Emil Filla - Still Life with Falcon and Tray 1930, oil on canvas, 73 x 98cm, signed and dated lower left: Emil Filla 30 Provenance: - collection of the writer, publicist, playwright, painter, scenographer, cartoonist, translator, diplomat, university professor and traveller Adolf Hoffmeister (1902–1973); Hoffmeister was a founding member of Devetsil, chairman of the Czechoslovak Union of Visual Artists, member of AICA, represented Czechoslovakia at UNESCO, PEN Club and other international organisations; he acquired the work directly from or immediately after an exhibition at the Brno House of Art in 1932 - collection of the famous collector Professor Jaroslav Borovicka, who acquired the work from Adolf Hoffmeister in the 1950s - confiscated in 1959 by the Czechoslovak state and placed in the permanent exhibition of the National Gallery in Prague (ref. no. O8113); the painting was kept in the office of the then Director General of the National Gallery in Prague, Dr Jiri Kotalik, until 1982 - from 1983 to 1991 the work was displayed in the permanent exhibition of the Emil Filla Memorial in Chropyne Chateau - 1992 returned by the National Gallery in Prague to Jaroslav Borovicka in the framework of non-judicial restitution - significant private collection Exhibited. Publicated. Consulted by Dr Frantisek Krejci Jr. (great-nephew and copyright holder of the painter). "Certificate of Origin" by Professor Jaroslav Borovicka, dated 30. 03. 2006, enclosed. Professor Jaroslav Borovicka, remarked: "I bought the painting in the 1950s from Adolf Hoffmeister, at that time ambassador in Paris, who for political reasons needed to replace this great Cubist painting with the work of national painters, such as Slavicek and Manes. The painting was the highlight of his collection, and he was reluctant to part with it. From then, until my arrest by the political police and the confiscation of my collection in 1959, it was the highlight of my Cubist collection as well. The painting was then held by the National Gallery for 40 years, where its quality was confirmed by the Director General of the National Gallery, Dr Jiri Kotalik, who placed it in his study, even though he could have chosen from several thousand exhibits from the entire Gallery." Expertise by Professor Jaromir Zemina dated 06. 08. 2006, enclosed. Professor Jaromir Zemina, remarked: "This is one of the most famous paintings by Emil Filla from the period of his peak creative maturity. At the end of the 1920s, Filla's painterly delights led him to paintings of extraordinary decorative effect, where he applied his colouristic imagination as well as his inventiveness in working with impasto in a truly masterful way that he never surpassed later. This is evidenced by Still Life with Falcon and Tray. The subdued colouring, in which the subtly varied grey, the tone most beloved among the greatest colourists, plays an important role, is most delicate, while the vigour of the painter's handwriting leads him to a coarseness and roughness that brings a special tension to the picture. The overall conception of the painting is related to what we call lyrical cubism, but its lyricism has moments of great drama, already foreshadowing Filla's work of the final years before World War II, when dramatic historical events were only increasing. This tendency is also manifested in the still life under consideration in terms of subject matter - the presence of a bird of prey, which here has a similar meaning to the bull's head in the large painting Woman, also painted in 1930. Both culminating examples of Filla's painting culture are undoubtedly among the best works he ever produced. It is proof of the artist’s appreciation of the painting under review that he chose it for his jubilee exhibition organised by the Mánes Society of Artists in 1932. Since then, it has been exhibited at perhaps every major show of Filla's work." Expertise enclosed by Professor Tomas Vlcek from 09. 10. 2014. Professor Tomas Vlcek, remarked: "The extraordinary importance of this work is evidenced by the fact that the painting was selected by Emil Filla for a publication ("Frantisek Venera - The Work of Emil Filla, 1936"), which presented what seemed to Emil Filla to be the most important aspects of his life's work...." Expertise by Dr Karel Miller dated 18. 07. 2001 enclosed. Dr Karel Miller, remarked: "Still Life with Falcon and Tray served to represent not only the painter, but also the whole of Czech modern painting at a number of exhibitions... These facts confirm it to be a work of exceptional quality and importance for the history of Czech modern art." Further consulted with Dr Irena Zantovska Murray HonFRIBA, Professor Jaromir Zemina, Dr Jiri Machalicky and Vladimir Lekes.