Famous Czechs – Alfons Mucha Alfons Mucha is one of the most famous Czechs but in a strange twist of fate if you look him up in Wikipedia you’ll find that although he was born just south-west of Brno in 1860 he was technically not born in Czech. When he died in Prague in 1939 … Read More
Mánes Exhibition Hall The Mánes Exhibition Hall, or to give it its full name “The Building of the Mánes Society of Fine Artists” is on the riverside one block up river from the National Theatre but if you aim for Slavonic Island you’ll see the large white building from the main road. In Czech, Mánes … Read More
Famous Czechs – Miloš Forman Ask the average person what film directors they have heard of and it will be a pretty short list including Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg I imagine. Now ask your average Czech person and they’ll probably reel off a dozen names off the top of their head without even thinking. … Read More
The Egyptian Who Won Wimbledon – Famous Czechs – Jaroslav Drobny If you are wondering what possible link there can be between Prague and an Egyptian who won the Men’s Singles Title at Wimbledon then read on because it’s an interesting story. You won’t find the name Jaroslav Drobný in many history books but look … Read More
Famous Czechs – Jan Zajic To set the scene you have to understand that the August 1968 invasion of Prague by Warsaw Pact countries extinguished the Prague Spring freedoms. Any political or social reforms were cancelled and Czechoslovakia regressed to its 1950’s state. As was increasingly common in the late 1960s, the method of the … Read More
Famous Czechs – Karel Hašler Every year thousands of people are walking up or down the Old Castle Steps at the back of Prague Castle and at the top of the steps they walk past (and briefly look at) a sculpture of a man with his legs crossed, leaning against the wall and playing a … Read More
Prague Cafes – Cafe Louvre I often tell the story that in the early days with my wife when we stopped at Cafe Louvre she would say “that’s the former foreign minister” or “that was the chief of police”. By the time I looked around I would just see the back of somebody’s head. But … Read More
Jaroslav Rona Sculptures Born in 1957 you could say that by the age of 15 Jaroslav Rona knew that he wanted to be some kind of artist. He applied to various arts schools and was rejected so having completed his basic 9 years of education he enrolled in a 3 year vocational school to train … Read More
Slav Epic Part One – Introduction and Location The Slav Epic is a huge piece of work whether you look at it from a perspective of the number of paintings i.e. twenty, the size of the paintings (6 of the paintings would cover the front of a terraced house in England, including the roof), the … Read More
Slav Epic Part Two – Paintings 1 to 5 This post explores the detail on paintings numbered 1 to 5 in the Slav Epic series with interpretation, what to look for and historic context etc. If you want first to learn what leads up to the creation of the Slav Epic, who painted it, when … Read More