Lot 99
Karel Čapek (1890 - 1938) MIRRORING

1936
indian ink, paper
In frame 18,5 x 13,5 cm (h x w)
signed lower right: KČ

Starting price
15 000 CZK
   |   625 €
Price realized
65 000 CZK
   |   2 708 €
price without premium

Karel Čapek is one of the illustrators of his own works. He used illustrations as a semantic element in his narratives, thus contributing significantly to the creation of a new form of twentieth-century travel writing. In the travelogues Pictures from Holland and Journey to the North, for which the work is an illustration, the principle of mirroring (the theme of duality) is used to create a text close to the complexity of Čapek's fictional worlds. Through the theme of water, which is most evident in Journey to the North, he continues the mirroring technique from Pictures from Holland. The gradation of mirroring thus continues by bringing the narrator closer to the North Pole as the end point of Europe. Framed under anti-reflective glass with UV filter.

Ref.: Čapek, K.: Journey to the North. Prague 1955, p. 152.