Umělecká výstava v Liberci | Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820

Commentary

From September 1 to September 30, 1841, Liberec hosted its first documented exhibition devoted exclusively to art. According to a newspaper report, it was organized by local artists and art lovers with the aim of "cultivating taste and raising the sense of art in this little-known direction." [T. U. 1841] The exhibition was held in the drawing hall of the local Main School (Hauptschule, today's secondary medical school near the Church of St. Anthony the Great). The accompanying catalogue and two newspaper reports allow us to reconstruct the exhibition and compare it with similarly conceived shows taking place in Prague at the time.

The exhibition presented 178 works, which are divided into three main sections in the catalogue. In the first section, the first thirty entries by artists from various parts of Bohemia follow the catalogue number 1, Male Portrait (Archdeacon) by Jacob Ginzel, probably one of the main organizers of the show. The next section consists of a selection of fourteen paintings obtained from the lottery of the Fine Arts Association (Krasoumná jednota), complemented by nine graphic prints. The three women in the exhibition were represented by embroideries, artifacts that were often exhibited even in Prague. Approximately two thirds of the works in the exhibition were by local artists, the rest came from Prague and other Bohemian cities. The main difference between the Liberec exhibition and the Fine Arts Association exhibitions was the emphasis on local artists connected with the Liberec region.

The two most expensive works in the exhibition – an oil by the Düsseldorf painter Becker entitled Children Praying in the Forest (272 guldens) and Carl Ferdinand Dahl's Country Chapel on the Riverbank (382 guldens) – had been on view in Prague a year earlier at an exhibition of the Society of Patriotic Friends of Fine Arts. Among the local artists, Josef Hellich's oil painting Galilei in Prison was the most expensive item, with a sale price of 250 guldens. According to the catalogue, the exhibition also included a number of copies of paintings by Correggio, Raphael, Dürer, Karel Škréta, František Tkadlík, Becker, Würbs, Rubens, Waldmüller and others. These copies were sold for a few guldens, the more expensive ones for tens of guldens. Local artists - Josef Führich, Gustav Kratzmann, father and sons Ginzel – received a fair amount of space in the exhibition. Many of the regional authors listed in the catalogue cannot be identified today. In terms of themes, the show mostly featured genre paintings, figural compositions and religious themes. Jacob Ginzel presented a number of Biedermeier portraits illustrating the ambitions of the rising local bourgeoisie. The reviewer T. U. was impressed by Josef Führich's large oil Resting in the Forest - Madonna with St. Adele and St. Francis from 1835, now in the collections of the Belvedere in Vienna. The work, on loan from the owner of a textile manufactory, Franz Siegmund, still stands out today for the brocade fabric behind the Madonna's back, an obvious attribute of the self-confidence and entrepreneurial activities of local textile manufacturers in the 1830s.

One of the intentions behind the exhibition was to create a foundation for the students of drawing at the Liberec secondary school. The funds were collected from the proceeds of the event - i.e. entrance fees and probably also the sale of artworks. Another goal was to expand the activities of the Fine Arts Association beyond Prague. In order to be able to hold an exhibition outside the capital, members of the regional branches needed to buy enough shares, so that some of the proceeds could be used to purchase artworks which were then raffled off among the members. Around 1840, the Liberec members of the Fine Arts Association bought more than 100 shares. Among the first shareholders were citizens of Liberec, Frýdlant, Raspenava, Nové Město, and Chrastava. Judging by their names, they were owners of larger or smaller textile and other industrial companies or manufactories. Christian Christof Clam-Gallas, a member of the local nobility, owned a larger number of shares. This enabled the association to continue organizing art exhibitions in Liberec in the following years.

Anna Habánová