JINDRICH PRUCHA (1886-1914) SPRING LANDSCAPE Around 1913 Oil on canvas. Signed lower left: “Prucha”. Reverse: Stamp from an exhibition at the Manes. Inscription in pencil on stretcher frame: Mr. Zeman, Prague VII, Kamenicka 37. With its dramatic skies, Spring Landscape is a first-rate example of Jindrich Prucha’s exquisite painterly style from the peak of his career. Prucha’s oeuvre is not large and he painted for merely seven years, but nevertheless he is one of the greatest colorist painters of his time. His early paintings addressed Impressionism, but he gradually shifted towards a more vibrantly colored expression. His work can be considered an original synthesis of European avant-garde directions of Expressionism and Fauvism. A visit to an exhibition of French modern art in Prague in 1907 provided a decisive impulse in his art career. In around 1910 his paintings achieved the values of colorist painting, comparable with the greatest works by the French Fauvists. Although his oeuvre primarily comprises the traditional subjects of the landscape and portraits, Prucha is in line with contemporary trends and presents a modern execution in terms of both color and composition. His encounter with the Iron Mountains in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, where his father purchased a solitary house named Zupanda, proved crucial to his development. Here he discovered the inner rhythms of nature and painted landscapes with a low horizon, projecting his imbalanced, depressed state. Prucha’s promising career was interrupted by the draft. His tragic death on the front in World War I brought a premature end to his work. He was buried in a mass grave. Restoration report and technical analysis by Tomas Berger, MFA. 52.5 x 58.5 cm (h x w) Starting price CZK : 450000