Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

In 1896, Mikoláš Aleš received significant recognition as an artist: he saw the publication of a three-volume edition of his works and the staging of his first comprehensive exhibition. Both initiatives were undertaken by the Mánes Fine Arts Association (founded in 1887), of which Aleš had been the inaugural chairman. Stanislav Sucharda succeeded him in this role in 1896, enabling the association to focus on promoting and presenting Aleš's work to the public – although Aleš himself continued to serve as its honorary chairman. The first of these endeavours, the three-volume monograph entitled Mikoláš Aleš, was edited by Karel Ludvík Klusáček and Stanislav Sucharda and funded by the association. The opening volume, released in February, contained a brief biography and catalogue of Aleš's works alongside fifty reproductions connected to Czech and Slavic history. The press received it with unanimous praise – both for the exquisite quality of its presentation (aided by new zincographic reproductions by Jan Vilímek and printing by Alois Wiesner Sr.) and for the initiative itself. Public opinion and art critics alike were growing conscious of how long Aleš's work had been undervalued, and the younger generation of artists rallying around the then forty-three-year-old master was perceived in an unambiguously positive light. In September, the association published the next volume in the series, entitled Mikoláš Aleš III (although it was the second instalment in chronological order), containing fifty reproductions of illustrations for folk songs and nursery rhymes. The final volume, Mikoláš Aleš II, comprising 53 reproductions of various decorative works and illustrations, was released in early December. It seemed that the intention of the Mánes Association's members had been fulfilled: the domestic press diligently reported on the successive volumes and even published independent essays and feuilletons devoted to Aleš's life and work – virtually all of which were enthusiastically positive. In turn, these articles inspired an anonymous author to contribute a laudatory article on Aleš to the Munich journal Die Kunst für Alle. [Anonymous author 1897]

Aleš's comprehensive exhibition received similar attention from the press. It ran from May 30 to July 4, 1896 in Topič's Salon on Ferdinandova (today Národní) Street. At the time, the Mánes Association had no exhibition space of its own – a situation that persisted until 1902 – and this was, in fact, the very first exhibition it had ever held; its next show, the first members' exhibition, would follow less than two years later, in early 1898. For the presentation of Aleš's work, the organizers chose the distinguished exhibition space associated with František Topič's bookshop and publishing house – the so-called Topič Salon, opened in 1894. This was a recently established gallery created through secondary alterations to an older building which had a glazed roof allowing works of art to be displayed in natural daylight. The glass ceiling had its drawbacks: reports on Aleš's exhibition, held in the early summer, noted the heat visitors had to endure. Nevertheless, the venue was in demand; throughout the year it hosted a succession of short-term exhibitions – preceding Aleš's show were a posthumous exhibition of Jan František Gretsch in February, a retrospective of Václav Jansa in March, and an exhibition of foreign watercolourists in April; following it (after the summer recess) came a show of Czech watercolourists in September, a retrospective of Viktor Oliva – Topič's in-house illustrator – in October, a November exhibition of foreign prints, and a Christmas show of the Artistic Forum (Umělecká Beseda). In the intervals between these, the salon also hosted presentations of individual paintings – among them, in 1896, From the Old Seraglio by Paul Louis Bouchard.

On May 10, 1896, the newspaper Národní listy reported on the upcoming opening of Aleš's exhibition, promising a number of previously unknown works lent by private owners. Eleven days later, the same paper reported that the installation was almost finished, already looking "full of promise," and suggested that Aleš would be presented from an unexpected angle – as a colourist. Further brief notices indicate that the organizers sought to showcase the full breadth of Aleš's artistic output – from illustration and decoration (furniture, sgraffito) to independent works, which were presented through sketches, studies, and paintings. Since no printed catalogue appears to have been produced, press reports are the sole source of information on the exhibition. The following works are mentioned by name in these reports: Aleš's very first drawing from 1872; a design for a figurative frieze on a Prague building on Smetanova Street; designs for a sgraffito in Pilsen depicting the Siege of Pilsen by Mansfeld and the Siege of Pilsen in 1435 – with photographs of the complete façades allowing visitors to compare the original designs with their executed forms; illustrations to the ballad The Orphaned Child and the fairy tale About Stupid Honza; the drawings Departure from Bohemia and St. Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia; and painted furniture from the collection of Alexander Brandeis. Among the preparatory studies on display, reviewers praised the sketch and study for the painting The Meeting of George of Poděbrady and Matthias Corvinus, which prompted the anonymous contributor to Národní listy to observe that "broader audiences tend to be disappointed by such intimate documentary materials, whereas to a refined and cultivated taste they are a true delicacy" [J. K. 1896, p. 3]. Regarding the exhibited charcoal cartoon for Žalov from the Vlast (Homeland) series, the contributors to Plzeňské listy and Tábor voiced well-founded criticism of public institutions for their lack of interest in Aleš's work; the cartoon, together with eight others from the same cycle, was held in Lehmann's picture warehouse adjacent to the salon, where the entire group could be purchased for 700 guldens – a sum widely considered absurdly low.

All reviewers commented on the examples of Aleš's painting, which included his very first oil with a military subject, executed under the guidance of Antonín Chittussi; a variant of Rákóczi's March; The Knights of Blaník; Skirmish of Patrols; the pendant works Cossack and Uhlan; and recent paintings of the Virgin Mary and St. Francis. Critics were generally positive about this aspect of Aleš's work: Renáta Tyršová remarked that Aleš "might perhaps meet even the demands of 'colourist' effects" [Tyršová 1896, p. 748], while Karel Matěj Čapek-Chod declared that "Aleš's exhibition has taught us to regard our master as a painter – a genuine painter who paints, or painted, in oils" [Čapek-Chod 1896a]. However, he added that although in his youth Aleš had used oil paints primarily for monumental historical subjects drawn from the history of his beloved homeland, the exhibited oils bore no relation to "the avowedly patriotic character of Aleš’s work." Čapek-Chod therefore felt that Aleš's true nature was best revealed through draughtsmanship. He cited Aleš's technique of engraving into fresh paint as an example, as seen, for instance, in The Meeting of George of Poděbrady and Matthias Corvinus. According to Čapek-Chod, Aleš' finest achievements were watercolour-tinted illustrations, such as the exhibited drawings for the song Panský pachole, půjč mi pistole (Lend Me Your Pistol, Page), the watercolour A Reiter of the Thirty Years' War, A Táborite at the Grave, and From the Age of Maria Theresa. In another article published in Národní politika, Čapek-Chod remarked that, "although the exhibition of Aleš's work currently on view at Topič's Salon presents samples from every domain of his oeuvre, it may contain more paintings than drawings. Nevertheless, the pinnacle of Aleš's creations will always be the humble illustrated folk song or cartoon for a sgraffito façade – even as we count among the finest treasures from his hand the delicate pen drawings, not painted but illuminated in colour, several of which are on view in the aforementioned Salon" [Čapek-Chod 1896b, p. 1]. Vilém Mrštík also felt compelled to grapple with this newly revealed dimension of Aleš's art, which he did in an article entitled Aleš as a Colourist, published in Rozhledy. With characteristic vigour, Mrštík champions Aleš's colourist gifts while lambasting the pettiness of the domestic cultural climate, writing: "'Few colours, but much colour' – that might be said of him, and we may boldly assert that in this respect Aleš has been utterly stunted by the murderous conditions of Bohemian life. And therein lies the great tragedy of Aleš's life and art: that no one and nothing ever provided the opportunity for his immense talent to develop to its full extent." [Mrštík 1896, p. 627] In the following paragraphs, Mrštík voices regret – contrary to the existing popular opinion – that Aleš could not execute the Homeland lunettes in the foyer of the National Theatre by himself.

Overall, the response to Aleš's first comprehensive exhibition was positive; both Národní politika and Národní listy noted the high attendance figures and proclaimed the event a success. Only an anonymous contributor to the journal Tábor found the show "hastily assembled, somewhat impractically arranged, making it rather difficult to form a complete picture of the artist in all phases of his work. For instance, there could have been more illustrations to folk songs." [M. S. 1896] The writer evidently drew upon the prevailing popular image of Aleš as an illustrator and did not completely grasp the intentions of the Mánes Association – which had aimed precisely to correct that received perception and to present the true scope of his oeuvre. It is interesting that the authors of the critical reviews (or brief notices about the exhibition) proved capable of appreciating even the seemingly marginal areas of visual art represented – preparatory studies, decorative designs, and painted furniture. In this respect, the exhibition at Topič's Salon marked a significant milestone both in Aleš's career and in the public presentation of his work, drawing responses from the leading art critics of the time: Renáta Tyršová, Vilém Mrštík, and Karel Matěj Čapek-Chod. Their newspaper articles and feuilletons already contain all the essential characterizations of Aleš's art and personality that would recur in virtually every subsequent text devoted to him and that laid the foundations of the Aleš cult: 1) the forty-year-old Aleš is portrayed as a singular, wholly original individual standing apart from the historical trajectory of domestic art; 2) he creates with complete naturalness, his work flowing from him as if involuntarily; 3) his life and art are permeated through and through by Czech identity; 4) he is a brilliant but entirely unrecognised colourist; and 5) by analogy with his predecessor Josef Mánes, he is, despite all of the above, exemplary of the artist-martyr misunderstood by his contemporaries.

The reverberations of the exhibition were still evident on December 3, 1896, when the Mánes Association held a celebratory evening in Aleš's honour in the small hall of the Měšťanská Beseda. Alongside members of Mánes, the occasion was attended by a deputation of the Artistic Forum (Umělecká Beseda), an organization that subsequently elected Aleš an honorary member, along with members of the Máj and Slavie associations, and members of the Czech Academy led by the building counsellor Josef Hlávka. The evening also served as an opportunity to announce the publication of the final volume of Mikoláš Aleš I–III. Although the Mánes Association later shifted its focus to contemporary international art, its members continued to honour Mikoláš Aleš and promote his work. They organized further exhibitions of his art in 1902, 1922 and 1926, and in 1912 they dedicated a monograph to him in the Zlatoroh series. The following year, they published a new selection of his works. Aleš's paintings returned to Topič's Salon once more in 1908, at the personal initiative of František Topič.

Anežka Mikulcová

Works Cited

Anonymous author 1897: Anonymous author, Kunstliteratur u. vervielt. Kunst. Mikuláš Aleš, Die Kunst für Alle XII, 1897, p. 31

Čapek-Chod 1896a: Karel Matěj Čapek-Chod, Souborná výstava Mikuláše Alše, Světozor XXX, 1896, no. 34, 3. 7., p. 406

Čapek-Chod 1896b: Karel Matěj Čapek-Chod, Mikuláš Aleš (U příležitosti souborné výstavy v Topičově Salonu), Národní politika XIV, 1896, no. 173, 24. 6., pp. 1–2

J. K. 1896: [J. K.], Výtvarné umění. Výstava děl Mikuláše Aleše, Národní listy XXXVI, 1896, 28. 6., no. 177, pp. 3–4

M. S. 1896: [M. S.], [Bez názvu], Tábor XXXIII, 1896, no. 25, 17. 6., p. 2

Mrštík 1896: Vilém Mrštík, Aleš jako kolorista, Rozhledy národohospodářské, sociální, politické a literární V, 1896, no. 10, pp. 626–628

Tyršová 1896: Renáta Tyršová, K výstavě Mikuláše Alše, Osvěta. Listy pro rozhled v umění, vědě a politice XXVI, 1896, no. 8, pp. 750–754

Further Reading

Jindřich Bořecký – Lucie Gočárová – Václav Špale (eds.), Spolek výtvarných umělců Mánes 1887–2007, Praha 2007, p. 8

Kristýna Brožová (ed.), Topičův salon 1894–1899, Praha 1993

Miroslav Míčko, Malíř svého lidu: čtení o Mikoláši Alšovi, Praha 1946, pp. 266–267

Pavel Fabini, František Topič. Příběh nakladatele a obchodníka s uměním, Praha 2021, p. 99

Stanislav Sucharda – Karel Ludvík Klusáček (eds.), Mikuláš Aleš I–III, Praha 1896

Archival Sources

Archive of the National Gallery, personal collection of František Topič, acc. no. AA 3111, file no. 1

Anonymous author, Aleš v Topičově salonu, Národní politika XIV, 1896, no. 134, 15. 5., p. 2

Anonymous author, Alšova výstava v Topičově salonu, Národní politika XIV, 1896, no. 155, 6. 6., p. 2

Anonymous author, Alšova výstava v Topičově salonu, Národní politika XIV, 1896, no. 158, 9. 6., p. 2

Anonymous author, Alšova výstava v Topičově salonu, Národní politika XIV, 1896, no. 161, 12. 6., p. 4

Anonymous author, Alšova výstava v Topičově salonu, Národní politika XIV, 1896, no. 166, 17. 6., p. 2

Anonymous author, Alšova výstava v Topičově salonu, Národní politika XIV, 1896, no. 169, 20. 6., p. 3

Anonymous author, Alšova výstava v Topičově salonu, Národní politika XIV, 1896, no. 173, 24. 6., p. 2

Anonymous author, Aleš v Topičově salonu, Národní listy XXXVI, 1896, no. 129, 10. 5., p. 3

Anonymous author, Aleš v Topičově salonu, Národní listy XXXVI, 1896, no. 140, 21. 5., p. 3

Anonymous author, Aleš v Topičově salonu, Národní listy XXXVI, 1896, no. 148, 30. 5., p. 5

Anonymous author, Aleš v Topičově salonu, Národní listy XXXVI, 1896, no. 169, 20. 6., p. 4

Anonymous author, Souborná výstava děl Mikuláše Alše, Národní listy XXXVI, 1896, no. 182, 4. 7., p. 4