One of the most important painters, graphic artists and illustrators of the 19th century, Aleš studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where his professors were Josef Matyáš Trenk- wald and Jan Swerts. By then he was already earning money by teaching drawing and from small illustrations. His style evolved in the spirit of Romanticism and eventually his approach was close to Art Nouveau. Mikoláš Aleš is regarded as one of the leading figures of the National Theatre generation. In 1879 he and František Ženíšek jointly took part in a competition for decoration of the foyer of the National Theatre, which was won by Aleš’s design of a series of fourteen paintings entitled The Homeland. The concept was entirely Aleš’s, Ženíšek simply assisted in executing the designs in their final dimensions. Nevertheless the jury selected Ženíšek and several other artists to help complete the work, to which Aleš took great offence. From then on he painted only occasionally, devoting himself chiefly to drawing, for which he had already achieved a considerable reputation.