(Prague 1855–1924)
Prague, a Steamboat on the River Vltava in front of Palacky Bridge,
c. 1910/20, signed (in ligature) JSchikaneder, oil on canvas, 84 x 106 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection Czech Republic.

Exhibited:
Umeni paraplavby po rece Vltava 1865-2015 (The Art of Steam Travel on the River Vltava), 16 June - 1 November 2015, Prague 2015.

Illustrated in:
Nikolaj Savicky (ed.), Umeni paroplavby po rece Vltave, Prague 2015, p. 208 („Parnik u mostu“).

A certificate issued by Zora Grohmanová, Prague, 14 April 2021, is available.

Jakub Schikaneder was admitted to the Prague Academy at just 15 and although he is one of the representatives and decorators of the National Theatre generation, alongside his peers Mikoláš Aleš, Emanuel Krescenec Liška and František Ženíšek, his artistic work is today above all a bridge between the art of the 19th and 20th centuries. His early works are captivating at times because of their almost unrelenting rawness in treatment and subject matter. His melancholy Prague Nocturns have become an often unattainable dream for art collectors. One of these cherished night views is the painting on offer here, depicting a view of a steamer on the Vltava at Palacký Bridge. Today we know of several works with which the current lot could be compared. They can be dated roughly to 1910 to 1920. On the one hand, these are urban paintings, capturing the Prague riverside promenades, which is also the case with the painting Šítka Mills (private collection), as well as similar compositions such as On the Riverbank (National Gallery Prague, inv. no. O 5365) and Evening Mood under Vyšehrad (Regional Gallery Vysočiny in Jihlava, inv. no. O 624). However, these are also paintings with landscape motifs in which a river, or water as a force of nature plays the most important role. This would become the main theme of the artist’s paintings at the end of his creative period. This is the case with the paintings River at Dawn
(private collection) and River Valley (Gallery of Fine Arts in Cheb, inv. no. O 1036). A study of a Vlatava steamer can also be found in the catalogue of the painter‘s last major retrospective, held at the Wallenstein Riding School in 2012, and can be regarded as a preparatory study for the painting on offer.

Dr Michal Simek