Jakub Schikaneder: Difference between revisions
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{{Short description|Bohemian painter (1855–1924)}} |
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{{expand Czech|date=January 2017}} |
{{expand Czech|topic=bio|date=January 2017}} |
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[[File:Jakub Schikaneder 1887 Mukarovsky.png|thumb|upright|Jakub Schikaneder; engraving by {{Interlanguage link|Josef Mukařovský|cs}}]] |
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{{Infoboxartist |
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'''Jakub''' (or '''Jakob''') '''Schikaneder''' (February 27, 1855 in [[Prague]] – November 15, 1924 in Prague) was a painter from [[Bohemia]]. |
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| name = Jakub Schikaneder |
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| image = Jakub Schikaneder 1887 Mukarovsky.png |
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| caption = Jakub Schikaneder, engraving by Josef Mukařovský (1887). |
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| birth_date = 27 February 1855 |
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| birth_place = Prague, Austria-Hungary |
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| death_date = 15 November 1924 |
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| death_place = Prague, Austia-Hungary |
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| nationality = Czech |
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| education = Prague Academy of Fine Arts, The Academy in Munich, Gabriel Von Max |
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| known_for = painting |
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| notable_works = Murder in the Block (1887-90), Drowned (1893), Early Evening at Hradčany (1909) |
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| style = Bohemian |
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| movement = Romanticism, Realism, Symbolism |
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}} |
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'''Jakub Schikaneder''' (27 February 1855 – 15 November 1924) was a [[Czechs|Czech]]{{efn |Schikaneder was a citizen of [[Austria-Hungary]] from 1855 to 1918 and then [[Czechoslovakia]] from 1918 to 1924. He was lifelong resident of the [[Kingdom of Bohemia]] and his mother was Czech.}} painter and art professor. His work is known for its atmospheric, soft, and sorrowful genre scenes. The melancholy and moody themes of Schikaneder’s pieces bear resemblance to the artistic trends of [[Romanticism]], [[Realism (arts)|Realism]], and [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolism]]. [[Gabriel von Max]], a Prague artist and professor of history painting, was a mentor and teacher for Schikaneder. Schikaneder notably participated in the decorating of the [[National Theatre (Prague)|National Theatre]] in Prague in 1881. Much of Schikaneder’s work has since been lost, and the artist passed largely unknown to Czech society until the rediscovery of his work in 1998. |
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== Biography == |
== Biography == |
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==== Early life ==== |
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Schikaneder came from the family of a German customs office clerk. Despite the family's poor background, he was able to pursue his studies, thanks in part to his family's love of art; an ancestor was Urban Schikaneder, the elder brother of the librettist [[Emanuel Schikaneder]]. After having completed his studies in Prague and Munich (1871–1879), Schikaneder, alongside [[Emanuel Krescenc Liška]], was involved in the furnishing of the royal box in the [[National Theatre (Prague)|National Theatre]] in Prague; however, this work was lost in a fire in 1881. After his work in the National Theatre, Schikaneder travelled through Europe, visiting Germany, England, Scotland, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and France. From 1891 until 1923 he taught in Prague's Art College. Schikaneder counted amongst those who admired the [[Munich School]] of the end of the 19th century. |
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Jakub (or Jakob) Schikaneder was born on 27 February 1855 in [[Prague]], [[Austria-Hungary]] to an [[Austrians|Austrian German]] father and a [[Czechs|Czech]] mother. His father, Karel Friedrich Schikaneder, was from [[Vienna]] and worked as a [[Customs officer|customs office]] clerk in Prague. His mother Leokadia ([[née]] Běhavá) was a native of Prague. He was a paternal descendant of Urban Schikaneder, the elder brother of librettist [[Emanuel Schikaneder]].<ref name="askART">{{cite web |title=Artist Biography & Facts: Jakob Schikaneder |url=https://www.askart.com/artist/Jakob_Jakub_Schikaneder/11068383/Jakob_Jakub_Schikaneder.aspx |website=askART |access-date=26 July 2022}}</ref> |
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==== Emerging artist ==== |
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The Schikaneder family's love of art and their middle-class status in Prague society enabled him to pursue his studies at the [[Academy of Fine Arts, Prague|Academy of Fine Arts]] from the age of 15.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Schikaneder, Jakub |url=https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/display/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000076546 |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=Grove Art Online |language=en |doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t076546}}</ref> From 1870 to 1878, Schikaneder was immersed in the Academy’s stereometric and classical art style.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=Jakub Schikaneder: Maler Prags um die Jahrhundertwende ; thematischer Führer durch die retrospektive Ausstellung Nationalgalerie Prag - Sammlung Alte Meister in der Wallensteiner Reithalle (Waldstein-Palais) in Prag 15.5.1998 - 10.1.1999 |date=1998 |publisher=Nationalgalerie Prag |isbn=978-80-7035-169-7 |editor-last=Vlček |editor-first=Tomáš |location=Prag |editor-last2=Schikaneder |editor-first2=Jakub |editor-last3=Národní Galerie v Praze |editor-last4=Valdštejnský Palác}}</ref> He was a student of [[Antonín Lhota]] at the Academy and finished his studies in 1878, serving for a year in the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]]. He travelled to and stayed in [[Paris]] from 1878 to 1880, where he gleaned inspiration from the late-nineteenth-century Parisian art scene before continuing his studies at the Academy in [[Munich]] under Czech painter [[Gabriel von Max]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=László |first1=Péter |title=Intellectuals and the Future in the Habsburg Monarchy 1890-1914 |date=1988 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=9781349191697 |page=143}}</ref> Max’s teaching allowed Schikaneder to explore deeper spiritual themes and examine the social contradictions in Czech art and culture of the time.<ref name=":0" /> He counted amongst those who admired the [[Munich School]] of the end of the 19th century.<ref name="askART" /> Schikaneder first attempted to publicly exhibit his work in 1879 at the Zofin salon, where he applied concepts of genre painting rather than the classic form taught by the [[Academy of Fine Arts, Munich|Academy of Fine Arts.]]<ref name=":0" /> Schikaneder returned to Prague and participated in the painting of the [[National Theatre (Prague)|National Theatre in Prague]].<ref name=":1" /> From 1868 to 1881, this decorating brought together many artists and represented a national revival of Czech culture.'''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Czech Republic |url=https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/display/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000020982 |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=Grove Art Online |language=en |doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t020982}}</ref>''' Co-working with [[Emanuel Krescenc Liška]], the two artists’ proposal for the decoration of the [[Box (theatre)|Royal Box]] was accepted, a design that illustrated three important periods of Czech history upon a frieze.<ref name=":0" /> Schikaneder’s work, however, did not grant him much fame or success, and it was later replaced with another design after the Theatre was destroyed by fire in 1881.<ref name=":0" /> Following his work in the National Theatre, he traveled through Europe, visiting [[German Empire|Germany]], [[England]], [[Scotland]], [[The Netherlands]], [[Switzerland]], [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]] and [[France]]. |
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On 5 July 1884, Schikaneder married Emília Nevolová, daughter of a [[railway]] official. They lived in the [[Vinohrady]] district of Prague and had one child who died in infancy. Around this time, Schikaneder became an assistant in the studio of [[František Ženíšek]] at the [[Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague|Academy of Arts]]. The following year, Schikaneder began teaching at the School of Decorative Art in Prague, becoming a professor in the studio of [[decorative painting]].<ref name=":1" /> In 1913, he was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts. Following his retirement from teaching in 1922, Schikaneder repeatedly visited the island of [[Heligoland]] in Germany and the North Sea.<ref name=":0" /> |
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Schikaneder is known for his soft paintings of the outdoors, often lonely in mood. His paintings often feature poor and outcast figures. Other motifs favoured by Schikaneder were autumn and winter, corners and alleyways in the city of Prague and the banks of the [[Vltava]] – often in the early evening light, or cloaked in mist. His first well-known work was the monumental painting ''Repentance of the Lollards'' (2.5m × 4m, lost). The [[National Gallery in Prague]] held an exhibition of his paintings from May 1998 until January 1999. |
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⚫ | Schikaneder died on 15 November 1924 in Prague and was buried in [[Vinohrady Cemetery]].<ref name=grave>[http://www.myczechrepublic.com/prague/vinohrady-cemeteries.html Vinohrady Cemeteries] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220116022402/http://www.myczechrepublic.com/prague/vinohrady-cemeteries.html |date=2022-01-16 }}, MyCzechRepublic.com, retrieved 20 November 2013</ref> |
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Schikaneder is known for his soft paintings of the outdoors, often lonely and melancholic.<ref name=":0" /> [[Paul Signac]] defines Schikaneder's intention behind his work as striving for a “unifying and moral harmony."<ref name=":0" /> Inspired by a Neo-Impressionist approach, Schikaneder’s artistic technique consists of small brushstrokes that effectively infuse effects of gleam, mist, and blurriness.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Schikaneder, Jakub or Jacob |url=https://www.oxfordartonline.com/benezit/display/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.001.0001/acref-9780199773787-e-00163131 |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=Benezit Dictionary of Artists |language=en |doi=10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00163131}}</ref> His paintings often feature poor and outcast figures and "combined [[Neo-romanticism|neo-romantic]] and [[Realism (arts)|naturalist]] impulses."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zusi |first1=Peter |title='Wie ein Kind ist unser Volk': Hybrid Identity and National Consciousness in Rilke's 'Zwei Prager Geschichten' |journal=The German Quarterly |date=2006 |volume=79 |issue=3 |pages=329–346 |doi=10.1111/j.1756-1183.2006.tb00047.x |jstor=27675954 }}</ref> Schikaneder takes a particular interest in depicting shadow–both indoors and outdoors–that draws parallels to the nostalgic atmosphere of fin-de-siècle Symbolism.<ref name=":2" /> Other motifs favoured by Schikaneder were [[autumn]] and [[winter]], corners and alleyways in the city of Prague and the banks of the [[Vltava]] – often in the early evening light, or cloaked in [[mist]]. Painting the Czech cultural atmosphere provided Schikaneder an opportunity to respond to the political and cultural dilemmas of the time, as well as the confrontation between the individual and society.<ref name=":0" /> Schikaneder also recurrently depicted the lifeless bodies of women, following the current times’ themes of ruin and despair.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Filip |first=Aleš |date=2023 |title=The seductive English influences: the Pre-Raphaelite inspiration in Czech painters |url=https://www.umeni-art.cz/cz/detail/0FV2Kt |journal=Umění |volume=71 |issue=4 |pages=356–373 |doi=10.54759/ART-2023-0404 |issn=0049-5123}}</ref> He draws inspiration from Parisian culture for depicting women, 19th-century European painting for themes of nostalgia and despair, and baroque Dutch painting–especially that of Rembrandt–for depicting light and aestheticism.<ref name=":0" /> |
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In the beginning of his career, Schikaneder’s work consisted of social subjects–including things like a country woman gathering wood and various death ceremonies–painted in an academic technique suitable for the realist trend of the 19th century.<ref name=":2" /> During this time, his works consist of mediums of oil paint, linear drawing, and the rich use of paint that conveys realistic and direct expression.<ref name=":0" /> His work done in the 1880s combines pale and sombre colors in rural and urban settings, creating a melancholy atmosphere, as seen in pieces like ''Winter (1884)'' and ''On All Souls’ Day (1888)''.<ref name=":1" /> Schikaneder also depicted varying themes of power in his work, like women and children and the fight for property and power.<ref name=":0" /> His paintings, as seen in pieces like ''Murder in the Block (1887-1890)'', gradually starts to convey a mental reaction to social reality, combining both local and foreign influences into his work.'''<ref>{{Citation |last=Vlček |first=Tomáš |title=National Sensualism: Czech Fin-de-Siècle Art |date=1988 |work=Intellectuals and the Future in the Habsburg Monarchy 1890–1914 |pages=107–128 |editor-last=Péter |editor-first=László |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-19169-7_7 |access-date=2024-11-19 |place=London |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-19169-7_7 |isbn=978-1-349-19169-7 |editor2-last=Pynsent |editor2-first=Robert B.}}</ref>''' |
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During the 1890s, Schikander dedicated his work to portraying everyday emotional relationships and intellectual reactions to the crisis of modern existence.<ref name=":0" />His propensity to paint surface reality and isolated figures in the 1880s shifted to portraying hidden meaning and combinations of light and color.<ref name=":0" />Schikander, in particular, explored themes of death, both directly and suggestingly, and began to change to pastels and charcoals to employ a more subtle and firm style.<ref name=":1" />Schikaneder drew inspiration from figures like [[Arthur Schopenhauer|Arthur Schopenhaur]] and his philosophy at this time.<ref name=":0" /> |
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Nearing the end of his career, Schikaneder painted scenes of sentimental interiors, like his ''Woman at a Window'' (1900).<ref name=":0" /> His nocturnal and twilight urban scenes were also especially notable at this time.<ref name=":1" /> Following the end of WWI, experiencing a lightness and ease, Schikaneder paints and captures his cheerful character without anxious restrictions through different landscape and marine scene.<ref name=":0" /> His work done in his closing years captures a poetic longing, expressed lightly and clearly yet bracing in mood.<ref name=":0" /> |
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== Notable Works == |
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Schikaneder's first well-known work was the monumental painting ''Repentance of the Lollards'' (2.5m × 4m) which has since been lost. Inspired by teacher [[Gabriel von Max|Garbiel von Max]], Schikaneder’s famous ''Murder in the Block'' (1887-90) represents an attempt to expand the political and emotional range of genre painting.<ref name=":1" />''Drowned'' (1893) depicts a similar recurrent theme of dead women, illustrating a drowned female body lying in the same fashion–though inverted–as the murdered woman.<ref>{{Cite web |last=lab.SNG |date=1893 |title=Jakub Schikaneder - Drowned |url=https://sbirky.ngprague.cz/en/dielo/CZE:NG.K_55116 |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=Web umenia |language=en}}</ref> Schikaneder gave poet Jaroslav Vrchlicky a sketch of ''Drowned'' in 1893.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Price |first=Dylan |date=2023 |title=In the Presence of "Gypsiness": Dvořák, Ecocriticism, Stimmung |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/895787 |journal=Journal of Austrian Studies |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=87–96 |doi=10.1353/oas.2023.0027 |issn=2327-1809}}</ref>Another of Schikaneder’s notable works, painted in 1910, is ''Evening Mood''.<ref name=":3" />The painting’s haziness represents an existential filter on one’s perception of place; its hazy glow symbolically stops sunset’s fading time into a lasting present.<ref name=":3" /> Another notable landscape of Schikaneder is ''Early Evening at Hradčany'' (1909), depicting a winter dusk and the back of a lone woman leaning over the wally of a bridge.<ref name=":0" /> Schikaneder’s mysterious and melancholic mood were often infused by the paintings of a lone figure seen from behind.<ref name=":1" /> |
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== Legacy == |
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Schikaneder is known for his moody, twilight urban scenes.<ref name=":1" />His work has been mostly lost since he first started his artistic career.<ref name=":0" /> Due to the popularity of [[Cubism|Cubist]] and [[Surrealism|Surrealist]] art within Czech culture during much of the 20th century, Schikaneder passed mainly unknown to the Czech public.<ref name=":2" />His work was largely unappreciated by the art world and perceived to be disrupting the genre norms of the time.<ref name=":0" />His work was rediscovered in 1998 in a retrospective exhibit at the [[Národní Galerie]] in Prague.<ref name=":2" /> |
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== Art Exhibitions == |
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Following his death, Schikaneder’s work was first exhibited in 1926 in a collection of The Union of Fine Artists.<ref name=":0" /> In 1977, a second exhibition created by [[Jiří Kotalík|Jiri Kotalikk]] and Dagmar Sefcikova showcased Schikaneder’s pieces.<ref name=":0" /> Schikaneder’s work has also been displayed in the National Gallery of Prague, Trade Fair Palace.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Jakub Schikaneder {{!}} 69 Artworks at Auction {{!}} MutualArt |url=https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Jakub-Schikaneder/DE6C5490A34DAAAE |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=www.mutualart.com |language=en}}</ref> Several auctions have also exhibited Schikaneder’s pieces, with a record price of 580,110USD for his ''Winter in Prague'', sold at Sotheby’s London in 2021.<ref name=":4" /> |
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<gallery mode=packed> |
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File:Jakub Schikaneder - Plecka (1887).jpg|''Weeder'', 1887 |
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File:Jakub Schikaneder - Evening Street - Google Art Project.jpg|''Evening Street'', 1906 |
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File:Schikaneder - Straoprazska zakouti.jpg|''A Corner of Old Prague'', 1900–1905 |
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</gallery> |
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== Notes == |
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{{noteslist}} |
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== References == |
== References == |
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== Further reading == |
== Further reading == |
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* |
* Tomáš Vlček: ''Schikaneder: Jakub Schikaneder, Prague painter of the turn of the century'' ("A thematic guide to a retrospective exhibition, National Gallery in Prague, Collection of Old Masters, Wallenstein Riding School in Prague, May 15, 1998 – January 10, 1999"). Prague: National Gallery, 1998. |
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== External links == |
== External links == |
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{{Commons category|Jakub Schikaneder}} |
{{Commons category|Jakub Schikaneder}} |
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* {{ |
* {{in lang|fr}} [http://www.radio.cz/fr/article/55602 Radio Prague] – extensive Biography |
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* [ |
* [https://aloos.cz/en/exhibition/2284-jakub-schikaneder-master-moods-and-melancholic-poetry Exhibition] titled "Jakub Schikaneder: Master of moods and melancholic poetry" at [[Adolf Loos]] Apartment and Gallery |
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{{Authority control}} |
{{Authority control}} |
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[[Category:19th-century Austrian painters]] |
[[Category:19th-century Austrian painters]] |
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[[Category:19th-century Austrian male artists]] |
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[[Category:Austrian male painters]] |
[[Category:Austrian male painters]] |
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[[Category:20th-century Austrian painters]] |
[[Category:20th-century Austrian painters]] |
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[[Category:German Bohemian people]] |
[[Category:German Bohemian people]] |
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[[Category:Painters from Prague]] |
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[[Category:1855 births]] |
[[Category:1855 births]] |
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[[Category:1924 deaths]] |
[[Category:1924 deaths]] |
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[[Category:20th-century Austrian male artists]] |
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[[Category:Painters from Austria-Hungary]] |
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[[Category:Czech painters]] |
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Latest revision as of 21:05, 9 December 2024
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Czech. (January 2017) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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Jakub Schikaneder (27 February 1855 – 15 November 1924) was a Czech[a] painter and art professor. His work is known for its atmospheric, soft, and sorrowful genre scenes. The melancholy and moody themes of Schikaneder’s pieces bear resemblance to the artistic trends of Romanticism, Realism, and Symbolism. Gabriel von Max, a Prague artist and professor of history painting, was a mentor and teacher for Schikaneder. Schikaneder notably participated in the decorating of the National Theatre in Prague in 1881. Much of Schikaneder’s work has since been lost, and the artist passed largely unknown to Czech society until the rediscovery of his work in 1998.
Biography
[edit]Early life
[edit]Jakub (or Jakob) Schikaneder was born on 27 February 1855 in Prague, Austria-Hungary to an Austrian German father and a Czech mother. His father, Karel Friedrich Schikaneder, was from Vienna and worked as a customs office clerk in Prague. His mother Leokadia (née Běhavá) was a native of Prague. He was a paternal descendant of Urban Schikaneder, the elder brother of librettist Emanuel Schikaneder.[1]
Emerging artist
[edit]The Schikaneder family's love of art and their middle-class status in Prague society enabled him to pursue his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts from the age of 15.[2] From 1870 to 1878, Schikaneder was immersed in the Academy’s stereometric and classical art style.[3] He was a student of Antonín Lhota at the Academy and finished his studies in 1878, serving for a year in the Austro-Hungarian Army. He travelled to and stayed in Paris from 1878 to 1880, where he gleaned inspiration from the late-nineteenth-century Parisian art scene before continuing his studies at the Academy in Munich under Czech painter Gabriel von Max.[4] Max’s teaching allowed Schikaneder to explore deeper spiritual themes and examine the social contradictions in Czech art and culture of the time.[3] He counted amongst those who admired the Munich School of the end of the 19th century.[1] Schikaneder first attempted to publicly exhibit his work in 1879 at the Zofin salon, where he applied concepts of genre painting rather than the classic form taught by the Academy of Fine Arts.[3] Schikaneder returned to Prague and participated in the painting of the National Theatre in Prague.[2] From 1868 to 1881, this decorating brought together many artists and represented a national revival of Czech culture.[5] Co-working with Emanuel Krescenc Liška, the two artists’ proposal for the decoration of the Royal Box was accepted, a design that illustrated three important periods of Czech history upon a frieze.[3] Schikaneder’s work, however, did not grant him much fame or success, and it was later replaced with another design after the Theatre was destroyed by fire in 1881.[3] Following his work in the National Theatre, he traveled through Europe, visiting Germany, England, Scotland, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and France.
On 5 July 1884, Schikaneder married Emília Nevolová, daughter of a railway official. They lived in the Vinohrady district of Prague and had one child who died in infancy. Around this time, Schikaneder became an assistant in the studio of František Ženíšek at the Academy of Arts. The following year, Schikaneder began teaching at the School of Decorative Art in Prague, becoming a professor in the studio of decorative painting.[2] In 1913, he was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts. Following his retirement from teaching in 1922, Schikaneder repeatedly visited the island of Heligoland in Germany and the North Sea.[3]
Schikaneder died on 15 November 1924 in Prague and was buried in Vinohrady Cemetery.[6]
Style
[edit]Schikaneder is known for his soft paintings of the outdoors, often lonely and melancholic.[3] Paul Signac defines Schikaneder's intention behind his work as striving for a “unifying and moral harmony."[3] Inspired by a Neo-Impressionist approach, Schikaneder’s artistic technique consists of small brushstrokes that effectively infuse effects of gleam, mist, and blurriness.[7] His paintings often feature poor and outcast figures and "combined neo-romantic and naturalist impulses."[8] Schikaneder takes a particular interest in depicting shadow–both indoors and outdoors–that draws parallels to the nostalgic atmosphere of fin-de-siècle Symbolism.[7] Other motifs favoured by Schikaneder were autumn and winter, corners and alleyways in the city of Prague and the banks of the Vltava – often in the early evening light, or cloaked in mist. Painting the Czech cultural atmosphere provided Schikaneder an opportunity to respond to the political and cultural dilemmas of the time, as well as the confrontation between the individual and society.[3] Schikaneder also recurrently depicted the lifeless bodies of women, following the current times’ themes of ruin and despair.[9] He draws inspiration from Parisian culture for depicting women, 19th-century European painting for themes of nostalgia and despair, and baroque Dutch painting–especially that of Rembrandt–for depicting light and aestheticism.[3]
In the beginning of his career, Schikaneder’s work consisted of social subjects–including things like a country woman gathering wood and various death ceremonies–painted in an academic technique suitable for the realist trend of the 19th century.[7] During this time, his works consist of mediums of oil paint, linear drawing, and the rich use of paint that conveys realistic and direct expression.[3] His work done in the 1880s combines pale and sombre colors in rural and urban settings, creating a melancholy atmosphere, as seen in pieces like Winter (1884) and On All Souls’ Day (1888).[2] Schikaneder also depicted varying themes of power in his work, like women and children and the fight for property and power.[3] His paintings, as seen in pieces like Murder in the Block (1887-1890), gradually starts to convey a mental reaction to social reality, combining both local and foreign influences into his work.[10]
During the 1890s, Schikander dedicated his work to portraying everyday emotional relationships and intellectual reactions to the crisis of modern existence.[3]His propensity to paint surface reality and isolated figures in the 1880s shifted to portraying hidden meaning and combinations of light and color.[3]Schikander, in particular, explored themes of death, both directly and suggestingly, and began to change to pastels and charcoals to employ a more subtle and firm style.[2]Schikaneder drew inspiration from figures like Arthur Schopenhaur and his philosophy at this time.[3]
Nearing the end of his career, Schikaneder painted scenes of sentimental interiors, like his Woman at a Window (1900).[3] His nocturnal and twilight urban scenes were also especially notable at this time.[2] Following the end of WWI, experiencing a lightness and ease, Schikaneder paints and captures his cheerful character without anxious restrictions through different landscape and marine scene.[3] His work done in his closing years captures a poetic longing, expressed lightly and clearly yet bracing in mood.[3]
Notable Works
[edit]Schikaneder's first well-known work was the monumental painting Repentance of the Lollards (2.5m × 4m) which has since been lost. Inspired by teacher Garbiel von Max, Schikaneder’s famous Murder in the Block (1887-90) represents an attempt to expand the political and emotional range of genre painting.[2]Drowned (1893) depicts a similar recurrent theme of dead women, illustrating a drowned female body lying in the same fashion–though inverted–as the murdered woman.[11] Schikaneder gave poet Jaroslav Vrchlicky a sketch of Drowned in 1893.[12]Another of Schikaneder’s notable works, painted in 1910, is Evening Mood.[12]The painting’s haziness represents an existential filter on one’s perception of place; its hazy glow symbolically stops sunset’s fading time into a lasting present.[12] Another notable landscape of Schikaneder is Early Evening at Hradčany (1909), depicting a winter dusk and the back of a lone woman leaning over the wally of a bridge.[3] Schikaneder’s mysterious and melancholic mood were often infused by the paintings of a lone figure seen from behind.[2]
Legacy
[edit]Schikaneder is known for his moody, twilight urban scenes.[2]His work has been mostly lost since he first started his artistic career.[3] Due to the popularity of Cubist and Surrealist art within Czech culture during much of the 20th century, Schikaneder passed mainly unknown to the Czech public.[7]His work was largely unappreciated by the art world and perceived to be disrupting the genre norms of the time.[3]His work was rediscovered in 1998 in a retrospective exhibit at the Národní Galerie in Prague.[7]
Art Exhibitions
[edit]Following his death, Schikaneder’s work was first exhibited in 1926 in a collection of The Union of Fine Artists.[3] In 1977, a second exhibition created by Jiri Kotalikk and Dagmar Sefcikova showcased Schikaneder’s pieces.[3] Schikaneder’s work has also been displayed in the National Gallery of Prague, Trade Fair Palace.[13] Several auctions have also exhibited Schikaneder’s pieces, with a record price of 580,110USD for his Winter in Prague, sold at Sotheby’s London in 2021.[13]
Selected works
[edit]-
The Sad Way, 1886/87
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Weeder, 1887
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Company on the Terrace, 1887
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All Soul's Day, 1888
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Murder in the House, 1890
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Evening Street, 1906
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Evening in the Garden, 1907–09
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A Corner of Old Prague, 1900–1905
Notes
[edit]- ^ Schikaneder was a citizen of Austria-Hungary from 1855 to 1918 and then Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1924. He was lifelong resident of the Kingdom of Bohemia and his mother was Czech.
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Artist Biography & Facts: Jakob Schikaneder". askART. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Schikaneder, Jakub". Grove Art Online. doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t076546. Retrieved 2024-11-19.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Vlček, Tomáš; Schikaneder, Jakub; Národní Galerie v Praze; Valdštejnský Palác, eds. (1998). Jakub Schikaneder: Maler Prags um die Jahrhundertwende ; thematischer Führer durch die retrospektive Ausstellung Nationalgalerie Prag - Sammlung Alte Meister in der Wallensteiner Reithalle (Waldstein-Palais) in Prag 15.5.1998 - 10.1.1999. Prag: Nationalgalerie Prag. ISBN 978-80-7035-169-7.
- ^ László, Péter (1988). Intellectuals and the Future in the Habsburg Monarchy 1890-1914. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 143. ISBN 9781349191697.
- ^ "Czech Republic". Grove Art Online. doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t020982. Retrieved 2024-11-19.
- ^ Vinohrady Cemeteries Archived 2022-01-16 at the Wayback Machine, MyCzechRepublic.com, retrieved 20 November 2013
- ^ a b c d e "Schikaneder, Jakub or Jacob". Benezit Dictionary of Artists. doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00163131. Retrieved 2024-11-19.
- ^ Zusi, Peter (2006). "'Wie ein Kind ist unser Volk': Hybrid Identity and National Consciousness in Rilke's 'Zwei Prager Geschichten'". The German Quarterly. 79 (3): 329–346. doi:10.1111/j.1756-1183.2006.tb00047.x. JSTOR 27675954.
- ^ Filip, Aleš (2023). "The seductive English influences: the Pre-Raphaelite inspiration in Czech painters". Umění. 71 (4): 356–373. doi:10.54759/ART-2023-0404. ISSN 0049-5123.
- ^ Vlček, Tomáš (1988), Péter, László; Pynsent, Robert B. (eds.), "National Sensualism: Czech Fin-de-Siècle Art", Intellectuals and the Future in the Habsburg Monarchy 1890–1914, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 107–128, doi:10.1007/978-1-349-19169-7_7, ISBN 978-1-349-19169-7, retrieved 2024-11-19
- ^ lab.SNG (1893). "Jakub Schikaneder - Drowned". Web umenia. Retrieved 2024-11-19.
- ^ a b c Price, Dylan (2023). "In the Presence of "Gypsiness": Dvořák, Ecocriticism, Stimmung". Journal of Austrian Studies. 56 (2): 87–96. doi:10.1353/oas.2023.0027. ISSN 2327-1809.
- ^ a b "Jakub Schikaneder | 69 Artworks at Auction | MutualArt". www.mutualart.com. Retrieved 2024-11-19.
Further reading
[edit]- Tomáš Vlček: Schikaneder: Jakub Schikaneder, Prague painter of the turn of the century ("A thematic guide to a retrospective exhibition, National Gallery in Prague, Collection of Old Masters, Wallenstein Riding School in Prague, May 15, 1998 – January 10, 1999"). Prague: National Gallery, 1998.
External links
[edit]- (in French) Radio Prague – extensive Biography
- Exhibition titled "Jakub Schikaneder: Master of moods and melancholic poetry" at Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery
- 19th-century Austrian painters
- 19th-century Austrian male artists
- Austrian male painters
- 20th-century Austrian painters
- German Bohemian people
- Painters from Prague
- 1855 births
- 1924 deaths
- 20th-century Austrian male artists
- Painters from Austria-Hungary
- Czech painters
- Academy of Fine Arts, Prague alumni
- Academic staff of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague