The painting Idyll is a large-scale, and in many ways unusual example of Beneš’s typical Cubist period which applied even before 1912 when he started to paint in the spirit of analytical Cubism. There is reduced use of colour in the painting, in which form predominates along with an unusually rich composition. Beneš treats symbolically and almost ritually the theme of bathing that recurred frequently in Czech art from the beginning of the century until the mid-1920s. Seven figures are depicted in the centre of the canvas: three men, almost ossified, observe four women bathing. It all takes place in a harmonious and, at first sight, idealised landscape of an almost religious character.
The Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava is funded by the Moravian-Silesian Region.
