Czech Sculpture in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries and Its Attitude Towards Vienna Martin Krummholz Abstract During the course of the 19th century, Czech works of Auguste Rodin, whose artistic style society underwent an intensive process of fundamentally influenced Czech sculpture in national revival and emancipation from Vi- the first decade of the 20th century and dis- enna. This, of course, was also projected rupted the monopoly enjoyed until then by onto the field of visual arts: For a long time, Josef Václav Myslbek. In contrast to Myslbek’s under the influence of Czech nationalists, conventional equestrian monument to surveys of developments in the arts field did St Wenceslas, two other national monuments not include German-speaking artists from the in Prague, the statues of Jan Hus (by Ladislav Czech lands, such as the brothers Max and Šaloun) and of František Palacký (by Stanislav Franz Metzner or Hugo Lederer. Contacts be- Sucharda) reflect the fascination with Rodi- tween both individuals and institutions and nesque pathos at that time. The politically mo- Vienna thus became extremely complicated, tivated suppression of contacts between the and after 1900 they were generally consid- Czech milieu and Vienna and German-speak- ered undesirable by Czech nationalists. In ing countries on the one hand, and the sup- 1902, the Mánes Fine Arts Association, which port for intensive communication with Paris can take much of the credit for promoting on the other, contributed to the progressive modern art in the Czech milieu at that time, tendencies in Czech art before the First World organized an exhibition in Prague of the War and to its exceptional plurality of styles. RIHA Journal 0265 | 10 July 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.11588/riha.2021.1.81896 RIHA Journal 0265 | 10 July 2021 Introduction [1] During the course of the 19th century, Czech society underwent an intensive process of national revival and emancipation from Vienna, culminating in the 1890s in ever louder demands for equal rights and the renewal of Czech statehood.1 This challenging social development was naturally reflected in the visual arts of that time, which were initially influenced by local patriotism, and then from the mid-19th century by a systematic growth in nationalism. The conditions and the social context of Czech art likewise underwent a fundamental transformation. At the start of the 19th century the Czech lands were an artistic backwater with a stagnating Academy of painting founded on the initiative of the Society of Patriotic Friends of Art (withthe field of sculpture dominated by traditional family workshops). By the year 1900, however, the industrially developed Czech lands had become the richest region of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, which was fully reflected in the progressive development and ambition of the Czech artistic milieu of the time. A contributing factor to the overall increase in quality of Czech sculpture produced at this time was the establishment of specialist schools, especially the Stone- Carving School in Hořice in Eastern Bohemia (1884) – the centre of a region where stone was quarried for use in sculpture.2 The importance of this institution within the Monarchy extended far beyond the Czech borders. A new School of Decorative Arts (Uměleckoprůmyslová škola) was founded in Prague in 1885,3 and the reorganisation of the Art Academy in Prague in 1896 4 included the establishment of its own special school of sculpture, the direction of which was entrusted to the leading figure in Czech sculpture circles in the second half of the 19th century, Josef Václav Myslbek.5 The Mánes Association [2] At the same period, however, the young generation rose up in revolt against the prevailing Academicism and the omnipresent patriotic pathos. It is significant that this radical uprising did not take place within an official institution, but in the setting of the private Mánes FineArts Association (Spolek výtvarných umělců Mánes). Founded by Czech artists and intellectuals in 1 Czech loyalty to the monarchy was fundamentally weakened by the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (1867) which ignored Czech resp. Bohemian constitutional requirements: Michael Borovička et al., Velké dějiny zemí Koruny české XIIb. 1890–1918, Prague 2013; Milan Hlavačka et al., České země v 19. století: Proměny společnosti v moderní době, Prague 2014. 2 Alois Jilemnický, Kámen jako událost. Kulturně historický a společenský obraz první české školy sochařů a kameníků za sto let její existence (1884–1984), Prague 1984. 3 Jan Simota and Zdeněk Kostka, eds., Sto let práce Uměleckoprůmyslové šokly a Vysoké školy uměleckoprůmyslové v Praze. 1885–1985, Prague 1985; Martina Pachmanová and Markéta Pražanová, eds., Vysoká škola Uměleckoprůmyslová v Praze / Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. 1885– 2005, Prague 2005. 4 Jiří Kotalík, ed., Almanach Akademie výtvarných umění v Praze. K 180. výročí založení (1799–1979), Prague 1979. 5 Vojtěch Volavka, J. V. Myslbek, Prague 1942; Taťána Petrasová and Rostislav Švácha, eds., Art in the Czech Lands 800–2000, Prague 2017, 712-713. RIHA Journal 0265 | 10 July 2021 Munich in 1887, for a long time the Association had the character of a debating society. Its name indicated that the young artists saw themselves as the followers of the central personality of mid- 19th-century Czech painting, Josef Mánes, who was widely celebrated and regarded as a tragic figure.6 In the second half of the 1890s the activities of the Mánes Association became increasingly intensive and systematic.7 1896 saw the first issue of the periodical Volné směry [Free Trends] – the first Czech journal dedicated exclusively to modern art. 8 Two years later the Mánes Association started holding exhibitions. Its ambition in doing so, in addition to presenting works created by members of the Association, was to introduce a new form of installation, contrasting with the Salon conventions that had prevailed up until then. In order to present the key figures of modern European art to the Czech public, the Mánes Association – following the example of other European Secession societies9 – had its own exhibition hall built in the Kinský Gardens below Petřín Hill. The first event to be held there was a ground-breaking exhibition of 157 works by Auguste Rodin in 1902 (Fig. 1) – the first retrospective exhibition of this famous artist to be staged outside France.10 6 Pavla Machalíková, "Josef Mánes a ꞋꞋnárodní klasika ", in: Petrasová and Švácha, Art in the Czech Lands, 700; Naděžda Blažíčková Horová, Malířská rodina Mánesů, Prague 2002. 7 Anna Masaryková, "Výstavy cizích umělců v Praze a mezinárodní orientace SVU Mánesa", in: Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Philosophica et historica 3-4 (1992), 183-188; Lenka Bydžovská, Spolek výtvarných umělců Mánes v letech 1887–1907, Prague 1990. 8 Roman Prahl and Lenka Bydžovská, Freie Richtungen: Die Zeitschrift der Prager Secession und Moderne, Prague 1993. 9 Elizabeth Clegg, Art, Design and Architecture in Central Europe, 1890–1920, New Haven/London 2006; Stefania Krzysztofowicz-Kozakowska and Piotr Mizia, "'Sztuka', 'Wiener Secession', 'Mánes'. The Central European Art Triangle", in: Artibus et Historiae 27 (2006), no. 53, 217-259. 10 Petr Wittlich, "Rodin in Prague", in: Neklidná figura. Exprese v českém sochařství 1880–1914 / The Restless Figure. Expression in Czech Sculpture 1880–1914, eds. Sandra Baborovská and Petr Wittlich, Prague 2016, 123-125. RIHA Journal 0265 | 10 July 2021 1 Auguste Rodin, Balzac Monument, 1897. National Gallery Prague (photograph © National Gallery Prague) [3] Among the many exhibitions which followed, the most important ones featured works by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1905) and the French sculptor Antoine Bourdelle (1909). 11 Gradually, nearly all the leading Czech artists became members of the Mánes Fine Arts Association, and, thanks to the remarkable activity of the Association, Czech art in the early 20th century very quickly came to reflect the latest trends and forms of European Modernism. Within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the Czech artistic milieu thus became particularly progressive, and in addition it was extremely pluralist in terms of expression.12 This exceptional situation was made possible not least by the fact that the influence of the key official institution (the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, constituted in 1896) on the whole chain of events was extremely marginal, especially in its early stages. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the 20th century some of the artists with a modern orientation (members of the Mánes Fine Arts Association) became teachers at the Academy.13 In spite of this, the School of Decorative Arts remained the more progressive art school in Prague. The 19th century [4] From the late 19th century onwards, criteria deformed by the nationalism of the time led to the permanent elimination or marginalisation of German-speaking artists working in the Czech lands in overviews and accepted interpretations of Czech art in the National Revival era. Among 11 Helena Štaubová, Bourdelle a jeho žáci. Giacometti. Richier. Gutfreund, Prague 1998, 13-15; Petr Wittlich, "E. A. Bourdelle a jeho výstava r. 1909 v Praze", in: Neklidná figura, eds. Baborovská and Wittlich, 174. 12 Petrasová and Švácha, Art in the Czech Lands, 725-780. 13 Antonín Slavíček (1899), Max Švabinský (1910), Jan Preisler (1913), Stanislav Sucharda (1915), Jan Štursa (1916). RIHA Journal 0265 | 10 July 2021 the artists who suffered this fate were two of the most significant sculptors in the Czech lands in the first half of the 19th century, the brothers Joseph Max (1804–1855) and Emanuel Max (1810– 1901).14 Both brothers studied at the Prague Academy under the painter Joseph Bergler. Emanuel went on to study sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts (Akademie der bildenden Künste) in Vienna under Johann Nepomuk Schaller and Joseph Kässmann, and subsequently spent ten years in Rome, where he developed close links to Nazarene art. The two brothers worked together on some commissions.