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Oil on canvas. Reverse: "RAFAELA" Figures, and especially female figures, became emblematic for all of Jiří Načeradský's oeuvre. The painter trained under Professor Vlastimil Rada at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In 1990-1992 he was appointed a professor at the Academy, where he led the Figurative Painting studio. In his first paintings from the mid-1960s he was still seeking his expression and tried various styles, including paraphrases of the Old Masters up to the work of Picasso. He grotesquely paraphrases the beauty of the nude female body, respected for centuries. Although monstrous, the feminine aspect is not lost, and the paintings stand out for their strong erotic charge (EOA, 1967, Violet Big Ears, 1967). This contrast between the endlessly mesmerizing erotic attraction of a woman and her seemingly fateful impact on the life of man was also typical for his other works. The woman in his paintings are a modern take on the femme fatale: man leads a constant battle with her raw sexuality. “Rafaela” is from a period in the development of his painting in the 1980s and 1990s. During this period, Načeradský stylized the figure into lightly sketched geometric outlines (Square, 1996, Nude Red Ochre, 1994). They may recall the paintings of Paul Klee, but perhaps they were created out of the artist's need to free himself at least for a moment from acutely emotional painting. Yet it may be surprising that the message in his paintings from later years is not becoming any less powerful. It may be due to the artist's true talent as a painter, which is stimulated by his inexorably eruptive need for expression. Načeradský's spontaneity and his excellence as a painter, which thrusts its way through directly and right to the surface, is Picasso-esque in dimension. Načeradský is thus rightly considered one of the greatest Czech painters. Restored and mounted on a new stretcher frame.