Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

In October 1879, the Committee for the Establishment of the Czech National Theatre announced the third competition for the curtain and frieze above the proscenium of the National Theatre. This was an invitation-only contest, with the committee inviting five artists whose designs were the most successful in the second competition (although the individual proposals were not identified), along with four additional artists. According to contemporary press reports, those invited included František Ženíšek, Václav Brožík (who ultimately declined due to other commitments), and Max Pirner. Prager Tagblatt also mentions Anton Šafařovic (?) among the invitees [Anonymous author 1879], while Světozor names Vojtěch Hynais. [Anonymous author 1880a] Mikoláš Aleš was reportedly invited later at Ženíšek's request. [Matějček 1954, p. 155] The final participant was Jan Kautský, a member of the Vienna-based consortium Brioschi–Burkhart–Kautský. He sent his design earlier, but the committee admitted it retrospectively in February 1880. [Anonymous author 1880b] The remaining competitors were likely participants in the previous contest: Emanuel Krescenc Liška (the only artist in this group whose participation is beyond doubt), Adolf and Karel Liebscher, and Jakub Schikaneder.

The deadline for submissions was set for February 15, 1880. Considerable controversy arose when František Ženíšek requested a fourteen-day extension, which the jury granted without informing the other painters. Mikoláš Aleš, Jakub Schikaneder and Max Pirner sent protest letters accusing the jury of favoritism toward Ženíšek. [Matějček 1954, p. 155] Ultimately, the committee received seven designs. These were once again exhibited in the upper rooms of the Žofín Palace, though for only thirteen days, from March 12 to 24, 1880. Press coverage was markedly less extensive than during the previous competition. On March 16, Vilém Weitenweber published a detailed analysis in Politik; a shorter article appeared the following day in Epoche, and on March 19 reviews were published in Světozor and Národní listy.

The difficulties inherent in designing the curtain were incisively summarized by Jan Neruda in the opening of his article in Národní listy. With gentle irony, he enumerated the multitude of expectations the curtain was supposed to fulfill: "We want the curtain to show every foreigner that we understand theatre in the broadest and most universal sense. […] It should provide insight into Czech history in general and remind visitors of the history of the National Theatre. It should possess not only a Czech character but also a broader Slavic one. It should demonstrate our appreciation of opera, operetta, tragedy, drama, comedy, farce, vaudeville, ballet, and more. It should prove that our visual arts are highly developed and distinctly Czech." [Neruda 1880] It was precisely this breadth of often conflicting demands, together with the heightened expectations of the public, that Neruda identified as the reason why it was so difficult for artists to design the curtain, and why the committee struggled to select the best proposal.

Five of the seven submitted designs have survived. They are held in the collections of the Museum of Prague, and preparatory studies for some are preserved in the National Gallery Prague. Aleš, Pirner, and Liška submitted oil paintings on canvas, while the designs by František Ženíšek and the Liebscher brothers were executed in watercolor. The projects by Jan Kautský and Jakub Schikaneder are lost – the latter disappearing from the Museum of Prague’s holdings sometime in the first half of the 20th century. Ironically, it was Kautský’s design that many reviewers considered the most compelling and technically accomplished. The editors of Světozor and Epoche, as well as Jan Neruda, unanimously praised Kautský’s experience in decorative painting – he painted the curtain of the Provisional Theatre, among other works – particularly his handling of the ornamental framing in the central scene. The figurative component, however, was generally judged less successful. Of the remaining designs, Max Pirner’s work received favourable attention. He designed the curtain as a drapery divided by an ornamental structure into several fields containing allegorical scenes, an approach also adopted by the Liebscher brothers. The calls for greater compositional simplicity that had followed the second competition were addressed most directly by E. K. Liška and Mikoláš Aleš; however, critics now reproached them for excessive simplicity and the perceived emptiness of the curtain’s central field. Even Ženíšek’s winning design provoked mixed reactions. While Epoche dismissed the main motif – “three ladies (sic!) straddling clouds in various unaesthetic contortions” – as “entirely unusable” [Anonymous author 1880c], other reviewers regarded it as a viable central theme. The lower frieze beneath the main image, depicting putti transporting the foundation stones of the National Theatre, evoked an enthusiastic response.

No single design was unequivocally preferred by any reviewer. Fatigue from a succession of competitions without a definitive outcome, coupled with mounting time pressure, led critics – and ultimately the committee itself – to a conclusion wryly encapsulated by Jan Neruda: “After all, perhaps ‘we can pick and choose.’ From one sketch this, from another that” [Neruda 1880]. František Ženíšek was declared the winner and awarded the main prize of 1,000 guldens on the condition that Jan Kautský's firm execute his design and supply the decorative frame of the central scene. It soon became apparent that this compromise was ill-advised, as Kautský's realization of the curtain was met with public criticism and even protests from Ženíšek himself.

Markéta Vondrová

Works Cited

Anonymous author 1879: Anonymous author, Concurrenzarbeiten für das böhmische Nationaltheater, Prager Tagblatt III, 1879, no. 301, 30. 10., supplement, p. 6

Anonymous author 1880a: Anonymous author, Výtvarná umění, Světozor XIV, 1880, no. 12, 19. 3., p. 143

Anonymous author 1880b: Anonymous author, Výbor sboru pro zřízení národního divadla, Národní listy XX, 1880, no. 45, 22. 2., p. 2

Anonymous author 1880c: Str., Die Konkurrenzarbeiten zum Vorhange der Nationaltheaters, Epoche III, 1880, no. 76, 17. 3., p. 1

Matějček 1954: Antonín Matějček, Národní divadlo a jeho výtvarníci, Praha 1954, pp. 117–118, 154–161

Neruda 1880: [Jan Neruda], Opony pro Národní divadlo, Národní listy XX, 1880, no. 68, 19. 3., p. 1

Further Reading

Anonymous author, Jednatelská zpráva výboru sboru pro zřízení českého národního divadla v Praze, Praha 1880

Naděžda Blažíčková-Horová, František Ženíšek (1849–1916), Praha 2005

Markéta Dlábková, Adolf Liebscher 1857–1919, FF UK thesis, Praha 2006

Mar., Opona národního divadla, Divadelní listy I, 1880, no. 2, 17. 4., pp. 20–21

Roman Prahl, The „Nation for Itself“ in the Curtain for the Czech National Theatre, Umění XLIV, 1996, pp. 520–536

Curtain for the Czech National Theatre, Umění XLIV, 1996, pp. 520–536

Anonymous author, Opona pro Národní divadlo, Pražský denník XV, 1880, no. 70, 25. 3., p. 2

Anonymous author, Výbor sboru pro zřízení národního divadla, Národní listy XX, 1880, no. 45, 22. 2., p. 2

Anonymous author, Stavba divadla Národního, Národní listy XX, 1880, no. 72, 24. 3., p. 2