Lot 142

Václav Špála (1885 - 1946) BOUQUET BESIDE OTAVA RIVER

As PhDr. Rea Michalová, PhD explains in her expert assessment: "Artwork „Bouquet beside Otava river“ is original, representative and exceptionally sensually pleasant piece by Václav Špála, one of the most significant performer of Czech artistic avantgarde and who is also among of our most popular classics." He created an unmistakable artistic style fed by cubist, fauvist and expressionist tradition with hard brush strokes and a vivid and very specific colour palette reduced to just a few striking tones. Dark blue became such a characteristic part of his paintings that later it received an adjective after his name. In his search for a striking, immediately potent expression, Špála did not hesitate to apply the principles of Post-Cubist deformation of form and to reduce the colors to two or three contrasting tones without denying his elementary relationship to the real natural world. His 'green period' lasted from 1923 to 1926, followed by his blue period in 1927–1930, when he painted in shades of aquamarine and Prussian blue, although this color retained its heraldic significance in his work until the end of his life. Even in his early sketchbook we can find words foreshadowing one of his dominant topics in future: "Beautiful flowers of the Earth! Flower is my joy - joy to my eyes, reconciliation of my heart. In all its beauty, in full uplift it looks up to the sun, to blue skies. Both with greens and blue sky it plays with its own joyful beauty of colours, pollen, full bloom. Flower is a silent beauty, raising up as a sphynx reflecting your soul." Just blooming tulips, daisies and irises have attracted painter's sharpened senses. Porcelain jug with folk decor from Štěchovice, carrying a crown of fully blooming flowers, is placed on a table with carpathian blanket. Author's typical arrangement is present as an abstract yellow note in background finding a "visual rhyme" in the bouquet. "Bouquet beside Otava river" is a masterpiece of Václav Špála with a message of "mysterious germination of life" which fascinated the author to the point where his rendering of "scentful world of flowers" was brought to perfection. The attractiveness of the work is further enhanced by the fact that is housed in a period frame.