Lot 111

Bohumír Číla (1885 - 1973) EMMAUS MONASTERY AFTER BOMBING

Bohumír Číla studied first at the School of Applied Arts in Prague and then at the Academy under František Ženíšek, where he graduated in 1914. During his studies he was already considered an excellent student, winning various prizes and also a travel scholarship to Paris. From Paris he travelled to Rome in 1911 to carry out restoration work on the paintings, frescoes and sgraffito of the Bohemian College. Restoration then became a permanent and important part of his painting profession. His own work was dominated by portraits and figural compositions. He exhibited little, only one solo exhibition in Prague in 1937 is known, for which he won the Turka Prize of the Capital City of Prague. Prague. Číla's two brothers Antonín and Otakar were also painters, and his daughter Bohumíra was also a painter.

The two paintings on offer represent a particular non-figurative subject matter in Čílo's work, but like his other paintings they display an excellent painting technique and a realistic vision entirely in the spirit of the best Ženík tradition. While Still Life with Vegetables presents a true, non-subversive optic, Emmaus after the bombing of 1945 is an authentic veduta and today, moreover, an important historical document.