Lot 148

Willi Nowak (1886 - 1977) THE SETTER

The subject of a setter with a charming, swirling light colouring is a fine example of the artist's painting art. It is characterized by a typically deft brushwork, sovereign handling of the paint patch and pasty texture. A German-born painter, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague under F. Thiele, and was a professor there from 1929. As a member of the Osma group he exhibited at both of their exhibitions 1907-1908. His starting point was Expressionism, and he also brought contacts with its German line into the Czech environment. He is characterized by sensualist relaxed painting, from the 1920s onwards he toned down his colour and luminosity under the influence of French classicism and neo-classicism. From the 1940s onwards, colour and colour patches in conjunction with light reasserted themselves. There is a study on paper on the painting preserved in the Gallery of Modern Art in Roudnice nad Labem, inv. no.: O0377.