Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

The exhibition devoted to the Baroque painters Jan Kupecký (1666–1740) and Wenzel Lorenz Reiner (1689–1743) was the fourth and final exhibition of the series organized in rapid succession by the Circle of Friends of Old Masters (hereafter the Circle) and the Fine Arts Association (hereafter the Association) at the Rudolfinum shortly before the First World War. The preceding exhibitions featured Josef Navrátil (1909), Karel Škréta (1910), and Petr Brandl (1911). The decision to organize a joint exhibition of the two painters in 1913 was not based on any significant connections between their works. The organizers simply wanted to showcase the remaining masters of Czech Baroque painting, who, while already known to the public, had not yet received scholarly evaluation worthy of their historical significance.

The exhibition jury was composed of the same members as the jury of the preceding Petr Brandl exhibition. It included Professors Karel Chytil and Karel Boromejský Mádl, Pavel Bergner (representative of the Association and inspector of the Picture Gallery of the Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts, and amateur art historian Rudolf Kuchynka (representative of the Circle). The exhibition was accompanied by a small publication issued in both Czech and German. The art historian and critic Karel Boromejský Mádl wrote a scholarly introduction outlining the lives and works of the painters, and Rudolf Kuchynka authored the catalogue of exhibited works, as he had done for the Škréta and Brandl exhibitions.

Like the previous exhibitions, the 1913 show presented not only oil paintings but also drawings and prints, along with numerous photographs of works by both artists. The exhibits are listed in the catalogue in two sections, each devoted to one painter, and further divided according to artistic medium. Unlike previous exhibitions, the catalogue includes a list of existing literature about the artists. Artworks added to the exhibition after the catalogue’s publication were listed on a separate sheet. All data cited below include these additional items.

In terms of paintings, the two artists were represented in unequal proportions. The exhibition featured only 20 paintings Jan Kupecký, largely borrowed from collections outside the Czech lands (Budapest, Vienna, Graz, Milan). Four of these works were attributed to Kupecký with a question mark. Wenzel Lorenz Reiner, on the other hand, was represented by 42 paintings, mostly works with religious subjects or landscapes, as well as several portraits. Among these were portraits from the collection of Valerian Pohris of Liebau in Silesia (cat. nos. 165 and 167), listed in the catalogue as copies of a supposed Reiner self-portrait and a portrait of his wife and daughter by an unknown painter. The Reiner section also included two landscapes by Franz Anton Müller, a painter identified as Reiner's pupil and imitator. The catalogue text erroneously assumes that Müller co-created these paintings with an otherwise unknown painter named C. Major (cat. nos. 178 and 180).

Given the level of knowledge at the time, it is hardly surprising that subsequent scholarship rejected attributions to Kupecký or Reiner for many of the exhibited works. Only nine of the paintings attributed to Jan Kupecký are considered his authentic works today (cat. nos. 2, 3, 5, 9, 13–16, 284), while three are regarded as workshop copies or replicas (cat. nos. 7, 10, and 18). Two paintings (cat. nos. 6 and 17) are not mentioned at all in the most recent catalogue of Kupecký's works, though these attributions had already been questioned in the past. Reiner’s authorship has been confirmed for 25 of the exhibited paintings (cat. nos. 153, 156, 163, 166, 168–177, 179, 181–186, 188, 191, 286, 287). The attribution of the paintings from the collections of Circle members Arnošt Živný (cat. no. 158) and Jaroslav Franta (cat. no. 161) and the two painted sketches from the Society of Patriotic Friends of Fine Arts (cat. nos. 159 and 180) cannot be verified, as these works are now considered lost.

Although paintings attributed to Kupecký were scarce, the exhibition featured 114 graphic reproductions of his work by nineteen artists. All but two of the reproductions came from the collection of Circle member and manufacturer Alois Pelz. Of special note was the complete set of 73 mezzotints exhibited under the title Johannis Kupetzky, Incomparabilis Artificis, Imagines et Picturae, published in Nuremberg in 1745 by Valentin Daniel Preisler (including works by Bernhard and Johann Christoph Vogel). Printmakers Johann Jakob and Johann Elias Haid, as well as Johann Gottfried Seutter, were each represented by at least two works. The Reiner section also featured prints based on his designs. Half of the fourteen pieces were works by his contemporary, Anton Birkhart. In addition, the exhibition included prints by Johann Gregor Balzer, Johann Franz Fischer, Elias Müller, Hieronymus Sperling, and Karl Burde. Among the lenders was Rudolf Kuchynka, who provided three prints from his own collection.

The number of drawings exhibited in both sections was very small compared to the prints. In the section devoted to Kupecký (11 pieces total), most drawings were preparatory designs by engravers and not by the painter himself. Of the three drawings tentatively attributed to Reiner, only one is considered his authentic work today (cat. no. 195).

Like the previous Škréta and Brandl exhibitions, the Reiner and Kupecký show featured numerous photographs of their other works. The photographs in the Kupecký section documented portraits that were – mostly correctly – attributed to him but not lent to the exhibition. Most of these paintings were in German collections at the time. Since it was impossible to exhibit Reiner's wall paintings, the organizers included 80 photographs of virtually all of his known works of this type.

The exhibition welcomed 3,467 visitors, considerably less than the Brandl and Škréta shows. Nevertheless, it received much attention in the press. Reviewers – quite understandably given the exhibition’s structure – typically could not resist comparing the two painters and their artistic skills and attempting to identify the differences in their works. Painter Otakar Marvánek included Karel Škréta and Petr Brandl, previously exhibited at the Rudolfinum, in his comparison. All of them, he claimed, were strong artists, but Reiner was "the most Czech of the old Czech masters" and "the purest artist." Conversely, Kupecký was the "least distinctive" because he tried to “balance all components, thereby erasing anything striking from his paintings.” [Marvánek 1913, cit. on p. 46 and 47]

Reviewers often emphasized that the core of Reiner's work was wall painting, a medium that obviously could not be presented at the exhibition except through photographs. Many welcomed their abundant presence. However, Bohuš Vlačiha, whose text was published in the journal Dílo, opined that the exhibited photographs, due to excessive enlargement, "give us anything but a correct image of Reiner's work." This comment prompted a somewhat angry response in the press, revealing that Vlačiha had offered his own photographs for the exhibition, but they were rejected as "completely amateurish." [Výstavy 1914, cit. on p. 43]

While most critics praised Reiner's frescoes, their evaluations of his oil paintings were typically reserved or negative. This opinion was best expressed by young Kamil Novotný, who acknowledged Reiner's talent as a fresco painter but wrote that the exhibited paintings "were not painted by a whole person, but only by an insignificant fragment of him." He added that artists could learn from them "that even the great can be mediocre." [Novotný 1914, cit. on p. 91]

František Xaver Harlas also believed that the public did not gain an entirely correct impression of Reiner's greatness when confronted with his oil paintings. In contrast, Kupecký’s portraits presented him as "an artist of world renown" who "dazzles and captivates the modern person with his modern directness of conception, realism, expressiveness of the heads, charming presentation, and technical perfection." [Harlas 1913, cit. on pp. 98–99] Josef Čapek valued Kupecký's portraits for their "unpretentiousness, which must have been appealing for its naturalistic aspect even in the Baroque period." Regarding Reiner, Čapek emphasized "radicalism and consistency" and how he "preserves the purity of formal means." However, Čapek observed that the works of both painters bore no relation to the concerns of contemporary art, so the exhibition could not serve its needs. [Čapek 1913, cit. on p. 48]

The Circle's lively exhibition program was permanently interrupted the following year by the First World War. After the war, the Circle ceased to exist, replaced in 1923 by the newly formed Society of Collectors and Friends of the Arts. In 1928, art historian Eduard Šafařík built on the Kupecký and Reiner exhibition and published the first critical catalogue of Jan Kupecký's work. Šafařík’s grandson, Eduard A. Šafařík, later co-created the concept for the most comprehensive exhibition of Kupecký's works to date, held in 2001 and 2002 in Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) and Prague (Prague Castle, Imperial Stables). Shortly before Šafařík’s death, his new critical catalogue of Kupecký's work was published, including a selection of works by painters from Kupecký's circle. [Safarik 2014a, idem 2014b] This publication was accompanied by an exhibition at the Moravian Gallery in Brno, where, however, Kupecký's paintings were in the minority among the other exhibits.

Art historian Pavel Preiss was the first to examine the work of Wenzel Lorenz Reiner in its full scope. He published the first of his two monographs on Reiner in 1971 and the second, considerably more extensive one, in 2013. Preiss also authored the only other monographic Reiner exhibition to date, which, however, only presented the painter's sketches, drawings, and prints based on his designs. The exhibition premiered in 1984 in Salzburg (Salzburger Barockmuseum) and was reprised in 1991 at the National Gallery in Prague. Perhaps due to the lukewarm reception of Reiner's canvases in 1913, a comprehensive exhibition of his oil paintings has yet to materialize.

Tadeáš Kadlec

Works Cited

Čapek 1913: Josef Čapek, Výstava obrazů Jana Kupeckého a V. V. Reinera. Rudolfinum, Lumír 42, 1913–1914, no. 1, 31. 10. 1913, p. 48

Daniel 2002: Ladislav Daniel (review), Johann Kupezky (1666-1740). Ein Meister des Barockporträts, Umění 51, 2003, pp. 345–348

Harlas 1913: František Xaver Harlas, Výstavy, Topičův sborník literární a umělecký 1, 1913–1914, no. 2, November 1913, pp. 98–99

Marvánek 1913: Otakar Marvánek, Jan Kupecký a V. V. Reiner. Kritické poznámky k jejich výstavám, Česká kultura 2, 1913–1914, no. 3, 7. 11. 1913, pp. 45–47

Novotný 1914: Kamil Novotný, Výstava děl Jana Kupeckého V. V. Reinera, Nový obzor 4, 1914, no. 2, pp. 90–91

Preiss 1971: Pavel Preiss, Václav Vavřinec Reiner, Praha 1971

Preiss 1991: Pavel Preiss, Václav Vavřince Reiner 1689–1743. Skici – kresby – grafika. Výstava k třístému výročí umělcova narození (exh. cat.) Praha, 1991

Preiss 2013: Pavel Preiss, Václav Vavřinec Reiner. Dílo, život a doba malíře českého baroka, Praha 2013

Safarik 2001: Eduard A. Safarik, Johann Kupezky (1666-1740). Ein Meister des Barockporträts (exh. cat.), Roma 2001

Safarik 2014a: Eduard A. Safarik, Johann Kupezky (1666–1740). Gesamtwerk, Brno 2014

Safarik 2014b: Eduard A. Safarik, Künstler aus dem Umkreis von Johann Kupezky. Ausgewählte Werke, Brno 2014

Šafařík 1928: Eduard Šafařík, Joannes Kupezky 1667–1740, Prag 1928

Vlačiha 1913: Bohuš Vlačiha, Výstava J. Kupeckého a V. V. Reinera, Dílo 11, 1913, pp. 218–219

Výstavy 1914: Anonymous author, Výstavy, Časopis Společnosti přátel starožitností českých v Praze 22, 1914, no. 1, pp. 42–43

Archival Sources

Archive of the National Gallery in Prague, fonds Krasoumná jednota (1842–1939) [Fine Arts Association (1842–1939), file no. 99, Kupecký – Reiner, 1912–1913

Archive of the National Gallery in Prague, fonds Společnost vlasteneckých přátel umění (1796–1953) [Society of Patriotic Friends of Fine Arts (1796–1953)], file no. 42, Krasoumná jednota, Doklady k výstavám (1851–1930) [Fine Arts Association, Exhibition Documentation (1851–1930)]

Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Department of Documentation, fonds Rudolf Kuchynka (1869–1923), file no. 3, inv. nos. 235–316

Anonymous author, Výstavy starých mistrů v Praze, Archa II, 1913, no. 1, p. 41

Anonymous author, Výstava malířů Jana Kupeckého a V. V. Reinera v Rudolfině, Hlas lidu XXVIII, 1913–1914, no. 61, 9. 9. 1913, p. 4

Anonymous author, K chystané výstavě J. Kupeckého: Rudolfinum: September 1913, Český svět X, 1913–1914, no. 2, 12. 9. 1913, unpaginated

Anonymous author, Výstava V. V. Reinera v Rudolfině, Český svět X, 1913–1914, no. 3, 19. 9. 1913, unpaginated

A. D. [Antonín Dolenský], Výstava děl Jana Kupeckého a V. V. Reinera, Veraikon II, 1913, no. 5, p. 77

Rudolf Kuchynka, Výstava děl Jana Kupeckého v Rudolfině, Týden světem I, 1913–1914, pp. 57–60

Rudolf Kuchynka, Výstava Václava Vavřince Reinera v Rudolfině, Týden světem I, 1913–1914, pp. 85–88

Karel Boromejský Mádl, Před výstavou J. Kupeckého, Národní listy LIII, 1913, no. 173, 26. 6., pp. 1–2

J. N., Výstava děl Jana Kupeckého a Václ. Vavřince Reinera, Ohlas od Nežárky XLIII, 1913, no. 42, 17. 10., p. 414

J. P., Nové pařížské mody XXVI, 1913, pp. 7–8

R., Kupeckého a Rainerova výstava, Máj XII, 1914, no. 3, 24. 10., p. 35

SM., Výstava J. Kupeckého a V. V. Reinera, Architektonický obzor XII, 1913, no. 10, p. 120