The Academy of Fine Arts in Prague was established thanks to the decision of the Society of Patriotic Friends of Art in 1799. Teaching began there in 1800, and its first director was Josef Bergler Jr. (1753–1829), a native of Salzburg who had lived in Passau for a long time. Berger committed himself to teaching future artists to draw from models, as was customary at the time. He imparted knowledge to his students not only in mythological, religious, and historical painting but also in portraiture. Since 1806, the Academy’s curriculum was expanded to include landscape painting.

The landscape school was led by Professor Karel Postl (1769–1818) from 1806 for eleven years. The landscape studio was located on the third floor of the Vrtba Palace in Celetná Street. Postl even improved the until-then little progressive graphic workshop. By combining graphic vedute with Czech landscape painting of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, he significantly influenced the formation of a new view of this field. He educated his students in the spirit of creating the ideal composed landscape, derived from 17th-century French classicists and the contemporary Empire style. Students painted based on engravings by German late-classicism landscape painters. They were also inspired by 17th-century Dutch painters. Their training mostly consisted of tracing the teacher’s drawings and works of other masters, which was the common standard in all European academies at the time. After Postl’s death, the landscape studio ceased to exist for a time and was only revived by Antonín Mánes in 1936.

Romantically inclined landscapes, as seen for example in the works of Antonín Mánes, were generally inspired by the contemporary popularity of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s teachings about human life in nature, which also influenced the human psyche. These paintings often depicted a pilgrim figure in idyllic valleys by mountain waterfalls or near castle ruins. Emphasis was placed on the connection between humans and nature and on the transience of human existence in relation to nature, which was eternal compared to humans. This type of landscape was no longer painted only in the studio but partially also en plein air.

The development of landscape painting in the second half of the 19th century followed two paths—romanticism and realism. Romantic landscape painting was embodied by Joseph Maximilian Haushofer (1811–1866), who came to Prague in the mid-1840s from Munich. In his works, he was inspired by his homeland—the Bavarian uplands with its lakes. After Antonín Mánes’s death, Haushofer led the landscape school (1845–1866). During that time, he trained many followers working in similar painterly intentions (such as Alois Bubák, Bedřich Havránek, Hugo Ullik, or Julius Mařák).

After Haushofer’s death, the landscape studio was closed, and further teaching was resumed only in 1887 when Julius Mařák (1832–1899) took the helm of the landscape school. His students—František Kaván, Antonín Slavíček, Otakar Lebeda, Antonín Hudeček, among others—left the studio and began painting en plein air, trying to capture the atmosphere of the place. The strong influence of Julius Mařák gradually faded and in the 1890s was replaced by a completely new, purely French approach to landscape painting under the influence of Antonín Chittussi (1847–1891), who was influenced by the Barbizon school. The doors of Impressionism in Czech landscape painting opened.

From the beginning of the 20th century, the situation in Czech landscape painting changed radically. The works of artists with new prominent names were influenced by diverse currents of modern art penetrating Bohemia from various parts of Europe. It is no longer possible to speak of pure landscape schools as was the case in the times of Joseph Maximilian Haushofer or Julius Mařák. The Academy was no longer the center of new painting tendencies. New artistic efforts established themselves outside it. Independent associations were formed (e.g., Osma), bringing together artists with similar artistic views.

The Czech art scene at the turn of the 1930s and 1940s was significantly influenced by the establishment of Group 42 and Group Ra. Members of these groups perceived the landscape mostly through the prism of the city and the development of civilization. Examples of this are works by František Hudeček, Kamil Lhoták, or František Gross.

By the late 1940s, artistic directions and styles in Czech painting became fragmented. In the 1950s, the art scene developed in the spirit of officially accepted socialist realism. Relaxation came only ten years later, when our artistic boundaries reopened to the world. This was evidenced by works in abstraction and informel. In the 1970s, landscape motifs were treated not only on the basis of abstraction but also of new trends. The moment of improvisation and chance thus began to enter artistic creation to a significant extent.

Jiří Jůza

Translated with the help of GPT chat.

Concept of the Exhibition: Jiří Jůza, Gabriela Pelikánová
Texts: Jiří Jůza, Gabriela Pelikánová
Graphic design: Jiří Šigut, CONCEPT
Graphic realisation: Josef Mladějovský
Realisation: GVUO
Promotion: Jana Šrubařová
Educational programmes: Marcela Pelikánová