later moved to the Klementinum, which had more exhibition space (March 3 – May 31, 1921) and then shown in Brno, České Budějovice and Hradec Králové (October 23 – November 6, 1921) [Pospíšilová 2018, p. 138]. When all of the reprises were over, the Museum of Resistance placed the exhibited artworks in the legionnaire picture gallery in Prague's Star Villa (Letohrádek Hvězda). The exhibition, entitled Russian Legionnaire Artists, built on the previous presentations that took place in the past two years, namely the exhibitions Images from the Battlefields of France, Our Resistance and Images of Battlefields. Unlike these previous exhibitions focusing on the presentation of battlegrounds, landscapes, genre scenes and photographs from France and Italy, Russian Legionnaire Artists showcased images made during legionnaire artists' study trips to Japan, China, India and their journey back home. The exhibition contained 224 artworks in total – watercolours, drawings, oils and several prints.

The study trips to Japan, China and India were organized by the Information-Education Bureau in Vladivostok, and the artists undertook them while waiting for repatriation [Petišková 2008, XXXV–XLVI]. In addition to following the army's route, the artists ventured further into these exotic destinations, either on their own or in groups. The artists' excursion to Japan took place in 1919 and the participating artists included Jaroslav Otmar, Petr Pištělka, František Miroslav Smolka and Otto Matoušek. Their task was to record the memorial places in Japan as well as the country's natural beauty. The exhibition contained their images from Tokio, Okitsu, Chōshi and Itako. Architect Vilém Kvasnička, the designer of the permanent exhibition in the Star Villa, travelled to China, where he captured Beijing's architecture. It was clearly difficult to raise funds for excursions to such faraway places, as attested by Kvasnička's letter to the Mánes Association of Fine Arts asking the association to advocate with the government for these trips. The art historian Zdeněk Wirth supported Kvasnička (not financially), expressing his appreciation for these travels because, in his view, China and Japans were “highly interesting and important for today's art” [Klička 2015, p. 96].

In addition to the material from Japan and China, the painters also exhibited artworks they had made during their return home, capturing Colombo in Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Singapore and places in Russia such as Vladivostok, Siberia, Ural and Manchuria. These artworks were made by Viktor Nikodem, Jaroslav Malý, Jindřich Vlček and František Parolek, who depicted scenes from the life of locals, landscapes, natural wilderness and monuments. Almost none of the works were allegorical or symbolic, and there were very few images from military history.

Most of the works at the exhibition were impressionist landscapes, “the least difficult form of artistic execution,” as Viktor Nikodem stated in his introduction to the exhibition catalogue [Nikodem 1921, p. 7]. Nikodem himself exhibited, among other works, a watercolour entitled An Island before Hong Kong (cat. no.78), which perfectly meets this characteristic. It features an emerald-green island with tall cliffs as it emerges from the sea and the cloudy sky, while a romantic sailboat floats by, sails taut. Nikodem built volumes using blots of various shades placed next to one another in a way that evokes depth and intensity. Otto Matoušek exhibited a cycle of monumentalizing linocuts (cat. no. 51–69) documenting the Czechoslovak soldiers' return home [Pospíšilová 2018, p. 138]. Two of these linocuts, untitled, are reproduced in the catalogue. The first of them depicts the těpluška, an insulated freight car used for transport in the military: the centre of the composition is occupied by an oval stove with a simple flue, around which men sit on their bunks, illuminated by an oil lamp. The second print captures the exterior of a train with men on wagon roofs, a fluttering flag and a machine gun. It is not entirely clear whether it is a military campaign or the welcoming of passing trains. In this series, Matoušek managed to depict the war without excessive glorification, an effect achieved only by a very few. He pointed out the killing, suffering, loneliness and homesickness [Nikodem 1921, p. 6]. His artistic handwriting is based on energetic burin cuts and a strictly black-and-white palette. In 1925, the Museum of Resistance published his series of 25 prints as a book entitled Jak jsme žili a bojovali na Rusi (How We Lived and Fought in Russia).

The works exhibited at the Russian Legionnaire Artists show became the core of the picture gallery at the Hvězda summer palace. The collection contained over seven hundred artworks from Russia. In contrast, the French and Italian section was represented by two hundred artworks. Moreover, Jindřich Vlček and Otto Matoušek, who were responsible for installing the artworks and previously exhibited at the Russian Legionnaire Artists show, had five hundred paintings with Russian themes in the collection [Katalog 1924]. The picture gallery's focus on Russia was understandable for several reasons. The Russian legion was the largest and most influential, as it had distinguished itself in the Battle of Zborov. Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk became its leader in May 1917. It was also best organized in terms of art – a special art division was established in Vladivostok as part of the Information-Education Bureau, headed by the sculptor Josef Šebor, later an employee of the Museum of Resistance. Each brigade had its own painter, resulting in an abundance of material from Russia. Most documentary paintings were made between 1918 and 1920, when the fighting on the Siberian front line ceased and the artists had time to work [Legie 1922].

We may note today that, unlike the legionnaire art from France and Italy, the Russian images do not emphasize the atmosphere of the World War I battlegrounds. Rather, they capture the soldiers' everyday hardships on the journey back home and portray the foreign countries, nations and cultures that the artists, sculptors and architects visited during their legionnaire service. As Viktor Nikodem pointed out, “naturally, the artistic aspect was not the main interest” [Nikodem 1921, p. 8]. The artworks' purpose was to provide a visual record of the Czechoslovak legions' life and activity, as well as the environment in which they were established. These “casual records and spontaneous impressions” were meant to show the arduous life of Czechoslovak legionnaires in Russia, and also attract viewers who had not been particularly interested in military themes. Just as importantly, these images introduced Central Europeans to exotic countries, capturing their many allures and dangers. These valuable visual documents are now kept in the collections of the Military History Institute (VHU) and are mostly inaccessible to the public. The VHU has no publicly accessible catalogue (neither printed not online) that would give researchers a basic idea about its collections, making the research rather difficult.

Pavla Mikešová

Works Cited

Legie 1922: Československé legie v Rusku. Malířské dokumenty, 1922, n.p.

Klička 2015: Tomáš Klička, Výstavní prezentace legionářského umění v období první republiky (thesis), Vysoká škola uměleckoprůmyslová, Praha 2015, p. 96

Nikodem 1921: Viktor Nikodem, Úvodem, in: Katalog výstavy ruských legionářů výtvarníků, Přerov 1921, pp. 3–8 

Petišková 2008: Terezie Petišková, Malba dvacátého století ve sbírkách Vojenského historického ústavu Praha, in: Petr Ingerle, Ilona Krbcová, Tereza Petišková, Pole tvůrčí a válečná. Výtvarné umění ze sbírek Vojenského historického ústavu Praha (exh. cat.), Moravská galerie v Brně 2008, pp. XXXV–XLVI

Pospíšilová 2018: Jaroslava Pospíšilová, Královehradecké muzeum a péče o legionářské tradice, in: Klára Zářecká (ed.), Na bojištích I. světové války, Hradec Králové 2018, pp. 135–144

Katalog 1924: Z dějin československých legií, in: Katalog sbírky obrazů ve Hvězdě, Praha 1924

Archival Sources

Central Military Archives, fonds Památník osvobození, file no. 1, inv. no. 108, ref. no. 1204