Lot 106

Antonín Procházka (1882 - 1945) HARVEST

This painting, which is remarkable for its specific color and play with light, modelling the movement of figures during the harvest at the height of summer, is the work of Antonín Procházka, an important exponent of Czech modernism and a member of Osma and the Mánes Union of Fine Artists. He first studied at the School of Applied Arts and later under Vlaho Bukovac, Hanuš Schwaiger and Max Švabinský at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Like many of his peers he was dissatisfied with academicism, so he dropped out of school and left for Berlin with Emil Filla and Bedřich Feigl, from where they travelled to other European cities to become acquainted with current trends in painting. After returning home in 1906 he held his first exhibition with Emil Filla. He exhibited as a guest at both Osma exhibitions (1907 and 1908). In 1907–1908 he travelled throughout Europe, meeting painter Linka Scheithauer in Germany; the two married upon his return home. Procházka’s oeuvre is initially influenced by the work of Edvard Munch, but he gradually transitions from Expressionism to his unique interpretation of Cubism, which is also called Procházka Orphism. In the 1920s he inclined towards Neoclassicism and Poetic Primitivism, going on to experiment with art techniques and color and in the 1930s and 40s. Procházka’s work enjoyed significant acclaim abroad, especially in the United Kingdom and France, where he received a Grand Prix.