Lot 114

František Drtikol (1883 - 1961) A FEMALE ACT

The bromograph has the number 57 and is signed Drtikol - Prague, Bromografia Poděbrady.  Drtikol often used bromography, which in his time was a modern printing technology, in order to create multiple copies of a particular photographic motif in the same and sufficiently high quality. These reproductions were then more affordable than the author's own original - the Vintage Print. The elegant composition with the young girl, for Drtikol, in this period, is a very typical conception of the nude. With this model he created a number of great nudes, some of which can also be found in the monograph Fárová A. & Doležal S.: František Drtikol, Stages of Life and Photographic Work / Art Nouveau - Art Deco - Abstraction / 1, 2. Svět, Prague 2012. Drtikol's relation to the model is not one-sided, nor does he impose his scheme on it in the first place. On the contrary: he first examines the model in its personal characteristics, considers its purely artistic values in the most favourable light, and from all these assumptions only tries, combines, until his idea flashes and settles in a definitive composition... remarks Josef R. Marek on his artistic work, in his introductory study for the book František Drtikol, Woman in Light, published by Eduard Beaufort in Prague in 1938.