Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

This show was a significant innovation to the existing exhibition practice of the Brno-based Moravian Art Association (Mährischer Kunstverein), which focused almost exclusively on representing living artists, primarily the association’s members and guests. It was conceived as a retrospective and featured 132 paintings by old masters borrowed from private collectors in Moravia. Selected examples of Gothic and Baroque sculpture, tapestries, and occasional furniture helped evoke a historical setting. The core of the collection consisted of Duch masters of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries, represented by genre paintings and, to a lesser degree, still lifes and portraits. This corresponded with the traditional focus of Central-European collections forming gradually from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century. In addition to the paintings of Dutch provenance, some of which were attributed to renowned artists (e. g. Gerrit Dou, Jan Steen, Dirck Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Salomon van Ruysdael, Philips, and Pieter Wouwerman, Willem Claesz Heda, and Nicolaes Eliasz aka Pickenoy), the exhibition included examples of earlier phases of Dutch painting, as well as works by 17th-century Flemish painters. But even the works by Flemish masters were stylistically close to those of their Dutch colleagues. The show also included paintings by lesser-known artists such as Jan de Herdt and Frans Geffels, who worked, temporarily or permanently, outside their homeland, particularly in Italy and sometimes in Central Europe. Italian and German painting of the 15th to 18th centuries was relatively rare at the exhibition, with paintings attributed to Benvenuto da Garofalo, Leandro Bassano, Jacopo Tintoretto, Evaristo Baschenis, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Lucas Cranach, and Philipp Peter Roos, known as Rosa da Tivoli. There were several examples of Bohemian Baroque painting (Jan Jakub Hartmann, Norbert Grund, and Jan Vojtěch Angermeyer) and a few isolated paintings by other schools: a flower still life by the Spanish painter Juan Antonio Arellano, works of French masters Nicolaus André Monsiau, Gerard van Spaendonck, and Hubert Robert, and a portrait attributed to the famous English painter William Hogarth.

The exhibition was made possible by generous loans from 21 Brno-based private collectors and art lovers of German nationality. These representatives of the bourgeoisie were now able to compete with traditional art collectors and patrons, such as Prince John II of Liechtenstein (1840-1929), whose collections adorned his Moravian castles in Valtice, Lednice, and Šternberk, and the Augustinians of the Old Brno monastery. Although the exhibition catalogue does not explicitly mention their names, it has recently been possible to identify almost all the individual private lenders. Most of them were wealthy Brno businessmen and traders closely connected with the local textile industry. This circle included manufacturers Otto Kuhn, Julius Zwicker, Heinrich Fuhrmann, Louis (Alois) Holzer, Walter Löw-Beer, bankers Gustav Haas and Eugen Roeder, merchants Paul Bittner and Julius Redlich, as well as the owner of the well-known printing house, Oskar Schickardt. However, among the participating collectors were also representatives of the political and artistic world, such as the lawyer and member of parliament Alfred Fischel, the builder Josef Jelínek, the painter Gustav Böhm, the sculptor and architect Viktor Oppenheimer, and the art historian Maximilian Steif [Slavíček 2000], whose task was to research the exhibited artworks for the exhibition catalogue.

Of the artworks on display, paintings loaned from the remarkable private picture gallery of Otto Kuhn (1865–1927) were particularly fit to compete with the Liechtenstein collections. After Kuhn’s death, his collection was sold in a 1929 auction in Amsterdam [Konečná 2019]. As mentioned above, most of the lenders to the exhibition came from the same social and professional milieu, and their relations were often further strengthened by friendships, family ties, and religion (13 of the lenders were Jewish). Most importantly, they shared a keen interest in art, as at least 15 of these collectors were also members of the Mährischer Kunstverein. Some of them, such as Alfred Fischel, Anton R. Breza, Josef Jelínek, and Oskar Schickhardt, were among the founders and long-time representatives of the association. Others took a significant part in the activities of other cultural and industrial corporations operating in Brno, especially the advisory board of the Moravian Museum of Arts and Crafts, the Moravian Museum Society, and the Association of Wool Producers in Moravia. In his introductory text to the catalogue, Maximilian Steif aptly summarized the motivations that brought the collectors to participate in the exhibition: “Paintings are in some sense common property. Those who regard their paintings as their prisoners because they have once purchased them are sinning against the spirit of the great masters.” [Steif 1925]

The Brno public received this presentation of local private collecting quite positively; the welcoming and often almost enthusiastic response found its reflection in several reports and critical reviews published in domestic and foreign newspapers and professional journals. One example is the insightful review by Eugen Dostál, a Czech art historian and provincial conservator of the Heritage Institute of Moravia and Silesia. In his opinion, “the exhibition of Old Masters in the German House of Artists is one of the most important Brno artistic undertakings since the establishment of Czechoslovakia. The exhibition committee acquired many interesting paintings for the exhibition from private collections in Brno. Supplemented by several paintings from the Liechtenstein collection and the Old Brno Augustinian picture gallery, the selection provides an instructive insight into the development of mainly Dutch art of the 17th century. The great names of world art history are represented relatively sparsely, ... but the average is so good that we can speak of a very successful cultural and historical project." [Dostál 1925]

Representatives of the Mährischer Kunstverein were well aware of the importance of this exhibition – soon after it ended, they wrote a letter to the Ministry of Schooling and National Education, in which they confidently compared the show to the exhibition of French art organized in the spring of 1923 by the Mánes Fine Arts Association. They did not hesitate to refer to both exhibitions as outstanding projects that significantly enriched the cultural life in Czechoslovakia. The Brno exhibition indeed enjoyed a spontaneous welcome and undeniable success and contributed, if only for some time, to the reawakening of the Brno art market. At the time of the exhibition, Galerie Sanct Lucas in Vienna and Galerie André in Prague brought a set of paintings by 17th-century Dutch masters to Brno and presented it together at the Künstlerhaus. This sales exhibition became “a valuable addition to the main show,” as Eugen Dostál put it. At the end of November, it was followed by an auction of 70 Dutch paintings organized by the Vienna and Prague sales galleries.

Lubomír Slavíček

Works Cited

Dostál 1925: E. D. [Eugen Dostál], Výstava starých mistrů, Lidové noviny 33, 1925, no. 243, 16. 5., p. 7

Konečná 2019: Monika Konečná, Obrazárna Otto Kuhna v kontextu soudobého sběratelství, thesis, FF MU, Brno 2019

Slavíček 2000: Lubomír Slavíček, Maximilian Steif (1881–1942) – pozapomenutý brněnský historik umění, Bulletin Moravské galerie v Brně 56, 2000, pp. 129–134

Steif 1925: Maxmilian Steif, Alte Meister im mährischen Privatbesitz. Einleitende Worte zur Ausstellung im Brünner Künstlerhaus, Belvedere – Forum 7, 1925, p. 44.

Further Reading

 Lubomír Slavíček, Brněnská výstava starých mistrů z roku 1925 a soukromé sběratelství v Brně 1918 až 1939, Bulletin Moravské galerie v Brně 55, 1999, pp. 108–118

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. 4, p. 52, no. 59

Archival Sources

Moravský zemský archiv Brno, fonds Policejní ředitelství [Police Headquarters], ref. no. 16953/46, box 3148 – žádost výboru Mährischer Kunstvereinu, zastoupeného Oskarem Schickardtem a Hilde Bednarz, o udělení souhlasu s konáním výstavy Alte Meister aus mährischen Privatbesitz ve dnech 3. 5.–1. 6. 1925 [application by the committee of the Mährischer Kunstverein, represented by Oskar Schickardt and Hilde Bednarz, for permission to hold the exhibition Alte Meister aus mährischen Privatbesitz from 3 May to 1 June 1925].

Anonymous author, Prager Tagblatt LV, 1925, no. 101, 30. 4., p. 6

Anonymous author, Tagesbote LXXV, 1925, no. 200, 1. 5., p. 8; no. 204, 5. 5., p. 8; no. 206, 6. 5., p. 7; no. 211, 8. 5., p. 7; no. 212, 9. 5., p. 7; no. 218, 13. 5., p. 6; no. 222, 15. 5., p. 6; no. 224, 16. 5., p. 6; no. 230, 20. 5., p. 6; no. 232, 21. 5., p. 7; no. 235, 23. 5., p. 6; no. 237, 24. 5., p. 8; no. 241. 27. 5., p. 6; no. 242, 27. 5., p. 2; no. 243, 28. 5., p. 6; no. 245, 29. 5., p. 6; no. 249, 31. 5., p. 9

Anonymous author, Die Künstlerhaus-Ausstellung „Alter Meister“, Volksfreund XXXXV, 1925, no. 104, 5. 5., p. 6

Anonymous author, Ausstellung alter Meister im Künstlerhaus, Volksfreund XXXXV, 1925, no. 112, 14. 5., p. 6

Anonymous author, Die Ausstellung alter Meister im Künstlerhaus, Volksfreund XXXXV, 1925, no. 118, 21. 5., p. 6

Sudetendeutsches Jahrbuch III, 1927, p. 195

Anonymous author, Ausstellung alter Meister im Künstlerhaus, Volksfreund XXXXV, 1925, no. 125, 29. 5., p. 6

Eugen Dostál, Lidové noviny XXXIII, 1925, no. 90, 20. 2., p. 9

ed. [Eugen Dostál], Německý umělecký spolek v Brně …, Lidové noviny XXXIII, 1925, no. 90, 20. 2., p. 9

E. D. [Eugen Dostál], in: Lidové noviny XXXIII, 1925, no. 264, 28. 5., p. 7