Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

In 1931, Prague's Dr. Feigl Gallery, a significant interwar private institution founded by Hugo Feigl (brother of Friedrich Feigl, painter and member of the Group of Eight (Osma) organized the very first comprehensive exhibition of Otakar Kubín. The painter, who by then was using exclusively the French version of his name – Othon Coubine – had permanently settled in the southern French region of Provence, in the small town at the foot of the Lower Alps, Simiane-la-Rotonde. He was captivated by the local landscape, illuminated by the southern sun, which evoked memories of the distant past for him. At the same time, he maintained a studio in Paris until the 1930s.

The 1931 exhibition featured the most comprehensive collection of his work to date, much of which was only known to the Prague public through reproductions. [Čapek 1931, p. 7] However, as with his previous exhibition at the Mánes Association in 1923, Kubín did not come to Prague, only visiting his homeland for his jubilee exhibition in 1934. Just as in 1923, a major exhibition of French art was held in parallel with the Kubín show; this time, it focused on the phenomenon known as the École de Paris. At the 1923 exhibition, Kubín presented himself to the Czech public not as a Cubo-Expressionist and a member of the Group of Eight (with whom he had exhibited in 1907), but already as a leading representative of the School of Paris and the new current trend of lyrical Neoclassicism. In response to a survey organised by the newspaper Národní listy, Prokop Toman placed Kubín's work among the latest French developments based on the works by Kubín included in the L'École de Paris exhibition. He proudly emphasized that Kubín was "(still) ours." [Toman 1931, p. 9]

The two exhibitions held in 1931 firmly established Kubín as an artist with a distinctive painting style, setting the stage for his jubilee retrospective in 1934, the most comprehensive exhibition of his work to date. This major event took place in the exhibition rooms of the Artistic Forum in Prague's Municipal House, in celebration of the artist's fiftieth birthday. The event reflected the growing interest in Kubín and his work in the late 1920s and early 1930s, manifested through the publication of several monographs by French and international authors. Maurice Raynal had written about Kubín as early as 1922, followed by Leo Stein in 1928, and H. Martinie, C. Kunstler, and Hamada in 1929. A. Aniante's monograph appeared in 1931. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Kubín exhibited regularly at major Paris salons – the Salon des Indépendants, Salon des Tuileries, and Salon d'Automne [Pravdová 2022, pp. 159, 164] – as well as in prestigious private galleries including Galerie Berthe Weill, Galerie Barbazanges, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, and Galerie Bing (March 1931). Since the end of the First World War, he had maintained a profitable relationship with art dealer Adolph Basler, whose contract provided him with steady income, effective promotion, and the financial security to create prolifically. [Kubín, Memoirs, p. 47]

The Dr. Feigl Gallery exhibition featured 55 of Kubín's works: 22 oil paintings, 8 sculptures, 15 drawings, and 10 prints. The selection represented both his pre-war and interwar periods, with the post-1920 works created primarily in southern France, where he had fully developed his distinctive neoclassical style. This approach, directly influenced by his thorough study of old masters, set him apart from his Czech contemporaries, who drew inspiration almost exclusively from modernist sources. [Pravdová 2022, p. 62] A December 29, 1932 letter from Adolph Basler to Vojtěch Volavka regarding the sale of Coubine's paintings reveals that the Modern Gallery (now the National Gallery in Prague) purchased several works from the exhibition, including Landscape in Provence (Saint Saturnin d'Apt) (1923, oil on canvas, 59.5 × 73 cm, inv. no. O 3399). The Moravian Gallery in Brno acquired Field with Blooming Lavender (c. 1930, oil on canvas, 54 × 65 cm, A 568) in 1932 [Basler 1932].

The catalogue introduction was penned by Hugo Feigl himself: "We consider this first comprehensive exhibition of painter Otakar Coubine in our country as fulfilling a long-overdue debt to this fifty-year-old artist who has gained recognition throughout Europe. While the collection is not exhaustive, it successfully presents the artist's entire development from 1922 to 1931 through his most significant works." [Feigl 1931, unpaginated] Feigl then assessed Kubín's latest creative phase by quoting the artist's biographers and art critics, several of whom had attempted to place him among the leading figures of the Parisian cultural scene: "For today's painters, he is perhaps what Paul Valéry is for poets" (Carco); "This ability to subordinate no single element in a painting to another, but to harmonize and organize everything – this bold, substantial brushwork that recalls Courbet, and this natural simplicity that connects him with Douanier Rousseau – all these qualities unite in a painter like Coubine to create something insurmountable" (Chérive); and "Coubine possessed a gift of vision unmatched by his contemporaries or even by Corot" (Besson) [ibid.].

The prevailing Czech response to the exhibition is best captured in Václav Nebeský's review in Volné směry: "Dr. Feigl certainly performed a commendable service by showing us once again the works of this Frenchman from Bohemia – perhaps more out of curiosity than to provide us with a profound artistic experience. 'Refinement' is perhaps the word that we would use to describe our overall impression when viewing his paintings." [Nebeský 1932, p. 89].

Charlotte Zimová

Works Cited

Basler 1931: Letter from Adolph Basler to Vojtěch Volavka concerning the sale of Coubine’s paintings from December 29, 1932, Archive of the National Gallery in Prague, Moderní galerie [Modern Gallery], Otakar Kubín

Čapek 1931: jč [Josef Čapek], Výstava Otakara Coubina v Praze, Lidové novinyXXXIX, no. 615, 9. 12., p. 7

Feigl 1931: H. F. [Hugo Feigl], VI. Otakar Coubine: olejomalby, plastiky, kresby a lepty (exh. cat. ,Galerie Dra Feigla), Praha 1931

Kubín ANG: Otakar Kubín, Vzpomínky [Recollections], Archive of the National Gallery in Prague, fonds Otakar Kubín, Rukopisy – Vzpomínky [Mnuscripts – Recollections], undated

Pravdová 2022: Anna Pravdová, École de Paris a čeští umělci v meziválečné Paříži, Praha 2022

Sísová 1931: Milena [Miloslava] Sísová, Lístek z Paříže: Otokar Coubine, Národní listy LXXI, no. 78, 22. 4., p. 3

Nebeský 1932: vn [Václav Nebeský?], O. Coubine, Volné směryXXIX, 1932, no. 1, p. 89

Further Reading

L'école de Paris: francouzské moderní umění: výstava Umělecké besedy 1931 v Obecním domě města Prahy a v Alšově síni Umělecké besedy, Praha 1931

Jiří Siblík, Malířské dílo – Otakar Kubín–Coubine, Praha 2000

Jiří Siblík, Otakar Kubín, Praha 1980

Souborná výstava Otakara Kubína (exh. cat.), November 10 – December 9, 1934, Municipal House, Prague

Archival Sources

Archive of the National Gallery in Prague, fonds Otakar Kubín

Archive of the National Gallery in Prague, fonds Otakar Kubín, Rukopisy – Vzpomínky [Manuscripts – Recollections], undated

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, Fonds Othon (Otakar, Otokar) Coubine (Kubín)

Anonymous author, Coubine in der Modernen Galerie, Prager Presse XI, 1931, no. 326, 2. 12., p. 8

Anonymous author, Ausstellungen, Prager Presse XI, 1931, no. 327, 3. 12., p. 7

Anonymous author, Ausstellungen, Prager Presse XI, 1931, no. 329, 5. 12. p. 7

Anonymous author, Ausstellungen, Prager Presse XI, 1931, no. 330, 6. 12., p. 9

Anonymous author, Ausstellungen, Prager Presse XI, 1931, no. 335, 11. 12., p. 9

Anonymous author, Ausstellungen, Prager Presse XI, 1931, no. 336, 12. 12., p. 7

Anonymous author, Ausstellungen, Prager Presse XI, 1931, no. 339, 15. 12., p. 7

Anonymous author, Ausstellungen, Prager Presse XI, 1931,no. 340, 16. 12., p. 8

Anonymous author, Ausstellungen, Prager Presse XI, 1931, no. 341, 17. 12., p. 7

Anonymous author, Ausstellungen, Prager Presse XI, 1931, no. 342, 18. 12., p. 7

Anonymous author, Lidové noviny XXXIX, 1931, no. 651, 31. 12., p. 10

Rime, Eröffnung der Coubine-Ausstellung, Prager Presse XI, 1931, no. 323, 29. 11., p. 8